|   Great tip for burning in amps | topspeed
Oct 9, 2003 11:11 PM | | I received a great tip for burning in my amp from Fiddler on AA. I'm not engineer so this tip seemed somewhat revelatory. However to the more experienced, this may appear rather obvious so I apologize in advance:
Get a resistor from here
http://www.alliedelec.com/search.asp
Enter "895-1412" as the part number and under Select Search Scope, drag down "Allied Stock #"
Get two 225w, 7.5ohm resistors for $12/each and simply connect them to the speaker wire ends. Crank your amp up until you're pushing 4-5 volts (which is hopefully waaaay louder than your normal listening level) The resistors will get hot to the touch after a few minutes so you might want to set them on something like a brick or stone (I used Pyrex).
Viola! You can now burn in your amp 24/7 without disturbing the rest of your family or sending the housepets into terminal shock.
It's cheap and efficient, just the way I like it :)
BTW, if you're not a believer of burning in amps or such, that's cool. Please don't respond with such because while I respect your right to an opinion, it doesn't happen to be mine and I'm not trying to start a debate. Fair 'nuff?
Enjoy! |
| re: Great tip for burning in amps | skeptic
Oct 10, 2003 10:40 AM | | How do you know when your amplifier is fully burned in? Would it burn in faster if the voltage were higher, say 10 or 15 volts? Would tube amplifiers burn in differently than transistor amplifiers? If I stop in the middle and have to start again, do I start from scratch or is the time just added together? How will the amplifier work differently once it is burned in? More power? Wider or flatter frequency response? Lest distortion? Less noise? Can the effect be measured at all? Can it be burned in wrong? What more can you tell us about amplifier burn in? |
| Whew! | topspeed
Oct 10, 2003 3:33 PM | | When you stop hearing improvements. Dunno, you tell me. Yes. No. The caps will be fully charged and you should hear better extension in the highs, although it varies depending on design topology I'd imagine. No. No. No. Possibly. Dunno. No, but less efficiently. My own limited experience is a big difference is sound as the amp provided much better high end extension and the mids opened up and smoothed out quite a bit (it sounded compressed and somewhat nasal straight out of the box). |
| Whew! | skeptic
Oct 11, 2003 4:49 AM | | Funny, in over 40 years of buying and listening to audio equipment, I never had this experience. I wonder what I've been doing wrong. Maybe I'm buying all the wrong amps. Of course you could buy them used. Then all the work's been done for you. |
| some amps even need to warm up each time they are turned on. | hifitommy
Oct 11, 2003 8:09 AM | | i avoid this by leaving my electonics on 24/7. my adcom 555II has only had an input diode failure in the ten years it was left on.
many times, amps tend to smooth out in sound as time passes. harsh at first, or rough, then as the components break in, the sound smooths out and becomes listenable. the effects are subtle to be sure, but noticeable.
i just turn on music, whether fm, tv, or any other source and keep it going. nobody sleeps in the living room so theres no bother to leaving it on all night.
...regards...tr |
| some amps even need to warm up each time they are turned on. | skeptic
Oct 11, 2003 2:57 PM | | I find that generally this is true for amplifiers which do not incorporate negative feedback. I must assume that any design engineer who has not used negative feedback to stabalize the performance of his amplifier simply doesn't know how as this is one of the most powerful techniques known for improving amplifier performance. Any manufacturer who told me that his amplfier has to be preconditioned this way will be off my list. Thanks for reminding me to ask. And BTW, if a new amplifier needs to be "burned in" before it performs properly, I think that this is something the manufacturer should do at the factory. That's his job, not mine. |
| Bryston burns in for 100 hrs prior to testing each unit(nt) | Express
Oct 12, 2003 11:05 AM | | |
| some amps even need to warm up each time they are turned on. | topspeed
Oct 12, 2003 3:59 PM | | I do the same thing. I left my old B&K ST 140/PS Audio 4.6 on for 15 years and the only consequence was a burned out bulb in the power switch for the B&K. When burning in (as oppossed to warming up) and running 4-5 volts, I don't care if your system is in the garage, it will be waaaay too loud :) |
| Whew! | topspeed
Oct 12, 2003 4:07 PM | | Not wrong, simply different. As much as I like to save time and money, I can't bring myself to buy used equipment unless it has a killer warranty still on it. I'm too worried about what the previous owner may have done to it, even though most "audiophiles" take very good care of their stuff. There's always more nuts than squirrels :) |
| re: Great tip for burning in amps | Norm Strong
Oct 15, 2003 12:49 PM | | 5 volts across a 7.5 ohm resistor dissipates less than 4 watts. Why is it necessary to have 225 watt resistors?
Wouldn't it be cheaper and just as good to burn in one channel at a time?
Violin! You've just saved $12. |
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