[jkm]

Just got the new preamp and am wondering what other's experience of burn-in has been? What did you notice and when? For me, after 3 days there is a wonderful breadth of sound but the depth and bass slam are not quite there. Will this improve or should I be looking for different tubes?

[maxwalrath]

I think he's using SoniCaps that take a couple hundred hours...not 100% sure but I would give most things that long to flesh out the sound.

[MarkR7]

Tubes don't take anywhere as long as caps to burn in.  I would say tubes = 50 hours or so vs. 200 to 450 hours for caps, as mentioned earlier.

Not sure what tubes you have in there now, but your choice of tube will make a huge difference in sonics.  A fave of mine are the Sylvania Gold Brand gold pinned 5687s which I'm using now.

[jkm]

My tubes are Tunsols. Anyone tried these?

[Bill Baker]

Dan uses Teflon caps (SoniCap Platinum) in the bypass of the coupling caps. Teflon by nature takes about 400 hrs. By the time you reach this mark, everything else will have already reached full potential.

 Be patinet and you will be well rewarded

 I run Tung-Sols in my unit also and have found them to be better than the Chinese and JAN Philips for my preferences.

[karmon]

My tubes are Tunsols. Anyone tried these?

My experience with the SWL 9.0SE (Tungsol version) is that break-in occurs at the 200hrs point. This is due to the extensive break-in time for the Sonicap.

The difference is DAY and NIGHT! Before break in, the 9.0SE sounded big, dynamic and musical. After break in, the preamp sounds substantially more transparent, detailed and faster.

[modwright]

Thank you to all who have already posted.

200+ hours is about right and it WILL sound quite a bit better after it fully burns in.  It should sound very good right out of the box, but it will sound GREAT after it has fully burned in.

It is true that the high-quality Sonicaps with Teflon dialectric are the reason for the lengthy burn-in.

Thanks,

Dan W.