Speaker break-in

Speaker breakin = 72 hrs or less

Listener breakin - days or weeks or months depending on your state of mind and the current justification for spending the price of a car for speakers :D
 
I was always very skeptical about break in.

So I had to do a test myself.

15 years ago or so, I bought a pair of Proacs new from a dealer. Instead of taking them home, I set them up at the dealers beside their floor model. Then we all (owner, various salesman and me) would compare the 2 speakers every 10 hours or so during this break in process. We did this for about 3 weeks and it took about 300 hours for us to think that there was NO difference between the floor models and my new speakers.

The new speakers got so far off from the sound of the floor models that we truly thought they were defective at about the 80-100 hour make. But we stuck with the plan and they truly got to sound the same.

Just an un scientific test that amazed all of us.

I've done the same on some amps also - same results except it took only about 75 hours to sound the same.
 
Mikado463 said:
BINGO !!

as for the 1000 hr break in …………is that really what Magico says, if so it's more than hooey IMO !
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I was just at Magico today and asked Alon Wolf if there is some number of hours of break-in and he just shrugged. He did say it is possible a system can sound better over time, but that was in reply to my saying I felt my system seemed to sound its best now.
 
Bud.......A shoulder shrug from Alon Wolf about the break-in period of Magico speakers? What the heck is that supposed to convey? This leaves me with the impression he's unwilling to be quoted about his position on break-in. It certainly keeps him out of the fray.
 
Double-D said:
Bud.......A shoulder shrug from Alon Wolf about the break-in period of Magico speakers? What the heck is that supposed to convey? This leaves me with the impression he's unwilling to be quoted about his position on break-in. It certainly keeps him out of the fray.
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Agreed. Maybe he didn't hear him? [emoji14]
 
The one thing we haven't discussed is the break in time for different driver materials: ceramic and diamond for example - how does their break in period differ? What about beryllium tweeters vs silk dome vs ribbon?
 
Double-D said:
Bud.......A shoulder shrug from Alon Wolf about the break-in period of Magico speakers? What the heck is that supposed to convey? This leaves me with the impression he's unwilling to be quoted about his position on break-in. It certainly keeps him out of the fray.
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I certainly can't speak for Alon. My impression was he knows his speakers sound great. If others feel they sound better over time then that is their right.
 
I've certainly had a gazillion pairs of speakers over the years, and I might be nuts, but I've always found playing vinyl (and the woofer vibrations created) really helps to break in speakers quickly.
Maybe we didn't worry about speaker break in back in the old days because we were spinning vinyl all the time!
 
BlueFox said:
I was just at Magico today and asked Alon Wolf if there is some number of hours of break-in and he just shrugged. He did say it is possible a system can sound better over time, but that was in reply to my saying I felt my system seemed to sound its best now.
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Interesting that someone who will sell you a $300K pair of speakers has no opinion on the subject he is willing to voice.
 
Mike said:
The one thing we haven't discussed is the break in time for different driver materials: ceramic and diamond for example - how does their break in period differ? What about beryllium tweeters vs silk dome vs ribbon?
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The dome or cone is not what's breaking in, it's the suspension. Drivers with more compliant suspensions will break in faster, ie. fabric surround will break in faster than rubber. But also, there are all different thickness and types of rubber, foam, fabric surrounds. The spider also can be multiple different materials of different thicknesses and compliance.

But to make a broad strokes statement, a more sensitive speaker will break in faster than a low sensitivity one.

Also ribbon tweeters don't have any suspension to break in. My experience is that ribbons are 100% or very near it right out of the box.
 
Bryan - I think they break in just in time for the next model/$44,000 upgrade. [emoji6]
 
Mike said:
I've certainly had a gazillion pairs of speakers over the years, and I might be nuts, but I've always found playing vinyl (and the woofer vibrations created) really helps to break in speakers quickly.
Maybe we didn't worry about speaker break in back in the old days because we were spinning vinyl all the time!
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Mike, that's because 'in the old days' we were much more into the enjoyment of the music as opposed to way more of the 'equipment hounds' are today
 
I just recently replaced my Totem Fire monitors, speakers I enjoyed for over four years. The dealer who sold me the Totems recommended I not play them really loud for at least 150 or so hours, saying that, if you play them continuously at lower volumes, they would "break in" faster, so I tuned in my favorite classical FM station and let it go for several days.

Though they were new to me at the time, I must say they DID sound less "restrained" after break in.
 
Congratulations on the Focals. Wonderful speakers. What color? Any photos?
 
Joe,

I opted for the black lacquer color, beautifully made product! I ordered them soon after they first arrived in the U.S., had to wait about three months for them, very much worth the wait! My dealer says the wait for the Sopra No2's is up to six months! Waiting for a pair of JL Audio F113V2 sub woofers to arrive! Evan's Audio Electronics-2015-September.jpg
 
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My own real-world experience echoes The Professor's post very closely. I bought a brand new pair of ProAc Response 1 SCs back in 2004 (I'm still listening to them) and was deeply disappointed when I got them home and listened for the first time. ProAc recommends about 100 hours of break-in time for these, but getting impatient after maybe 50 hours or so, I took them back to the dealer to inquire what was wrong with them. We hooked them up in the dealer's listening room, and the verdict was that to him they sounded tight and still too new. So I took them home again, played them a LOT over the next week or so, and I remember the moment when I started to hear their real personality. It was quite a revelation, a real "aha!" moment. From then on, I've been a firm believer in speaker break-in time. I imagine different designs behave differently and there's probably a wide range of break-in periods for various speakers. 1000 hours seems like an awful lot, though. (I'm old enough to remember the days when new cars couldn't be driven over 50 mph for the first 500 miles for fear of cracking the engine mounts. Maybe a similar principle at work here?)
 
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