Barnharty, I just purchased an SE84UFO so I'll be in the same boat as you in a couple of months.

I've heard about the burn-in time but I'm just going to go with the approach of just playing the amp and not worry too much about how long or how often.  Before I know it the amp should shine on its own.  

I'm certain that you can't go off-track with any approach you take.  My philosophy is that this is a piece of equipment meant to provide enjoyment and that how I'll go with it.

I know lots of Decware guys can testify to how much better an amp will sound after about 100 hours of use so you'll just have to have patience and get there.  Patience is not my thing....hahaha!!

Purchased my first SE84 Select 15 years ago. It sounded great right out of the box. Several years back I purchased a SE84 Super Zen and right out of the box it sounded better than my well seasoned Select. Same experience when I upgraded my Super Zen to UFO status (great right out of the box).

The Amp will get smoother over time, plus over time you will likely make some minor system tweaks that play to the srengths of the amp improving things further.

I travel frequently and notice after the unit has been off for days it takes a couple hours for it to warm up and produce it's best sound. Generally when home I leave the unit on 24/7 for this reason.

Be sure to try the amp less any pre-amp. I have a Decware Pre and even that takes away some from the music experience in my system (pre amp now sits in the closet collecting dust).

Isolating speakers from the floor or speaker stands is important. I use Isoacoustic stands under the Omega Super Alnico monitors in my main system and SubDude isolation platforms under my Klipsch RF-7 towers in my second system. You don't want ringing speaker stands or vibrating floors increasing the noise floor in your listening room masking the fine details the UFO is capable of reproducing.

You should have fun.

I don't know what caps are in the Select. My experience with Jupiter coupling caps is they are comparatively quite good at first, with less burnin issues, and getting great with time. Variable periods of better versus less great sound are theoretically a lot about "seating" the caps. By warming up fully the internal metal settles in with the dialectic, and then by cooling, seating finds a more complete place. This is I think is a lot of what Steve's 5 hours on and 5 off thing is about.

I have heard it said that beeswax is transparent as a dielectric, and with silver wire, there is little burnin required. But on the deeper subtler levels, there is no doubt that Jupiters need burnin, especially noticeable if your system/room is revealing.

With a new amp, there are other burnin factors...think about how speaker wires and ICs need burnin, even ones built with minimal dialectic and transparent material. A new amp has wire and connections as well as power caps and transformers, not to mention tubes.... but the coupling caps position and contribution to the signal sound seem extra important. I have used new Jupiters in amps that were very well seasoned otherwise, and find Jupiters can take several hundred hours to even and clear up, and may not be fully refined until 5-600 hours.

Luckily, they sound better on the way than many..including less ups and downs.

This is mainly what I hear during burnin:

Highs are harder/edgier, and with time become more complex and real. This shows with more sense of resolution...the sounds seeming to be made of more "particles," feathering edges with more complexity. As highs refine it also shows more in ambient presentation...more room/player character, complexity and clarity.

Mids can be a little harder also, congested at times, and open at times. They also increase in complexity with time becoming clearer and more solid, richer from more texture, speed and resolution.

Bass is often the slowest to fully resolve. Also variable for a while, it will become more resolving, defined, and rich with time...tighter with more sonic information, more tonal depth and body.

Each of these effects the others.

The variability is the most disconcerting burnin thing for me and seems to be particular to amps. At times I will think, wow, this sounds great! And next session it might be duller/thicker, more congested, less defined...Or one frequency area can be pretty good and others less good, making the whole sound off. These things are recording dependent also, some mixes accentuating the issues, but the wildcard of burnin "ups and downs" can be a disconcerting experience no matter how you experience it.

I replaced Jupiter HTs in my MKIV several weeks ago with Jupiter Coppers. I finally got a Frybaby burnin device after too many years of burning in cables, caps and new tubes left me dreading the degradation of sound during burnin. I ran the Coppers in the Frybaby for several weeks before installing them, and they sounded better in many ways than the burned in HTs right off. For several weeks they have been a little up and down, but recently things have evened up to a better level...very good. I expect more with more time, but all is well and it was quite good for the most part before now. Can't say for sure, but this makes me think the Frybaby is good! It has really helped on power cables and ICs also.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I think I'll just continue listening as I have been and let er burn in as I go. Even from the first listen it sounds better than any system I've had or any I've ever heard, for that matter. I can't imagine how much better it could get!

DBC: What do you think would be a good speaker isolation option for Klipsch Cornwalls? I checked out the platforms you're using but the base of the Corns is much bigger than any of the options I could find. Right now they're sitting on bare hardwood floors. Do you think a thick square of carpet would do any justice?

Will: Thanks for the very detailed response. I read it 3 times and will probably come back to it in the weeks ahead for reference. I have the Super Zen Select with cryo treated beeswax caps. I have noticed in the last day or so that the sound as gone kind of dark, but only for a short time, and then back to sounding great again. A few times I thought maybe my record stylus was dirty or something, causing a veiled sound. I see that it's just a part of the burn in, though.

Barn, I use these to decouple my HR-1s from my suspended wood floor. Definitely can hear the improvement.

http://www.ingress-engineering.ca/

http://www.ingress-engineering.ca/products-and-services.php

Mine are earlier editions that did not cost nearly as much. I guess Ingress is doing really well, they now have four different models. I really didn't like the sound of mine under components, but really do like what they do to the speaker sound.

I use the Iso-Acoustic in the Tall Configuration (Tilted Back) as Isolation Devices and Speaker Stands. My Super Alnico Monitors produce more Bass being closer to the floor (Floor reinforces Bass Output).


No need to purchase speaker stands and Iso-Acoustics.

Hmmmmm, room treatment, eh?

Maybe a couple of diffusers in back of the amp, between the loudspeakers.  

Possibly, some absorption at the corners of the room to the sides.   Maybe some diffusers/absorption at the first reflection point.  I might do that.

Would an isolation platform work as well as bass traps?

Quote:


Completely different animals.

Isolation platforms keep the energy from your speakers from being dumped into the floor.  Think of it like having a 100HP car, and 10HP was being lost into vibrating the chassis rather than being put to the wheels. You want that energy in the air, not in your floors and walls.

Now a bass trap helps you even out your bass response in your room. It does this by soaking up some of the bass waves bouncing back and forth between your walls causing hotspots and voids. To imagine this, remember that a bass wave could be 40' long, and if your room is 20' long, the wave is going to cross paths with itself (it's more complex than this of course, I'm simplifying for clarity). So if the bass note is in a positive swing ( +1) and bumps into itself at another positive swing ( +1) you get a hotspot ( +1 and +1 = 2 ). The opposite is true of course (-1 and -1 = -2). What's worse is when you have a positive wave hit a negative wave ( +1 hits a -1 = 0) you get a deadspot.  

A bass trap helps this by absorbing some of those bounces. It doesn't lower your bass volume, it helps lower the excess waves. So instead of having a +1 bump into a +1, you might have a +1 bump into a +0.5. So it's less damaging to the actual sound you hear.

So technically you need *both* devices in your listening room. The isolation for the speakers to get that energy into the air, and the bass traps to keep that energy in the air from messing up your frequency response.

If I was to start fresh, and only had enough money for one device or the other - I'd get the speaker isolation, and spend extra, extra time getting speaker placement right so the frequency response at your sweetspot listening position is the best it can be without any outside help. Then I'd later start adding traps and diffusers and what not. Start with a good foundation basically.