Safe to Break In AN-E Spe HE's With SS Amp?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Donivey, Aug 17, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Donivey

    Donivey Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC
    I'd like to break in my new AN-E's with a Hegel H160 solid state amp, and hope I can get some feedback. I'll be switching over to a tube amp after a few hundred hours, but only if there is no danger in the SS break in damaging my speakers. I'll only be playing them at low to moderate levels, but will do so 24/7 for several weeks. Advice? Thanks,

    Don Ivey
     
  2. House de Kris

    House de Kris VVell-known member

    Location:
    Texas
    Using a solid state amplifier may be a tad risky, but most likely won't be fatal to you or your speakers. However, do NOT use any digital source during the break in as I'm pretty sure this is in violation of the manufacturer's warranty. You're gonna hafta spin vinyl for 24 hours a day, or play cassettes of vinyl recordings. You can no longer trust FM to be an analog source anymore. After break in, play digital at your own risk.

    Good luck, and report back your experiences.
     
  3. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    All audio amplifiers produce AC voltage as a waveform that continuously varies in amplitude and composition. It doesn’t matter if the amp is tube-based or transistor-based - they send AC to the speakers. There’s no such thing as tube AC voltage and solid state AC voltage - there’s only AC voltage.
     
    basie-fan and Hifi Kenny like this.
  4. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Deeply funny!
     
    MichaelXX2, basie-fan and Doug Walton like this.
  5. Donivey

    Donivey Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC
    Really? I didn't know that about digital sources; I planned to use digital only, no analog, so will have to rethink my approach. Why is it safe to use digital after break in, but not before? Thanks,

    Don
     
  6. harby

    harby Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    That's a bunch of hooey - unless you are using an Audio Note DAC that creates ultrasonic aliasing - which might not be good for any speakers.

    Your speakers won't know or care what technology is inside the amp, and will move as faithfully regardless of source.

    You also don't need to be "gentle", as that will only prolong the break-in.

    However, you do want a tone that causes excursions but not unpredictably or that would drive the speaker beyond xmax with subsonics. Play this on a loop as loud as you can tolerate, woofers moving about 3mm, when you leave for the day: burn-in.flac
     
    MichaelXX2 and Hifi Kenny like this.
  7. Doug Walton

    Doug Walton Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Best post I've seen in a while. :)
     
    bluesaddict likes this.
  8. Donivey

    Donivey Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC
    So, does this you agree with @House de Kris? And, if so, can you provide more info.? Thanks,

    Don
     
  9. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    Definitely. The worst part about speaker break in is its only effective if done in large chunks, and it has to be done daily or it starts to revert. So make sure you're able to allocate about a week straight where you can do nothing but play records uninterrupted for 7-8 hours at a time. If it goes longer then 5-10 minutes without music playing, you're back to square one.
     
    Agitater likes this.
  10. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    I hope you are aware that House de Kris is joking. It does not matter what you use to break in the speakers; it only matters that you don't overdrive them in the process. Break in of speaker means exercising the suspension a bit. The best result is with bass heavy music played somewhat loud so that the woofer is made to move a lot. But, the concern is over doing this by running too much wattage through the speaker. With AN-E's, the primary concern is with over heating the tweeter. I know someone who cooked his tweeters while playing classical music, so one should not go crazy on the power level fed to these speakers. This person did this with a tube amp, so it is not a tube vs. solid state issue.
     
    harby likes this.
  11. Donivey

    Donivey Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC
    Thanks, that helps. Kind of have to separate the wheat from the chaff here.

    Don
     
  12. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    I'd be addressing such questions to your Audio Note dealer.
     
    jh901 and bluesaddict like this.
  13. Encore

    Encore Forum Resident

    I broke mine in by having them standing just opposite each other with the phase reversed to one of them. That cancels a lot of the bass so that it doesn't disturb. I did that with a small SS amp. And with an iPad playing into at that No problem at all. The only thing to be aware of is that you don't crank up the volume too much if you apply the reverse-phase trick. Since the bass gets cancelled out, you may feed more effect to the speakers than you think.
     
  14. DeeKay

    DeeKay Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennines, UK
    It’s likely the AN-Es sound better out of the box than what you’ve replaced, I’d enjoy hearing them come “on-song” naturally using the tube amp as part of the fun / ritual of upgrading HiFi.

    Other than that Encore’s suggestion makes sense if you’re not going to listen to them during the process.

    BTW, congrats on the AN-E, I’m still the price of a good car away from upgrading to the Es I want. Enjoy!
     
    Orrin Porter Rockwell likes this.
  15. House de Kris

    House de Kris VVell-known member

    Location:
    Texas
    I agree with harby 100%, the text of post #2 in this thread is a bunch of hooey, whatever that is. Well, I do stand by the comment that FM is no guarantee of being a portal to true and pure analog bliss. These days it's typically an MP3 player hooked to a 2MW transmitter. If I understand DeeKay properly, I think I'd enjoy the tunes during this break in period. I once knew a guy who'd put the speakers face to face and out of polarity as Encore suggested with a thick blanket thrown over the pair with loud white noise playing. Only to discover the tweeter was fried at the end of his break in period. Those speakers were so well broken in that they were broken. Got the manufacturer to replace the tweeters, and did it again. Destroyed the tweeter that is. Not everyone was amused.
     
    Rolltide likes this.
  16. RiCat

    RiCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Do you even understand what is meant by "speaker break in"? I offer the following in the spirit of bringing some clarity. The process is pretty simple. I had a very informative conversation with a Focal representative who explained their concept of speaker break in. I have copied it below and give full credit to Focal for providing the information (Running-in period for hifi speakers ). True that different speakers will require adjustment of the time and perhaps the levels used, but the process is going to be pretty much the same.
    Running-in period

    "Loudspeakers running-in

    The loudspeakers used in speakers are complex mechanical parts which require a running in period in order to work to the best of their ability and adapt to the temperature and humidity conditions of your environment. The mount will still be rigid and restrict the expression of medium and basses in particular. A loud speaker will not perform at its best in new condition.

    Running-in period

    This running in period varies according to the conditions encountered and can last for several weeks. To accelerate this operation, we advise you to run your speakers for twenty hours. Start with pieces of music without excessive basses and with low sound volume. During the twenty hours, regularly increase the volume and change the style of music. Once the speaker characteristics are totally stabilised, you will be able to enjoy the performances of your speakers in full.

    Using your speakers at a reasonable volume will continue to run in your speakers and improve them. It is not unheard of for a system to continue to improve after 50 hours of running in."
     
  17. Encore

    Encore Forum Resident

    Alnico models are rather thin and bright-sounding until they are broken in. Mine took 500+ hours. The AN-E He Spe is the other way round - it starts out boomy and becomes tighter as it gets broken in, according to the AN dealer in Copenhagen. That may make them easier to enjoy while they break in than my Alnicos.
     
  18. harby

    harby Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    Since I got an A in technical report writing, I can give the correct version:

    The transducers used in loudspeakers are fairly simple mechanical parts, which are designed to sound best after being initially broken in, after which the physical aspects of the newly-manufactured speaker suspension have reached equilibrium.

    The speaker cone surround and voice coil spider are stiffer when new, and require a period of use to achieve specification, much like a crisp new dollar bill becomes soft after circulation. Thiele-Small parameters such as the resonant frequency, equivalent volume, and mechanical Q of the driver will change slowly with use until they reach their permanent value, achieving the desired alignment in the enclosure for ideal sound reproduction.

    Other conditions of manufacture, such as the distribution of ferrofluid within the magnetic gap of tweeters, may also stabilize after use.

    The break in period is fairly standard, and can be mostly achieved in 8 hours if loud volumes can be used.

    Good break-in program material moves the cone through its excursion range while not heating the voice coil much more than playing normal music, nor concentrating on one frequency (one which may not be optimum for a particular speaker or enclosure). Purpose-designed tones are best for this, as even loud music may only have a duty cycle of 1%, which takes a long time to achieve results.

    After the rapid changes that take place as the polymeric materials are exposed to cyclic stresses of purpose-designed tones that fatigue the covalent bonds and break molecule chains that will degrade during normal use, the speaker materials will have reached relative stasis in short order, and be ready for years of enjoyment.
     
    Defdum&blind likes this.
  19. Defdum&blind

    Defdum&blind Forum Resident

    The good thing about using solid state to break in your speakers is increasing the life of your tubes. A very good thing if you use premium NOS tubes. But if the break in period is the short time period as stated in the post above it may not make a difference. I had swapped the expensive tubes in my system with the cheaper spares when breaking in new cables or when I had some of the components upgraded with better parts.
     
    Agitater likes this.
  20. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    It is perfectly safe to use music from any source to break-in speakers. It’s just music. There are no secret evil damaginjg frequencies in digital source music from a CD player or TIDAL HiFi stream or Internet radio or anything else of the kind. Analog source music or digital source music, aside from the differences in how the music is stored and transmitted, is just music.
     
  21. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    A bigger concern should be the manner in which you are conditioning the AC power feeding your amp. I fundamentally disagree with @Rolltide and his estimate of “several weeks” (presumably when using public utility-generated AC). Such inferior power extends the break-in period to months.

    Typically, a dedicated AN dealer is going to specify an Audio Note tube-based power supply that can generate AC specific to Audio Note components. It is inconceivable that any devoted and truly knowledgeable AN component owner would use something as plainly incompetent as public utility-generated AC. This is fact-like.
     
    Encore likes this.
  22. Donivey

    Donivey Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC
    Which AC conditioners have you been especially impressed with? Thanks,
     
  23. Orrin Porter Rockwell

    Orrin Porter Rockwell Well-Known Member

    Location:
    xyzzy
    No just no, but HELL NO!

    AN/E's are only safe when broken in by a low power limited production tube amp from a mom & pop enterprise located somewhere in Asia and recommended by a guy named Richard who claims to live in Hong Kong. :yikes:
     
  24. 4xoddic

    4xoddic Forum Resident

    I've been using these 2 "burn-in" CDs with my new Focal 1038BEs. The IsoTek provides a lot of popping, the Cardas-Ayre, not so much. When either is played, one of our dogs has to vacate her sweet spot on the futon. The other seems content to remain in the room. Googling about these 2 specific "burn-in" CDs here on SHMF provided nada.

    IsoTek - Full System Enhancer CD (Version 2)

    Cardas - Ayre Acoustics (IBE) Burn-In CD

    I used the out-of-phase, face-off w/blanket route on my Focal Profile 908s; with a music CD playing on repeat.
     
  25. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    None, outside of laboratory and benchtesting applications. My personal opinion and technical assessment is that they’re all expensive mistakes that do nothing to improve sound.

    I posted seriously a couple of times in this thread, hoping to provide you with a couple of useful answers.

    But then I joined chorus of derision. So, sorry about that. It’s unfortunate that you haven’t noticed that some members have just been kibitzing. Including me, now. Sorry again.

    You’re treating your AN loudpseakers as though they’re living things. They’re not. They’re just loudspeakers. They don’t care what sort of music sources you play, they don’t care about break-in, and they don’t care about digital music sources or analog music sources, because there is no way for them to care. They’re just loudspeakers - electromechanical transducers.
     
    Shoalcove, RiCat and Art K like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine