Pat Farrell;260162 Wrote: > geamater wrote: > >> Make sure that your new SB3 has at least 100 hours of continuous > paying. > > > > why ? > > Because the myth of audio break-in says so. > In practice, it handles buyers remorse. > > Perhaps speakers need a bit of breakin, but why amps, preamps, etc. > need > more than a few seconds is beyond me. I've never seen any science to > justify it. > > -- > Pat Farrell > http://www.pfarrell.com/
I do believe in "break in" for some component materials in some situations. I have read some engineering and materials sciences articles over the years concerning skin effect and other changes that develop at the molecular level with certain dielectrics as they are exposed to sustained nearby conductor currents and voltages. So it is not necessarily entirely myth. Changes do take place, at least with some dielectrics. Unfortunately, this legitimate science has been unscrupulously extrapolated upon by some cable vendors to fleece the unwitting and sully the popular image of "audiophiles". How dielectric changes translates into audible consequences is more debatable. However, I regularly hear noticeable changes in higher voltage (>200v) coupling capacitor apps from both break in and materials choice. Still, tube rolling brings about far greater changes. Which is why I am not a fan of designer capacitors (and other high end passives) from a cost/difference perspective. As an aside, the great David Hafler once determined following extensive blind testing for one of his products that a cheap steel leaded polyester coupling cap outperformed a "better" copper leaded polyprop, and approved the former for production. There was no measurable electronic difference between the two, but the sonic differences were palpable. So the science of measurement is far from perfected, and a lack of measureability doesn't mean a lack of difference. Of course, all of this is separate from the changes that may occur from "warm up", either thermally or electronically, with various components. -- sgmlaw ------------------------------------------------------------------------ sgmlaw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13995 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42388 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
