Do Audio Speakers Break-in?

[AudioTodd]

I’ve had some Martin Logan’s that had no treble fresh out of the box; perhaps the panel needed to be fully charged? I confirmed it with in room measurement.

Out of curiosity, how long did it take for the treble to normalize (I assume it did and it was measurable)?

I think some break-in is plausible as is the proposition that different transducer types would have different break-in characteristics, however I don’t see anything terribly important about it as all of us music lovers will probably blow right through any potential break-in period in short order in which case it is only of academic interest and provides another example of how listeners’ perceptions can be all over the place, overblown and disconnected from reality.

 

[bigbag34]

No...break in does help....your ears....

That’s my stance as well. In my experience if I don’t like the speakers out of the box, then no amount of “break-in” is going to help.

 

[Martigane]

Disappointed to see a conclusion drawn just based on frequency response, before even looking at THD/IMD/CSD/Bl graph and T/S params. We need a lot more to seriously demistify such great topic..

 

[Xulonn]

That’s my stance as well. In my experience if I don’t like the speakers out of the box, then no amount of “break-in” is going to help.

In my experience if I can't get the speakers out of the box, then no amount of “break-in” is going to help. /moresnark

(The Gryphon Mojo S speakers in the pic cost $29,500 per pair - don't expect to see one on @amirm 's Klippel rig anytime soon)

 

[laudio]

In the 40-50Hz range there is a small difference though, perhaps due to repeatability of measurements.

Waiting for a JBL Studio 530 review - I think it will give the Revel a run for the money.

 

[Andreas007]

Well another effect that migth get confused with burn in is starting very cold equipment ?

You get new in box stuff rigth of the truck a cold day and eagerly you plug it in with parts that are at -10 degrees ( Celsius)

Maybe that's an extreme example. But let's do a small digression:

Polymer materials have a so called glass transition temperature Tg (or more precise: a transition range around that temperature). At glass transition properties of the polymer can change dramatically. Simplyfied: Below Tg = brittle, above Tg = soft/plastic.
Let's speculate: If you (accidentally) use a polymer material in your speaker which has a broad transition range at about room temperature (23 °C) this would be a design flaw (e. g. when used for a suspension). The result would be big material property changes despite only minor changes in room temperature.

On the other hand, if you want to absorb vibration energy into a rubber you should deliberately choose a material which has it's Tg peak at operating temperature. Then, dissipation of energy is highest.

Anyway, if ever possible, one should choose the polymer materials in such a way that glass transition temperature is outside of standard operating temperature range. Which should be the case for most rubbers (usually way below 0 °C).

 

[jhaider]

Dr. Toole has the best needle to pop this bubble.

Sound Reproduction (3rd ed.) at 18.

 

[bobbooo]

There is no doubt in my experience used or demo speakers sound better than out of the box speakers. We used to put them side by side in the demo room. Identical speakers, one pair had been pushed in demos and the others we'd unpack to swap over so the customers would get the speaker they listened to and we'd run in the new pair. Also meant we knew the speakers that went out the door were as good as they could be and had no faults.

I would not be a happy customer if I received a used product after having paid full-price...I'm sure you at least did controlled double-blind listening tests with the new and demo speakers though before confirming there was an actual audible difference and your impressions weren't due to expectation bias. Right?

 

[GabrielZM]

Dr. Toole has the best needle to pop this bubble.
View attachment 53080

Sound Reproduction (3rd ed.) at 18.

mmmm...I don't known, Beatles can be very aggressive . Love the fake advertisement.

 

[PuX]

to be fair I've never heard about break-in within a couple of hours.

most sources say 20 hours and up. some articles say 100+ hours for a headphone, can't remember which one.

so for I would suggest running a long-term test. just use a new pair of speakers for the first test, let them play for a few weeks-months and then do another test. and use the same amp with digital volume control to make sure volumes is the same. and same cables.

 

[hyperknot]

Official Harbeth FAQ:

Do I need to 'burn-in' my Harbeths?

No: the only component part of a Harbeth loudspeaker that can change as a result of 'burning-in', is the resin-doped cloth suspension that centres the neck of the cone in the magnetic field - sometimes called the 'spider'. Under the microscope, once the resin-cloth has been worked backwards and forwards, it crazes into millions of small interconnected islands. This process is irreversible and takes only a few hours with bass heavy music played a little louder than normal. After that point, the drive unit can be considered fully stabilised with the resonant frequency settled to its final value. The ferrofluid used in Harbeth tweeters becomes appropriately viscous after a few minutes operation. Neither the coils, resistors, capacitors, cables nor any other part of a Harbeth speaker has any short-term ageing mechanism.

 

[Rincewind]

How about just using the loudspeakers! For those understanding that break-in is a waste of time they get to enjoy their music immediately with full fidelity. For those believing it makes a difference, they can listen their music whilst the loudspeakers magically improve before their ears - using them breaks them in! I really see no point in discussing this any futher because this is an entreched topic where their are enlightened thinkers and endarkened believers.

 

[Rincewind]

Harbeth's view above is absolutely right and mirrors my experience too.

 

[fricc]

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."...

I have a couple of thoughts about break-in. Speakers are mechanical devices, so of course things change over time, but what exactly? What parameters of the speaker could make a difference in break in, and for which components?

@amirm measured the frequency response. The only way that would change is if any of the electromechanical parameters of the drivers (like Q of the transducer) would significantly change. Aside from the fact that a couple of hours might be a bit short for any of that, maybe it is not the frequency response that changes.

How about distortion? Speakers work in a linearity zone of the suspension, which to me sounds like the most likely parameter subject to change. What if the linearity range extends over time as the suspension materials relax? May distortion go down?

What about breakup frequencies, where the speaker is not working in piston mode anymore but lots of resonant modes are excited instead? How does that change with aging? Do the high order excitation modes get dampened down as a paper cone gets broken in? What about a silk dome? Or a beryllium transducer?

Sounds like an interesting investigation, maybe we can meet it with curiosity

- Fabio

 

[Worth Davis]

I have only had problems with a speaker - bad cone or crossover...Ive rerun REW and DIRAC a year apart and they are identical and I have to name the file to tell them apart. I laser align the mic in the same position. Ive always said if you bump a speaker with a vacuum cleaner it will have more in room impact than break in, amps, or cables. I can prove this with basic sweeps (toe in change 5 degrees or distance being off and inch or two)

 

[Prana Ferox]

Regardless of any actual effects on T-S parameters, taking your new subwoofer driver out of the box onto the kitchen table and running it in free air with subsonic test tones to 'stretch it out' and watch it wubwubwub away and shake the house, is cool and fun

 

[restorer-john]

I would not be a happy customer if I received a used product after having paid full-price...I'm sure you at least did controlled double-blind listening tests with the new and demo speakers though before confirming there was an actual audible difference and your impressions weren't due to expectation bias. Right?

 

[DualTriode]

Do Audio Speakers Break-in?


Hello All,


I have no clue at all.


Audio Speakers do warm up.


My cat, Sparky, and I have a lab up on the California north coast. While we are away we set the thermostat on 50 degrees. When we arrive the heat goes up and the humidity goes down.


I purchased 4 used JBL2217H woofer drivers. They should be fully broken in, I assume. Using an APX555, an APx1701 acoustic test and the APx500 acoustic software, no 2 sweeps produce the same Thiele Small Parameters. As the furnace runs and I sweep the JBL2217 more than a few times the T/S P’s settle into a range. Even then I have little faith using the T/S P’s to calculate a reflex enclosure. If I increase the sweep voltage the T/S P’s remain a moving target.


Solution:

Make an educated attempt at calculating an enclosure. Construct the test enclosure. Adjust the enclosure volume and vent under full listening power.


What does this say about break-in I do not know?

What it does say about real world listening is this. Calibrate your listening level and let the thing warm up.


Thanks DT

 

[snake3276120]

I do hear some difference in my Dali Spektor 1 when I first crack it open vs now. When I first got it the treble is not clear so I added 3db to the crossover frequency and above then it sounds "right" to me. Sometime between 50-100 hours of listening (I lost track), the treble is OK by turning off the EQ. I don't say this lightly because I use some track I've listened for years as reference. I am pretty confident that I know the details (Bach Partita for Violin No. 2 BWV 1004 movement 4 by Hilary Hahn, which I also play). The manual did require at least 100 hours of breaking in.

100 hour is probably just a reference, like 2000 miles for cars to break in (new cars don't call it break in, rather than saying don't do crazy stuff within this milage). Running 2000 miles mostly highway (say 2000rpm @ 75mph) vs 2000 miles mostly local (say 2000rpm @ 30mph) is totally different and the book didn't tell you. Of course car people will tell you during this period don't go on high way.

To amirm's measurement, I think it differs from manufactures to manufactures. One sample is not enough to make a call on all of them. The speaker I have also doesn't apply to others. It really depends on the design and what the manufactures will do to it.

Bottom line is, to me, any mechanical device requires some break in, it's a matter of more or less. There is a reason why some car manufactures are using electric motors to break in the engine before it got assembled.

Being said, I never break in any pure electronic device (like my customized computer or any DAC, amps).

 

[RayDunzl]

I’ve had some Martin Logan’s that had no treble fresh out of the box; perhaps the panel needed to be fully charged? I confirmed it with in room measurement.

The panel does, of course, need a charge. I've read 2500V, but that's from a dim memory, and may not be accurate.

Mine are 22 years old now. They turn of their charging circuit after a while when no signal is applied, and the charge on the panel leaks down over time (more than a few minutes, maybe hours). If you play them unplugged, eventually you will notice dulling. totally discharged, the panel might be silent.

I could perform a fresh experiment for that.

I use them less now, having JBL LSR 308 for daily casual TV and HDRadio use.

I have not noticed a problem when, on Beer Saturday, after maybe a week of being "off", they are hit again with signal.

I would estimate the charge time at maybe a second (probably less).

I don't know which model or vintage speaker is referred to above, there could be differences, but I find it doubtful.

---

Limited experiment:

They've been off for at least 12 hours, maybe 36... Don't remember. They probably didn't play last evening, but did recently late at night.

I unplugged them after verifying their "charging" LED was off, and applied TV signal:

I expected worse, they sound almost normal.

The bass is exaggerated a bit


Let's look closer...

No recharge power yet. Pink noise applied.

Crossover from woofer to panel is 180Hz.

Panel frequencies look pretty flat, It;s not like any particular frequency range is affected more than another.

Upon plugging them in, I hear the change occur over one to two seconds.

Approximately 10dB gain seen on the panel, bringing it more in line with the woofage.

So, with 12 and probably 36 hours of idle discharge, about 10dB was lost on the panels.

---

Unplugged again. No change. It will change, as the panel leaks down. over time