Breaking ’em in

I finally got around to building a box for my new sub, its all in and working and sounds good. I often hear people talking about breaking their speakers in, and I've heard the figure '20 hours play time' kicked around.

What actually 'breaks in' exactly and does the sound actually improve noticeably? I would guess the rubber surround would soften up a bit, anything else?

-------------
What's that flippie??

short answer, its a controverstial subject.

my thoughts are more towards, break-ins are a bit of a wives tail, after playing with your speakers you may find they go louder, and louder than you previously thought... but i dont think breaking in is nessesary. i'll let someone else disagree with me because i really have no basis other than, since day one i try to pump the most out of all my stereo speakers(5.25s and 6.5's) and they havent torn yet

My advice is Slam the s..t out of em while the warrantys still good,lol

I have known people to break woofers shortly after installing them by caning the hell out em. But is that because they're an agressive user or because they weren't worn in? Blowing them up isn't usually covered under warranty anyway I don't think.

I'm not really talking about volume anyway, I have heard repeatedly that the sound gets a bit better after a few hours.

Anyone? I'm intrigued now!



-------------
What's that flippie??

Car audio subwoofers generally do not require much of any break in period.  Some high-end mids and mid-bass drivers can benefit from it.  High-end home audio speakers benefit the most.  Yes, a break-in period can improve the sound quality of loudspeakers as the surround becomes a bit more flexible after it moves around for a while and mid-bass response should improve.  There are many opinions about how to to do this; for car audio, the best advice I can give is to operate for a few days at no more than 1/2 volume before you ever exceed that.  But if you think about it, if you set the input sensitivity (gain) on your amps properly, you have already operated at full volume.  For subs, it really won't make much difference.  Weather extremes, moisture and amplifier clipping are much more dangerous for car audio loudspeakers than possibly over-stressing the spider and surround by operating without a proper break-in.  You'll know your speakers are fully broken in when you stop "hearing the speakers" and realize you are only hearing the music (the speakers are not adding any coloration, harshness or distortion.)

-------------
Support the12volt.com

Nice answer sir! When I first bought my front speakers they were really separated, I mean the mid bass and tweeter were quite obviously separate. After about a month I couldn't tell, music just 'came' from their location. I wondered if it was me or the speakers. If you say that midbass improves then I agree with that from my above experience.

I would have thought subs would have the largest need to break in due to the surround size compared to other speakers within the system.

Its been 2 days since new install (~or about 10 hours listening- I've been driving a lot) and I believe the sound has greatly improved. Its deeper and has lost the horrible 'boom' from the first hour, after that the improvement was slow. This is of course, just to my ears.

-------------
What's that flippie??

i noticed the same thing when i took my car home from the install-shop, i also had an EQ and all my speakers were then powered by my amp, whereas before i had fronts running off my sh**y deck. it took a while for me to adjust to the new sound i was hearing, but now, i would not trade what i hear for whatever i could have saved. the music i get outta my midbass and highs, is crisp to the point where solos for electrics give me the shivvers, it sounds so nice ;-).

i still think its mostly a wives tale, or people are too cautious when making the point of breaking the speakers in, but to each there own, its your speakers treat them as you like :-)

"Break-in" & "Burn-in" are audiophile myths. Same as cables adding bass reasponse.

Paul

-------------

"Same as cables adding bass reasponse", while cables cant add bass, they can sure attribute to the loss of base. Poor cable will have a negative impact on a stereo

-------------
double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer