New Tube & Parts "Burn In" - What ???

[j_spar]

hey all !

I recently acquired a brand new point to point tube amp.
The maker told me the parts and tubes needed at least 50 hours of burn in time before we can tell if anything needs adjusted.

I told a friend of mine that and he suggested I look here for a way to expedite the burn in time, instead of playing my new amp for 50 hours.

Can I just leave it turned on in increments of 4 to 8 hours a day ?

it's a two channel amp, do need to do 50 hours on both channels ?

So, what are the techniques of burning in new parts and tubes that don't include me playing my amp for the next 50 hours ?

Help !

Thanks !

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Baloney...

In my opinion, most of those kinds of "component break-in" comments are pure gibberish designed to keep you from bugging the builder for a couple weeks... after he got your money.
However, speakers do need to be broken in before tearing into any tweaking.
Some speakers take forever while others, like current Eminence speakers are good within a couple three hours.
The speaker issue is difficult to predict.
Power tubes should be rechecked for idle current in about 5-10 hours and readjusted.
power tube idle current can effect the tone of the amp and really mislead you on your quest if not set correctly.
Preamp tubes sound the best to me when they have about 1 hour on them and after that they either crap out in a few hours, days or weeks...
or start to very, very slowly degrade... maybe over a year or so if you play a lot.

[jrfrond]

Don't try to quantify it. It's not rocket-science. Just play your amp.

Besides, anything in the signal path won't age without signal anyway.

I'm with Bruce on this one. Everything will eventually age-in.

[Diablo]

I'm surprised that they didn't tell you to have your ears tested by an audiologist in 100 hours, so they could adjust the bias of the amp to compensate for the auditory frequency shift of your eardrums.