What to make of something like this... ?

[Hotwetrat]

https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/blog/how-run-speakers

2 thoughts/questions I have in my mind.

1) Can anyone not feel disappointed when reading this sort of thing on the website of a 'respected' brand such as CA.

2) The motivation bemuses me - we would usually just automatically assume the good old 'ears adjust, manufacturers know this, and less chance of returns' etc etc, and ETC! - no need for me to beat that dead horse on this forum ya'll know what I'm saying. YET, further down they offer a way to run in the speakers which would have possibly minimal, to zero 'ears adjusting' period.

So, what the heck are they actually advising here? Maybe they believe it themselves?

Any thoughts on this? If they didn't offer a way to 'run in the speakers' which avoided the 'geting used to them' period, I would just be left with the expected 'dissapointed' feeling I mentioned earlier. As it is I'm somewhat bemused

*scratched head*

 

[Vini darko]

It all starts with shit seeds , now there's some truth in shit seeds. But once they get in to audiophile minds they gestate into little shitlings. If it's not delt with , you know what you get?
Shitforest.... a god damm shitforest.
(Note: pop culture trailer park boys reference. I love lahey's drunken rants)

 

[abdo123]

Cambridge Audio is on the cusp between Objectivity and Subjectivity.

their designs are engineering driven but they use subjective marketing bullshit like this to protect their asses when the customer is 'not happy' because it simply sounds different than what they're used to in their previous setups.

 

[Wes]

how do we know that their speakers don't use some material that does benefit from break-in?

only a few speakers have been tested AFAIK

albeit, it is likely that only the listener is breaking in...

 

[DVDdoug]

The only thing we can’t help you with (as much as we’d REALLY like to) is running in your brand spanking new set of speakers.

That's an odd statement... Why not?

I work in (non-audio) electronics and we burn-in everything for 48 hours (at elevated temperature). I've worked other places that burned-in for a week. This is NOT because it magically improves performance. It's to weed-out any early failures. The actual burn-in doesn't cost anything (except for energy costs) so we can burn-in as long as we want. But it does mean testing twice which does add cost. If we can do it, they can do it.

Usually the speakers will be sufficiently run in after a total of 20-30 hours of normal use and they will often continue to develop and improve for the first hundred or so hours.

"Usually". But, sometimes they get worse, and after a couple-hundred hours they really start to to deteriorate!

 

[MaxBuck]

There are countless potential explanations for why a "break-in" period could be good for speakers. So far I've seen no mechanistic explanation for any speaker as to why it is desirable.