Break in of components has been 1 of those hot topics, I recall Victor Komenko, from BAT, saying the equipment wasn't breaking in, our ear was "calibrating", my term, to the sound. Playing with Ayre, as 1 example, I have to disagree as their amps/equipment tend to sound decent when first hooked up, get worse sounding for quite some time before really starting to shine.
So this is an example of subjective evaluation, it's always nice if the subjective can be supported by the objective, yet I have been unable to find accepted technical support.
So this is an example of subjective evaluation, it's always nice if the subjective can be supported by the objective, yet I have been unable to find accepted technical support.
No... and, yes. For the most part break in, or more accurately ageing, is a non issue for capacitors. Except for moderate reforming in standard electrolytics if they have not been used for an extended period - and that really only applies to situations where they have an appreciable voltage across them such as in bulk filters for PS rails. For applications where there is no great voltage differential, such as coupling, it doesn't factor in.
There is no such thing as a electronic component, material or wire that does not change over time.
In all of the now known known universe.
But. When this absolutely certain change in the material/component becomes clearly audible in a ”good” way or ”bad” way is a completely other question:
And The final answer is: It depends… 🙂
In all of the now known known universe.
But. When this absolutely certain change in the material/component becomes clearly audible in a ”good” way or ”bad” way is a completely other question:
And The final answer is: It depends… 🙂
Well, that is true in a theoretical way... which is not to say that any such changes are of such magnitude as to be in any way detectable by other than extremely sensitive test gear. While you can imply that a single grain of sand makes a beach, in reality it just doesn't work like that - at least as applies to the OP's question.
I might be missing your intent here, but I can think of numerous coupling situations where the voltage differential is quite large. Take a coupling cap between the driver and output tube in a tube amp that uses cathode bias, for instance. This capacitor would need to drop the Va of the driver tube down to zero volts on the grid of the output tube, which could be several hundred volts.
@needtubes - You are correct, I really wasn't very clear with what I was trying to say - I was thinking more about standard semiconductor interstage applications without any appreciable bias. I never work with hollow state so that particular example never occurred to me - and it wasn't a very good example to illustrate my point anyway. I was thinking more about the effects - or lack thereof - of capacitor reforming as concerns the OP's original question. I was trying to make the point that, while reforming is a thing, it is not something for the OP to worry about. After all, with a high bias across the capacitor any changes in it's characteristics will be pretty much done and over with within a few minutes of applying the bias. Not saying that it might not be a bad part in the end (or to begin with for that matter), but the changes due to any reforming action will be over fairly quickly. My comments were meant in relation to a narrow scope and were not meant in a general sense.
Mea culpa.
Hal
Mea culpa.
Hal
it is not BS, nor it is BS in general
on specific level, there is some BS for some type of components, but Black Gate caps (from that other thread) are certainly example pf parts having break-in period, and notoriously long
what I said in that thread - good luck finding proper explanation of process, enough scientific and enough satisfactory
