Stewart Pinkerton wrote:

On 19 Aug 2004 23:36:28 GMT, Pooh Bear
wrote:

B&D wrote:

Kind of like cars, really, you have an idea it is the good car, but you
won't KNOW until you have about 5-10k on the odo...

Well......... Last time I had the benefit of checking - cars at least do actually
'run in'. The engine and probably transmission too, 'loosen up' with the result of
less friction and higher performance peaking after around 10k miles.

And then, of course, they wear out......................

There are many speakers and amplifiers which have been running happily
every day for twenty years, and show no sign of wear, making the
'break in' phenomenon unlikely, to say the least.

In the pro-audio sector, many loudspeaker drive unit manufacturers quote measured
performance after a 'pre-conditioning period' that loosens up the suspension.

Main effect seems to be to lower the resonant frequency.


Graham

On 20 Aug 2004 00:23:22 GMT, Uptown Audio wrote:

Actually, components do age and "break-in", whether they are
electronic as in a CD player or mechanical as in an automobile engine.
It is a physical process and many experienced listeners and drivers
can attest to each.
Whether you can tell when this occurs is another matter, but I would
not be fooled into thinking that you could not simply by the
suggestion of someone else. Nor would I be by the notion that it does
not occur, which is just silly.
-Bill

I have to assume that the line "Whether you can tell..." implies
that some people are better at it than others. The alternative,
of course, may be that some people have better imaginations
than others, or are more willing to let their imaginations carry
the day :-)

Note that if you are correct, a computer coming off the assembly
line, with its disk drives and billions of transistors, should "break
in" and settle into its optimal performance only after a certain
number of hours, weeks, months, whatever, of run time. After all,
the complexity of these devices and the precision of their tolerances
is several orders of magnitude greather than the typical CD player,
turntable, speakers, and amps. Yet that does not appear to happen
, and computer manufacturers do not leave their computers running
for days on end while they go off to work to "break them in" before
submitting them to competitive speed tests that can make or break
their economic viability.

"GregP" wrote in message
...
On 20 Aug 2004 00:23:22 GMT, Uptown Audio wrote:

Actually, components do age and "break-in", whether they are
electronic as in a CD player or mechanical as in an automobile engine.
It is a physical process and many experienced listeners and drivers
can attest to each.
Whether you can tell when this occurs is another matter, but I would
not be fooled into thinking that you could not simply by the
suggestion of someone else. Nor would I be by the notion that it does
not occur, which is just silly.
-Bill

I have to assume that the line "Whether you can tell..." implies
that some people are better at it than others. The alternative,
of course, may be that some people have better imaginations
than others, or are more willing to let their imaginations carry
the day :-)

Note that if you are correct, a computer coming off the assembly
line, with its disk drives and billions of transistors, should "break
in" and settle into its optimal performance only after a certain
number of hours, weeks, months, whatever, of run time. After all,
the complexity of these devices and the precision of their tolerances
is several orders of magnitude greather than the typical CD player,
turntable, speakers, and amps. Yet that does not appear to happen
, and computer manufacturers do not leave their computers running
for days on end while they go off to work to "break them in" before
submitting them to competitive speed tests that can make or break
their economic viability.


So perhaps the difference is we don't "listen" to the electronic output of
the computer....but we do with our audio components.

"Harry Lavo" wrote:

"GregP" wrote in message
...
On 20 Aug 2004 00:23:22 GMT, Uptown Audio wrote:

Actually, components do age and "break-in", whether they are
electronic as in a CD player or mechanical as in an automobile engine.
It is a physical process and many experienced listeners and drivers
can attest to each.
Whether you can tell when this occurs is another matter, but I would
not be fooled into thinking that you could not simply by the
suggestion of someone else. Nor would I be by the notion that it does
not occur, which is just silly.
-Bill

I have to assume that the line "Whether you can tell..." implies
that some people are better at it than others. The alternative,
of course, may be that some people have better imaginations
than others, or are more willing to let their imaginations carry
the day :-)

Note that if you are correct, a computer coming off the assembly
line, with its disk drives and billions of transistors, should "break
in" and settle into its optimal performance only after a certain
number of hours, weeks, months, whatever, of run time. After all,
the complexity of these devices and the precision of their tolerances
is several orders of magnitude greather than the typical CD player,
turntable, speakers, and amps. Yet that does not appear to happen
, and computer manufacturers do not leave their computers running
for days on end while they go off to work to "break them in" before
submitting them to competitive speed tests that can make or break
their economic viability.


So perhaps the difference is we don't "listen" to the electronic output of
the computer....but we do with our audio components.

Yes, and that gives the opportunity for psychological adjustment of the
listening apparatus.

Harry Lavo wrote:
"GregP" wrote in message
...
On 20 Aug 2004 00:23:22 GMT, Uptown Audio wrote:

Actually, components do age and "break-in", whether they are
electronic as in a CD player or mechanical as in an automobile engine.
It is a physical process and many experienced listeners and drivers
can attest to each.
Whether you can tell when this occurs is another matter, but I would
not be fooled into thinking that you could not simply by the
suggestion of someone else. Nor would I be by the notion that it does
not occur, which is just silly.
-Bill

I have to assume that the line "Whether you can tell..." implies
that some people are better at it than others. The alternative,
of course, may be that some people have better imaginations
than others, or are more willing to let their imaginations carry
the day :-)

Note that if you are correct, a computer coming off the assembly
line, with its disk drives and billions of transistors, should "break
in" and settle into its optimal performance only after a certain
number of hours, weeks, months, whatever, of run time. After all,
the complexity of these devices and the precision of their tolerances
is several orders of magnitude greather than the typical CD player,
turntable, speakers, and amps. Yet that does not appear to happen
, and computer manufacturers do not leave their computers running
for days on end while they go off to work to "break them in" before
submitting them to competitive speed tests that can make or break
their economic viability.


So perhaps the difference is we don't "listen" to the electronic output of
the computer....but we do with our audio components.

We do *look at* the electronic output, and we also listen to it, if we have
a sound card. Isn't vision as discriminative as hearing?
And shouldn't sound cards 'break in' too, at least?

How come TVs and monitors don't 'break in' the way audio components supposedly do --
whichis to say, they reach and maintain some sort of performance plateau with use?
All I keep reading about is that you want the TV on for an hour or so
before any adjustment (warm-up) and that eventually the TV 'breaks in'
to the point of needing replacement.




--
-S.