My hifi interest seems to come in bouts every 5-10 years. It’s fun while it lasts, but I also enjoy when everything is updated and set up properly, and I can care about the music instead of tech. So I need to use my energy during these times, and I also write a lot of notes, so that everything is in order and easily accessible. I may know now how to dress a burndy & snaic, but not so sure I will in 5 year’s time.
Thanks for the avatar love, I am glad you like it. I wanted a SY in any case but chose this one specifically to give good vibes to other forumers And yes, amazing band, always will be, and new amazing stuff can be found in those harmonics forever.
I’ve got the Silver II and it was the same. Took about a month to settle. Jekyll and Hyde until it did. One day it would be great, the next day it would be flat and lifeless. Well worth it in the end though.
I’m not sure about all the over stuff I sometimes think mine sounds different from day to day but I think speakers definitely need turn to burn in. So will you be dinning in or out, and may I suggest a good bottle of red to go with your hat.
For cables, it’s less burn in and more settling. But six of one half a dozen of the other.
One reason at trade showd they lay cables as many days in advance as possible is because of the changes they undergo in a static position. The are all subject to capacitance and charge and micro changes in electromagnetic properties.
When you substantially disturb a cable this is all undone. This is also why AB cable comparisons are flawed. You need to test a cable for several days. If you swap cables in and out, a large part of the audible difference is by effective reset of the new cable. Take a speaker cable; remove it; coil it; uncoil it; relay it in a different position; and it’ll probably sound like a very different cable for several days.
This is also why it is important to get cable dressing right and then not mess with it. If you’re constantly mucking with cables every few days, most of what you hear is the effects of the disturbance. You want the cable to sound best when settled after some days; not best right after it’s been swapped in.
“ Any listener will be able to identify a marked change in audio equipment within the first 100 hours of use (whether it be a new cable, component or loudspeaker). But what is the reason for these improvements and what can be done to facilitate this process?
During the manufacturing process, as insulation is extruded over the conductors, gases can become trapped. This combined with the high electrical charges often found in new cables, result in a brittle and bright sound that lacks the detail and depth desired for music reproduction. There are a few ways to solve this problem. One way to burn-in your cables is to simply hook them up in your home audio system and play music for a minimum of 100 hours. Even better, use a burn in disc, which provides a track specifically designed to produces a range of tones that stress the cables and expedite the burn-in process. However, the best solution is to treat your cables using a designated cable burn-in device such as Nordost’s Vidar.”
For sure a few bits off my kit have changed in the first few weeks, but for me it was that they sounded great at first and then you had good days and bad days for a while until all good days.
Can’t say really if it got better from that first switch on, as your mind doesn’t store the exact info, but it certainly had good and bad days
You think people are quick to spot subtle changes in hardware here? Should see it at Macrumors, they spot tiny difference to hardware… and software. Makes us look like amateurs
Each year when they buy a new phone they’ll complain about differences to screens. Most get on with it knowing they’ll settle, others insist on replacing, sending back their phones until they find one they like… they don’t take the hint even after they’ve had 5-10 replacements
Everything else being equal, I think there are three main factors:
initial burn-in/run-in,
operating temperature/warm up cycle
a person’s hearing/mood etc.
certainly real for anything with moving parts. Things bed in etc. Ref electronics, I think amps can improve - the last new amp I bought had a ‘new electronics’ smell to it for the first week or so of use - it implied to me that things were burning off/settling in, much like a brand new car. As for sources, it probably depends on the design.
this is more important for some products than others. To my ears, things generally sound better after a period of being on, but some take longer to come on song - this may be more important than ‘burn-in’ for some products. I think my CDsi falls into this category - it sounds best after 4 -5 hours of switch on.
our mood appears to dictate our hearing, as does what our ears have been exposed to that day. People suggest not performing critical listening after a long car journey, especially if you have a noisy car. I am a primary school teacher - my car stereo usually sounds better to me when travelling to work rather than on the way home - yes I am tired at the end of the day but my ears have also been subject to an ‘ear-bashing’ by X number of children for 7 hours. One day I will install a dB meter to see whether a classroom exceeds a safe sound level to work in.
All three of the above probably conspire at any one time to determine what you hear.
I checked with them what they hear and find annoying at different times of day, and what is the corresponding dB value on the app in my room.
Even without doing this, a dB value in the app that corresponds to “people talking” or “TV at room volume” in a dB value table is unlikely to be disturbing in a reasonable building
If you reach a dB level in the app that corresponds to “truck in 10m distance” or “airplane landing”, assume that the neighbors will hear it
The great thing about his comment is that it’s funny either way.
I personally find that burning incense and chanting Ohm three times daily really does help with the burn in process. It also helps to connect more with your equipment while you’re both settling in.
And yes, amazing band, always will be, and new amazing stuff can be found in those harmonics forever.
