Teflon Capacitor Break-In
 

My understanding is it takes about 200 hours for a CJ Preamp with Teflon capacitors to fully break-in and sound its best . If one were to play a source thru the preamp and amp with the speakers connected but with the volume turned all the way down, would the number of hours you did so, "count" towards the 200 hour break -in period ? In other words , does running the preamp at zero volume have any effect on the break-in of the capacitors ? If not , what volume level would have an effect ?

Not sure. Have always done so using a 24hr FM station that broadcasts a variety of music at various volumes

It will take, in my first-hand experience, minimally 300-500 hours for the CJ Teflon caps on A CJ preamp to break in and actually sound "listenable". More on the longer side of that than the shorter side. Those first coupla hundred hours can be..."rough".

In the case of my CT-5, it actually took about 1500 hours to fully burn-in the caps...about 2 1/2 years of use. Power amps don't take as long as they operate at higher voltages.

I don't know if you need to have the volume "up" or not. I'd just reach out to Jeff at CJ and ask. It's a good question I've wondered myself...

I often wonder is it the caps breaking in or our brains?

No, it's the capacitors. The Teflon ones are the worst for break-in because of their dieletric.

Yea I had a Modwright preamp that had some and it took awhile.

The time it took my CJ CT-5 pre to fully burn-in was...really long. Coupla years...yeesh. When I first got it, it was effectively un-listenable. I think amps burn in faster as they operate at higher voltages. Just a theory, though.

I had the C1 Capacitor upgrade done to a Premier 140 amp. Maybe I'm not sensitive to it but I thought it sounded better than the unmodified original right out of the box. CJ did burn it in for a few days prior to shipping it back to me. After about 300 hours it stabilized with further improvements to clarity, better extension at the frequency extremes and a more fully fleshed out sound stage.

Yep, 300 hours is about the duration that caps in amps require. I think preamps take longer as they operate at lower voltages.