pryamomimo;437584 Wrote: > Phil, you believe it's a myth. As you may see, based on my personal > experience with this DAC, NOS tubes in my PrimaLuna, with freshly > soldered circuits during my days of DIY hobby, and even -lately - with > newly purchased Chord speaker cable (replacing Van den Hul cable), I > believe there are gradual changes in sound quality after such components > are installed. And these changes can be far from subtle. In fact, I was > so struck by the drastic changes in the sound of my system after I > replaced the speaker cable happening over the course of a MONTH, I tried > to find and read every piece of information on cable "break-in" > available on the Internet. What I found is that manufacturers as > respected and diverse as Cardas, Van den Hul, Audioquest, Nordost, > Chord, Atlas and many others I would not remember now, all have observed > the effects of cable "break-in", but none of them so far is able to > provide a comprehensive explanation as to the causes. This might be one > big conspiracy, and then I may be a part of it ;-) > > On the other hand, I agree with you that it is about human psychology - > the way we perceive. However, having once spent nine years trying to > comprehend this discipline in academic setting, I tend to believe it > might be more complicated and subtle than what you describe. Anyway, > this could make a good subject for discussion over a glass of vintage > Bordeaux or Burgundy, opened and decanted some time prior to consumption > :-)
pryamomimo, Yes I was vastly over-simplifying (what I believe to be) the psychological factors. That glass of perfect Bordeaux or Burgundy sounds wonderfully tempting... I know many manufacturers believe in / advocate burn-in - but interestingly others deny it completely. I'm tempted to argue that Manufacturers are really quite clever and they know that if you have spent a lot of money on one of their items you want (or even need!) it to sound good eventually - so "just live with it for a while and it will sound fine" is good advice from them, since it maximises the chance for their customer to become tolerant of their new acquisition. However, my cynicism is inversely proportional to the amount of quality Burgundy available... Electro-magnetic burn-in phenomena have no basis in scientific fact as far as I can ascertain. Indeed, the opposite is demonstrably true - all components eventually die through "burn-out" of one form or another. On the other hand, the ability of human beings to accomodate or adjust to less-than-perfect sensory inputs is legendary. Your DAC experiences in some ways back up my views - well, they do to me :-) If burn-in was real, it should be irreversible. You may be experiencing a different phenomenon with your DAC - maybe it needs to get to a certain level of electrical stability/temperature before it gives of its best? That process would be reversible. Intriguing... now, where is that corkscrew... -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... SB3 (wired) - TACT 2.2X (Linear PSU) + Good Vibrations S/W - MF Triplethreat(Audiocom full mods) - Linn 5103 - Aktiv 5.1 system (6x LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Townsend Supertweeters, Blue Jeans Digital,Kimber Speaker & Chord Interconnect cables Outdoors: Boom ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=65035 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
