Burn in question and evaluation before burn in

One thing I've learned over 40+ years is that initial impressions can tell you alot about a system and or it's componentry. If it sucks from cold, it may get less sucky, but it will not be transformed during the breakin process. If a system "WOWS YOU" in the gut from new, you are on the right track. Most aplogies and breakin stories come from people who have chosen poorly and can't deal with the awful truth (I've been there myself).

Most aplogies and breakin stories come from people who have chosen poorly and can't deal with the awful truth (I've been there myself).

Dave, are you saying break in is not real?

I have a break in story, my Dali Megaline speakers were so bad when I first got them that members of my group said I could not "fix them."

Now they say I have the best sound they have ever heard. It did take over 800 hours before they stopped changing. Bass was NON existent in the beginning and I mean absolutely non existent.

Very rare is the story such as yours Albert, and no I do not deny breakin at all! What I have experienced is that great gear sounds great to a certain degree, right out of the box. Time, self-delusion and tweaking will make us feel better for awhile, but in the end reality bites.

If my story is rare, lightning strikes multiple times. Audiogon member and good friend Louis (Logenn) experienced the identical thing with his Karma Exquisite Enigma's.

As with my system, multiple people (about 20 in our group) visited both homes and listened and reported on outcome multiple times.

Some of these visitors listen only once every two or three months, some once a month and some once a week or more often. Considering the huge difference in equipment, solid state, tubes, electrostatics and cones among this group, to have everyone agree about the changes that happen with break in is pretty conclusive in my book.

Similar things with electronics, especially things that have big power supply and or high end caps.

I agree that some people change the personality of their system repeatedly by tweaking this and that. Entertainment value is about all that's good for. My goal is to try and remember every variation possible so I can correct things that are wrong with the system as I slowly upgrade over time.

A typical thing that requires adjustment is my new improved crossover, the Air Tight Supreme over the PC-1 and the Aesthetix Eclipse replacing my Signature models.

All these new items have potential to be better out of the box (as you state) but unfortunately they are not 100% right away. All the high quality moving coil cartridges I've had experience with require 40 to 150 hours before they sound their best.

I'm told by Aesthetix that the new Io Eclipse must be burned for over 100 hours before they can trim the RIAA accurately. Since that's done with an oscilloscope that should qualify as a true indicator of how much caps move after signal is passed through them.

Albert, I agree breakin occurs in most cases within a certain degree of subjective/objective criteria. I have found that gear which sounds off/not right/bad etc.., will not change enough over time to make it acceptable. All of this is very personal and predicated upon ones expectations and degree of discrimination. My best systems sounded pretty damn special right out of the box(es).