Speaker Break In

[BFC56]

Hi All,

I recenly completed my home theatre and have just hooked everything up ( still trying to figure out all aspects). The speakers are Angstrom and they are suggested to be broken in? I believe all speaker as to be broken in, but what is an acceptable time frame for this and while they are being broken in, what is an acceptable volume? I searched other threads and could not come up with anything. If this has been covered in a thread already, can someone point me in that direction?

Cheers!

[4x12]

I don't beleive in breaking them in... All drivers get tested before hand.

But heres a good little read I found elsewhere about a quote taken from Paul Barton, the founder of PSB speakers comapny, is one of Canada's most famous speaker designer and a regular visitor to the National Research Council of Canada. This is what he said about speaker break in.

http://www.soundstagelive.com/factorytours/psbnrc/

Finally, and perhaps most controversially, Barton talks about the supposed break-in effect of components that has become so popular in audio today. Break-in refers to running components for a long time (sometimes hundreds of hours) to the point where their components "settle" into their proper operating mode. Barton doesn’t doubt that some components do change subtly, but he thinks that the major improvements people think they’re hearing aren’t in the components at all. Barton doesn’t doubt that people are hearing these changes, but thinks that what they’re hearing is actually brain break-in.

Barton has examined his own speakers to test this. He has taken a Stratus Gold loudspeaker, built and measured some ten years ago, and re-measured it today. The deviation is slight, perhaps 1/4dB at most. Although that deviation can possibly be heard, it is certainly not a huge difference that one may attest to hearing. Instead, Barton surmises that the difference in sound that people are hearing over time is conditioning of the brain. He cites experiments done with sight that indicate the brain can accommodate for enormous changes fairly quickly and certainly within the hundreds of hours that audiophiles claim changes occur in. Could this apply to hearing, too? Barton thinks that more often than not, what happens is that the changes in perceived sound that are attributed to component break-in are simply the brain becoming accustomed to the sound. He warns listeners not to fool themselves.

a another little something I found...

along the same lines as PB's quote, heres a something I found a couple of weeks back... i'm sure its been posted here somewhere before.

http://www.audioholics.com/education...act-or-fiction

The writer talks about a theater system he built some years back and heres what caught my attention...

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 year's worth of "breaking in" hadn't affected the system to any significant degree.

[BFC56]

Thanks 4x12. Interesting read.

[4x12]

anytime dude!

[ScaryBob]

I seriously doubt that modern speakers need any "break in." However, I wouldn't drive them too loud initially, if only for the sake of your own ears. Sound systems are like shoes, they are more likely to break in your body components (ears/feet) than the other way around. Speakers made many years ago, with less engineering in the components and materials probably did break in or break down, depending on how you look at it, after some use.

[supervij]

I read a great quote, which goes something like, "Speaker break-in is the manufacturer's way of getting you used to bad sound."

Always liked that one.

cheers,
supervij

[Tezster]

My search didn't come up with a thread which discussed this in detail - I'm wondering what's the current consensus on the importance of breaking in new speakers? This seems to be one of those topics with no clear-cut answer, and where anecdotal evidence far outweighs definitive scientific data.

I'm currently awaiting delivery of new speakers, and I find myself wondering if I should continue the practice of breaking them in as I have with every new set of speakers I've bought in the past.

[redzone]

I would say you are more breaking in your ears then breaking in the speakers. mechanicly the way stuff is built now there should be very little difference from day 1 to day 300

The break in period is more your ears adjusting to the speakers unique sound.

at least thats always been my experiance. and to my kowledge ive never seen a "blind" study done on the subject

[Tezster]

Thanks to the mod who found and moved my post to the correct thread.

A lot of what I've read has pretty much pointed out the same thing i.e. breaking-in has very little (if any) audible difference. I wonder if there was a point in time where this practice was actually useful.

[Tom.F.1]

If it makes you feel better, break them in. This discussion has been going on long before there were forums for it.
I just hooked my speakers up when they were new, used them to listen too, and they broke in all by themselves.