Speaker Breakin Techniques

Some speakers have some amazing ups and downs during break-in. Raidho is one of those. Every 24 hours is a different speaker until around 250 hours, the they stabilize and get better for the next 250-500 hours.

I do believe that most things after 250 hours are pretty well there. They improve afterwards but the biggest improvement happens in the first 250 hrs.
 
brad225 said:
I would also suggest you just hook them up and enjoy listening.

If they don't sound better than the speakers they replaced out of the box, maybe it wasn't a big enough jump in speaker quality.:D
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Brad, how dare you speak with an ounce of common sense !
 
thedudeabides said:
Appears you are in the minority here. Then again, maybe we all misunderstand and believe in myths and you are the only one who is correct.
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Now Gordon, there you go again, getting all 'audiophile goofy' on us ..............
 
brad225 said:
I would also suggest you just hook them up and enjoy listening.

If they don't sound better than the speakers they replaced out of the box, maybe it wasn't a big enough jump in speaker quality.:D
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Of course this is always a gamble when you cannot demo in your own home. I am hoping to be as overjoyed with the new Fynes as I was when I replaced my old VAC-Counterpoint combo with the Luxman. I was worried until I plugged it in.

I have been reluctant to move from the old Clearfields which are really von Schwiekerts as both I and my wife love them. BUT, if the 502SPs do not better a 25 y/o pair of speakers, my wife may just bury me in pcs in the Fyne cabinets.

I do plan to just hook them up and play them as you suggest but was interested in everyone's techniques. It's interesting that the majority of listeners agree that Breakin is real, but vary so wildly as to how to properly break them in.
 
Shadowfax said:
Of course this is always a gamble when you cannot demo in your own home.
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while I can't argue with that point I do feel most 'educated' audiophiles have a pretty good understanding of speaker / room interaction and should be of sound enough mind to make a good call.
 
Mikado463 said:
while I can't argue with that point I do feel most 'educated' audiophiles have a pretty good understanding of speaker / room interaction and should be of sound enough mind to make a good call.
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Yeah for sure, but it was a good thing I listened to both the 502s and the 502SPs at the same time or I may have bought a pair I didn't really like but reviews and comments made sound more fantastic than I found. The room that I did demo in was way too small for the speakers so my room will be better. I also think my Luxman will better the Rogue gear I demo'd with.
 
I've been playing a healthy dose of big band, small combo jazz, and bluegrass music over the last 8 - 9 months. I try to cover as broad of a frequency range as I can. I don't have a clue if this is the correct way. Seems logical to me and I can definitely hear a difference vs several months ago. There's probably a much faster and more efficient way to break a system in. But I have to say my system seems to have "cured" very nicely.

I don't know if the electronic components breaking in contribute more or less to the sound vs the speakers. But I left the electronics on constantly for the first 3 or 4 months. Even when not playing music. Hope that helps.
 
Brian, I agree that they will need break in. I'm just saying, you made an educated decision as to the speakers you bought and should just enjoy them from the start.
 
brad225 said:
Brian, I agree that they will need break in. I'm just saying, you made an educated decision as to the speakers you bought and should just enjoy them from the start.
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I plan to as I have no ability to let them run 24/7 for weeks facing each other out of phase while blasting Daft Punk :)

I am sure they will be an upgrade and just get better with time.
 
I don't swap speakers often, but I am the "setup, and forget" type, who just listens to the music. I do tend to notice that the sound will improve over a few months in my system, as the woofers loosen up slightly, the mid range smooth out, and the caps break in. LOL, thats the theory. Im not sure my hearing is good enough to notice any change in the tweeters. I do notice that my family will come into the room from time to time, and I have had comments like: those speakers are sounding better than last time I was here, did you change something else?

Either the speakers sound better after "awhile", or thats how long it takes me to retrain my hearing/brain for the new speakers.
 
elliotg said:
I personally don't do much listening to any new speaker for a day or so as to let them sit and play music after there trip from wherever to my place. I don't think that over analyzing break-in is worth the time either. Most speakers are mostly ready after a few days time like 80-100 hours of playing music. I just put my playlist on and let it play and once and in a while I use an old burn in track that lasts about 30 minutes. I'm not sure it does anything but its like chicken soup!
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When I bought my current speakers, the thought of having 50 tubes burning up hours for break-in also made me decide to just enjoy them out of the box.
 
One of my friend keeps new speakers in the garage playing hard with a cheap class D amp facing each other, with one speaker in reverse polarity and then wrapping both of them with couple of moving blanket. He keeps playing like this for a month before he moves into his listening room.

As for me, I don't have that kind of patience - if I get a new speaker (which is extremely rare for me anyways), I want to listen to them immediately, good or bad :)
 
I am always very skeptical when audio manufacturers tell you about a looong break in. Looong break in means a better chances of getting used to the sound that may not be up to snuff.

Bryston bench runs their amps for 100 hrs to ensure quality control before they reach the consumer. Break in for the half dozen of Bryston amps that I had in my 2ch/theater? Non-existent or at least nothing that was meaningful.

Wilson Audio says:

BREAK IN PERIOD
Wilson Audio breaks in all woofers and midrange drivers for a 12 hour period. All drivers are then tested, calibrated, and matched for their acoustical properties. In your listening room, expect 25 to 50% of break-in to be complete after two hours of playing music fairly loudly.

And so the 4 pairs of Wilson speakers that came through my system never sounded anything but great after the first few days.

So yeah, when I hear 600 hrs of break in, like with some of the other gear I owned, which never sounded synergistic to my ears to begin with, it just never morphed into anything better. There was no Toad to Prince transformations as they would have you believe.
 
Yes: speakers very close and facing each other, one wired out of phase, pre-amp on mono, Rusted Root CD (And Then I Woke) on loop/repeat, and close the library door for a week.

Keep a good SS amp handy for this duty if you use tubes.
 
I just bought a new pair of speakers (2-10 Perfect SET) and when I fired them up they were absolutely horrible. Rough midrange, screechy highs and thin bass. I was regretting my decision so I called the company. They told me "They need to break in for 30-50 hours." I put them face to face and out of phase, set the cd to repeat and let them go for 2 days. I am blown away by the improvement, I didn't think this kind of change was possible.
 
I remember when I got a new pair of Dynaudio Audience 82s 20 years ago. They were stiff and non engaging for 50-100 hours and the change was dramatic from the first play. I expect new speakers to sound good out of the box, but get better with a little use. I am prepared for some amount of breakin.

The good thing for me now is, my old speakers are set to leave this coming Sunday so I will have 2 weeks to forget how good they sound before the new ones arrive.
 
I know I have asked this same question about Cables, but here goes again for Speakers....

What I don't understand, is why someone has not setup a simple test using some sort of Wave Editor or Audio Spectrum Analyzer hooked up to an Oscilloscope and able to zero in on the generated graph of a single note after recording the playback of a New Speaker. Then a month or so later, in the same controlled environment, take a second recording and overlay the graphs of the same exact note. Changes in sound should be visible as the graphs would not match. Maybe it's not so easy but sure sounds simple enough for Mega Buck MFGs to do and just simply Prove that Speaker Breakin is real.
 
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