Component break in VS. Ear break in
I have been reading for years that audio components need or at least have a break in period. Some people have said that tubed equipment especially needs to have time to break in, I can see that. I can understand speaker break in too, due to the physicality of what it does, a magnet moving a coil which makes the cone move and produces the sound. Kind of like a new car that needs that 500 miles to break in.
I encountered a theory the other day that I had not thought of. It was suggested that the break in period of an audio component is actually the break in time of your ears as you get used to the sound that your new gear produces; the time between installing your new component and the time it takes your brain to forget what your old, awesome electronic component sounded like and learning to appreciate how the new component sounds.
My personal opinion is a mix of both. A component needs to burn in or break in for a short while, maybe 100 hours of play before it heats and cools enough to either fail or give in to any sonic changes that the heating/cooling cycles may introduce into the signal path. I believe that the largest portion of the break in period is indeed your brain and ears getting used to the change in sound that the new component introduced.
A record needle, like a speaker is a device that will benefit from being used for a while. The jury is out as to how long it actually takes to break one in, I would suggest not being too critical of the sound for the first 25 or so LPs. I believe there will be a slight change in the sound of a new needle as the mechanism loosens up and goes through all the stresses and either fails or adjusts accordingly to the operating conditions it is experiencing.
I would stress patience whenever you make a change to any of your components. It will some hours of listening for your ears to get used to the new gear. I usually use the break in time for any component as an opportunity to listen to some different types of music to experience the sound through the prism of the initial excitement of connecting a new component
What do you think?
Make it a great day by listening to some music!
Jeff
I encountered a theory the other day that I had not thought of. It was suggested that the break in period of an audio component is actually the break in time of your ears as you get used to the sound that your new gear produces; the time between installing your new component and the time it takes your brain to forget what your old, awesome electronic component sounded like and learning to appreciate how the new component sounds.
My personal opinion is a mix of both. A component needs to burn in or break in for a short while, maybe 100 hours of play before it heats and cools enough to either fail or give in to any sonic changes that the heating/cooling cycles may introduce into the signal path. I believe that the largest portion of the break in period is indeed your brain and ears getting used to the change in sound that the new component introduced.
A record needle, like a speaker is a device that will benefit from being used for a while. The jury is out as to how long it actually takes to break one in, I would suggest not being too critical of the sound for the first 25 or so LPs. I believe there will be a slight change in the sound of a new needle as the mechanism loosens up and goes through all the stresses and either fails or adjusts accordingly to the operating conditions it is experiencing.
I would stress patience whenever you make a change to any of your components. It will some hours of listening for your ears to get used to the new gear. I usually use the break in time for any component as an opportunity to listen to some different types of music to experience the sound through the prism of the initial excitement of connecting a new component
What do you think?
Make it a great day by listening to some music!
Jeff
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