Give it 6 to 8 weeks for a very noticeable change & a further 6 months or so for further subtle improvement.
That was my experience with my now 18 month old Nova & tallies closely with several others on this forum.
Give it 6 to 8 weeks for a very noticeable change & a further 6 months or so for further subtle improvement.
That was my experience with my now 18 month old Nova & tallies closely with several others on this forum.
Mechanical things, like speaker cones or cartridge suspension might change a bit, so maybe the 50 hours has some truth to it.
Electronics might change a bit with temperature, but as such, the āburn-inā will occur each time you turn it on. Not in hours of play since unboxing.
Cables, I just donāt see how.
But even with the changes that are there, the question is to what extent theyāre audible. I suspect a lot of it is down to psychoacoustics / you getting used to the sound.
I think a lot of Hi Fi, especially speakers & to a lesser degree amps, do need running in.
Compare it to cars. Modern vehicles no longer need treating with kid gloves for the first 1,500 miles but I have not owned a vehicle in the past 30 years that did not get smoother, faster & more economical after the first 5,000/7,500 miles. They all felt good to begin with & then just got that bit better after a little use.
To further complicate things I shall be adding the Morganaās and Phantom speaker cable into the mix next week so god knows where that will leave me in terms of end game expectationā¦
With solid state stuff, like you, I used to be sceptical, but I try to rationalise it by keeping things as simple as possible and answering the question: Do things wear out?
Well, yes. Things can and do wear out or break and if the component failure is gradual then they must be wearing out up to the point at which they break. Therefore the opposite must also be true and the life cycle of the component must involve some wearing in.
You can hear when the suspension on your cart is failing, so why not the difference in an aging Cap?
Too simple perhaps, but itās how I convince myself Iām not going mad in hearing the changes.
Iāve been on the āhi-fi ladderā for forty years. I am sure that, when you reach a point of high enough resolution and low enough colouration/distortion, burn in is actually very easy to distinguish.
I donāt know if itās down to component āburn-inā or my perception changing over time, or a combination of the two, but my current system, whilst wonderful from Day 1, continued to gradually sound better over a period of 6 months or so. It doesnāt actually matter if itās an illusion or not, provided the opposite never happens!
Bathtub curve. Works for component reliability and for how individual components behave. You want to avoid either end!
If possible physical mechanisms will convince anyone (and Iām not saying they must):
Iāve known electrolytic capacitors change their characteristics measurably after sitting on a shelf for a while. Connecting them to an AC supply for a while brought them back to what I was expecting. A possible reason for this could be the uneven distribution of the electrolyte paste being overcome by repeated charge-discharge cycles.
For cables, itās possible they are left with small stresses in them after being installed (especially NACA5, which needs quite a firm hand) and these could be relieved over time by passing an AC current through them - in stranded cables especially, the strands will attract each other electromagnetically when in use.
Before anyone piles on, Iām merely suggesting possible physical mechanisms. Iām not saying they would affect sonic performance noticeably.
Mark
Not so long ago I purchased a new set of TQ Silver Diamond speaker cablesā¦
They were extremely good from the boxā¦ but they really did come on song after the first weekā¦I left the system playing 24/7 also used the TQ burn in disc.
I did find that keeping them off the floor with some small sponge pads made a difference.
I think the best manner to compare are: two identical sources ( in example) . The first out of the box. The second, with mileage. Linked to same ( rest ) setup.
I tend to believe the manufacture claims in terms of form/ function design.
I used to think that anything without a moving part, speakers, cartridge etc, couldnāt possibly run in and then I bought some TQ black speaker cable which undoubtedly took ages to run in and was hard work until it did. Iāve no idea why or how big it did
Do Naim themselves have a view on āburn inā, for boxes and cables?
Itās been a long day at work & tbh Iāve not checked*, but Iām not sure I recall reading any explicit Naim viewā¦?
*so thereās probably a ton of affirmation out there
For boxes, itās in the manual:
3.3 Running In
Naim equipment takes a considerable time to run in before
it performs at its best. The duration varies, but under some
conditions the sound may continue to improve for over a
month. Better and more consistent performance will be
achieved if the system is left switched on for long periods.
It is worth remembering however that equipment left
connected to the mains can be damaged by lightning.
I have never seen a Naim cable manual, but Richard Dane wrote recently in a post that NACA5 needs a long time to run in and speculated that many people who do not like it did not give it the time. My dealer agrees
I find the boxes take long time to mature. Mine have been in the loft for ages and still are not at their bestā¦
When you consider this is a part of Naims philosophy it would seem redundant to ask such a question on this forum.
Its relatively easy to test this out. Buy 2 identical speakers. (Yes sample variants considered)
Use one on a relatively good amplifier setup for a couple of months. Leave the other in the box. Eventually take it out and compare the two.
Iāve done this with cables so I donāt need any more convincing because I also āknowā my speakers sound different from new out of the box.
It always puzzles me that this question only comes up in hifi. Why not automobiles or anything else.
I understand that the ear-brain mechanism is very intelligent in that our brain compensates for what our hearing misses out for example.
BUT itās likely doing more to provide accurate information rather than inaccurate information.
No problem, I currently have 30 tabs open for Naim and Roon stuff, and all the manuals, web pages, and reviews for my new units downloaded and neatly sorted into folders. All part of the Corona OCD attack over the past 6 months that landed me in my new system
I was just thinking about the cables: NACA5 just like interconnects, burndys, and SNAICs have a direction marker. If we believe that, why doubt run-in
Edit: Oh, and it being in the manual for boxes was the reason I wrote earlier in the thread that it would take quite some delusion for Naim to put it there if it was hogwash - and they certainly listen to new and run-in boxes, thousands of them. If I were to believe that they are too stupid to figure out that they are deluding themselves, I donāt think I would be buying expensive equipment from Naim
Wow, Iām impressed at your sense of order! Sometimes I wish I was as focused, but my manuals all sit in the bureau and I only drag them out to consult connections, lolā¦
BTW, always nice to see your Sonic avatar!
Great band.
Our Sony big screen recently went to tv heaven, and just today we set up a new samsung.
I could almost smell the hairs on its big chest getting hotter and hotter.
Definitely noticed visually that itās no myth.