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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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In Reply to: RE: Going to attend first audio show in 2018...adice please posted by PAR on November 24, 2017 at 08:12:28:
Excellent advice is what I've come to expect from PAR.
About the only thing I can add is that some systems take more than 24 hours to fully break in. When I could still travel, my experience at trade shows was uniform for all of them. The typical procedure for an important one would be:
1) Two months ahead of time, decide on every single component, rack, and tweak to be used. (The only exception being a small assortment of room treatment products, largely lightly absorptive wall hangings). This applies all the way down to cable lengths, as floor plans of exhibition rooms are readily available.
2) Arrange to borrow or buy everything needed so that it would arrive at the factory a full 30 days before the show. The equipment would be carefully connected and arranged *as closely as possible* to the way it would be used at the show. After full testing of the system, it would be set on repeat to break everything in for at least a full month.
3) A few days before the show, the system would be carefully packed up. Transit time before the system was actually running again typically varied between 1 day (RMAF, a 40 minute drive from our factory) to 5 days where international shipping and local freight handlers delivered equipment from a central depot to each room. NB: Any time the system is disconnected, it slowly starts to "un-break-in". This "un-breaking-in" process is radically accelerated by both the vibration of the equipment as well as the temperature changes during transport.
4) Even though we would do everything possible to ensure at least 24 hours of play before the show began, the system's sound would continue to improve - typically reaching a very good (yet not amazing) level on the final day - when almost all the press was gone and writing up their show notes, and the main traffic consisted of other exhibitors who hadn't had a chance to visit other rooms previously.
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I've often thought about the reasons why some equipment seems to require more time than others to reach "full" break-in (where further improvement is minimal at best). I believe much of the answer lies in the application of negative feedback. IME, feedback colors the sound in a very powerful way that is strong enough to obscure other (less powerful) colorations. The extended break-in time required for Ayre products (which all use zero-feedback circuits for analog - including analog video - signals) requires a greater break-in period. Without the colaration (not the best term, but I don't know what else to use) of feedback to obscure other, more subtle changes from break in, the break-in seems to take a much longer time.
Does anybody else have any experience with zero-feedback circuitry with regards to longer break-in time? There's not a lot of it out there, but it includes:
1) All C-J line-stages for the last couple of decades. (Unsure about their phono stages.)
2) All Krell line stages for the last five years or so.
3) All D'Agostino line stages.
4) All Vacuum-State Electronics (tube-based) products.
I'm sure there are many, many more makes and models of equipment that claim to use zero feedback (especially SET power amps). They usually are correct in their claims, but not always, so it would be helpful to identify make and model of your equipment. Thanks!
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Follow Ups
- Excellent Advice + Survey on Zero Feedback and Break-In - Charles Hansen 11/24/1716:16:50 11/24/17 (0)
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