Burn in question and evaluation before burn in

Albert,

I never said break in was not real. I just prefer components that are engineered to be precise and that do not drift dramatically with time. It is a simple design choice to place a capacitor in the signal path or not. It is a simple design choice to either place a capacitor in a passive crossover (where it adds distortion) or use a line level x-over filter. One can also design circuits so that they drift less with age and temperature through careful selection of components and design. I could go on about driver design as well -many drivers change dramatically with use due to thermal compression - every track the speaker may perform differently in some typical poor designs.

My point was to simply challenge the idea that burn-in that sounds greatly different is a good thing . It often implies overly simplistic designs that are commensurate with a goal of "purest signal path". Unfortunately, the engineering reality is quite the opposite - through added design complexity one can dramatically increase precision and robustness of product performance from changes in temperature, ground loops, cables, interconnects, power, noise, component aging etc.

Thanks for the responses. Shadorne, your point is well taken, actually, what prompted me to ask the question was that I was frustrated that my new solid state preamp sounded good at first install, but became too bright, and strangely, the tight bass was gone too after a week. I know I had only like about 30 hours playing time on it, so it is not fully burned in yet, but I wish I can be assured that further play time would kind of reverse the initial burn in direction, if that is at all possible.

Just curious if you bought your equipment without an audition. I would think that if you bought this new and auditioned a completely burned in one at a dealer, you would have an idea of how it will eventually sound. In my experience cables are a different animal, but usually there is even some information as to the burn in process and the overall sound qualities that can be expected when it's completely burned in. I don't have Thor electronics, but most of my experiences are the same as Thorman's, but I am pretty certain that others have had different experiences. Shandorne raises a question that I thnik we all are a bit fearful about and that is that the results of the burn in procees do not meet our expectations.

Mr W- I've had passive and active components that went through 4 or 5 changes in presentation before reaching stabilization. Some sounded ridiculous at times. Be patient(at least 200 hrs) before listening critically, and deciding whether you like the component's presentation or not. The best capacitors and cables use high grade dielectrics(ie: polypropylene/polystyrene/Teflon) that don't absorb/discharge energy as quickly. That means "burn-in" takes longer too. (http://www.national.com/rap/Application/0,1570,28,00.html) Also look at the paragraph about Dielectric Absorption here: (http://www.sbelectronics.com/application_notes/cterminology.htm)

I never said break in was not real. I just prefer components that are engineered to be precise and that do not drift dramatically with time. It is a simple design choice to place a capacitor in the signal path or not.

And it's a simple choice to provide the finest capacitor available in the best equipment and that means IF you have a cap, it's a VERY high quality cap, it will take a VERY long time to break in.

It is a simple design choice to either place a capacitor in a passive crossover (where it adds distortion) or use a line level x-over filter.

I use an active crossover with my speakers but they were designed that way from the start. To say it's a simple design misses some very important points. To execute an active crossover properly you need a separate amp for each frequency. I agree that's the best, but to call it simple is inaccurate. Such a design generally requires a lot more parts, amps, cables and space. Not every designer (or every customer) is willing to do this.

That leaves us with caps inside the crossover, a design that represents most of the speakers out there, yours and mine perhaps the exception. Regardless if the caps are inside (my) active crossover or in a passive design, they play an enormous role in performance and ALL great quality caps take forever to reach 100% performance.

There is no design exception to this unless you have system with no caps.

My point was to simply challenge the idea that burn-in that sounds greatly different is a good thing . It often implies overly simplistic designs that are commensurate with a goal of "purest signal path". Unfortunately, the engineering reality is quite the opposite - through added design complexity one can dramatically increase precision and robustness of product performance from changes in temperature, ground loops, cables, interconnects, power, noise, component aging etc.

I think every designer in the business would agree with that and most would say they worked to achieve that goal and provided same for their customer, within the limits of budget given for the project.