new subwoofer break-in idea

shanec
shanec Posts: 4
edited July 2010 in Car Subwoofer Talk
Polk recommends 20-30 hrs of break-in on a new MM series subwoofer. This would take me about a month with my current driving habits.

UNLESS.... I hooked my sub box up to my home system and let is run all day. Now the home amp is built for 8 ohm speakers. I could re-wire my two 8-ohm home stereo speakers in parallel and then connect those in series with my 4 ohm polk subwoofer box and that would make an 8 ohm load for the home amp.

Then I could let music play for long periods at moderate volume levels.

Has anyone tried this? I can see nothing wrong with the idea unless perhaps the break-in 20-30 hour break-in period shouldn't be for continuous time for some reason.
Post edited by shanec on
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  • exalted512
    exalted512 Posts: 10,735
    edited June 2009
    just like an engine, you need to run it through heat and cooling cylces. It is a fine idea, but I would try to keep it in increments of less than 5 hours at a time. My last subs were broken in by hooking them up to the wall outlet :)
    -Cody
    Music is like candy, you have to get rid of the rappers to enjoy it
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  • sstalder5
    sstalder5 Posts: 14
    edited November 2009
    Go for it! I break in all of my subs by going to www.badgerbadgerbadger.com and hooking the speaker up to the sub channel on my computer speakers. It's broken in 4 subs terrifically. I did 6 cycles of 5 hours on 1 hour off and they were good to go. it gets kind of annoying after a while though...
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  • Mspec
    Mspec Posts: 10
    edited July 2010
    Hi all,

    Thought I would resurrect an old thread rather than creating new.

    I'm new the forum and would like to start off by saying Hello!! to everyone.

    I have a question that hopefully someone can shed light on.

    My old image dynamics IDQ15 V2 finally decided to give up on me after many years of awesome performance (No biggie really, it truly has done it's duty).

    Now I'm not a car audio specialist or anything of a sort, but I do know enough to get by most of the time haha. I have owned all sorts of car audio equipment over the years (I'll just be stating subs at the moment) but anything from Alipine, Kicker, Pioneers, JBL. Infinity, Fusion etc... When my IDQ 15" gave up (Which is an awesome SQ sub by the way) I then decided "Let's try some different from the more commonly used brands" and preferably a brand I've never owned before. So I decided to look into the Polk audio range of subwoofers knowing very well their awesome reputation in the home theatre area.

    My personal preferance has always been a single 15" sub, typically I just like the low tones they reproduce, and I have always used ported enclosures as my ears tell me it seems to reproduce the low humming tones better than sealed (Just my personal preference not fact).

    So I have brought myself a Polk MM2154-DVC running off my Fusion Reactor Class D monoblock wired in parallel for a 2ohm load. I have had a custom built 2.5 Cubic foot ported enclosure (4" round port) tuned to 32hz made (replicating what Polk built (volume) ported for this woofer)


    Now to my understanding the Polk has a continuous thermal power rating of 200wrms per voice coil (400wrms total) and my amp running 2ohm puts out 500wrms (no biggie I don't think, I will just manage the gain setting accordingly). This leads me to my question, I have rigged this all up and I have been looking through the polk owners manual It doesn't state any running/breaking in period? however reading through forums I've herd comments of 30-40 hours?

    I'm alittle sceptical turning the volume up too high as I don't want my voice coils to melt, so I what I have done is adjusted my amp gain level to approximately 6 volts (Pioneer headunit runs at 3-4v I believe with maximum sub level adjustment set), I have set everythng else to flat (EQ,Bass Boost, Loudness etc.. just the usual stuff) and for the past two days I been driving around with 1/3rd volume on the headunit.

    The sub sounds absolutely fantastic, so clean clear and hits nice low notes in it's ported enclosure (very happy).

    Do you guys think this is an acceptable way to break the sub in? I mean If I do this for a couple of weeks or 30-40 hours, then adjust my amp gain where it should be (more sensitive)? or have I got it all wrong.

    any useful input would be greatly appreciated.

    cheers.
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  • Mspec
    Mspec Posts: 10
    edited July 2010
    Anyone? Surely someone must experience with this
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  • chu
    chu Posts: 178
    edited July 2010
    you can adjust the vol a tad higher as time progresses
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  • Mspec
    Mspec Posts: 10
    edited July 2010
    chu wrote: »
    you can adjust the vol a tad higher as time progresses


    Thanks for that, do you think 30-40 hours is indeed the correct break in time? I have read on another forum today 70-100 hours!!
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  • kawizx9r
    kawizx9r Posts: 5,150
    edited July 2010
    My driving habits consist of anywhere from an hour to almost 2 hours a day and it took my JL Audio sub to break in about a month later (give or take but that's when it sounded the loudest/deepest with no more big changes). So, in my case probably 40-60hrs?
    Truck setup
    Alpine 9856
    Phoenix Gold RSD65CS

    For Sale
    Polk SR6500
    Polk SR5250
    Polk SR104


    heiney9 wrote: »
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  • Mspec
    Mspec Posts: 10
    edited July 2010
    kawizx9r wrote: »
    My driving habits consist of anywhere from an hour to almost 2 hours a day and it took my JL Audio sub to break in about a month later (give or take but that's when it sounded the loudest/deepest with no more big changes). So, in my case probably 40-60hrs?


    that's allot of hours, did you baby your sub up untill then? I find it a little difficult as I would like to set my sub amp up by ear, but as we know that involves turning the amp gain up untill distortion is reached then backed off slightly, so how does that work if I'm running in the sub? obviously I wouldn't want to push the sub that hard untill it's broken in meaning how should I set it in the interim?

    I'm sorry for what might appear to be stupid annoying questions, but to be quite frank I've never broken in a sub before, all my previous subs I tuned right from the get go, with no detrimental effects (they just seemed to break themselves in over time) however reading up on this sub it appears very very important to not stress them straight out of the box so I'm a little confused as to how to go about getting this done whilst being able to set the sub amp at the same time.

    thanks
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  • kawizx9r
    kawizx9r Posts: 5,150
    edited July 2010
    Mspec wrote: »
    that's allot of hours, did you baby your sub up untill then? I find it a little difficult as I would like to set my sub amp up by ear, but as we know that involves turning the amp gain up untill distortion is reached then backed off slightly, so how does that work if I'm running in the sub? obviously I wouldn't want to push the sub that hard untill it's broken in meaning how should I set it in the interim?

    thanks

    It's hard to say since 'moderate volume' to me may be too loud or too soft for you.

    I run the HU at about 20-24 (out of 50), enough to fill the car with music at a moderate volume but not enough to disturb anyone near me if the windows are up.

    Sometimes though (after it broke-in) I turn it up to about 35-39 and my neighbor says she can hear me from around the block (when I'm feeling like a basshead). :p
    Truck setup
    Alpine 9856
    Phoenix Gold RSD65CS

    For Sale
    Polk SR6500
    Polk SR5250
    Polk SR104


    heiney9 wrote: »
    Any clue how to use the internet? Found it in about 10 sec.
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  • Mspec
    Mspec Posts: 10
    edited July 2010
    kawizx9r wrote: »
    It's hard to say since 'moderate volume' to me may be too loud or too soft for you.

    I run the HU at about 20-24 (out of 50), enough to fill the car with music at a moderate volume but not enough to disturb anyone near me if the windows are up.

    Sometimes though (after it broke-in) I turn it up to about 35-39 and my neighbor says she can hear me from around the block (when I'm feeling like a basshead). :p

    haha nice!,

    well i guess I still haven't really come to a conclusion about this, so i'm guessing I'll run it the way I currently am for a few weeks then let her rip;)

    60 hours is going to be a wee while with my driving habbits.

    thanks heaps for your input though.
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  • chu
    chu Posts: 178
    edited July 2010
    You should adjust the gain to a 10:00 position as a starting point that's where mine was at when I was breaking in the SR. The vol was roughly half way up, and up the vol incrementally each day (I drive for 5+hrs a day). It took me a lil over a week to break em in, and you will def know when the sub is broken in.
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  • Mspec
    Mspec Posts: 10
    edited July 2010
    chu wrote: »
    You should adjust the gain to a 10:00 position as a starting point that's where mine was at when I was breaking in the SR. The vol was roughly half way up, and up the vol incrementally each day (I drive for 5+hrs a day). It took me a lil over a week to break em in, and you will def know when the sub is broken in.

    Thanks for that, it will give me good starting point however will take just over a month with my driving habbits. Not to worry im a reasonably patient person haha thanks very much
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