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DAC burn in? if so, how?

fred sonnen

fred sonnen

pfm Member
I just bought a new AK4497 based DAC. Just to try something different.....

I am not sure if I belive in burn in hardware. But if I do, how will I do this?
Just connecting the device with the power 4 days. Or must the DAC also have something to do? Meaning feeding with data / music?
 
If you believe in burn in, (I do not) then you need to run signal. Does not have to go all the way to the speakers though. Just run it and do not select that amplifier input.
 
Different folks have different ideas on this, some believe powering on is sufficient, others insist on feeding it with a signal. If it were me, then to give burn in the fairest opportunity to have an effect, I'd be feeding it with a signal. However, do what makes most sense to you :)

Edit - Jensen beat me to it.
 
If I were to believe then I could imagine a variety of ways a device might respond to use with time (i.e. burnin), different makes of the same sort of device different ways. I could drive myself round the bend with conjecture.

The best one I enjoy is mains fuses which vary with time I am told over several weeks.

I have just got into the second week of a new Naim device. As I try different things I could convice myself it is burning in but I seldom hold my music playing in such a constant state.
 
It’s a bit of a paradox, if you play a signal and listen to it on a regular basis, how do you tell if it’s burning in or you are are getting acclimated to it. In the other hand if you leave it on but silent for several days, how do you know if you are remembering what it sounded like previously, audio memory being rather fleeting.

It might also be interesting to know whether the factory soak tested it before dispatch?
 
Certain items seem to respond to burning in others do not (this is just my personal view on what I have heard in my system) I feel that capacitors (especially the larger ones) can improve after they have been used from new. Most change was a pair of new updated crossovers for my KEF 103 speakers , initial listen just after I had replaced them was to say the least a little disappointing with the sound being tight and a little brittle. Playing some low level music over night sorted this and they then sounded not just back to as they were but so much better and the value of what I had done was now easy to hear . I will say that after this intial burn in I have not noticed the speakers ever needing any further burn in and they have remained consistent .
I am not sure that well used equipment needs to be warmed up each time you use it but I admit that I put my Krell KSA50 on for about ten minutes just playing low level while I do other things before starting a listening session . This may well be because it is class A and is designed to be running hot .
 
John Westlake said the MDAC needed time for the organic caps to fully form, by leaving powered on.
Listening confirmed this as it sounded flat from the get go.
 
I don’t know about burn in but I do know that some equipment requires a good warm up. I retrieved a LFD phono stage from the loft which on power did not come to life until thouroughly warmed through. Another phono stage Graham Slee, the instructions are to wait a week powered on, and then never switch off.

I think misterdog is correct.

Leaving the power on and playing music when it suits me is how I normally treat new digital gear just to settle it and “soak” test. Once proved, I switch it off when not in use.
 
[QUOTE="Minio, post: 3502739, member: 18163]
Leaving the power on and playing music when it suits me is how I normally treat new digital gear just to settle it and “soak” test. Once proved, I switch it off when not in use.[/QUOTE]
Thanks to all. This I will do, too.
 
Capacitors in power amplifiers have to handle some current, DACs don’t so there isn’t much to change.

Beware of your simplifications.
 
Interesting debate this. I very nearly got rid of my Lounge Audio LCR Phono stage on the 1st day as its sounded poor eg cymbals hardly evident, poor bass etc. However, the manufacturer said it needs at least 40hrs to get near optimum (sadly i kept a log). It quickly improved and got better. I should say the interconnects were old/reused. I still have it; for the money its excellent and far better than others I'd had. I also have a M-DAC and concur with Misterdog above - not that I knew about Westlakes view beforehand.

So something happens but i'm no electronics designer nor engineer to be able to tell.
 
.... Re LCR, then no not in my case ! it was fundamentally poor, i wasn't going to get used to it and accept it. What I didn't include above was that I put my old stage back in to check. Anyhow I can't explain it 'electrically'.
 
I bet this will turn into another cable thread.
Actually, I did hear about a man who decided to ‘burn in’ his speaker cables.
The black smelly detritus from the insulation took some clearing up...
 
Purité Audio said:
I have identical DACs here some brand new some with many hours of use, no difference whatsoever.
Keith
Click to expand...

I have heard it with my own ears as most MDAC owners, so avoid accepting sweeping generalisations as Keith's is my advice :).

Note my comments are aimed specifically at the MDAC as I have little experience with other 'new' DAC's.

It wont do any harm though.

John Westlake specified that it was the organic caps especially which needed a burn in.
Though with too much burn in the electrolytic Lelon caps all fail :mad: and even without power.

All Capacitors are not born equal

http://lampizator.eu/UPGRADE/CAPACITORS/capacitors.html
 
FWIW (tho' worth nothing to Keith..)

I've been using a new 2qute for the past 8 weeks.

Out of box I felt the bass was a bit meh and thought I'd wasted my money. I left the siganl streaming and cracked on, as one does.

It didn't take long to improve. Yesterday I played some Goldfrapp - Black Cherry(test album) and believe me the bass was anyting but meh.

Has the dac burned in or have I got used to it. I've always been equivocal about such things - cables etc.

TBH I don't know. Under torture I'd confess to burn-in, because the GF album sounded so much better than first play thru the new dac.

So, Fred, just stuff a signal thru the dac for a few days, listening or not, and take it from there.
 
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