Steve Eddy
Member of the Trade: The Audio Guild
Aka: TempAccount555
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2003
- Posts
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You bring up a good point. Our brains love patterns, and when presented with a particular pattern over time, wear themselves into something of a rut with that pattern. Change the pattern and it "startles" the brain. But soon it settles into the new pattern, creating a new rut, and the new pattern is now the "norm."
I experienced this very early on when I was about 15 or 16.
As a child, I'd always crank up the bass and treble on the stereo. This had been my "norm" ever since my father bought his first stereo system when I was about 8.
Then I encountered my first "audiophile." He told me no no no. Tone controls are bad. You should set them to "flat."
So when I went home, I zeroed out the tone controls.
It was horrible. It sounded like I was listening to my stereo with a couple of wet mattresses over the speakers.
However I succumbed to a bit of peer pressure and chose to leave it like that. It may sound like ass, but hey, I was doing "the right thing."
But over time, it started sounding not quite so bad. It sounded more natural, and I began noticing things in the music that I'd never noticed before. Cymbals now sounded like they were made out of metal, rather than just bursts of noise. And eventually, it all ended up sounding damn good.
Of course nothing was "burning in." It was just by brain acclimating to the new pattern.
About a month later, just for fun, I cranked the bass and treble all the way up.
It was painful.
So yes, there does exist a known psychological phenomenon that could lead someone to believe that it's the equipment that's changing or burning/breaking in.
And I've always found it curious that 20 years ago, no one was talking about this stuff.
Then somewhere along the line, someone wasn't happy with the sound of the cables they'd just purchased and wanted to return them. The manufacturer told them that the cables hadn't burned in yet. That it would take several weeks until the cables sounded like they were supposed to.
And we've since gone from that to literally EVERYTHING burning in. From loudspeakers to equipment stands.
Again, I find that all rather curious.
BUT...
Just because we know that this psychological phenomenon exists, doesn't in itself preclude their being the possibility that some things do in fact change over time, particularly electromechanical devices where there is at least some rationale behind it as opposed to things like cables and the like.
So I think it would be useful to explore the issue a bit more and not simply dismiss it out of hand.
k
I experienced this very early on when I was about 15 or 16.
As a child, I'd always crank up the bass and treble on the stereo. This had been my "norm" ever since my father bought his first stereo system when I was about 8.
Then I encountered my first "audiophile." He told me no no no. Tone controls are bad. You should set them to "flat."
So when I went home, I zeroed out the tone controls.
It was horrible. It sounded like I was listening to my stereo with a couple of wet mattresses over the speakers.
However I succumbed to a bit of peer pressure and chose to leave it like that. It may sound like ass, but hey, I was doing "the right thing."
But over time, it started sounding not quite so bad. It sounded more natural, and I began noticing things in the music that I'd never noticed before. Cymbals now sounded like they were made out of metal, rather than just bursts of noise. And eventually, it all ended up sounding damn good.
Of course nothing was "burning in." It was just by brain acclimating to the new pattern.
About a month later, just for fun, I cranked the bass and treble all the way up.
It was painful.
So yes, there does exist a known psychological phenomenon that could lead someone to believe that it's the equipment that's changing or burning/breaking in.
And I've always found it curious that 20 years ago, no one was talking about this stuff.
Then somewhere along the line, someone wasn't happy with the sound of the cables they'd just purchased and wanted to return them. The manufacturer told them that the cables hadn't burned in yet. That it would take several weeks until the cables sounded like they were supposed to.
And we've since gone from that to literally EVERYTHING burning in. From loudspeakers to equipment stands.
Again, I find that all rather curious.
BUT...
Just because we know that this psychological phenomenon exists, doesn't in itself preclude their being the possibility that some things do in fact change over time, particularly electromechanical devices where there is at least some rationale behind it as opposed to things like cables and the like.
So I think it would be useful to explore the issue a bit more and not simply dismiss it out of hand.
k