@Mython
John Franks lost me in that interview when he said the Mojo will stand up against £25,000 DACs. Then be better. He did say in terms of measurements though. I don't know if he was referring to sound quality so I watched on. It was a great interview. Especially the part where he revealed he had sold his house to Rob Watts, haha. I will be looking into 1960s jazz too. (Healthy looking 60 year old or what!)
With reference to burn-in, it is undeniable in transducer technology, like some headphones and loudspeakers. One example, my new speakers initially did not respond to tweaking an equaliser at 31Hz. They do now. They were very bass light when new. Grado headphones from the previous SR and SRi ranges I have owned from new. They made a clear-cut change from new out of the box. Nothing to do with what the brain does. I owned apair of ex-demo SR60. They were wonderful from day one. I gave them to a relative. I bought some new SR60 boxed, sealed, new, and they sounded terrible. Over time they developed the sound the first pair had. Exactly the same with a new pair of SR125i. Most of us concluded seventy hours was needed. The new Grado e-series is meant to fill out in the bass and improve tonally, and it did for me. Nothing to do with brain.
Personally I think the analogy of burn-in with 3D-pictures was not conclusive. Those dot pictures were about letting your eyes relax rather than working the eye muscles, before the image appeared. We do not have those functions in the ear. (Those pictures were not about training the brain to do anything.) Taking it as purely analagous though it presents a different question. The reason why we later hear stuff in music after buying a piece of audio kit is more simply explained. We are focussing on different parts of the same music at different times. (We do however adjust to new audio kit whatever kind of burn in you could call it. many of us like the improvement of new kit from day one, then admit they sound better later.)
It is hard though to try and figure out why audio kit appears to burn in. I have a theory but no idea how relevant. Mechanical items like cars need to be run-in. Also they run better at certain temperatures etc. Well electrons and currents moving, are mechanical operations. It is not unreasonable to think electronic components need time. Many are after all are tiny gates, or storage facilities, current (power) diversions, or chokes.
With reference to the Mojo, and initial impressions, I think I was right to give the advice I did. (Whether it be brain-burn-in or otherwise.) My very first impression of the Mojo was not favourable. I could hear all the extra detail, but it sounded harsh like throwing a pile of crockery and metal plates. There was too much detail and it sounded slightly hollow. [Please bear in mind I was coming from the Meridian Explorer. It is a smoother, softer, less detailed DAC than the Mojo.]
It was the extra detail that kept me listening, plus the wonderful stuff people say. The sound changed after about two days, then got smoother from then on. The Mojo has settled for me though it does seem to get smoother and more solid. I think the smooth sound is what other people call 'effortless'. (Anyway I guess I am in for a hard time over this post.)
