Not sure if we’ve done this before, but a recent conversation with a friend has prompted me.
I’m thinking that anything new with moving parts, especially loudspeakers and to a lesser extent Cd players, turntables, etc might need some running in, but items that are purely electronic like streamers and dacs, I’m not so convinced.
A few weeks back, you may have read on here that my mate Dave ( @Davyboy ) brought his new Eversolo A10 streamer over. We did a back-to-back comparison with my A6. We were both a bit disappointed that the A10 didn’t sound a lot better than the A6 - yes, it was better, but the differences were marginal.
Now, a few weeks later and after daily use, Dave’s saying it’s sounding absolutely loads better (que the usual clichés - night and day, veils removed, etc) He’s convinced and indeed adamant that new electronics need burning and will not sound at their best until after weeks/months.
So, do new components change over time and is this audible? One question that immediately comes to mind is - how does he know? Any improvement in sound quality surely must be gradual, so hearing a day to day improvement seems unlikely. When I had the new set of Tak 300b tubes last year, I don’t think I heard any improvement in sq over the first few weeks of use, although that could be explained I suppose if they’re soak tested by the manufacturer.
So lads, is “burn-in” a thing or is it (and I’m going to use Ann’s favourite phrase here when she’s being dismissive) a load of fannybollocks?
Often wondered if its burn in or head adjusting to a new sound.
The biggest I’ve heard is speakers which went from sounding broken to excellent in 24 hours
Duelund caps certainly opened up with 50+ hrs.
There are a lot of ‘explanations’ for this. I guess much is bollox but here’s what AI has to offer on caps & burn in - Have at it.
Capacitors, particularly electrolytic ones, may benefit from a “burn-in” period -This process involves the forming of a thin layer of insulation (oxide) on the capacitor’s cathode, which improves its performance over time
My speakers have changed.
Over a long time.
They sound better now than ever before. A good few meat men that attend my tunes nights have noticed it too.
If you recall you very kindly picked it up for me. There are 50 small caps in it…which is part of the design. There is a Termi plus for sale on eBay. I was tempted…but I am skint.
I sort of get it with speakers, but still on the fence regarding electronics.
Terms like “opened up” “came on song” and “heard improvements” are all very subjective. No-one has answered the time question either - if you listen to a piece of kit every, or on most days after it’s new, how can you tell it has improved?
Has anybody heard a back-to-back comparison between the same item straight out of the box with their burned-in example?
This can you’ve opened contains worms of many colours Jim. Where to start ?
Quite a lot of electronic components do change with time and also with use. Power valves slowly lose their electron emission and can also develop ‘gas’ (a subject close to your heart, or to somewhere about your person at least ?). Small-signal valves quite often go noisy and can eventually lose emission too. Carbon composition resistors can drift in value. Various types of capacitors (but certainly not all) can drift in value and can go electrically ‘leaky’. In principle iron-cored inductors can get magnetised, or can perhaps lose magnetisation that they might have been inadvertently delivered with when new.
One of the suspicious things about reported ‘burn-in’ is the believers inevitably claim it makes things better. But why ? If components really are changing then wouldn’t we expect things to get worse at least as often as they got better ? No-one ever says “It was great on first hearing but we’re two weeks on and now it’s just adequate”. How do the widgets ‘know’ which way to change ? If the designer had any idea what he was doing why didn’t he pre-cook them so the kit sounded great straight out of the box ?
I fear it’s likely that this is a story spun by salesmen when they have to deal with a disappointed customer who was promised ‘a miracle’ but who can only hear ‘perfectly decent’. They know he wants to believe. He just needs a little help, that’s all. In due course he’ll love the thing. But he needs to know that he was right all along, and that he likes it now not because he has got used to it but because it has heard his prayers and answered them.
If the manufacturer has said “It will bed in” then I wonder if that would qualify for a refund under warranty claim ?
You never hear manufacturers say “Yeah, it can do that. Just set it aside for 3 months and it’ll go back to how it sounded when it was new (but only for a week or two)”.
The Denafrips sounded VERY flat on arrival. There was no sounstage. After more than 50 hours there was a massive difference. It went from sounding like a dacmagic to a high end DAC.
?). Small-signal valves quite often go noisy and can eventually lose emission too. Carbon composition resistors can drift in value. Various types of capacitors (but certainly not all) can drift in value and can go electrically ‘leaky’. In principle iron-cored inductors can get magnetised, or can perhaps lose magnetisation that they might have been inadvertently delivered with when new.
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