Speaker Breakin Techniques

Shadowfax

Shadowfax

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Wondering what you all do for speaker breakin. Seems like 500 hours is a sweet spot for most speakers.

Do you need to play with any specific volume in mind or can you let them play at low levels?
Does the type of music have any impact? Vocals would move drivers far less than Hard Rock or Classical.

What do you do to break in a pair of speakers for hundreds of hours?
 
Daft Punk Random Access Memories on Repeat (not kidding) for 24/7 at modest volume.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I let mine play about 6 to 7 hrs a day x 4 days a week at medium volume. Took several months. I'm at about 400 hrs now. Definite difference. I'm guessing about another 100 hrs will, for the most part, complete the break in.

I've had to break in guitar amp speakers too. They don't take as long as home audio speakers. Probably because they're usually played at higher volume levels.
 
I won't possibly be able to play anything 24/7 or many hours a day so it will take me a long time to break in the new ones when they get here.

Was just wondering if the Genre makes a difference as in Dianna Krall only would take 1000 hours where maybe Black Sabbath would take 500 hours due to the musical demands on the drivers.
 
Fastest way to break in speakers is to put them face to face, wire them out of phase, cover them with a blanket and play at medium levels for a few days around the clock. Preferably in the basement. :rolleyes:
Good to go in 4-5 days. Listening at medium levels for a few hours a day can take over a year and they still won't be fully broken in.
 
Sound of the Surf at just over half volume on continuous repeat - now over 850 hours on the Fyne 703s.

This was suggested to me (AVANTGARDE-USA at the time) by George Cardas at a CES show (IIRC, CES 2001) that we shared with Cardas, Grand Prix Audio, & BAT.

Always worked very well (plus folks who were staying in nearby rooms never complained), and we used it thereafter at each show, including all night at the end of each day before opening the next morning - not just CES (where we won Best of Show nearly every show). Overall, we won 7 Best Of awards at various shows in five years - from reviewers, the majority of which had not cared for horn speakers previously.

Just prior to opening the doors each morning, I always switched to the Cardas/Ayre IBE disc as a final tweak - a couple of runs of the Glide Tone - about 5 minutes each run.

Am I saying that the break-in tracks got us those awards? Of course not, but I am sure that they helped... :rolleyes:

Whenever possible, we also set them up face-to-face in opposite polarity, as mentioned above.

I still use that album - no longer available new - as well as the Cardas/Ayre IBE recording. Both are burned into iTunes on my MBPs, although transferred to M3U files through Audirvana. These days, I run them at 3/4 of standard volume, because my listening room is in its own building.
 
Mike said:
Daft Punk Random Access Memories on Repeat (not kidding) for 24/7 at modest volume.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

I have used this album for break-in myself. Nothing will work out your system like Daft Punk!
 
We had a Smooth Jazz station on HD that was in mono, not much for listening but it's what I used the last time I broke in speakers, played that and let them play at moderate levels wile at work then low overnight. If you work from home now you may have to be creative.

I too would think something with heavy bass content that ould work the woofer would be more beneficial forbreak in over piano/vocal type music.

What was fun is returning to the speakers for a listening session and discovering how they changed from last listen, you become a believer in "break-in". Obviously, the difference gets less and less as you approach the sound the speaker should have.
 
when i got my current speakers in july 2018, i just listened as i regularly do, ~1.5 hours per day. however, in retrospect some type of break-in regime like those suggested above might have been preferable.

it was somewhere around the 20-month / 1,000-hour mark that i feel they were completely broken-in. interestingly, it was the 10" wide-band AlNiCo woofer that did not really show its full capability / potential until i got almost all the way to 1,000 hours.
 
the Sterophile test CD has a brown noise track created for this purpose. JA recommends facing the speakers to each other in close proximity, wired out of phase to one another playing the brown noise track with your CDP/server on repeat. It works for me.
 
Shadowfax said:
I won't possibly be able to play anything 24/7 or many hours a day so it will take me a long time to break in the new ones when they get here.

Was just wondering if the Genre makes a difference as in Dianna Krall only would take 1000 hours where maybe Black Sabbath would take 500 hours due to the musical demands on the drivers.
Click to expand...

Dianna Krall , could put your speakers to sleep :D
 
Speakers are one of the few components that actually go through a real break in due to actual mechanical components... These components are the spider (lower suspension) and the cone surround (upper suspension).

The other is the often rather large capacitors in the cross-overs. The "forming" process of the capacitor is real however the actual "time" that takes is debatable. For small, everyday electronics and small, mass produced capacitors, probably not much. For the Wilson Audio capacitors they manufacture in house and largely by hand, it could be much longer.

In any case, whether the break in period is short or long, the speaker will someday arrive at its final destination.

With gear I have often found that if within the first 40-50 hrs your ears are not happy with the synergy, it will take many, many, more hours of convincing yourself you will be able to live with. That is the real break in...
 
Speedskater said:
One loud album with lots of bass and they are broken in. Anything longer is just audiophile myths and mis-understandings.
Click to expand...

I disagree, but I don't claim that I have scientific facts, just lots of experience observing this phenomenon.

When a system is fully optimized for working with the room, rather than against it, with the acoustic wave-launch and its reception at the listening seat really dialed-in, I have never had anyone who did not experience - and appreciate - a longer break-in time.

I could go on, but who needs more arguments in these days/times?
 
Jim Smith said:
I disagree, but I don't claim that I have scientific facts, just lots of experience observing this phenomenon.

When a system is fully optimized for working with the room, rather than against it, with the acoustic wave-launch and its reception at the listening seat really dialed-in, I have never had anyone who did not experience - and appreciate - a longer break-in time.

I could go on, but who needs more arguments in these days/times?
Click to expand...

I think whatever satisfies your 'belief' is all that matters yet when I hear someone claim 1000 hrs I cry foul, no auditory memory is that good !
 
Speedskater said:
One loud album with lots of bass and they are broken in. Anything longer is just audiophile myths and mis-understandings.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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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