I dint think the assessment is especially hard. Does it sound crap, to me? Does it now sound better, to me? Has it stabilised, for me? Objective measures not really required. Perception is all.
I had a 202, 200, NAPSC and HC arrive all at once in 2008. Sounded new but hollowed out for a period. Then the bass disappeared. Then one day it was just all there. I would say a grand total of three and a half weeks and possibly another couple before I believed it had stabilised. It had likely done so before that but after something initially sounds off your ears tend to listen out for micro changes which probably aren’t happening.
Don’t be sorry. When has that ever stopped anyone around here?! Think how often folks come on “recommend me a new CD player”. “You don’t want a CD player, you want a NAS…….”.
Okay here’s a different response, couldn’t say with any accuracy or evidence which components, but probably two/three weeks of regular use, and most likely speakers because they’ve got bits that bounce around.
I had some Mission 700 and somethings, many years ago. Had them eight months and they were never better than shouty. They were slightly less shouty when I gave them away to a school, but were never good. I replaced them with a pair of Linn Index, which I liked very much.
Linn Kans. Just kept getting better and better over many months of use. I’ve heard say they can take years before they sound at their best.
Other than that most things seem to settle after a few weeks of use.
An interesting question for those who think burn-in is a myth and all psychological. If you don’t hear it, how do you know that your non-perception of it isn’t pyschological and that it is in fact happening? Or do you think that pychological phenomena are confined to those people that happen to have a different world view to your own - and that you are immune?
it probably was bollox but to be fair most cars nowadays have adaptive systems programmed in to the ECU so they do sort of adapt over a few hundred miles, I know mine does and can be cleared by plugging a laptop in to the ECU and resetting. In terms of burn-in, I fall in to the camp that after a few initial weeks at most it’s more your brain adapting over time, speakers lesser so.
The burn-in effect is indeed real. I won’t deny that some components may not change significantly straight out of the box. Our auditory memory is not always reliable; without direct comparison, it’s often challenging to distinguish whether the changes we perceive are due to our ears getting accustomed and tuned to a specific sound signature, or if they’re a result of an actual transformation in the equipment. I’m convinced about the reality of the burn-in effect, particularly because I often have several components on hand for comparison, serving as benchmarks. My first encounter with the significant impact of burn-in was with a Marantz CD player 20 years ago. It took over a month for the player’s sound to truly ‘open’. up’.
Seriously, my first pair of S-400s. They were brand new and I was advised here that they would take hundreds of hours to open up. I did some math and realized that at the then current listening rate, I’d have needed several months. Out of the box they were really dull, congested, totally unexciting.
This mainly made me fell out of love. Too bad, I should have been more patient.
I suspect that although most of the change is usually perceived over a few weeks, burn-in with many things continues for years and they gradually get better and better until they finally peak at ‘X’ years down the line. Then begins a gradual decline. The whole process could in reality take decades.
You missed the point: burn in period is effectively infinite because the rate of change is infinitely slow (i.e. there isn’t any change, because it takes an infinite amount of time to hear any change at all!).
Nordost Heimdall 2 power cables took ages for me.
I got 1 running some several months before i got another for my simple system.
I was swapping between putting the older one on my source and amp.
Preferring the run in one more on my source as I could easily discern it contributing a more together and cohesive control. Whereas using the older run in one on my amp gave some more dynamics and tone but some courseness. I found this quite fascinating.
After a good year they equaled out with each other.
