Speaker Break-in?

[BAA]

What is it? Do all speakers require it? How long does it usually take? How do you know when it is complete? And lastly: doesn't it make for "iffy" side by side comparisons of speakers that are not yet broken in?

 

[ruadmaa]

Speaker Break-In

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. Speaker break-in is probably more myth than fact. Those who say they can hear a difference in a broken in speaker are only fooling themselve since aural memory is somewhere in the area of several seconds at most. The only way to say for sure is to take a "broken in" set of speakers and play them on a side by side A/B comparison with a brand new set. No one can be sure of how their speaker sounded when it was brand new compared to several weeks after they began using it. Most differences are most likely not because the speaker changed but that the listener has gotten used to listening to the speaker.

Play any new speaker as you see fit. Abuse will damage a speaker at any time old or new.

 

[gregz]

Those who say they can hear a difference in a broken in speaker are only fooling themselve since aural memory is somewhere in the area of several seconds at most.

ADD? Fortunately, humans aren't homogeneous in traits and abilities which really wreaks havoc on applying averages upon the individual - much less contestible theories.

The theory of break-in is to work in the flexible suspension mechanisms (spider and surround). Depending upon materials used, the surrounds especially can start out a little stiff on the woofers and/or mids, which will make the speakers sound like they have a little too much trebble. The proper design of a flexible suspension system provides for the fact that the material will spend the majority of its life changing very little. It starts out stiff, works in quickly, then very slowly works in some more until years later it falls apart (think shoes).

My experience has been that, depending upon brand, some speakers do indeed need break-in.

My NHT SB-1s needed a little break-in when I first brought them home, but after about a week of casual use they sounded more like what I had heard in the showroom.

Another time my wife and I were comparison listening to speakers in a store, and one brand really stood out as being too bright, making vocals sibilant. The salseman then told us he had just put them on the shelf that morning and to come back in a week. Two weeks later, we were listening to the same speakers and they sounded more in league with the rest of the higher end speakers.

Other brands, such as my DCMs, didn't change in any way I could perceive after playing them for a month.

That's my experience. Now you have both sides.

 

[gene]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. Speaker break-in is probably more myth than fact.

Actually speakers do break in to some extent. the small thiel parameters change over time (usually a few hours is all it takes). As this happens the woofer suspension loosens up a bit, and it will have lower extension. Mids break in even quicker and tweeters require even less time if any. Patrick wrote about this in our forums long ago but I am having difficulties finding his reference.

 

[Aarong]

I just recently (about a week before Christmas) bought a pair of Paradigm Titans for my front speakers. When I first got them I was worried that they didn't have enough low-end and the sound was a bit bright overall. After being patient and playing them for a few hours a day for a couple of weeks, they loosened up and now I'm astounded by how much sound comes out of the relatively small speakers.

I mostly listen to music on my Marantz sr4500 in its Pure Direct mode and I'm very happy with the performance of the Titans. My personal experience tells me that some speakers need a break-in period.

 

[plhart]

Re: Speaker break-in

Here is the reply I gave a few months back>>>

Speaker designers will usually run new woofer samples (and cone midranges too) at fairly high voltage for 20 to 40 minutes at or below their measured free air resonance using an audio oscillator. This will change the Thiel-Small parameters of the drivers very slightly. For example, the free air resonance of a 6.5" woofer might change from 48Hz to 45Hz. A 4" midrange might change from 150Hz to 145Hz. Not much.

Tweeters never ever need break-in. If you don't like the way the aluminum dome sounds, it isn't going to change with use. What might change very, very slightly is the overall system balance because the woofer's free air resonance drifts ever so slightly lower.

Other than that the whole break-it-in-and-it-will-sound-better line is nonsense routed in the psychoacoutics of the situation. It simply means that your brain adapts and becomes more tolerant of the bad sound over time.

 

[MDS]

Other than that the whole break-it-in-and-it-will-sound-better line is nonsense routed in the psychoacoutics of the situation. It simply means that your brain adapts and becomes more tolerant of the bad sound over time.

Straight from the mouth of an experienced speaker designer...and he is not the only one saying the same thing. I firmly believe that it is the listener that breaks in - not the speaker!

 

[Leprkon]

Call me a believer... I bought a pair of Infinity towers that sounded downright harsh with hiss when I first bought them, so much so that I seriously considered sending them back. I ran them for a movie a night for three nights then hooked my old speakers back. When I went back to the new speakers halfway through the DVD (the Moody Blues Live at Prince Albert Hall), the previous harshness was gone.

I consider the old speakers a reasonable reference point (19 years of having been broken in), so if there was no such thing as break-in then I should have been able to hear at least some harshness with a quick comparison. It's certainly not a double blind test with a 90/95 confidence curve, but I believe.

I would personally take a minimum of three days to decide if speakers were not going to settle in before I sent them back. It does make auditioning speakers a little tough, but if it's worth your money, it's worth your time.