"Breaking In" Speakers

jb33

Hello, again. I posted a couple of weeks ago when I was looking for some speaker advice. Well, I finally received my system and put it together last night. I bought an Onkyo SR-505 and a pair of RTi4s as my first venture into the land of audio. So far I am really happy with my choices; both components are working great.

My question, though, is this: do I need to "break in speakers" at low volumes? I thought I read or heard that somewhere but I can't remember where; additionally, I didn't find anything in the Polk Education link above. Does anyone have any knowledge about this or am I dreaming?

Thanks,

Joe

Frank Z

Use the search feature, this subject has been beaten to death.

jb33

Thanks for the clear and concise answer. After searching the forum I found the mega discussion...Lasareath, your answer looks a lot better than wading through all of that.

Thanks again.

Frank Z

So only one opinion means anything? Why bother....

dorokusai

jb33 wrote: »

Thanks for the clear and concise answer. After searching the forum I found the mega discussion...Lasareath, your answer looks a lot better than wading through all of that.

Thanks again.

Loudspeaker break-in is nothing to even worry about....just play them as you would normally.

danger boy

dorokusai wrote: »

Loudspeaker break-in is nothing to even worry about....just play them as you would normally.

Bingo! enuff said.

Frank Z

Lasareath wrote: »

Frank, my post comes from knowledge that I learnt from being here on the forum. Mostly from people like F1nut & Hearingimpared.

Don't be upset if I hit the nail right on the head with my answer. I'm sure at times I will be off and you will be straight on. Sometimes the question asked on the post gets answered with only one reply. It happens.

Sal

So here we go again. You are wrong! It's a myth started by speaker manufactures to get pathetic little sheep to hang to speakers that sound like crap right out of the box! If your speakers have to break in to so good....find another hobby. Now the question has been answered properly.

TroyD

It's been my experience with new speakers that the sound will change as they break in. Just play them as you normally would and don't worry about it.

It's not my experience that it will make a night/day difference but it does tend to smooth the sound out. As always, YMMV

BDT

Yashu

Some speakers break in more than others.

Polk RTi4s are one of those speakers that break in well. They come harsh out of the box and that tweeter needs many hours before it starts getting loose and liquid.

Sometimes woofers will get lose and the bass will open up over time, but it depends on surrounds and such. The old foam ones would be tight (as in, thin sounding) out of the box and after a little while they would sound much better.

RTi4s would be easy to break in properly. Wire them out of phase and point them toward each other and crank the volume... put a blanket over them if they are still too loud. If you are able to generate pink noise, this makes a great breakin for the tweeters too. Leave them like this overnight for a couple nights, and that will be that, broken in speakers. Just makes sure that whatever you are playing while doing this in in mono, it is the only way to ensure you can turn them up loud without disturbing your daily activities.

nms

Yahsu, have you done that yourself? I'm tempted to try it and see how much noise I can hear...

Yashu

Done it a bunch of times. Make sure it's in mono (very important), and pick some tracks with lots of dynamics. You will be able to turn the volume up much louder than you normally would... even toss a blanket over the speakers to cut the extra HF that gets out. You will notice first off that bass is completely neutralized, even though the woofers can be moving a ton of air. The port whiff can be louder than the music itself.

Don't turn it up louder than you know your amp can handle, of course, but if you are breaking in a set of bookies, you can get them going quite a bit and with the blanket piled on top, you can leave them this way... it's not going to disturb the neighbors, and if you have your speakers in one room and your bedroom down the hall, you can have them cranked and it barely sounds like you left the TV on in the other room.

Always use dynamic material or pink noise... never ever ever tones, must be music or pink noise. Pink noise will get the tweeters done faster than music, but some really punchy music will get the woofers done faster than pink noise. That has been my experience.

The hardest part is the playing it in mono... if your preamp or receiver doesn't have a mono switch, you can try seeing if the tuner does. I use my computer, and can set my software to play a mono signal of whatever I set to play, or I can generate pink noise there too. If it's not mono, the out of phase trick doesn't work, or sortof works (many records have *some* mono material, but true mono is what works).

TroyD

I still wouldn't get wrapped around the axle.....Mark nailed it, play them as you normally would and everything will be fine.

BDT

Yashu

Some people don't want to wait 400 hours of regular listening time. There is nothing wrong with that.

Those silk domes that polk uses in their new speakers really do sound harsh out of the box, and if I got a new set today, I would not want to listen to harsh speakers every time I wanted to enjoy music for the next couple months... it is not much effort to cut the time down to a few days.

TroyD

..as always, You Mileage May Vary.

I've never encountered a speaker that takes that long to break in but whatever floats your boat. I just hook mine up and leave 'em on for a couple of days and that does the trick, it's a lot less hassle.

BDT

bbeacham

Since speakers are mechanical there is some logic behind a break-in period (versus break-in for electronics, speaker wire, etc.). However, unless there is some truly, apparent dramatic change in the sound, it will be next to impossible to remember how they originally sounded. You start getting into the subjective zone, and start thinking that they sound better, but have no verifyable data. Of course, if you think they sound better then that is all that matters.

It would be interesting for a speaker manufacturer to publish freq response graphs, and any other measurement data for new speakers, and then again for the same speaker after 'X' hours of use.

Face

I've seen graphs for eD subs, there is a break in period. I don't remember the amount of hours involved, but they were able to dig deeper with a higher SPL after break in.

Yashu

It would be interesting for a speaker manufacturer to publish freq response graphs, and any other measurement data for new speakers, and then again for the same speaker after 'X' hours of use

I would like to see this too. If it really does make a difference then "factory breakin" might be something that would be a selling point.

avguytx

The factories don't have time to go thru break in periods. Too much time involved. But although I'm an advocate of speaker break in (in the 25 years I've been in the A/V business), I don't get all involved with it anymore. I just play 'em and let 'em do their own thing as time would do it. Ok, there are some speakers that I will take on the road with me (being a rep) that I will play continuously for quite awhile...but that's about it.

markmarc

I'll put myself in the camp of break-in is good and does make a difference. The following website provides measurements in support of the changes in speakers from break-in. Danny Ritchie is very well recognized in audio circles and by audio scientists for his work. http://www.gr-research.com/burnin.shtm
I use a closet, an old receiver and cd player with mixed music disc, and a heavy blanket. Usually a hundred hours seems to take care of most drivers.

But as others have pointed out this subject has been beaten to death. Most important is to enjoy the hell out of your purchase!

Dennis Gardner

I've found the differences to be evident at the lowest volume levels. Spiders/surrounds that loosen up after some usage, produce better bass at low volumes. I find this more true on sealed systems than on ported.

I don't hear alot of difference at loud levels......I still say break 'em in how you are going to listen to 'em.

dorokusai

What happened to the days of just listening and waiting for that to happen. Closet rigs? Blankets? Give me a break.

I have no doubt that it happens but I usually do that while sitting in front of them. If your loudspeaker sounds that horrible out of the box, why did you buy it? Madness.

TroyD

.....and this common sense laden message has been brought to you by dorokusai.

BDT

beardog03

I must agree with him though

If your speaks sound good before you put 50-100 hrs on them, they will sound amazing after that many hours


If they sound like crap outta the box...put them back in said box and send them back....IMO of course

markmarc

Dorokusai thinks I'm a bit nuts :>) on this, but that's ok. In my case I'm reviewing speakers, I don't wish to be influenced by how they sound before they have been broken in for an appropriate time. First impressions are a powerful thing, conscious or sub consciously.

I get emails all the time from readers pissed off that the smooth highs aren't apparent that they heard in the store. I always reply with both reminding them that the cones need to stretch, but also that no two rooms and rigs sound the same.

Yashu

What happened to the days of just listening and waiting for that to happen. Closet rigs? Blankets?

Nothing wrong with tinkering. Look... there ARE some GOOD speakers that sound BAD out of the box. The RTi 4 is one of them. That tweeter needs some major breakin, the woofer needs to loosen up, and then you have a pretty good speaker there. I was only trying to help the OP here. Not everyone wants to wait 400 hours (a max that one of you guys stated)... I mean... I get like 2 hours a day to listen to music... I want to enjoy that time and not have to spend the next 200 listening sessions in anticipation of "that feeling".

I mean damn... why all the static for thinking of a better way to skin the cat here.

dorokusai

markmarc wrote: »

Dorokusai thinks I'm a bit nuts :>) on this, but that's ok. In my case I'm reviewing speakers, I don't wish to be influenced by how they sound before they have been broken in for an appropriate time. First impressions are a powerful thing, conscious or sub consciously.

I get emails all the time from readers pissed off that the smooth highs aren't apparent that they heard in the store. I always reply with both reminding them that the cones need to stretch, but also that no two rooms and rigs sound the same.

You're situation makes a little more sense Mark, due to your eventual purpose and most likely....limited time.

cfrizz

Just listen to your music & enjoy your new speakers! Stop making it more mystical & difficult than it has to be!

BaggedLancer

This burn in that you people speak of....is it better to do it with a lighter or a torch?

beardog03

music seems to work best...

preferably music with alot of dynamics...

Nothing mystical about it...they just need some time to loosen up, and settle in....
dats awl..

MacLeod

Yup. Speakers are mechanical devices and just like the motor in your car, they need time to break in and even warm up.

Yashu

They may use space age materials but it's not rocket science as to why speaker breakin works.

Some things get weird, like, say, breaking in amps and such, but then again, I know a little bit about silicon and capacitors and they too, measure different with a little burn-in time.

Transistors switch faster with a little burn-in, and caps more consistently charge and recharge.

I am not sure that wire bun-in is something that is measurable, but who knows... if silicon (semiconductor) can change, perhaps a full conductor can too...

Call it voodoo, call it magic, call it whatever... it works. It's not some panacea cure-all that takes away all the problems of a speaker, but it can ease up on some of the rough edges. Someone said once about audio that "everything matters".