Can an amp break in??

[efm80 10+ year member]

this might be a dumb question, but as you know I have been posting about the harshness of my Infinity Perfect components with my new JL HD600/4. The amp is beautiful and while it does put out clean power, I think it is too much for my infinities, or was!.... I went out today to listen to some stuff and everything sounded amazing. The infinities were not as harsh it seemed. Don't get me wrong, they are still very bright, but not in a bad way. Now I know my perfects are not breaking in because I have had them for three years, but could my amp be breakin in?? I know it sounds stupid, but could all the goodies inside be working better now that it has had some use?? Although i did minutely change a bass setting from 100 +2 to 160 -1 on my premier deck. This could be it maybe but I don't see why those freqencies would have helped. anyone? Today was by far the best musical listening experience I have ever had in a vehicle. This is the best money I have ever spent! It almost had me in tears how good it was sounding and how friggin hard it was hitting!

eddie

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[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

yes always break amps in before using them at full tilt

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

yes you must let the tubes warm up before playing at max

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

the electrons in the circuit must have time to properly align themselves

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

im joking btw

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

I've actually never thought about this. I'd always let a system run for a little bit before wanging it.

However, it might just be an EQ setting. I know I fooled with my EQ with my CDT comps and it went from God aweful to great.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

Amps will sound different over time as the components wear... how much is debatable but it's really not going to be huge. It's very doubtful that they changed overnight by a noticeable amount.

It's more than possible that your brain is starting to filter the frequencies you find harsh. Your brain is a FAR superior sound processor than anything available on the market and it can notch out frequencies it doesn't like. I had nasty harshness in my Integra from day one. Over the past couple of years, my ears have filtered out the 4khz quite a bit and I don't find my car harsh anymore but I know the output characteristics haven't changed.

The reason your tweeters sound bright is because you're throwing a ton of power at them. Tweeters don't need a ton of power to sound great and when you start to over drive tweeters, they can get very bright, very fast.

I am going to assume you're not running active. If you want to help how bright your tweeters are, you should really run them active and set the gains to where they sound nice and blend well. My tweeter gains are set to about 40% of where my mids gain is set on the same amp. If I go any higher, the tweeters become very bright. As they are now, they sound excellent and sound just as loud as they did when the gain was higher but the sound is tamed down by a large amount.

 

[efm80 10+ year member]

Amps will sound different over time as the components wear... how much is debatable but it's really not going to be huge. It's very doubtful that they changed overnight by a noticeable amount.
It's more than possible that your brain is starting to filter the frequencies you find harsh. Your brain is a FAR superior sound processor than anything available on the market and it can notch out frequencies it doesn't like. I had nasty harshness in my Integra from day one. Over the past couple of years, my ears have filtered out the 4khz quite a bit and I don't find my car harsh anymore but I know the output characteristics haven't changed.

The reason your tweeters sound bright is because you're throwing a ton of power at them. Tweeters don't need a ton of power to sound great and when you start to over drive tweeters, they can get very bright, very fast.

I am going to assume you're not running active. If you want to help how bright your tweeters are, you should really run them active and set the gains to where they sound nice and blend well. My tweeter gains are set to about 40% of where my mids gain is set on the same amp. If I go any higher, the tweeters become very bright. As they are now, they sound excellent and sound just as loud as they did when the gain was higher but the sound is tamed down by a large amount.

makes sense, thanks bro

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

Your components are harsh because they're Infinity //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

They're notorious for that

 

[efm80 10+ year member]

Your components are harsh because they're Infinity //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif
They're notorious for that

very true...what do you like jmanpc??

eddie

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

There's a lot of choices based on your listening preference and budget. There are too many sets of components out there to make a blind recommendation.