General Asylum

Posted by Caymus (A) on March 03, 2006 at 20:11:04

In Reply to: My real question re. ' Break In' of components.. posted by AJ F on March 3, 2006 at 09:42:24:

Several years ago I bought a SLI80 amp with new Svetlana KT88’s (#1). It sounded very thin and lifeless until around 75 hours of play (it was actually rather sudden improvement!). I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or if the tubes actually changed.

So I went and bought 2 more new sets of the same tubes (#2 and #3). I blind A/B’d the new (#2) with the old (#1) and the difference was very clear and obvious. I also compared the two new sets (#2 and #3) to each other and couldn’t hear any difference whatsoever.

I listened to #2 set until I heard the improvement again. The final result? Now #1 and #2 now sounded identical and virgin #3 was easily discriminated from burnt-in #2.