Break-in Period

Over the years I've found almost every piece of high end gear requires a break-in period before optimum performance is achieved. Is this the case with the 990/7700 combo. I must say, out of the box they sound wonderful; and I haven't done any tweeking yet. If someone says these things will sound even better after xyz hrs. of break-in, my wife will never see me again. :-)

I haven't noticed an appreciable break-in with either the 990 or the 7500. For me, both gave great sound basically as soon as they were powered up. If there were changes, they were subtle and were masked by calibration tweaking.

Outlaw, saving marriage one customer at a time.

Heh. I don't know if I've ever personally experienced an amplifier that "got better over time." However, there can often be noticible and measurable differences in amplifier output between a "cold start" and after the unit has been on a few hours and gotten up to operating temp.

Cheers,

I've often wondered how a solid state piece of equipment could have a break-in period. What changes and if something changes over time how does the manufacturer/designer account for that change? How would a manufacturer assure consistent quality if all their gear was changing after the customer turned it on? If something does change is it noticable (keeping in mind significant figures)? My thought is that over time we grow accustomed to the different sound of the new equipment and it becomes our new norm. This would be particularly true when we change from one well made piece of gear to another. My expectation is that the gear comes out of the box meeting the specs and that they are consistent over time.

Those questions/comments aside, I agree with Ritz's comment about operating temperature, though I've noticed it takes minutes not hours to reach it.

I would say, break-in of audio gear is often more a parroted urban legend than a reality.
It is often suggested the capacitors need warming up time to "settle" and "form".
Well, I don't know about all these "special capacitors that sound so warm", I often held my ear close to 'em and never caught a peep...(grin)
If a coupling capacitor measures 1 µF right from the start as it should I wonder what other parameters would need to be settled in?
Inductance? Measure it and you'll find a value so small it can't possibly influence the sound...
Fellow Gunslingers et al, beware, there's a lot of snake oil specialists around!
Don't want to offend any real believers though!

I found that the mylar on Martin Logan defintiely benefited by break in time. I am not sure about the xover.

Plasma TV's also benefit and in fact the latest with to run the new ones for 100 hours or so on an hdtv channel like Discovery to ensure that there will be no burn in on nomral viewing.

There is a rapid change in characteristics in both cases for the 1st 75-100 h0ours or more so that tweaking/calibratins can not be doen until after break in.

Joel

Joel

At the risk of this topic becoming contentious....I don't buy into circuit break-in. Mechanical break-in, like speaker cones, etc., sure. But saying that a solid-state amp or prepro needs break-in is like saying that your brand new Dell needs to be run for 20 hours straight (playing minesweeper continuously, of course) before it performs its best.

No offense to the diehards, of course

I agree completely. It's complete horse poop. Mechanical components can conceivably "break in" and I have experienced this with speakers. With electronic components, once it's up to operating temperature it either performs as designed or it doesn't. You also get the occasional (laughable) claims of wiring needing to "break in." Please....

WOW!! I guess a person's ignorance will piss some folks off. I'd better be careful in the future with the questions. :-(

Ritz...are you satisfied with the Outlaw interconnects and Canare speaker cables? I'm currently running an older set (1995) of Naim Audio speaker cable with Space and Time connectors through my Martin Logan Aeon i's and they still sound pretty damn good...very warm, vocal clarity is amazing, sound stage is live and in concert and the low ends are where they're suppose to be when they're suppose to be there. Although most of the LFE is being sent to the ML Descent Sub, the low end of the Aeon's are much more defined with the 990/7700 pushing them. Unless the Naim cables give me a reason, I'm kind'a set on not changing them just yet.

ML Aeon i
ML Descent
ML Cinema
Monitor Audio Bronze Surr
Outlaw 990/7700
Pioneer Elite DV-79
Panamax 5400
Outlaw PCA's (in the mail)
Naim Audio Spkr Cable
Marantz VP-12S4
Screen Innovations TR120

I don't believe in break-in for amps/processors. I do like the image from my projector better after running for 20 minutes or so...but this is probably due to the time it takes the bulb to get fully heated up. Just don't say anything like that at AVS...you'd be strung up!

Oh, it's not like tha here. We all love each other too much .....

Heh, questions are good. Ask LOTS of questions. Ask 'em before you dip into your wallet.

I'm probably not the best person to ask about using cables as expensive tone controls for equipment. In my mind, the best cable is one that is "invisible" and that doesn't "do" anything to the music other than transport the bits from point A to point B. Of course, the devil is in the details and getting people to agree on what constitutes "invisible" is a never ending quest.

Having done quite a bit of time in recording studios, I feel like the Canare cable is as neutral as it gets (at least to my ears) and they are widely used in studios around the world for mics, patch cords, speaker runs, etc. They're resistant to induced noise, they make great connectors, and it's all priced within reason. No smoke and mirrors...no diatribes about clever little cables pulling magic music bits out of the ether...etc. They just plain do what they're supposed to. Of course, they don't look as fancy as having MIT Oracle cabling that's as thick as a donkey's (bleep) and there are no fancy boxes on the end that are supposed to mysteriously "make the music better." But if you like to listen to music instead of look at your equipment, they rock. :-)

As for the Outlaw cables, I've got no complaints. They're a little expensive, but are well made. The locking connectors can be troublesome on the 990 due to the close spacing of the inputs on the back. I've actually been slowly removing them from my system in favor of custom (Canare) cabling that I've cut to appropriate lengths. I haven't done that because I was disatisfied with the Outlaw stuff...just trying to tidy up the spagetti.

Cheers,

Thanks Ritz

Some people dislike locking phono plugs, because they tend to scrape the socket surface, but I love them.
Nothing is so irritating as wondering why one channel is misbehaving, only to find the plug's not firmly inserted...

I like them when you've got enough room on the ends to actually lock/unlock them. The spacing of the RCA plugs on the back of the 990 makes it virtually impossible to get your fingers in there.

Cheers,