Burn-in

Before we dive headlong into this complex and very real aspect of playback performance let me give you some basic statistics on Zu loudspeakers:

 

10% have a good first impression of Zu loudspeakers that have not been burned in.

60% have a good first impression of Zu loudspeakers if we only a weak factory burn-in procedure took place and 24 hours of in-home play.

90% report a good first impression of Zu loudspeakers after 160 hours of factory burn-in and 24 hours of in-home play.

99% report a good first impression of Zu loudspeakers after 400 hours of factory burn-in and 24 hours of in-home play.

 

98% of Zu loudspeaker customers are satisfied with their purchase and do not send them back for refund.

Out of the 2% that do send them back for refund, 90% send the loudspeakers back to us without asking for help and only give the loudspeaker a handful of hours to open up and sound good.

 

Of the 2% that send them back; if they can be talked into giving the speakers an additional three weeks of trial and play, and maybe working with them a bit on set up, 9 times out of 10 become proud Zu users and can't hardly believe the difference additional play and setup make.

 

(Based on roughly 500 user comments and history.) Now for the heavy stuff....

 

Look, burn-in makes a difference to nearly all, if not all, parts, devices, and equipment associated with the audio system in observation or use. I know this sounds like some kind of grand statement, but rest assured, this is only the beginning, and what follows is only vague because our collective understanding of the atomic world is almost beyond comprehension, and can be modeled in many, seemingly irreconcilable ways. And if that isn't bold enough, my view of matter also includes the concept of spiritual dimensional aspects, and a poly-dimensional potential of our existence; and that humanities creative prowess and appreciation for music is a clue to understanding our unimaginable world. Is mankind's understanding of the atomic world correct? I'm not the guy to say, maybe ask Adam about it, but if we look back in mankind's history you would have to say it's unlikely, we only model as bold as we think. Personally, I dig wave mechanics and talk about the electronic in terms of standing waves—more the Schrodinger view—makes a ton of sense to a guy with a very strong acoustics bend. But it's the crazyness that is Quantum that holds a lot of the keys or tricks to audio fidelity and real solutions for the electronic. Since the days of Rutherford, Born, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, and others, really since the general acceptance of the Copenhagen Interpretation of the Atom, we have had these models by which a very high degree of observation and prediction can be made. This culmination of understanding, what is held as the new and current view of atomic physics, takes us back to the late 1920—concepts and mathematics that we are still struggling to wrap our minds around. Despite being at odds and less than unified, Wave and Particle Mechanics, Matrices Math, and Quantum Theory are the language through which non-mechanical burn-in (electric) is to be comprehended. For most of us I would simply say, use your ears—God didn't just glue them on for looks you know. It;s the sonic observations of change (observation and application) not the theoretical that have formed and guided audio freaks like you and I in our handling of the burn-in phenomenon. And with that, now lets mention a bit on the likely hows and models for it.

 

Nearly all solidly burned-in audio equipment, including cables, sound better than the same devices when new. Many even feel that loudspeaker cabinets, like musical instruments, need years of play and aging to sound their best—nearly all old Tannoy owners feel this way. Certainly all audio cable or wire based transmitting and receiving systems, signal and power level, that we know of are influenced by burn-in. Why? We're not totally sure, just re-read the first paragraph for conformation. There are so many variables and very little conclusive in-depth scientific research that can be correlated. In 2001 Zu began tracking and investigating the effects of signal and power on various cables and loudspeaker systems and has stumbled on a few tricks and process that get us pretty excited. (Yes, we are sick, and yes, we do get excited about other things that are not audio or throttle controlled.) Electric burn-in seems to relate to the stressing of the insulators electric behavior (Wave Mechanics or Quantum, both seem to get you there in this case), standing waves, or is it electron orbital, or is it electron clouds, or sets and matrix.... Interplay with van der Waals forces, electric standing waves and Pauli exclusion effects too; not only between signal / power and insulator but also the conductor and the conductors electric behavior. Catalyst for electronic change is the propagation of signal and its power component. It looks like little to do with the conductors changing structure as a few cable marketing companies have pitched, and by way of reminder, most all solids are crystalline. We have had original work on electric burn-in scheduled with Dr. Seoul at WSU for the last few years but have lacked time to carry it out. Even with a few happened on insights of our own, and the work of many others, we are still not prepared to release any new data or findings; we can only rely that we fully believe in the sonic effect and know its real. How real, and how much difference is there? Significant in most cases, and so significant that we made some heavy investments in the exploiting of the phenomenon. Just check out our level of commitment to factory burn-in and process for our loudspeakers. We found while running extreme soak tests on them that there is potential to not only improve a wire, cable, component, or loudspeaker driver through long hours of play, but to actually improve the component or system beyond what is possible with a traditional burn-in or break-in procedure, or even years or decades of play and aging. So in 2006 we undertook the challenge of applying some of our accidental discoveries, along with all the great stuff from the giants of physics, to production processes and finished products. Sure there were a few accidents, like burning up a rack of power amps, cooked voicecoils, and shredded driver cones, but the time, money and setbacks have been completely worth it. But if my feelings regarding theory and application have not been clearly stated, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, or in Zu's case, how satisfied the customer is in the listening.