Speaker Break In: Fact or Fiction?

[thxgoon]

Yet I'm a stubborn bastard. I note that since I listen regularly to several different sound systems on a regular basis and still note subtle changes in most speaker systems during the first several hours of use, that there most definitely is a "break in" for those of us with an ear capable of hearing it.

I'm with you. I'm one of those that will admit hearing a difference measurments or not. Yes, dare I say, I believe in high performance speaker cables. Not shiny silver self grounding types, but just in high quality cable. But here is an example that was (partially) measured.

A buddy of mine bought a Definitive Supercube. This sub has extremely long excursion on both powered and passive woofers. At first the sub sounded like it had the 'one note blues' as everything came out basically the same frequency. Initially the volume was set to about the one oclock position. Over the period of about 2 weeks, he had to turn the volume down to the 11 o clock position to maintain the 75db on a test tone. And upon my second listening I noticed a much better sound out of the sub. Call me crazy, but I noticed a considerable difference and I hadn't been listening to it for 2 weeks straight, and both listenings were same material and due to the long time in between, essentially a first impression. My 2 cents. My thinking is that due to the extreme excursions in these subs it actually did take it a while to fully 'loosen up'.

 

[cam]

I ended up getting a red chicklet for talking like that, now go wash your mouth out with soap and smarten up.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Yet I'm a stubborn bastard. I note that since I listen regularly to several different sound systems on a regular basis and still note subtle changes in most speaker systems during the first several hours of use, that there most definitely is a "break in" for those of us with an ear capable of hearing it.

Most likely it is your acoustic memory that is not as good as you think it is. Perhaps you should try a set of new speakers and compare it to the same model but used, behind acoustic curtins.


The rest of you can shake your heads & point to the indisputable measurements which are so minute that "no one could really be hearing that effect". If you really believe that, next time just by your speakers from a website based on "specs".

Unfortunate that you dismiss the science that brought you the audio equipment in the first place.

 

[thxgoon]

I ended up getting a red chicklet for talking like that, now go wash your mouth out with soap and smarten up.

Lol, I figured I might catch heck for it. Oh well, it is what I believe.

 

[Audioholics]

We have Mark Sanfilipo working on a VERY thorough system of tests that he'll be submitting to AES on the topic of driver break-in. There should be no real debate once we're done as we're truly giving it the benefit of the doubt and testing around 40 drivers (10 different types, 4 of each).

Most manufacturers we've asked have contributed drivers to us for this study.

 

[j_garcia]

My 2 cents. My thinking is that due to the extreme excursions in these subs it actually did take it a while to fully 'loosen up'.

While I too believe in quality interconnects, there's nothing that will loosen up on the driver. If it does, it is defective.

 

[MACCA350]

One thing that has not been mentioned is the voice coils and how they move inside the magnet. I'm assuming that they are a very snug fit in the magnet, which means they may 'wear in'.

I'm reminded by how engines need to be worn in and part of this is both bearings to crank and rings to cylinders wearing in to eachother creating a smooth formed fit between the two. If this is the case(and it may not be), surely some properties will change once the voice coils and magnet have 'worn' into eachother, and the movement would be easier and hense a possible slight difference in the output.

I may be completely off the mark here, but this has always been the first thing I think of when the subject of speaker break-in comes up.

cheers

 

[j_garcia]

VC should never touch the magnet structure. The spider (which is the true suspension of the speaker, along with the surround) and the magnetic field are supposed to keep the movement linear so as not to rub. If it rubs, it is defective. These are not interactive components like an engine, which needs the rings to seat properly in the cylinder to maintain pressure and are designed to work this way. The rings DO score a path the cylinder and thus "wear into" each other, but a speaker driver doesn't work the same way.

 

[mtrycrafts]

there's nothing that will loosen up on the driver. If it does, it is defective.

Yep, if something has loosened up, it will fly apart
It is interesting though from the posts of Richard Pierce elsewhere, that after the speaker is off, it returns to its original measurements, almost. So, if that something loosened up, it is smart enough to re-tighten when off. LOL

 

[mtrycrafts]

I may be completely off the mark here, but this has always been the first thing I think of when the subject of speaker break-in comes up.
cheers

As j garcia stated, and a reiteration here, speakers are not even closely a parallel analogy to a car engine. Does a solenoid break in.

 

[toquemon]

I'm one of those who have heard differences after a month or two of "breaking in". I noticed it in my subs. At first their sound was like a shoe box and after a while they started to sound much better. I don't know if this would be true. This is just my opinion. It would be interesting to see that investigation you're talking about, Clint.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I'm one of those who have heard differences after a month or two of "breaking in". I noticed it in my subs. At first their sound was like a shoe box and after a while they started to sound much better. I don't know if this would be true. This is just my opinion. It would be interesting to see that investigation you're talking about, Clint.

The problem with this story though is that you are relying on your memory from a month ago to differentiate two events. Not very reliable.

 

[mustang_steve]

There are two schools of break-in

1) the manufacturer's intent: to adapt to the sound. the human mind is capable of equalizing itself to adapt for different environments. This is why a city boy in the country cannot stand the sound of crickets, while the country boy in the city cannot stand the sound of traffic. Different noises, and the person's brain has not adapted towards it. For this version of break-in, I will call it "adaptation" instead for this post.

2) mechanical break-in: this is claimed by manufacturers, however it seems that the only thing that needs to break-in on a driver is possibly the suspension of the driver, and in most cases, it is already at it's peak performance. The only real time I would see this mattering is in a speaker with some kind of defect that can corect itself through excursion...however if that is true, then it very well could be working in a non-linear fashion...which would be indicative of a poorly made driver.

3) any snapping or cracking sound is a speaker reaching excursion limits either way...not good man. Probably means the voice coil bobbin is misshaped in a way that it won't strike up against either the pole or the back of the magnet structure. Just my two red cents on that..

The proof is this: find a driver that needs break in...don't look at it on the speaker level...just at the raw driver level...that will give you all the proof you need. Modern drivers, even the cheap ones, are of exceptional quality compared to what they were 30 years ago. Maybe break-in was valid back then, I don't knwo since I myself am not even 30 years old yet, but I am sure that today's speakers sound just as good a year later, as they do fresh out the box.

So that leaves us with psychological conditioning (adaptation). It is this adapting to the sound that makes for the illusion of break-in's validity. People rely on their ears for everyday life, and as such have a near unshakable trust in them...it is this trust that snake-oil vendors abuse to their profit.

Pretty much, when choosing components for your system, go by what will give the sound closest to th original recording (use scientific tools if possible), but enjoy the fruits of your labor with your ears

 

[so_cal_forever]

Psychological break-in is definatly there. When you think about it, your ears will adjust to different sounding speakers. The best way this is shown is going to a new, better speaker, then going back and listening to the old speaker a couple months later. You notice the lack of detail you didnt before because, in essence, the way you hear things changes.

 

[jman103099]

Break in is true!

Okay, I just got some Klipsch B3s about a month and a half ago... listening to them at work they sounded awesome. However, when I got them home and hooked them up - eeeeewwwwww, no bass at all. What is that? Well, after about a month I noticed there is a lot more bass. I can actually feel the bass and they sound much better than they did when they were new. I dont know, but I think I felt the same way when I first got my JBL sub.

just my thoughts...

 

[toquemon]

The problem with this story though is that you are relying on your memory from a month ago to differentiate two events. Not very reliable.

Yes, I know.

 

[wilmeland]

comments on the reliability of memory

Again I stand by what I hear. That would be the phenomenon of speaker break in. Possibly more in some speakers than in others. My reason for believing this is that I listen to more than one system on a daily basis.
So, while I can't have a point of reference such as a new set of the same speakers to compare to the pair that has 80 hours on them, I have 2 other reference points and can determine charactaristics that are more or less like the system I'm currently listening to based on the others. I tend to think the differences I've noted the most are in the bass and low mid range frequencies.

Not to negate the concept that your ears can become more accustomed to the sound of a set of speakers, but that is a partial explanation at best. If you can't hear the difference, don't worry about it, just enjoy what you do hear!

 

[knownalien]

it is possible that the industry wants you to believe that there exists a break in period of several hundred hours because that is hard to do for most within the 21-30 day return period. see where I'm going with this?

 

[ScottMayo]

it is possible that the industry wants you to believe that there exists a break in period of several hundred hours because that is hard to do for most within the 21-30 day return period. see where I'm going with this?

It's more than possible.

When I bought from VMPS, I asked that the speakers be given a 100 hour break in before shipping. Brian@VMPS was very willing to do this.

I didn't ask for it because I really believe in speaker break-in - I asked because newly built products of any sort, if they are going to fail, tend to fail soon after manufactured, or not at all. I think all vendors should do the "break-in" (aka early failure stress testing) for the consumer.

The ones that won't, well...

 

[jaxter]

Break In

Consider this;
If break-in is anything considerable (measureably significant) then how can any engineer rely on any measurements to determine a design target function if it is going to change over time? Any change of more than 1dB in the lower frequencies would be considered a design flaw by any speaker designer.
A speaker is not like wine and does not get better with age. If a manufacturerer requires break in it should be done at the factory otherwise how can they assure the consistancy of their own product? There would be no way to determine the frequency response accuracy without retreiving the units and remeasuring them.
I have had the opportunity to measure a brand new loudspeaker in an anechoic chamber, then play it at 80 decibels at 1 meter with pink noise for 100 hours and then remeasuring and finding no variance. This speaker was included in a blind test before and after with the same model speakers that had no burn in period and no change was detected subjectively either.
There is much more evidence supporting the theory that the human hearing mechanism has the ability to adapt to varying acoustic enviremonts in order to hear what is neccessary to accurately interpete what we are hearing.
If we listen long enough it will eventually start to sound right to us and after enough time it will become our reference, since we are accustomed to it.