To be honest I am not a great believer in 'burn in' time. Plus, I've put it in quotes here because I believe burn in as a term actually refers to some kind of destructive testing technique used in the electronics industry, but I am using the term here as common audiophile parlance for the phenomena of the sound of new equipment varying over time.
It's a controversial subject, with some saying that electronics are solid state components that will work perfectly to spec from day1, some say that some components do need to 'bed in', such as capacitors and transformers, and then some folk will claim that hifi kit needs weeks of continuous running to work at its best.
From my experience my first Devialet, a 240, sounded good from day 1. When I added a companion, this did not sound good from cold, in fact I though it was rather harsh, but this negative impression appeared to improve by the hour and after the first days running I more or less forgot about it.
OK, I've had the 1000 Pro for about a week now. It was first plugged in last Saturday, and because I was messing about so much reconfiguring my system, it only had a couple of hours running on Sunday. I've used it a couple of time in the week, then on Friday it was the first time I actually had some proper time to sit down and listen to the thing. With some material it sounded sensational. With some stuff it didn't though! I was actually listening to some Led Leppelin for a while on Friday. Take one track as an example, 'Since I've Been Loving You'. This always sounded pretty decent on the D800, and better still after running the Mutec. With the Pro though I was not so sure, there was something maybe a little harsh that I did not like. Listening to this same track again I think I can be quite specific, there is something a little harsh in the treble, otherwise it sounds fine. Curiously I have both the re-mastered and 'cooking' version of this track, and it is the re-mastered version that offends most! To put all this into perspective, most of what I have been listening too has sounded sensational.
Thinking about this, I have been very busy over the last week, the Pro's have been on standby 24/7, but only running in anger maybe about 10 hours as a grand total. I also recall the tail of Guillaume's O'dA, where he had OAC's fully run in demo unit on loan for a couple of weeks, then his own O'dA, after which there was maybe two weeks of burn in woes followed by eventual joy.
I must admit I do wonder how much of this is in the mind, and maybe I'm just suffering from new kit paranoia that itself will diminish with time, who knows. Also, I do see a parallel with my Led Zeppelin experience and @Arcam's classical music post. Maybe @arcam is experiencing something similar, maybe 'burn in' maybe new amp insanity, maybe something inherent to the Pro perhaps even a touch of all three?
My short term plan now is to simply use the Pro as much as possible and see what happens.
It's a controversial subject, with some saying that electronics are solid state components that will work perfectly to spec from day1, some say that some components do need to 'bed in', such as capacitors and transformers, and then some folk will claim that hifi kit needs weeks of continuous running to work at its best.
From my experience my first Devialet, a 240, sounded good from day 1. When I added a companion, this did not sound good from cold, in fact I though it was rather harsh, but this negative impression appeared to improve by the hour and after the first days running I more or less forgot about it.
OK, I've had the 1000 Pro for about a week now. It was first plugged in last Saturday, and because I was messing about so much reconfiguring my system, it only had a couple of hours running on Sunday. I've used it a couple of time in the week, then on Friday it was the first time I actually had some proper time to sit down and listen to the thing. With some material it sounded sensational. With some stuff it didn't though! I was actually listening to some Led Leppelin for a while on Friday. Take one track as an example, 'Since I've Been Loving You'. This always sounded pretty decent on the D800, and better still after running the Mutec. With the Pro though I was not so sure, there was something maybe a little harsh that I did not like. Listening to this same track again I think I can be quite specific, there is something a little harsh in the treble, otherwise it sounds fine. Curiously I have both the re-mastered and 'cooking' version of this track, and it is the re-mastered version that offends most! To put all this into perspective, most of what I have been listening too has sounded sensational.
Thinking about this, I have been very busy over the last week, the Pro's have been on standby 24/7, but only running in anger maybe about 10 hours as a grand total. I also recall the tail of Guillaume's O'dA, where he had OAC's fully run in demo unit on loan for a couple of weeks, then his own O'dA, after which there was maybe two weeks of burn in woes followed by eventual joy.
I must admit I do wonder how much of this is in the mind, and maybe I'm just suffering from new kit paranoia that itself will diminish with time, who knows. Also, I do see a parallel with my Led Zeppelin experience and @Arcam's classical music post. Maybe @arcam is experiencing something similar, maybe 'burn in' maybe new amp insanity, maybe something inherent to the Pro perhaps even a touch of all three?
My short term plan now is to simply use the Pro as much as possible and see what happens.
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
