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I have just completed the Buffalo II and IVY stage. It sounds very good! Is there a break-in period for the unit where it sounds better and better after a certain period of time? Thank you Russ, for all your hard work!
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Hi, I don't know the answer, but I thought I would add the controversial aspects: 1) Some people say break-in doesn't exist at all 2) Some components do seem to need time to stabilize, but I believe this is quite short (hours not days/weeks/months) 3) Is break-in a time whereby you have grown accustomed to the sound and therefore prefer it as it was judged as 'better' when it was simply different, or a combination of (2) and accustomization, or do things really sound better after protracted periods for some other unaccountable effect? I think the question you ask is somewhat unanswerable given the above. I would suggest the evidence is towards a small amount of component stabilizing followed by a period of user accustomization to a sonic presentation. If you really want to determine if sonic changes occur, I would suggest recording your own playback using a tool like Audio DiffMaker on multiple occasions at the same standard temperature pressure, recording arrangement, volume of playback, and room setup (no more or less furnishings or people) and see if your recorded hi-res WAV files show any difference. Edited by user Thursday, July 22, 2010 2:19:48 AM(UTC)
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InfiniteGain wrote:I don't know the answer, but I thought I would add the controversial aspects:
1) Some people say break-in doesn't exist at all What I want to know is why does break in never seem to make anything sound worse? 
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That's a great question..!
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Accustomisation. A new piece of equipment potentially presents sonic information slightly differently. Often 'different' is interpreted as 'better' and people listen to common tracks they know in order to hear cymbal crashes, drums, guitar/bass plucking and so on. As they listen to a new piece of equipment with these tracks, they detect new things each time - not because of breaking in, but because nuances identified in earlier listening sessions on new equipment are no longer new to the brain's aural memory and it is the critical listening that is training the brain to seek a better aural memory of a track with each listen. This is very much like studying a picture and familiarizing yourself with the artists brushstrokes in more detail each time because you know the rest already. A new piece of equipment will present differences, these are heard and then as people get accustomised to the presentation in increasing detail, they start detecting more nuance. What your brain is actually doing is just flagging up where it has identified something it couldn't process in the previous session due to limits of human perception.
Once you get to the point where you are intimately familiar with the track on new equipment, it will seem 'broken in'. No amount of listening will provide any new insights in to the music. Changing a component in the replay chain will then restart the process and retrain your aural memory.
However, for the record, I have taken a new product home and demoed it during the 'break in' period, only to decide it was more and more dull as time went by.
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