It should be obvious to anyone and everyone that HiFi equipment of all kinds needs to be burned in before they perform to their full potential, if anyone, against all odds, has a different opinion, they are asked to leave this forum with immediate effect.
Regards,
His Majesty Department of Common Sense
Why don’t manufacturers provide fuses (blue touchpaper /detonator etc) for customers to light and provide rapid burn-in?
Capacitor life (electrolytic and tantalum - not film such as polystyrene which do not degrade) has generally improved over the years extending their life. When they are new using them improves their properties as the dielectric forms (insulation between the plates) improving SQ. As a capacitor ages further its leakage increases and capacitance decrease. This has a negative effect on SQ. Replacing them brings the sound quality back. For continued best SQ we find life to be 10-20 years, they continue working beyond this.
From 110db in the New Classic thread.
Seems plausible to me. Even if some of the timescales might be discussed. I’ve looked a bit into dialectric forming in electrolytic capacitors, and it doesn’t take long, but perhaps it’s one on those things that forms rapidly, then develops further over time. You could also imagine caps of different ratings develop the dialectric at different rates.
It definitely makes a difference. Ive had many cables over the years and when purchasing new there is a burn in period on all the cables and new equipment ive bought.
Not just Hi-Fi… which is why quality manufacturers such as Naim burn in their products before they leave the factory… so you can be rest assured your new Naim product is pre ‘burned in’ when you get it home so you don’t have to do it… and risk an early failure.
This is different from cable contact connections de stressing and components warming up
Naim’s soak test is to encourage any potential failures and is not a burn in service. Even so, my mute function failed after a few months of use on a new 552DR so the potential failures can happen further on as well. I’m just glad Naim does the soak test at the factory as I can’t think of another manufacturers that does that.
The burn in process is clearly stated in the manual and has been for decades.
I cannot think of a manufacturer from whom I’ve bought a product that didn’t state the same thing.
Moreover my tube DAC took quite some time to burn in. Suddenly one day (approximately 2 months from new) it sounded very different. More luscious, more body to the sound, exceptional spacial detail. The difference was not imagined. It was obvious.
Of course not, who would suggest such a thing 
.sjb
As you probably understand, my answer was mostly in jest Simon. But not even Naim’s products are burned in at the factory, see above…
Important to distinguish between ‘burn in’ and ‘warm up’ I think - although both are real.
Re: Burn in, it is my experience that Naim components continue to improve for a few days after service or build, but the fundamental sonic qualities don’t change that much IMHO.
Re; Warm up I have noticed a more profound effect with cold equipment sounding sterile and uninvolving for a couple of hours after switch on.
For mechanical components e.g. cartridges and speakers burn in is especially significant.
JonathanG
You miss my post earlier… it’s a burn in / soak test activity to find any early failures and let the components and electronic component assembly stabilise. It burns in the products so they are optimum for when you receive them for max performance and reliability… and any initial component burn in changes that may occur and cause a failure have occurred so you can be rest assured of having an optimum product when you receive it.
Burn in/soak test are synonymous with each other . A component is most likely to exhibit early life failure during burn in, which is why the entire product is soak tested……
This is the service you you get in buying a Naim product… any many other quality products. You don’t pay extra for it.
One shouldn’t confuse burn in with warm up and physical contact connections de stressing… which is what you would expect when you set up at home. Electro mechanical products by their nature also have a concept of ‘run in’ to loosen their physical couplings as stated above.
I always assumed that a soak test was having the component on a timer and having it switching the unit on/off every 15/20 minutes or so over say a 24/48 hour testing period. Any early-on potential component faults would then be more likely to reveal themselves during the in-rush cycles. Burning-in is allowing the unit to be constantly on, which may take days or even weeks to fully form?
Yes burn in and soak test are really the same thing from an electronics point of view.( you burn in the electronic components and assemblies by soak testing the product). If you find your product performance is changing over a period of severeal weeks or months it’s most likely physical (ie physical contact connections) or cognitive reasons…
I guess that is one reason why occasional strip down and reconnecting of all leads is recommended… I found it tended to make the system sound like new again… assuming you wanted it to sound like new again in the first place.
It’s also fair to say I found Naim products with NACs more sensitive than some others with physical contact de stressing over a period of time, perhaps because of the number of physical contact connections used in the NAC and NAP grounding through the PSU approach… and I wonder if some confuse this with burn in?
you just got used to the new sound or justified it sounded better because you spent a lot of money on a black box
Because you have to justify to yourself, the many hundreds or thousands of pounds that you have just spent on your shiny new piece of kit?
I would put this down to the system being cold, yes breaking & remaking connections can also have an effect too, but it will take time for the system to warm up and fully stabilise to it’s pre- warmed & stable state again. I’ve noticed this phenomenon more so with much more higher-end gear than with my ‘less revealing’ budget systems from the past. Also, NAC A5 takes an age to fully ‘burn-in’ from new - i find it’s a much more engaging cable with near on six months of heavy use under it’s belt - i’ve experienced this with new lengths of NAC A5 many times over the years…from new it sounds rough in the higher frequencies, recessed and bloated in the lower ranges, until it opens up and tightens like a flower in full bloom.
My comment was tongue in cheek. 
Welcome to the forum.
Now you are completely wrong Simon. Naim Chief Engineer Steve Sells has clearly stated that Naim products need to be burned in once the customer has received their new products to perform at their peak and that this period takes at least a few weeks.
It’s time for you to bite the sour apple Simon…
I respectfully disagree. Burn in as the community describes it and soak tests are two very different things.
Also I don’t agree that the burn in process we experience at home is due to physical connections. Although the mechanical aspect to hifi is very real. Yea there is a settling in period when you make the connections but I think you’re completely dismissing the electrical burn in process which has not been my experience and I will challenge anybody on that.
A little known fact - There are manufacturers of tube gear that ‘burn in’ transformers when used in tube components. It’s common knowledge transformers are made of wire around iron core.
So, I guess in your world you can buy any old tat and just wait for your ears to adjust
Yes I suspect along the lines I have suggested. Certainly in my experience, and I have owned every NAC from the 202 to 552, some new, others used.
Naim talk a lot about destressing cables and letting cables settle, ie hanging freely and not touching things.
I found a visit to the factory very enlightening especially the electronic component burn in and product soak test processes.
Critical electronic components have their performance characteristics measured over a few hours or less. Those that don’t comply with Naim’s specification are rejected even though they are compliant to the manufacturers tolerance and I believe sold on. Those that pass are then used for construction and product soak test / burn in. The thought of the performance of a component randomly deviating from this critical measurement in the consumer’s house doesn’t make sense… as why would you test and reject as Naim does in the first place.
However mechanical settling ie contact connections and thermo warming over a period then absolutely. This has been often referred to as coming ‘on song’ and again I have experienced this often over the last two decades with Naim… and I know to come on song I should let warm up including the NACs which can take some time like several days , and let connections become relaxed.
But at the end of the day you are going to believe what you want to believe and I suspect Naim will support that line, as it doesn’t harm anything… and suggesting a period of warming up and settling in is no bad thing… as it will be beneficial to most over a relatively short time. It’s not that relevant really, I simply value the electronic component burn in and soak test that Naim have done at the factory on most of the new products I bought from them. I have enjoyed my visits over the years.