Speaker Break-in Poll
rskarvan
Posts: 2,374
Ok... here is a poll.
Do you think speaker break-in is mostly a myth and that, in fact, it is your ears/brain/memory/perception changing over the first 200 hours... or, is the majority of the change strictly a function of the speaker changing its acoustic output properties.
Please respond. Thank you.
Do you think speaker break-in is mostly a myth and that, in fact, it is your ears/brain/memory/perception changing over the first 200 hours... or, is the majority of the change strictly a function of the speaker changing its acoustic output properties.
Please respond. Thank you.
Post edited by rskarvan on
Comments
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well when I got my sda's, they were already broke in. The only times I have heard changes was with placement, new speaker wire, interconnects, and the addition of an amp,the removal of my avr, and cheaning up the clutter around the speakers.
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oh and I have noticed differences over time with new speakers.
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3) - new speakers break in quickly (within an hour or two), everything after that is deterioration.Win7 Media Center -> Onkyo TXSR702 -> Polk Rti70
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cars break down over time.. but speakers break in over time?
I didn't vote, because i don't really know for sure. PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
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an in between answer like ... break in is a good thing but don't expect DRAMATIC change ... might be an appropriate alternative ...
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Yep, the sound does change. I don't think it takes too long though. Once the woofers get some air moving thru them & the foam surrounds loosen up then it's home sweet home. I noticed a difference with the bass. I think it only took a few hours & everything settled in."2 Channel & 11.2 HT "Two Channel:Magnepan LRSSchiit Audio Freya S - SS preConsonance Ref 50 - Tube preParasound HALO A21+ 2 channel ampBluesound NODE 2i streameriFi NEO iDSD DAC Oppo BDP-93KEF KC62 sub Home Theater:Full blown 11.2 set up.
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Didn't vote, because I don't know.
It would seem the mechanical moving parts will change over time, but the question is if it is perceptible.Signature goes here -
seo wrote:Didn't vote, because I don't know.
It would seem the mechanical moving parts will change over time, but the question is if it is perceptible.
Yes, it was without a doubt quite noticable. The difference I heard in the bass presentation was quite an ear opener. It settled down from being on the boomy side to tight & articulate. As far as the mids & highs I really don't think there was much change in sonic characteristics."2 Channel & 11.2 HT "Two Channel:Magnepan LRSSchiit Audio Freya S - SS preConsonance Ref 50 - Tube preParasound HALO A21+ 2 channel ampBluesound NODE 2i streameriFi NEO iDSD DAC Oppo BDP-93KEF KC62 sub Home Theater:Full blown 11.2 set up. -
I bought some Atrium 45's and when I first hooked them up I was in shock... they sounded wooden and hollow. After 45 minutes they started to loosen up and after 2 hours sounded like the Polks I expected -- but that was a scary first hour!
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You need a third option...
3. Break in is physically possible, but I have not heard it yet.Magico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R -
rskarvan wrote:No, speakers dramatically change their acoustic properties in the first 200 hours of operation.
The change is not always dramatic. Sometimes it is subtle, but noticeable.Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
I actually think speakers do benefit from breaking in. I also believe they sound different when they warm up.
Speakers are a mechanical device just like a motor. And a cars motor needs to break in and it runs differently once its warmed up.
However I dont think the change is dramatic. I doubt the casual listener would even notice. Hell I dont notice the warming up effect unless Im tuning to my SQ disc and am paying special attention to imaging cues and the like.polkaudio sound quality competitor since 2005
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Speakers are electro-mechanical devices so they do need a warm up period. I don't know how dramatic the sound change is after warm up but I always play some soft music for a little while before blasting.
I think burn-in with electronic gear is necessary not so much to improve the sound but all electronics have an infancy mortality rate when first powered up and then the mortality rate levels off. After so much time (years) the mortality rate increases again. -
Having blown a driver & replaced it with a new one, I can say speaker break in does exist. I could definitely hear it at first, then after a day or two the difference was gone. Just to satisfy my curiosity, i had my roommate listen, too, with out knowing why & they could tell a difference as well.Gallo Ref 3.1 : Bryston 4b SST : Musical fidelity CD Pre : VPI HW-19
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I wouldn't say that it takes 200 hours, but I have certainly heard the effects of speakers break-in myself. I think I noticed it most with a pair of RTi6's that I owned for a short while. Everytime I hook up a brand new set of speakers I start them playing and walk away for at least 10 to 20 hours. When I first connected the 6's the sounded very thin and overly bright. About a day later when I finally sat down to listen to them they had a much different sound. Bass was much more pronounced and the top end had warmed up slightly.
I've had very similar experience with a pair of RTi4's and a pair of Energy RC-10's.
Later!HT
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It's definitely not a myth. It's like a pair of pants. They feel better after a few washes. This is no different. Material gets more range, etc.
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cmy330go wrote:I wouldn't say that it takes 200 hours, but I have certainly heard the effects of speakers break-in myself. I think I noticed it most with a pair of RTi6's that I owned for a short while. Everytime I hook up a brand new set of speakers I start them playing and walk away for at least 10 to 20 hours. When I first connected the 6's the sounded very thin and overly bright. About a day later when I finally sat down to listen to them they had a much different sound. Bass was much more pronounced and the top end had warmed up slightly.
I've had very similar experience with a pair of RTi4's and a pair of Energy RC-10's.
Later!
That's exactly what I thought when I had the Axiom M22ti bookshelves... at first, they sounded thin and harsh, then with a few months use, I thought they got a lot better and a lot less harsh.
Little did I know that when I got the replacement pair (brand new), the 2 pairs sounded exactly the same.
I think it's mostly us adjusting to the sound. Break in may exist, and I've seen the studies they do with regards to warming up the drivers and what not, and they do show that break in exists... but it's usually very quick and very fast as the motor/magnet warms up from the cold (so to speak).
Break in may exist, but in my opinion, it's probably not as much as most of us claim it to be.
Manufacturers love to claim that break in exists because it gives them an excuse to have the owner keep the speaker for longer than they would otherwise. What? There's a 30 day return policy at Tweeter? Oh, we'll just make sure to add that it takes 100 hours to break in the speaker so by the time it "breaks in", the owner has no choice but to keep the speaker considering it probably went over the 30 days since purchase.
Just my 2 cents.
Break in may exist, but I think we give it more credit that it deserves. Constant room/speaker position tweaking, our brains, our ears probably have more to do with it, IMO.
JoeyMagico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R -
Some more than others. I found the LSi9's really opened up after about 100+ hours.Michael
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Manufacturers love to claim that break in exists because it gives them an excuse to have the owner keep the speaker for longer than they would otherwise. What? There's a 30 day return policy at Tweeter? Oh, we'll just make sure to add that it takes 100 hours to break in the speaker so by the time it "breaks in", the owner has no choice but to keep the speaker considering it probably went over the 30 days since purchase.
I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense. You can put 100 hours on in about 4 days. That leaves, on average, 26 days for demo time.Political Correctness'.........defined
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F1nut wrote:I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense. You can put 100 hours on in about 4 days. That leaves, on average, 26 days for demo time.
Jesse,
I understand. But my point is that the normal person would probably not leave it on the entire day to break in, but instead go about the normal routine of playing music/movies for 2-3 hours a day and by the 30th day, barely even hit the 100hr mark.
Besides, my comment of 100hours isnt even meant to be taken literally, it's just an example.
I have read manufacturers claim on their instruction manual that the speaker sounds better after 200, 500, or 1000 hours. I just chose 100 for the sake of just choosing it. Whether or not someone can techinically "break in" the speaker in 4 or 5 days is irrelevant. My point was that the "break-in idea" can help out manufacturers by using the tangible idea of "break-in" to promote ownership by giving the customer something tangible to look forward to in case they dont like the sound upon opening the box.
JoeyMagico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R -
Ok, I get where you're going.
On the other hand the average person wouldn't know good sound if it bit them in the **** no matter how many hours a pair of speakers have on them.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
F1nut wrote:Ok, I get where you're going.
On the other hand the average person wouldn't know good sound if it bit them in the **** no matter how many hours a pair of speakers have on them.
Good point, Jesse.Magico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R -
Just look at the poll results. That pretty much says it all. Keep in mind, if someone only listens to music say 2 hours a day, 50 hours of break-in would take 25 days. Over such a long time they may not notice the change and may be the reason they don't buy into it.Michael
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Here are some tests done by audioholics, testing this exact questions with quantitative results.
An interesting read: http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/loudspeakers/SpeakerBreakIn.phpLovin that music year after year.
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Like I said, many studies support the idea of break-in, but only in the initial sense. Driver compliance returns to pre-break in within a few seconds or minutes of turning the speaker off.Refefer wrote:Here are some tests done by audioholics, testing this exact questions with quantitative results.
An interesting read: http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/loudspeakers/SpeakerBreakIn.php
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Interesting article. So for the most part we are imagining that we hear changes in our speakers.
So as I've always said, stop worrying about incidentals & just enjoy the music.
If it sounds bad at the start, it will still sound bad after the supposed break in period. In which case find yourself a new pair of speakers that sound good from the get go.Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2 -
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Ooops. Is that better ZB?Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2
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Ha ha ha:D Nice edit
I just think you're passionate about your hobby:pI never had it like this where I grew up. But I send my kids here because the fact is you go to one of the best schools in the country: Rushmore. Now, for some of you it doesn't matter. You were born rich and you're going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it. Thank you.Herman Blume - Rushmore -
"Four years after the system had been installed in the theater, I had the opportunity to go back and take some measurements. I availed myself of the opportunity and found that the amplitude response plots made that day matched to within a fraction of a dB those made when the system was first installed. Four years worth of breaking in hadnt affected the system to any significant degree."
Conclusion... Breaking-in is a myth.
