Speaker Break In - Myth or Fact? #utilitariantv #speaker

You Can Also Follow Me Here...

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. By buying through any of the links below I will earn commission to support the channel at no extra cost to you. Thank You.

U.K. Associate Links

U.S. Associate Links

[drhfuhruhurr]

New speakers are like a stiff pair of new shoes. They need a bit of time to loosen up!

[GrahamDyson-hz]

As an 'audiophile' of almost fifty years. I've most often purchased used loudspeaker's, but on the odd occasion that I've invested in a Brand New pair, then YES, there is most certainly a 'running in' period. There is therefore, most definitely a period of time before they'll give off their 'best' sonic performance.

[MegaSnake]

I have heard that with subwoofers you need to break them in, its apparently to allow the rubber diaphragm to properly seat itself.

[Panslapper]

Brand new out of the box my WD 12.2 sounded shrill in the treble, like an Eagle scream but after a few days they sweetened up as well as a more rich tone overall developed. The brittle edge vanished.

[MrSlipstreem]

As the loudspeaker designer below rightly states, there is a break-in period on brand new drivers. As nearly everyone's listening environment is highly suboptimal, whether or not you'll actually notice the difference is another matter entirely.

[mrkitewine]

The documentation for my Neat speakers (motive SX3) suggest “a running in period of at least 200 hours is necessary to stabilise performance”.
I don’t have the ability to do an A/B comparison between brand new and 2 months old, however Neat themselves have done it and have said the speakers do sound better after at least 200 hours in them, and even better with more time on them (they have compared more than 1 year old with brand new and have said the older sounds much better), I presume the 200 hours is the point where the change slows down and the diminishing returns really kick in.

[arvidlystnur]

Best example, my father's Jenson bookshelf speaker with 8 inch woofers and paper tweeters had the foam surrounds rot out.
We replaced them with the radio shack kevlar woofers. For about a week the bass was real weak until the spiders loosened up, then the bass frequencies opened up because the woofers broke in.
I'm a bass player who's choice of cabinets is ACME. The designer has special 10 inch drivers that produce low extended frequencies, at a cost of inefficiency.
When they're new the drivers are so stiff bass players who crank up the volume immediately after unboxing it burn up the voice coil, trying to produce bass.
The instructions are to play a CD continuously for about 8 hours.
I looped a Focus CD for 8 hours when I unboxed my ACME 4-10.
It sounded so tinny the first minutes I thought I got ripped off. Eight hours later the bass sounded better than any other bass cabinet.
Years later I purchased an ACME 2-10 but being a jazz musician, I skipped the break in procedure as I don't play loud enough to burn a voice coil.
I adjusted the EQ so the bass was solid enough for my sound but every twenty minutes the bass frequencies became overwhelming so I'd have to notch back on the upper and lower bass frequencies.
This went on for about three days till the suspensions broke in
Yes I believe speakers must be broken in.
Wire and cable break in is nonsense.
EDIT: I wrote the preceding comment before I listened to this whole presentation.
I didn't realize how vicious this topic could get. Let me state that stand by my comment but could be wrong. It appears logical that woofers that need to travel in an out to a greater amplitude would be more affected by the stiffness of the surrounds and the spider.
Materials do become more flexible with bending. You can't avoid the physics.
I do believe however after watching this whole video, any break-in period over 8 hours is at best, diminishing returns, at worst woo woo science.

[marshgatelaneposse]

I have always said if you can’t hear any difference between a new or a speaker with 100 hrs on it get any speaker

[kongtzengchang]

I did try 2 pairs of them (1 monitor and 1 tower) for my self if they make any different by only play 1 speaker 10 hours per day for 25 days and then compare to the other one that just seat there and found that I may hear some different but not to the point of I care about. For now on if I like the new pair at the first time I will keep them If not they are going back as soon as I could.

[terrykemp]

There is definitely a speaker break-in time, depending on the make and nature of the speaker. It would be great if you could review the Wharfdale Evo 4.2's. However, the size and dynamics of the room, also plays an important role.

[barryedwards]

For Me breaking anything in from brand new makes sense and a sensible thing to do, as like someone said on here, even a pair of shoes, it could also be a new car, a kettle, whatever, the thing is, this should be common sense, to us all, in respect of Hi-Fi units, its your ears that should be the judge of when you have run components in enough. more so than manufactures guidelines.

[Pete.across.the.street]

I bought Q Acoustics Concept 50's a few months ago. It was missing top end sparkle for a few weeks, then all of a sudden the sparkle was there. Guess it just needed time to open up.

[rich.e]

Interesting topic.
I've not experienced much break-in with speakers and headphones; not going to dispute that it happens though.
My only finding is that those transducers I didn't like initially, still sounded rubbish to me hundreds of hours later.

[geraldoram]

If after testing before and after running in there was no audible difference what was the point of it?

[michaell]

I fully appreciate the need to break in speakers, but when certain reviewers talk about cable break in or burn in or whatever, I loose the will to live.

[OrbitalStereo]

When running in speakers, I would be interested to hear how people do it. What type of music or a dedicated test track? How loud? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Timoeltejano]

My Wharfedale Denton 80th anniversary editions sounded great from the beginning and amazing after about a week. I plug them in and play them for about 24 hours straight, in my office. It's probably overkill but i do that with all of my new ones.

[shemsureshot]

To me break in is when I test new speakers on various content to check if they are working. Psychoacoustics plays a huge factor during this process and beyond. It is closely linked to your mood which is why your experience with hifi can change one moment to the next.

[paulupton]

Ain't listening to music complicated?😁

[cunawarit]

Speaker driver break-in, at least, makes logical sense. Drivers are moving components, and it’s easy to understand how usage might subtly affect their performance over time. However, I can’t help but cringe when people start claiming that "burning in" the air in a room will somehow make their WiFi streamer sound better.