Teflon Capacitor Break-In

[lesmarshall]

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 ?

[Formerly YB-2]

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

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by lesmarshall

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 ?

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...