How long of a speaker break in is reasonable?

Had an 85 1/2 944 lightweight.Naturally asperated so not a ton of power,but that thing would pass almost anything on the curves at trackday

 

Not going to get the x5. Room was set up well (15x20 with treatments, laser aligned speakers), primaluna 70 watt integrated, good quality cables. I can see why people enjoy these speakers. Good quality speakers, but I couldn't get over the fact that I was listening to speakers. I was wanting to get lost in the music more. The music was there, but the performers weren't. Make sense? They are not overly bright as some have mentioned. decent detail, but the speakers didn't sufficiently play certain details. Example? Sure...dark side of the moon, track 2. There is a forte/fortisimo swell in the music a few seconds in. That swell was missing. the bass could have been turned up more, but was surprised at how lacking it felt since he already had the amps turned up halfway on the low frequency drivers. It was definitely worth the trip to athens, but these were not for me.

BUT! We stopped by hifi buys atlanta to listen to some vandersteen. 1st we heard the quattros hooked up to audio research gear including the 80s tube amp (one that I would love to own). Did they sound better than the x5? Of course. Did they sound $9000 better? Well... pardon me, do you. Have the treos? Certainly.. running off a primaluna integrated in the other room. I hoped the treos would be at least 80-90% of the quality of the quattros. Surprise surprise! The treos sounded better in just about all ways vs the quattros. Even the bass (not actively amped) was better in the treos. The soundstage extended beyond the speakers. They began to disappear! I played a lot of different music styles and they excelled at all styles. I have some other speakers that I will listen to, but I do believe that I am sold on the treo ct.

I read this post to my amazing wife and she is in agreement with what I said

 

Sounds to me like you might be zeroing in on the right choice for you. It great when you find a speaker you really like that fits your lifestyle.

 

Hah, you may know this but the BMW I think it is 750 gets so hot that that pump runs on and on and eventually kills the battery. Since redesigning and recertifying the emissions would be crazy expensive, BMW's "solution" is they change the battery at every oil change (which is these days like 10k miles or such).

 

Cool! Could you please share with us where you learned hypnosis so effectively?

 

Those cars were perfect balanced.
I weighed mine on a truck scale
Front axle
Whole car
Rear axle
F/R ~ 48/52 with us in it.
transaxle baby!

 

Sure, but it will cost you. I accept PayPal

She thinks I am wonderful and deserve my toys

It all starts with communication

 

Sounds like you had a good time.
I know $ doesn't grow on trees, but think hard about the Quattro. Built in sub amps.
This will give you a lot of options up top.
Less power will be required.
Your Yamaha will drive these effortlessly.
It's a big purchase, I know, just dropped cash on my new Luxman. No rush.
They have been making these and refining them for over 20 years.

Look at these as end game speakers.
imo hard to do better at almost any price level.

If I had room....

Vandersteen Quatro Wood CT loudspeaker & M5-HPA monoblock power amplifier

 

He did say that the room that the quattros were in was a problem. put them in the room with the treos and he claimed that they would sound better than the treos. If my Yamaha can hold it's own and prevent an additional purchase, this may be doable. May sell my chinook to raise money (my hands are abysmal and I am about ready to give up on vinyl)

 

Be sure to check compatibility of the Vandersteens with your Yamaha integrated, specifically the high pass filter used on the Quatro. Not sure about the Treo, but when auditioning the Quatro Wood CT I discovered they wouldn’t work with my A-S2100.

 

that's weird
It's not a loop
You can only use one or the other

 

I think part of this depends on your familiarity with the speaker and "dialing it in" to the room by ear, beyond whatever measurements or templates you might follow in set up given the room.
It took me a long time to dial in the Avantgarde Duos to the point where I think they are delivering everything they can (years), but my old Quads, which I've owned since 1974 or so-- give me a little time, and I'll line 'em up to deliver (assuming the associated equipment, room, acoustics and power supplies are in order). Sort of a big depends, in addition to driver break-in, electronics burn-in, if any, wire issues and how well you've mated the amp and associated equipment.
And, of course, we haven't really talked about room placement to address how to maximize sound from a given system.
So, break in of a loudspeaker is only one aspect of many to get a system up to snuff and deliver on its potential.

 

Speaking generally, if they don’t sound good straight out of the box to your ears and in your room then I doubt you’ll like them.

I think speaker break in or any component break in is mostly your ears getting used to the new sound.

Aren’t the measurements the same when measured with-in one hour of use and then measured 6 months later?

I went from LS50’s to the Dynaudio Special 40’s relatively recently and i think the actual break-in period was 20-30 hours and the other 200 or so was my ears getting used to the new sound profile. My ears are now finally broke iin and I can lose myself in the music and not listen to the speakers looking for improvements/differences to justify the not insignificant amount of money (to me) spent upgrading.

 

Just read up about the m5-hp crossover required. that is an additional $1470 for the quattros. I think I may stick to the treos.

 

I don't purchased anything I can't give a long term in-house audition to.

 

Makes sense
More $ and complication for little benefit.
When they start talking about test tone generators and oscilloscopes that is too much...even for me.

 

Agreed.
I'll take a punt of something if it's a killer deal that I know can be moved on quickly with little to no loss if required.
But dropping over 7 grand on something I've not heard in my room for a satisfying period is a no go area for me.

 

Difficult to try out speakers in home. Have to see what the trial period on vandersteen is. I can pick them up and worse case drop them off if I have to return them. No shipping to deal with

 

The Quatro filter goes between power amp and preamp to relieve the power amp from bass duties and perform crossover duties for bass sent to the speakers.No way around this that I've seen.Having said that,the Treos are excellent loudspeakers.Over a 30 year stretch I've owned(and enjoyed)1b,2ci,3a,3a signatures and quatro signatures.

 

It's actually kinda fun to setup Because the filter reduces amplifier output below 100hz ,your available amp power pretty much doubles.

 

Yup, and a lot of 2-channel stuff has NO provision for this, even stuff with "subwoofer" outputs. STUPID.

 

Wow it tripled in price.

One thing about Vandersteen speakers is that you will have to work hard to make them sound bad. With your setup (specifically the amp) you are locked in to either the Vandy 2A Sig, 3A Sig or the Treo CT models. All three sound lovely, the 3A sig's will provide more bass, but the Treo's just do everything from there up a bit better. One caveat they do need to be biwired (whether you believe in it or not) to sound their best. The Vandersteen forum is a great place to learn about setup. equipment pairing and ask any questions which you may have about these speakers.

All of these speakers can be found used at a substantial savings if that is an option for you.

M~

 

Well kind of. On another forum someone posted waveform analysis showing that the highpass elements cause some amount of increased voltage swing, so your amp would clip earlier. But this is offset by less current from the power supply so your amp would clip later (if the amp's power supply is somewhat weak/undersized, like most AVRs). In the end it depends a lot on the music you are playing and the crossover points.

 

That's a lot of picking up and dropping off.

M~