Burn in

rromeo923

Is Burn in real??

How long does it take?

I replaced my SL2000 tweeters w/ RDO 194's in my SDA 1C's. I was told that burn in takes about 50hrs.

I definitely noticed an improvement right away. I believe I heard some definite improvement after the first few hours (Burn in?) but after that I havent really heard any improvement and I am about 100 hrs plus.

I now had new Capacitors put in my speakers (Clarity ESA and PX) and they were an improvement right away. Now I am about 10hrs in and I believe I have hearing a definite improvement as at first I thought the highs were a bit bright and now they are mellowing and I am hearing a kind of sweetness to the sound

I have been told that the Caps will continue to get better up until about 200hrs.

Just wondering what others think and what they have experienced.

heiney9

Don't even comment until you hit the 200+ hour mark.

H9

rromeo923

So you are a true believer in Burn in.

Do you mean 200+ w/ the tweeters too? or is that a whole other ball of wax. I have heard no difference in the tweets after the first few hours.

heiney9

Yep and yep. They will start to sound worse then get better again.

H9

audiocr381ve

heiney9 wrote: »

Don't even comment until you hit the 200+ hour mark.

H9

Is that 200 hours of continuous music playing or could it be 200 hours accumulated after say, 3 weeks of playing music here and there throughout the day? Someone once told me it had to be non-stop or it doesn't count, lol.

drumminman

audiocr381ve wrote: »

Is that 200 hours of continuous music playing or could it be 200 hours accumulated after say, 3 weeks of playing music here and there throughout the day? Someone once told me it had to be non-stop or it doesn't count, lol.

In my experience it's 200 hours cumulative. It's nice to get it done non stop, it's quicker. I've always done it in 4-8 hour blocks of time.

VR3

I usually leave my stereo on mid volume while I go to work to burn in

BlueFox

Burn in for me seems to be real for everything. However, speakers, being electro-mechanical devices, seem to provide the most obvious burn-in improvements. Although I do not have the equipment, I strongly suspect you could easily measure a difference between a new speaker and one that has been 'exercised'.

inspiredsports

300 hours of signal (on for one hour, off for one hour = 1 hour) and the process will be complete. 200 hours will yield most of the improvement.

However, I'm not certain why you started this thread. If you believe the phenenom exists, no one needs to write a thing. If you don't, 10,000 posts won't change your mind.

Fongolio

I feel burn in is very real in phono cartridges and speakers in particular. Both being electrical/mechanical devices that need some "loosening" up before they reach their full potentials.

Toolfan66

There will be days they will sound great, days they will sound bright, and days it just sounds like **** till your at the 200-400 hour mark. At the 400hr mark they should sound fantastically beautiful, of course the right gear will further the improvements.

YMMV..

tonyb

heiney9 wrote: »

Yep and yep. They will start to sound worse then get better again.

H9

Just like a wife.

PreCd

I hope burn in is real. My speakers have been TL'd and they sound decent but not what I would like. At this point I have about 80-100 hours on them. I hooked an old tuner up to my gear and it is running 24/7.

It really is hard not to believe that burn in is not real. So many of those here with so much experience says it is so.

cristo

Just thinking of the material science and physics behind it, there is good reason to believe that burn in
is real for speakers and phono cartridges, mainly due to the properties of the surrounds, cones, spiders,
and cantilever suspensions.

I'd like to hear of good (believable) reasons to believe that burn-in improvement is real for things like
cables, resistors, transistors, ICs, inductors, etc.
If so, how many times do I have to cycle my on-off switch or adjust my volume control until it's
really operating at its peak??

rromeo923

Ok I am 23hrs in and I have decided that burn in is awesome. Not sure if I am noticing anything but I am listening to some great tunes coming out of some amazing speakers!!

PreCd

rromeo923 wrote: »

Ok I am 23hrs in and I have decided that burn in is awesome. Not sure if I am noticing anything but I am listening to some great tunes coming out of some amazing speakers!!

Haha! Me too. I am about 145 hrs in but I have not been listening very much as the time as gone by. My gear has been playing around the clock. Can't wait till around Thursday when things should be premo according to the priests.

inspiredsports

I've used one of these for about 3 years now. I hate to recommend yet another expense, but I've found the Isotek Full System Enhancer CD speeds things along nicely . . .

http://www.musicdirect.com/p-3521-isotek-full-system-enhancer-burn-in-cd.aspx

PreCd

inspiredsports wrote: »

I've used one of these for about 3 years now. I hate to recommend yet another expense, but I've found the Isotek Full System Enhancer CD speeds things along nicely . . .

http://www.musicdirect.com/p-3521-isotek-full-system-enhancer-burn-in-cd.aspx

Looks interesting. I must say I am fairly happy with what I am hearing at this time. The damn tweets are still rough around the edges. If that would smooth out I would be very happy.

inspiredsports

PreCd wrote: »

Looks interesting. I must say I am fairly happy with what I am hearing at this time. The damn tweets are still rough around the edges. If that would smooth out I would be very happy.

I know I read your modification thread, but can't remember. Did you remove and bypass the polyswitch? And what brand and value resistor did you use?

PreCd

inspiredsports wrote: »

I know I read your modification thread, but can't remember. Did you remove and bypass the polyswitch? And what brand and value resistor did you use?

Can't remember? Why my mod should be all you think about. :biggrin:

I removed the polyswitch and the bypass cap. Installed a .33 Mills in the polyswitch after not liking the .5 Mills. Everything is coming together little by little. Sitting here critically listening to the speakers with a good mix of complicated music and I have to say they are keeping my attention. In my opinion the tweeters are not handling some vocals and some piano that I am feeding them.

Think they will get better?

inspiredsports

Compensating for the removed poly is the right answer. Sometimes if you don't allow for the extra resistance the tweeter can sound a bit harsh. Time should smooth things out.

PreCd

inspiredsports wrote: »

Compensating for the removed poly is the right answer. Sometimes if you don't allow for the extra resistance the tweeter can sound a bit harsh. Time should smooth things out.

That is what I like to hear.

Toolfan66

How can you say you don't like the .5ohm resistor when you haven't let everything settle in (burn in) not sure if I like the idea of a .33ohm resistor. I just might order some resistors and play with them in place of the .5ohm

I just think you jumped the gun when you haven't even let the tweeters settle in. One needs to spend some time with their speakers when doing upgrades like this. I spent hundreds of hours with my crossovers with mills resistors before moving on to Duland resistors, I did the same with my inductors.

Don't pass judgment on one thing till you really let them settle in.

PreCd

Toolfan66 wrote: »

How can you say you don't like the .5ohm resistor when you haven't let everything settle in (burn in) not sure if I like the idea of a .33ohm resistor. I just might order some resistors and play with them in place of the .5ohm

I just think you jumped the gun when you haven't even let the tweeters settle in. One needs to spend some time with their speakers when doing upgrades like this. I spent hundreds of hours with my crossovers with mills resistors before moving on to Duland resistors, I did the same with my inductors.

Don't pass judgment on one thing till you really let them settle in.

Good and fair statements. I have modded these speakers twice. The 1st caps that were installed were Erse. I run those for around 200 hours and the .5 Mills was just wearing me out. Funny thing is when I replaced it with a .33 some of my harshness left. One would think that it would get worse, i.e. more power to the tweeters. In all fairness that was with the Erse caps and I will not comment on them much. Also had Erse electros in the mids which many warned me about. Right and right! Never again.

I mentioned to Jesse that the .33 sounded better to me as I have always liked highs a bit more than the lows so it seemed to fit me better. There are a few posts here where .27s on up have been used.

My observations for what they are worth. The important part is they are sounding better now and hopefully the last part of the burn in will polish them up!

inspiredsports

For what it's worth, I've found resistors don't change much, if at all, over time. With caps and inductors however, I've experienced noticable improvement over time.

PreCd

inspiredsports wrote: »

For what it's worth, I've found resistors don't change much, if at all, over time. With caps and inductors however, I've experienced noticable improvement over time.

Resistors will stay preserved better than a retired Twinkie taste tester.

inspiredsports

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inspiredsports

PreCd wrote: »

Resistors will stay preserved better than a retired Twinkie taste tester.

The biggest benefit gained by replacing original sand resistors with Mills or better is a reduction in circuit noise. That noise reduction doesn't seem to change over time.

Toolfan66

inspiredsports wrote: »

For what it's worth, I've found resistors don't change much, if at all, over time. With caps and inductors however, I've experienced noticable improvement over time.

I would say yes and no but fair enough none the less. But changing the .5 resistor before the tweeters have had the time to settle down doesn't make sense to me..

Just my opinon..:redface:

PreCd

Toolfan66 wrote: »

I would say yes and no but fair enough none the less. But changing the .5 resistor before the tweeters have had the time to settle down doesn't make sense to me..

Just my opinon..:redface:

Again, I had another set of caps in there that had around 200 hours on them. Changed to the new caps, same harshness. I did not notice that harshness until I had installed the .5 Mills with the old cap setup replacing a jumper I had installed to replace the poly switch.

I just have my fingers crossed that everything smooths out soon. My 200 hour mark is approaching quickly.....

rromeo923

We all need to live together in a house for a month. Then we can actually compare what we hear as we all hear it together!!
Reality show!!