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RE: Give it a few days and test different buffer settings before going back to B38. nt

Is it not possible that it is not at all due to burn in of the hardware?

I'd argue that it is, to put it mildly, extremely unlikely that perceived changes in sound over time with a new version of a program such as a music player are due to "burn in".

The only exception I can think of is if the program is run on a brand new computer - the improvement over time in the performance of components such as electrolytic capacitors on both a life-cycle and use-cycle basis is well known and quantifiable. That case is easily dealt with.

We are all more or less aware that the perception of complex phenomena has a temporal dimension even if we don't know how or why. Which of us does not regularly say the likes of "I didn't like it at first but it grew on me"? We are well aware that it's us that's doing the "growing" not the percept. For a trivial example of the opposite, try watching an indifferent movie twice on successive evenings.

If the differences between revisions of the same music player are not subtle - and thus elusive - does it not it rather suggest that the program wasn't that good in the first place? It is hardly surprising if they take a while to detect and longer to assess.

They will be more apparent with some material and harder to spot if the listener is tired or distracted. It takes practice (though if, like some of us, you've persevered with 50-odd versions of cPlay, you've probably had a fair bit of that . . . ). Besides, the performance of a music system changes over time especially if it is sensitive to the quality of the mains supply.

Sometimes, for whatever reason, listeners report that a new version sounds poorer than its predecessor on a particular system even though the new one is "better" going (correctly in my view) by the criterion of efficient coding. Over time, one may either come to like the changes or to conclude that they really are, in this instance, not for the better.

And so on. I think cics and others are right to suggest that people take time to assess detailed changes in a system but the need to do so can readily be found in well known psychological phenomena.

There is no need to resort to any notion of "burn in" as a function of minor changes in coding. Not only is it slightly absurd, it is in all probability untestable.

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