do new mytek converters require a "burn in" period?

[maskedman72]

hello. i just bought a new mytek stereo 96 and the salesperson told me it required a 12 hour "burn in" period so that the internal components can brake in thus smoothing the sound of the unit out. i am curious to know more about this.

can someone elaborate on this?

thanks!
-jay

[tINY]

Yes, this is generally required when you buy equipment from a slimy salesperson. Moslty, it bakes the smell of cheap cologne out of the unit.


-tINY

[cl516]

hey that's not cologne, it's body splash ok? geez.

[kroad]

never got that tip when I bought mine

[pedrohead]

actually when i got my lucid ad9624 spiffed up by jim williams at audio upgrades, he said the same thing. the new capacitors he put in required a 20 hour "break in" period to charge to their full capacity and react correctly.

'like breaking in a new pair of shoes' jim put it.

[maskedman72]

Originally posted by kroad
never got that tip when I bought mine

i was advised to give the unit a listen out of the box than do the burn-in than listen again and i should notice it is smoother sounding.

[maskedman72]

Originally posted by pedrohead
actually when i got my lucid ad9624 spiffed up by jim williams at audio upgrades, he said the same thing. the new capacitors he put in required a 20 hour "break in" period to charge to their full capacity and react correctly.

'like breaking in a new pair of shoes' jim put it.

that is what i was told also. did you notice any difference in sound?

[pedrohead]

honestly, i didn't give it much of a listen before i 'burned it in'.

i guess i'm more concerned that i don't hear much of a difference from before i sent it out to be upgraded to what it sounds like now.....hmmm....

...maybe more burn in time??

[pedrohead]

totally off topic.....just saw you're near the "D". very cool. dirty south (downriver), and not too proud of it, myself.

may have to check your place out sometime.

[preben]

My Mytek Stereo96 definitely sounds (marginally) nicer now than when I first got it. However, I leave it on most of the time and that's probably a bigger factor than the burn-in.

[snedley]

When you say burn in period..................do you mean hust leave it on for 12 straight hours or after 12 hours of general use it'll improve? I never got that tip with mine either.

[Jim Williams]

Semiconductors don't usually need any break in, but the passive capacitors do. Michal uses Wima FKP-2 polyprops in the mytek, I use the very expensive MIT MultiCaps. Their designer, Richard Marsh recommends a 50 hour break in. Thats 50 hours of music running through it, not just powered up.

Bas Lin of Reliable Capacitors says the same things as he provides a lot of caps to NASA, the Air Force, etc, besides the audio crowd. Can't tell you how many times a customer has called a few months later to ask if the improved sound is for real or are they just hearing things. Now I inform everyone of this so they don't doubt their hearing.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[cl516]

how much worse is it to send the outputs into a channel of a mackie, and then into monitors?

[preben]

For me it got better after being left on... whether I'd feel the same if I switched it off and left it for a while I don't know. I doubt it.

[tINY]

So, if I'm paying that kind of money for a unit and it needs 50 hours of burn in for the caps to settle out - I want it done at the factory....

Besides, running a burn in is good manufacturing practice for low-volume high-price units. If there are short term failures, you see them before they ship, thus maintaining an air of quality.

I don't mind breaking in $400 studio monitors, but for a one-kilobuck converter, I want it burned in and ready to go.


-tINY

[luap]

The only way to burn them suckers in is to play 5 hours of Deep Purple's Machine Head full bore ! DONE.

[maskedman72]

Originally posted by tINY


So, if I'm paying that kind of money for a unit and it needs 50 hours of burn in for the caps to settle out - I want it done at the factory....

Besides, running a burn in is good manufacturing practice for low-volume high-price units. If there are short term failures, you see them before they ship, thus maintaining an air of quality.

I don't mind breaking in $400 studio monitors, but for a one-kilobuck converter, I want it burned in and ready to go.


-tINY

you have brought up some very good points. i am hoping that mytek will chime in on this thread to verify that either their units do indeed need to be burned in or they do not, and if they do, how long of a burn in do they need? do people that own other brands of converters know anything about this for their units?

[Universal Audio]

There's a difference between burn-in and warm-up. It's pretty standard for high-end manufacturers to perform an extended burn-in between assembly and final testing/calibration.

Warm-up is often necessary for some high-precision circuits, like A/D and D/A converters, or for gear with class-A circuitry. We recommend letting our 2192 converter warm-up for 20 minutes after power-on for optimal sound quality. This allows the analog circuits to reach thermal equilibrium and the optimal temperature range for the current bias points we've chosen.

In my experience, one of the Great Laws of Audio is: Good sounding gear gets warm; bad sounding gear doesn't.

-Joe

[jdunn]

Sorry to hijack this topic for a minute. Hey Joe, I replied to your post on the UA 2192 thread in High End. It may be on page 3 by now. Anyway, thanks for posting.

[dasbin]

Originally posted by Universal Audio

In my experience, one of the Great Laws of Audio is: Good sounding gear gets warm; bad sounding gear doesn't.

-Joe

That would be a good rule Joe, if it weren't for the fact that I can think of a good 5 million exceptions to it.

In MY experience, any sort of attempted generalization (which is something that humans love to do to keep their minds working in a nice orderly fashion) should always be taken as false. Including this one.