Are there any measurements?
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Do Audio Speakers Break-in?
- Thread starter amirm
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I have some. Two ears. Chocolate eggs.
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While I generally do not think that break-in can do significant changes in sound in loudspeakers (even less in headphones), it seems easy to me to accept that the elasticity of some materials can change significantly and permanently under heat. For some speakers first heat applied (so first reason for these changes in elasticity to occur) happen in the first hours of usage. If or when this may be the case, it's manufacturer's job to put their product in best shape befor selling IMO.
Now for my anecdote (remember that I am not a break-in kind of guy
Of all the loundspeakers and headphones i had (there were some) this break-in thing happened to me only once and then it was striking. I still have that pair of loudspeakers, Monitor Audio Bronze 2 that out of the box sounded absolutelly horrible. I mean really bad, congested, nothing like a decent pair of speakers. I listened to them for 2 minutes in disbelief and I just went out to get the boxes back in my house in order to return them. It was not a deffective loudspeaker since both sounded equally bad. I was missing for 20 minutes from that room and they remained there playing loud. When i returned the sound was very good, night and day (i know how easy "audiophile" use these words So the break-in took less then 20 minutes and trust me it was nothing subtle. No change I could tell after these initial 20 minutes. They make me happy to this day. Now it may be that these loudspeakers were just stuck in a weird position and they unstuck under load, beats me but that was something I coudn't deny and I totally trust it was real. Of course everything could have happen in my brain, one cannot ever deny this argument. The whole universe can be immagined by me after all.
Now for my anecdote (remember that I am not a break-in kind of guy
Of all the loundspeakers and headphones i had (there were some) this break-in thing happened to me only once and then it was striking. I still have that pair of loudspeakers, Monitor Audio Bronze 2 that out of the box sounded absolutelly horrible. I mean really bad, congested, nothing like a decent pair of speakers. I listened to them for 2 minutes in disbelief and I just went out to get the boxes back in my house in order to return them. It was not a deffective loudspeaker since both sounded equally bad. I was missing for 20 minutes from that room and they remained there playing loud. When i returned the sound was very good, night and day (i know how easy "audiophile" use these words
So the break-in took less then 20 minutes and trust me it was nothing subtle. No change I could tell after these initial 20 minutes. They make me happy to this day. Now it may be that these loudspeakers were just stuck in a weird position and they unstuck under load, beats me but that was something I coudn't deny and I totally trust it was real. Of course everything could have happen in my brain, one cannot ever deny this argument. The whole universe can be immagined by me after all.
You should have immediately disconnected one of the speakers while letting the other continue playing. Then you could have compared easily compared them after the break-in.Now for my anecdote (remember that I am not a break-in kind of guy
Of all the loundspeakers and headphones i had (there were some) this break-in thing happened to me only once and then it was striking. I still have that pair of loudspeakers, Monitor Audio Bronze 2 that out of the box sounded absolutelly horrible. I mean really bad, congested, nothing like a decent pair of speakers. I listened to them for 2 minutes in disbelief and I just went out to get the boxes back in my house in order to return them. It was not a deffective loudspeaker since both sounded equally bad. I was missing for 20 minutes from that room and they remained there playing loud. When i returned the sound was very good, night and day (i know how easy "audiophile" use these words
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Considering I never thought breaking-in is a thing, the only option at that moment seemed to return the speakers, it wasn't my intention to test anything, just left them playing for no particular reason while being 20 minutes away.
Imagine a suitable smiley at the end of my post.
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I saw a lot of messages questioning why no loudspeakers sound worse after breaking in. That's quite simple - if burning in exists: tunning and voicing is done with heavily used drivers. A loudspeaker should sound as intended when the drivers are like those used for tuning/voicing, that means extensivelly used. Put in this an unfit driver (not broken-in) and it will sound suboptimall. I do not say this is the real thing but it is an easy to grasp scenario. You cannot extensivelly test and tweak and adjust a totally fresh, virgin driver.
A mechanism to reasonably explain some of the extreme versions of break-in anecdotes does occur to me.
If left facing up or down for extended periods (or worse, stored in such a manner that something presses on the cone) a speaker cone will develop a 'set'. The surround and suspension will take on an offset position. This isn't permanent, but a common trick to help ease the speaker back to normality is to run some serious signal into it - warming up the suspension a bit - so a bit of plastic flow is accelerated perhaps.
So, a speaker with a noticeable offset is going to have some issues. Indeed enough of an offset can reduce the motor efficiency. But that is pretty extreme. I have seen these effects in guitar speakers; they always have a very low x-max, so are more vulnerable. Also once in a very expensive Dynaudio 17cm mid-bass driver, for which the mistreatment was my fault. It did recover.
Anyway, the mechanism is clear. Brand new speakers, but they have been poorly stored, either spending the last six months on their back in a hot warehouse, or possibly even badly packed with something pushing on the woofer cone. Proud owner sets them up - and there is a clear problem. Not just unexpected sound, but something bad. And just like magic, a bit of oomph for a while, and the sound is great.
Is this evidence for break-in? Not in the sense that the golden eared push it. I would put it more in the category of repairing the result of mistreatment. Luckily one that results in no lasting harm. Maybe some manufactures know that their speakers and drivers have hard and unloved time between factory and user, and that sometimes a bit of sorting out is of value. A brand new speaker that has been well looked after in its journey from factory to user should have no such issues.
If left facing up or down for extended periods (or worse, stored in such a manner that something presses on the cone) a speaker cone will develop a 'set'. The surround and suspension will take on an offset position. This isn't permanent, but a common trick to help ease the speaker back to normality is to run some serious signal into it - warming up the suspension a bit - so a bit of plastic flow is accelerated perhaps.
So, a speaker with a noticeable offset is going to have some issues. Indeed enough of an offset can reduce the motor efficiency. But that is pretty extreme. I have seen these effects in guitar speakers; they always have a very low x-max, so are more vulnerable. Also once in a very expensive Dynaudio 17cm mid-bass driver, for which the mistreatment was my fault. It did recover.
Anyway, the mechanism is clear. Brand new speakers, but they have been poorly stored, either spending the last six months on their back in a hot warehouse, or possibly even badly packed with something pushing on the woofer cone. Proud owner sets them up - and there is a clear problem. Not just unexpected sound, but something bad. And just like magic, a bit of oomph for a while, and the sound is great.
Is this evidence for break-in? Not in the sense that the golden eared push it. I would put it more in the category of repairing the result of mistreatment. Luckily one that results in no lasting harm. Maybe some manufactures know that their speakers and drivers have hard and unloved time between factory and user, and that sometimes a bit of sorting out is of value. A brand new speaker that has been well looked after in its journey from factory to user should have no such issues.
Davedaring
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"Legend?"
Bear123
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I'm not familiar with them. Maybe they all got lost over the Bermuda Triangle on Friday the 13th while being transported by Santa.
Maybe you got no idea what you are talking about.
Balle Clorin
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They say that since it is the only way to prevent people from returning the speakers immediately. AN speakers sound muffled, giving a flat wall of sound and just bad on every occasion I have heard them. Especially bad in en event where the designer and chief sales guy Set them up an did the demo. I am just appalled about the misconception and philosophical errors and lack of science in the AN products But what can you expect from a company that have 78 records as the reference...
But even Toole states that a measurable difference can be found after a period , but to a very small degree( unnoticeable). My old speakers did maybe move the 3db low end by1Hz if my measurements can be trusted several days/weeks apart( and according the designer) ...but it is within the normal variation of measuring anyway
But it makes sense to me that the spider, sourrounde etc may loosen up after some time ,
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perhaps not a few hours but dozens or hours? hundreds?
I don't believe in audiophile jargon, or don't want to, but here is what happened to me .
I have my now "old" trusty Kef Q150 they tend to have this kind of bright sound that everyone talks about when refering to KEF, but I do enjoy them in my little room. I saved a little for my birthday and decided to go to something more neutral but much better in quality, with the intention of forgetting about new speakers for the years to come. So I bought a couple of Buchardt S400 based on how well they seem to measure and that everyone and their mother seem to rate them very good.
Thing is when I started playing recordings I just couldn't contain my dissapointment. No detail, unmoved by the sound. I kind of felt dissapointed and damning the "audiophile" shit. These speakers are not precisely cheap. I couldn't believe these would sound trash compared to "budget" entry level Kef Q150...
In some songs sometimes I even had the feeling they were distorting or making a "boomy" sound ¿¿?? I started switching speakers back and forth to compare, changing their position, rised them to my ear level in between and followed all instructions and still, couldn't believe the new speakers were performing so poorly in most cases, no detail and horrible sound.
After two weeks of playing them things kept more or less the same, perhaps the original feelings were not so obvious now, some songs even started to sound good for me....specially classic music.
Playing them quite loud on occasions to see if the break-in everyone talks about would bring me what I want from these speakers before deciding to return them...
Thing is now after extended "break-in" period they now sound refined, no more perceived distortions any more and I now feel I want to listen to them much more... I get the feeling the more I use them the more refined they are becoming. I have been constantly switching back and forth between these and the KEF and now they sound more alike in the detail, although I seem to perceive the so called excesive bridghtness from the KEF which I do enjoy (and I thought I didn't like highs as much as much as bass), the thing is the Buchardt sound to me like I expected more neutral, capable of very good bass and detailed with no stridences
Is it everything in my head?
Well, be that or not I am anxiously waiting for @amirm review of these speakers, specially if he hasn't touch them since he received them. Very curious... Hope they are untouched brand new too..
I don't believe in audiophile jargon, or don't want to, but here is what happened to me .
I have my now "old" trusty Kef Q150 they tend to have this kind of bright sound that everyone talks about when refering to KEF, but I do enjoy them in my little room. I saved a little for my birthday and decided to go to something more neutral but much better in quality, with the intention of forgetting about new speakers for the years to come. So I bought a couple of Buchardt S400 based on how well they seem to measure and that everyone and their mother seem to rate them very good.
Thing is when I started playing recordings I just couldn't contain my dissapointment. No detail, unmoved by the sound. I kind of felt dissapointed and damning the "audiophile" shit. These speakers are not precisely cheap. I couldn't believe these would sound trash compared to "budget" entry level Kef Q150...
In some songs sometimes I even had the feeling they were distorting or making a "boomy" sound ¿¿?? I started switching speakers back and forth to compare, changing their position, rised them to my ear level in between and followed all instructions and still, couldn't believe the new speakers were performing so poorly in most cases, no detail and horrible sound.
After two weeks of playing them things kept more or less the same, perhaps the original feelings were not so obvious now, some songs even started to sound good for me....specially classic music.
Playing them quite loud on occasions to see if the break-in everyone talks about would bring me what I want from these speakers before deciding to return them...
Thing is now after extended "break-in" period they now sound refined, no more perceived distortions any more and I now feel I want to listen to them much more... I get the feeling the more I use them the more refined they are becoming. I have been constantly switching back and forth between these and the KEF and now they sound more alike in the detail, although I seem to perceive the so called excesive bridghtness from the KEF which I do enjoy (and I thought I didn't like highs as much as much as bass), the thing is the Buchardt sound to me like I expected more neutral, capable of very good bass and detailed with no stridences
Is it everything in my head?
Well, be that or not I am anxiously waiting for @amirm review of these speakers, specially if he hasn't touch them since he received them. Very curious... Hope they are untouched brand new too..
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Probably. Can you compare them to a virgin pair and see if there is difference that is audible to you?Is it everything in my head?
Buster Chestnut
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I’m not so certain the concept of “speaker break-in” would positively favor the speaker manufacturers from a measurement standpoint, if speaker break-in is indeed a thing.
If I were rich and I could waste my time comparing I don't think I would even want to waste time on it.
We can call it magic or I that I am dumb, but searching the forums I am not the one reporting something similar, also I am not a great listener but I know what I heared, maybe I need more of a scientific method applied thats for sure.
I agree with you about that. OTOH, I was simply responding to your question.If I were rich and I could waste my time comparing I don't think I would even want to waste time on it.
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