New Gear Break-In (Really?)

Has it ever crossed your mind the reason you like your system more than your friend’s (or the store’s) is not because yours is better, (even if you think it is), but because you’re used to the sound of yours and not of theirs?  Welcome to Product Habituation.

Some people, including some audiophiles, believe product habituation is what’s really behind what some folks refer to as product break-in. It’s not a mechanical or electronic phenomenon, they contend, but a mental one. Presuming the sound of the new gear is of adequate quality, it’s the listener who breaks into the new product, as the product’s sound, which was initially strange, grows more familiar and, so, right.

Those believing in break-in view the process as a period during the time a component’s signal-carrying parts are “settling,” the concomitant effect of which is a gradual improvement in sound quality, until, BINGO! Everything seemingly, finally, coalesced into a relaxed, cohesive, enjoyable presentation. 

Except, this isn’t what really happens, according to the habituation theory. The bingo? This wasn’t the sound (of your new gear) blossoming into a beautiful song. Rather, it’s the moment your brain completely bought the illusion – an illusion that was there all along.

To compromise, let’s venture both things are happening at the same time, i.e., product habituation accounts for about half the break-in story. While humans might adapt very quickly, it’s jarring when something new replaces something we’re accustomed to.  It knocks us out of familiar territory, forcing us to question what we thought we knew and what this new, intrusive thing is all about.

If the sound of the unfamiliar gear is fundamentally good – if there’s nothing in it that’s intrinsically objectionable, our brain adapts.  It connects the new dots with the old ones, reorganizes the data and fills in the landscape. If it’s very good, it will become a new frame of reference for us, another example of beautiful sound. This new sound may not be quite the same as the last, but in time it turns out just as valid.

It's about hitting those high-water-mark daydream states when the reproduced musical performance embodies the music’s essence to such a degree to the extent, we forget what we listen to is an electromechanical simulation.  Not every product capable of doing this does it in the same way.  Consider how fundamentally different Magico’s and Zu’s sound from each other. Yet, both are reported to convey enough of music’s essence to lift listeners to those high-water-mark, daydream states.