"Burn in" Are you serious?

Joe C.: It has nothing to do with your room. Burn-in is popular with dealers (and some manfuacturers, though certainly not all) because it gives them a way to talk customers out of returning things. It's popular with many audiophiles because it feeds their "everything sounds different and my ears are good enough to hear it" egos. In truth, their ears are probably worse--since they've spent their lives imagining nonexistent differences, they wouldn't know a real difference if it jumped up and bit them on the earlobe. Mechanical systems, like speakers, do change over time--gradualy and perpetually, not suddenly reaching perfection after 100 hours. But it is incontrovertible that people do grow accustomed to a certain sound over time, which is what makes any and all testimonials to these remarkable changes suspect.

A bold claim Jostler3 (see your statement re: incontrovertible). Incontrovertible means: indisputable, factual, and accepted without contoversary. If your statement were true, this thread wouldn't exist? I suggest that this issue (burn in)is very controversial, eg see all the above posts. Craig

Craig: In my dictionary, a statement is incontrovertible if its truth cannot be disproven. Just because some people deny a truth doesn't make it untrue. You are welcome to prove me wrong. But note that I while I think burn-in is a myth, that's not what I said was incontrovertible.

Just wanted to see if you were awake Jostler. Actually, your assertion could be proven with a carefully controlled study (maybe it has been been?), but not likely by you or me, IMO. It would cost a lot in terms of time, money, effort, committment etc. So, that leaves us with those that can tell the diference between new and burned in "stuff", and those that can't-- therefore the "issue" exists. Cheers. Craig.

Jostler, It is true that people will grow accustomed to certain types of sound over time, but that does not mean that they cannot tell the difference in sound quality before and after a break in in period. Also we are not really talking about the same "people" here. We are mostly talking about a group of somewhat experienced audiophiles, as it would not even be an issue with the majority of consumers. But even an "average Joe or Jane" listening to a component or a cable before, in between and after a break in period would probably notice a difference if asked to pay attention to the quality of sound for a few minutes. I have occasionally asked my wife to compare sound, and for a non- audiophile with little patience for my my audiophile leanings, her observations are keen and are almost always similar to mine. Also, the components I have bought (DVD player, Mini Disc recorder, Reciever) showed no change at all after 10, 100 or 300 hours, but the cables I have bought did show a definite change after a while.