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Do Audio Speakers Break-in?

amirm

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There are a lot of "everybody knows" type of rules in audio with one of them being that audio gear in general, and speakers in the specific, benefit from "break-in." That is, their performance improves after some time. This is mostly touted by audiophiles but manufacturers also fuel this notion. See this from Klipsch's website:

1583469992696.png


Kind of strange that a company like Klipsch that knows how to measure speakers, doesn't provide a single bit of validation for this statement. You are just told to believe.

Why shouldn't we believe? I remember just about every new car I purchased said in the manual there was a break-in period and I read in auto magazine that after their long term test, mileage improved and so did power. In the case of speakers, they are made out of material that like any leather glove, can surely benefit from use to soften and fit like well, a glove. Are we supposed to all of a sudden throw out all this common sense and listen to a bunch of "objectivsts" telling us otherwise on some Internet forum? Surely not.

Heck, there are even measurements that show drivers like woofers change their characteristics after a few hours of "run in." Objective proof doesn't get better than this. Or does it?

Well, it is true that drivers change behavior after a bit of use but once you put them in a compliant box of a speaker, those differences become minimal. And certainly don't rise to the level of improvement people talk about. We could and usually stop here as the end of our argument but let's add some data, shall we?

Break-in Speaker Measurements
A couple of days ago I reviewed the Revel M16 speaker. Anxious to get quick results, I ran the test with 500 measurement points. For a 2-way speaker with clean implementation, that should be enough. When I compared the results of my measurements to Harman's anechoic measurements, I noticed that the high frequencies were rolled off in my test versus theirs. This can happen with my measurement system is the "expansion order" is too low. To increase that, I needed to measure the speaker again with higher number of points. So I doubled the measurement points to 1000 and ran the test again without touching the speaker or any other parameter.

The first 500 point measurement took about an hour and fifteen minutes. The second test took over 2 hours. If there is anything to break-in, then the second test should show some improvement. Here is the comparison:

Revel M16 Standmount Bookshelf High-end Speaker Break-in Audio Measurements.png


The two measurements are essentially identical. This, despite the fact that the 1000 point measurement has much higher order expansion so brings with it more accuracy and some variations. Yet, the response is still the response. No way anything regarding tonality of the speaker changed. The same bass, mids and highs are there.

Subjective Testing
While I did not listen to the speaker between runs, I did listen to it after the second test. At that point, there was 3 to 4 hours of run time on the speaker. I compared the M16 to my Revel Salon 2 which have played hundreds or thousands of hours of music. The M16 very closely resembled the sound of the Salon 2 sans out level capability and deep bass. So no way is anything broken about it right now to need to improve.

Conclusions
Objective analysis shows that there is no change to the frequency response and hence tonality of the speaker after a few hours of intensive running (full sweeps from 20 to 20 kHz). This completely mirrors research performed at Harman where they tested a new woofer and a "broken-in" one in a real speaker. While physical changes are occurring in the driver, they are at such low level that there is no hope of attaching them to audibility.

Of course our perception of audio is not just connected to sound our ears pick up. Many other factors come into play from our faulty long term memory to allergies and mood. These are responsible for variations we hear even when nothing of import has changed in the system.

Manufacturers either genuinely believe in the speaker break-in myth, repeating what they have falsely concluded like audiophiles. Or are hoping that if you don't like the speaker at first, you hang on to it longer to lose the motivation or option to return them later. Either way, there is no reason to listen to them unless they provide objective proof that sound changes with break-in. After all, this is no small difference so surely they can measure and provide proof.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Now that I have saved you a ton of money from myth of speaker burn-in, how about donating some of that to me so I can run more of these tests using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 

beefkabob

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Nope! Somebody is going to say to run it with pink noise at 85db for 100 hours or something. In fact Klipsch basically says that.
https://www.klipsch.com/blog/how-to-break-in-a-speaker
"After about 100 hours of use, your speakers should be broken in."

So to truly put this myth to rest, let it play loudly for 100 hours. Then try again. Don't give me any of this "should be" stuff. We're dealing with audioimbeciles here. They need the point crammed down their throats. Also maybe do it with the Klipsch speaker since, ya know, different brands.
 

gags11

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Most of us confuse our subjective perception or “brain break-in” with what is real. In other words, we hear what we want to hear at a subconscious level.

This and all the high-end expensive audio perception is nicely exemplified by this cool Brain Games experiment. Sorry if it has been posted before.

 

mac

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solderdude

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I have run similar tests with some headphones and also found no break-in.
At least no notable changes to speak of, so did Tyll and Rtings.

Still, it is possible some drivers do change in the first hour or so I can't rule that out based on the few measurements I have done.
 

spacevector

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Well, it is true that drivers change behavior after a bit of use but once you put them in a compliant box of a speaker, those differences become minimal.
So it's the box that's pissing over any changes the driver might have gone through?

How about open baffle loudspeakers? May be the room is the box there...

How does this extend to headphones? Are the ears the box in this scenario?
 
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doodlebro

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Could the break-in myth be related to the way sound changes as speaker components and amplifiers warm up? Headphones might be a different story too, but I'm not an expert.

I'd like a more extended break-in for this test though. Say, 500 hours of white noise and then measure it again. I'm hard to please.
 

direstraitsfan98

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audiontebreakin.png


Audionote is saying if you dont use your speakers for a week, you need to burn them in again for 5-10 hours.
 

majingotan

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This guy is a loudspeaker design legend and begs to differ.

http://www.gr-research.com/burnin.htm

Typical observations regarding speaker burn in involves an opening up or relaxing of the presentation. Vocals will appear less strained or congested. The sound smooths out. Bass response appears cleaner, tighter, less distorted, and even deeper. These same observations are reported day in and day out by people all over the world and is very consistent.

Still there are those who claim that it is the listener that does the burning in as one gets used to the sound. Funny thing is that if a speaker has a bright, edgy, or fatiguing sound to it, you will be more fatigued the longer that you listen to it not less fatigued the longer you listen.

Third paragraph is 100% BullSchiit. I bought my Yamaha HS7 brand new and there's absolutely no perceived difference from the way it sounded before and after. What I can tell from day to day experience is that if you listen to your main system for a long time and you switch to a different transducer, there can be a biased perception as your ears adjust to the new frequency response curve. Some people even reported that their secondary systems sounded better than what they remember back then after not hearing that system for a while (quite literally the opposite of burn-in :facepalm:). It's obvious that it's a psychological effect of our brain adjusting to the new FR curve. As for bright/edgy/fatiguing sound, better tweeter and waveguide designs provide a smoother response (less peaks and valleys) at those frequencies.
 

ENG

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From D A L I F A Z O N ® S U B 1
M A N U A L:

"You should expect the sound quality from your new subwoofer to gradually improve during the
initial period of use. Nothing particular has to be done in order to run in the subwoofer – but
expect up to 100 hours of playback (depending on playback level) before full performance level is
reached. Use normal music for running-in the subwoofer."
 

Kvalsvoll

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Speaker break-in is very real and very measurable, but in most cases will still not be audible.

The magnitude of break-in effects depends on the construction of the speaker drivers. Some does not change much at all, others can show significant changes.

Bass drivers tend to soften up in the suspension after some heavy use, this can change bass roll-off slightly, after some use the q gets a little lower.

Break-in can also affect distortion, because suspension stiffness characteristics affect distortion. If this is the case, it is also measurable - of course. Most drivers are not affected, but some are.

For any break-in to occur, there needs to be movement in the mechanical parts, so running measurements at low signal level is not going to change anything.

Changes in suspension stiffness can show up in the frequency response if the changes are large enough. If distortion is affected, it is likely that this can be seen as a significant reduction of high order harmonics.

----
And it does not take "100s of hours", and normal music listening will not change anything. For bass drivers, a few minutes of 14Hz sine wave at full excursion usually show a measurable change in suspension stiffness.
 

digicidal

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I wonder how many people that are obsessed over driver changes experienced during "break-in" are as obsessed with the ambient temperature and humidity in the room they're listening in. Don't have the access, time, nor a shit-to-give on that experiment - but I'd guess there's nearly as much variance due to these environmental factors as there is in spider/cone/surround flexibility changes, etc. Especially in comparison to the initial changes which occurred between manufacturing and whatever QC test is run prior to assembly.

I'm sure just throwing a few Shakti stones on them will work out the differences regardless. ;)

Still think it's ironic how it's not similarly viewed as having a sweet spot between 1000 hours played and 4000 hours played - with more than the upper limit getting progressively worse sounding. Makes as much sense as initial changes improving the sound IMO. I don't think many manufacturers will give the green light to a marketing department wanting to put "only sounds good for the first 4000 hours of use" on their products. :D
 

DeeJay

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Speaker driver Thiele/Small parameters do change after break-in and it's measurable. It's mainly because of nature of rear suspension (spider) and how it's designed/manufactured. There are some drivers that changed fs for 25Hz or more (that's a lot!) and also some that if not used for a while need to break-in again (because they are using resin that hardens if not in use).
 

garbulky

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Nope! Somebody is going to say to run it with pink noise at 85db for 100 hours or something. In fact Klipsch basically says that.
https://www.klipsch.com/blog/how-to-break-in-a-speaker
"After about 100 hours of use, your speakers should be broken in."
Yes, if possible, do this, please. That's very strong data if you do. Even better if you let it run for 500 straight hours and remeasure every 100 hours. Evidence is evidence.
 
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amirm

amirm

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For any break-in to occur, there needs to be movement in the mechanical parts, so running measurements at low signal level is not going to change anything.
I have to wear headphones while testing them. I can assure you there is movement in low frequencies in these speakers.
 
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amirm

amirm

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From D A L I F A Z O N ® S U B 1
M A N U A L:

"You should expect the sound quality from your new subwoofer to gradually improve during the
initial period of use. Nothing particular has to be done in order to run in the subwoofer – but
expect up to 100 hours of playback (depending on playback level) before full performance level is
reached. Use normal music for running-in the subwoofer."
So we should be able to contact the company to tell us where they got the 100 hour number from? I mean why is it not 87 hours? Or 13 hours? Why 100? If they have not run any tests to determine that, well, what they say is not worth anything.
 

RayDunzl

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I wonder how many people that are obsessed over driver changes experienced during "break-in" are as obsessed with the ambient temperature and humidity in the room they're listening in.

78F and 51% here.

I keep an eye on it, but not obsessed.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Speaker break-in is very real and very measurable, but in most cases will still not be audible.
Well then let's see those measurements then. Not drivers. But complete speakers. And how many hours it took to get them there.
 
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