Burn in. myth or not?

I propose..

''Burn In'' is used by manufacturers to get joe purchasing public past the stage of ''buyers remorse'' (that stage we get when we buy something and think we couldnt really afford it/ it wasnt really worth it/ it doesnt do what we want etc).

so 'Burn In' whether real or imaginary, is cynically used as a marketing tool.

Fact is IMHO !! - any change (if there is any change) with burn in is very slight. If you dont like something after a day or two of listening, then its shit take it back.
 
FWIW my guess is that it has something to do with electron/crystal structure allignment. Electricity flows in one direction, after awhile the metal molds to that flow. As I say it's a guess.
 
BlueMax said:
The three cables were conected to a well shielded gang socket I made up. IEC connectors of these were left right behind the amp for fast swapping over. Same tracks were played with each cable. Only I knew which cable was being used. Ratings (1-5) were noted on a table.

Four different CDs with classical and instrumental jazz music were used.
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Thanks for the elaborating. You seems to be more 'serious' them most and genuinely interested to find out whether this theory is true or not. I presume you did tell you friends before starting the listening comparison that although they are made from the same cable they are in have been 'burn-in' by different period of time. And all of you wrote down the score without conferring until the end.
 
Once upon a time this sort of thing was mooted on the Naim forum. A chap called Mekon and I were in the process of setting up a Double Blind listening test. In the end I pulled out because of forum politics etc. Mekon did most of the planning as he is in that line at a southern university. I'm sure if anyone's interested he'd be happy to pass on his thoughts and you could carry out the tests yourself.

You'd need about 50 people to carry out a preliminary excersise.
 
Tom Alves said:
Electricity flows in one direction, after awhile the metal molds to that flow.
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Not true. A solid metal is a solid metal, and it ain't going anywhere except in a phase change or if it anneals. ;)
 
wolfgang said:
Thanks for the elaborating. You seems to be more 'serious' them most and genuinely interested to find out whether this theory is true or not. I presume you did tell you friends before starting the listening comparison that although they are made from the same cable they are in have been 'burn-in' by different period of time. And all of you wrote down the score without conferring until the end.
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I did not tell them anything about 'burn-in'. They wouldn't know what it is. I just told them that I am testing some cables. Though my g/f has previously seen the cable 'being cooked' in the kitchen and wondered why.
 
Tom Alves said:
FWIW my guess is that it has something to do with electron/crystal structure allignment. Electricity flows in one direction, after awhile the metal molds to that flow. As I say it's a guess.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid it's a bad guess, Tom. PeteH above is completely correct. Metals are metals because their atoms organise themselves into rigid crystal lattices, within which electrons are highly mobile, hence electrical conductivity. This changes only when the stuff melts - and then it sets itself back in the same structure again. The metal cannot "mould to that flow" and change form, because otherwise it would cease to be that metal, and to the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever transmuted one element to another by passing electricity through it.

In any case, since we're often talking about AC, with the current changing direction 50 times a second, to which flow is it going to mould?
 
Oh well, it was only a guess. I'm still convinced burn in does exist but someone else will have to explain why
 
Tom Alves said:
Oh well, it was only a guess. I'm still convinced burn in does exist but someone else will have to explain why
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I'm not, but that merely makes us different. Personally, I'm glad not to be a believer - it removes something else to be bothered about!
 
NeYank said:
There are a number of high end companies that make cables, as well as hifi boutiques in the USA that offer a burn in service.

This service is not cheap.

I am not condoning it, but it exists. :rolleyes:

Imagine paying someone 50-100 quid just to burn in cables."
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There are some people a bit closer to home that offer this service too, aren't there Tony? :D

Michael.
 
I'm not convinced about burning-in cables but in my experience HiFi does improve after a few hours of playing. The biggest change I noticed was with amps. I'm not sure whether this is burn-in or simply the amps reaching their optimum operating temp.
 
Mike,

You are quite correct, they are 2 of us that post here that offer than service.
Though do note all our cables have this appiled to them before leaving to the customer.
 
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Dev said:
I'm not convinced about burning-in cables but in my experience HiFi does improve after a few hours of playing. The biggest change I noticed was with amps. I'm not sure whether this is burn-in or simply the amps reaching their optimum operating temp.
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Burn-in is over and above the requirement to have the electronics at optimum operating temperature.

Burning in can take hundreds of hours, unless special equipment (such as the one developed by Tony) is used.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dev
I'm not convinced about burning-in cables but in my experience HiFi does improve after a few hours of playing. The biggest change I noticed was with amps. I'm not sure whether this is burn-in or simply the amps reaching their optimum operating temp.


BlueMax said:
Burn-in is over and above the requirement to have the electronics at optimum operating temperature.

Burning in can take hundreds of hours, unless special equipment (such as the one developed by Tony) is used.
Click to expand...

In which case the first "warm-up" can take several days IME.
 

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