Do brand new speakers require a break-in period?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by namahealani, Jan 17, 2006.

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  1. Jim T

    Jim T Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mars
    -----------------
    Most likely 100 hours.
     
  2. back2vinyl

    back2vinyl Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Here's Alan Shaw, designer and owner of Harbeth Audio UK (and I guess he should know):

    "As far as loudspeakers that I know of are concerned, the issue is 100% in the mind. It is entirely about acclimatisation. I am so sure of this that I am willing to eat any Harbeth speaker that you or anyone else can demonstrate changes its character after a so-called burn in.

    "This is one of those wretched non-issues that has been hijacked by marketeers as a cover for poor speaker design. They've cunningly switched the responsibility from the designer to the consumer saying 'if you, the consumer can't hear how wonderful these speakers are then you, the consumer are in the wrong'. In fact, the design is wrong.

    "Speaking as a designer, it is 100% my responsibility - my duty, my job to design you a speaker that you will enjoy from the moment you open the carton. It is not your responsibility to have to endure some half-baked, ill-conceived excuse for a quality speaker for hundreds of hours until you are so ground down by the experience that you can't tell right from wrong. Sorry, but that's the reality - poor design covered-up by marketing BS: that's the top and bottom of the 'burn-in' fantasy!"

    http://www.harbeth.co.uk/usergroup/showthread.php?372-Break-in-(burn-in)-and-biwiring-fantasy
     
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  3. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Acoustic guitars, as well as violins and such are well known to have a break in, especially for the top wood, the vibration alters the structure of the wood to a degree. Moving, vibrating things that produce sound are going to change as they vibrate over time. Such is with a speaker.
     
  4. Ortofun

    Ortofun Well-Known Member

    Location:
    nowhere
    Alan Shaw has his opinion, but they fly in the face of loads of real life experiences, and in the face of other very good designers.

    Obviously he has not experienced it personally, this can only apply to his personal experience...........nothing more :)
     
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  5. OldCoder

    OldCoder Well-Known Member In Memoriam

    Location:
    St. Paul, MN, USA
    I found that my re-coned speakers required as much breaking as any new speakers I ever owned (except for Maggie's, they took a LONG time).

    That still never took as long as my finding the best location for them in my room.
    No two sets of speakers EVER wound up in the same spots to sound their best!

    Some of the most pleasurable work I have ever done was finding those spots....
     
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  6. bhazen

    bhazen ANNOYING BEATLES FAN

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    Re: Alan Shaw; while I respectfully disagree with his post generally (based only on my own experience), I will say that when I got my C7s home, they sounded fantastic...and remained so. Maybe RADIAL is an exception to the rule regarding speaker cone materials.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2014
  7. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
  8. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Nope—capacitors get charged, surrounds stretch, things loosen up and settle into place. All elements that easily shift with use.
     
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  9. Ortofun

    Ortofun Well-Known Member

    Location:
    nowhere
    No doubt a great designer, regardless :).
     
    bhazen likes this.
  10. bhazen

    bhazen ANNOYING BEATLES FAN

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    Truth.
     
  11. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I asked my dealer about this many years ago. He said that new speakers are tested at the manufacturer, but are then shipped overseas, and stored for months in cold warehouses with their drivers stabilized. A"break in" period is needed before new speakers will sound like show room demos. That made sense to me.
     
  12. AJH

    AJH Senior Member

    Location:
    PA Northern Tier
    A number of years ago, a friend of mine, who owned a high end audio store, held a seminar at his store where the designer of the high end speakers I recently purchased spoke about the speakers and how they were designed and actually made. During the question and answer session, he was asked about break-in, and he said he felt the speakers needed at least one hundred hours to begin to sound good, and about two hundred hours to approach their optimum sound (this was the same answer my friend who owned the store gave me when I purchased the speakers). I totally agreed with what they said.

    AJH
     
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  13. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Well said Mr. Shaw. We need more like him.
     
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  14. AJH

    AJH Senior Member

    Location:
    PA Northern Tier
    Respectfully disagree.

    AJH
     
  15. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    That's fine, but I'd have more like Alan Shaw and less of the BS merchants out there that cost the hobbyists amongst us their hard earned and the hobby itself a bad rep.
    The hobby is riven with duff advice, perceived wisdom and so on. I tell you what thought, find me any retailer who'll give you sale or return for the length of the "burn in" time and you can quote all the hours you like. 500 hours burn in? Yep, I'll return it in six months for a full refund. That's fair.
     
  16. lobo

    lobo Music has always been a matter of Energy to me...

    Location:
    Germany
    ;) Whatever. It's like amplifier sound. Most people believe in it, but as far as I know, nobody was ever able to identify different amplifiers of the same quality in a blind test. Has there ever been a blind test comparing brand new speakers vs. broken in ones? I would be very interested in the results.
     
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  17. Doug G.

    Doug G. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, MN USA
    I guarantee that the whole break-in thing started with some piece of equipment raved about and somebody said to their dealer, "Gosh, I just don't see what all the hoopla is about with this. In fact, it sounds worse than my old piece."

    To which the dealer replied, "Oh, you have to give it 100 hours before the incredibly marvelous sounds are revealed to you. Take it back home and give it some time." And, eventually, the buyer became used to the sound.

    What Mr. Shaw says rings true.

    Doug
     
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  18. I believe it depends on the type of drivers used. Here is what New Zealand speaker manufacturer Image Loudspeakers has to say on the subject. As a past owner of a pair of Image 414's I completely agree with this statement. I have noticed the same with other speaker brands that I have owned although not to the same degree.


    IMPORTANT NOTICE
    All Image speakers require an extensive run-in period before they perform at their best.

    It is very important to know whether a pair you intend to audition have been played for a minimum of forty hours by your Image dealer. Most times, they will not be adequately run-in.

    New Image speakers straight out of the packaging have a tendency to be slightly forward in the midrange and lack the expected warmth and fullness in the bass response Image is renown for.

    This is quite normal and is a function of the loudspeaker suspension which, when new, is very stiff and non-compliant.

    Though it's difficult to give a time frame, expect forty to sixty hours of use before you'll notice a marked improvement in the overall sound quality. Even after this time though, expect your Image speakers to get better and better. Bass is more dynamic and extended. Midrange is more natural and lifelike, and there's an apparent air and ease to the overall sound.
     
  19. Ortofun

    Ortofun Well-Known Member

    Location:
    nowhere
    So amps in the same quality range sound the same? *Sigh* I suppose all CD players sound the same too? So you only choose an amp out of a bunch due to aesthetics alone? what else could there be if they sound the same?

    Obviously, those that have not heard the difference will never believe, crazy to expect them to do so.

    So I won't try ;) but you put far too much faith in that kind of testing, have you ever heard of performance anxiety? participants are under pressure whether they feel they are or not....there is that and more on the psychological front that makes me skeptical of that kind of testing. Brain wave patterns during tests are different than when not.

    OK, I don't think we are even supposed to get into this area on this forum :hide: sorry!

    I Think we can agree to disagree?
    :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2014
  20. F1nut

    F1nut Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Mars Hotel
    Speaking for myself, I can never get used to something that doesn't sound right. YMMV.
     
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  21. Ortofun

    Ortofun Well-Known Member

    Location:
    nowhere
    o_O
    Rings true to yourself ;)

    I'm not into conspiracy theory's :hide: ;)
     
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  22. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Cool - the resurrection of Julian Hirsch. Welcome back.
     
  23. brimuchmuze

    brimuchmuze Forum Resident

    Alan Shaw has views on this too, and a challenge...

    http://www.stereophile.com/content/...red-audiophiles-filibuster-fearing-their-myth
     
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  24. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    I love Alan Shaw (and his speakers).
     
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  25. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    So true. On a few occasions I've tried very hard to fool myself into thinking something sounds great, because it was supposed to, and/or because it was expensive. It did not work. I knew it sounded bad.
     
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