How long of a speaker break in is reasonable?

If you are concerned you can talk to Richard about it. He will be glad to address your concerns. He has been doing this for around 40yrs, and is very good at what he does. I can't get the Quatros or the 5's because of the filter incompatibility with my Intamp, so it's either pick a "lower" model or spend an additional $3-4k on separates (Benchmark comes to mind) which makes the buy in cost too much for "me".

M~

 

I called Vandersteen twice with dumb questions over the years lol....both times i Talked Richard...great honest guy with a genuine passion for our little hobby.His supplied setup instructions are also some of the best in the business

 

Totally understandable why the crossover is necessary. brings the cost of the quattro to around $18000. I am thinking the treos and I could probably borrow an open baffle sub to see how it blends and if it is necessary.

 

True, but only 2.5 he drive and cheaper than shipping. when I finally pull the trigger, I doubt that I will be returning them. That is just a worse case scenario

 

Yeah, I've had the same experience.

M~

 

How does the filter work?
Pre out > filter > amp in
Speakers connect to amp speaker outputs

so the bass speaker amp see a rolled off bass (hi pass) signal?
Then boosts the bass back up?

 

Yep...exactly....bass amp in speakers reverses what the filter does.....freeing up power in your amp for the rest of the drivers...while still maintaining the character of your main amp

 

That's the spirit.
Better to maybe forfeit some time and gas money than make a big buy blind.
Hopefully the dealer can see sense and help you out in your quest. And if it goes well, everyone's a winner

 

Also wanting to try out some gershman. Those I could probably try out at home

 

Can a mid/woof (5.7 in.) ever get properly broken in if it's never been played loudly enough to create visible cone motion? I'm in an apartment building with paper walls and never play system more than at moderate volumes

 

Heard wolf von langa son and gershman studio. When I get speakers, those 2 would definitely be considered. 2 different speaker types, but both sounded good. The wolf.son sounded incredibly natural and real. Threw all music styles at them and they handled everything.

 

Some may find this blasphemous...wilson sabrina x powered by McIntosh pre and 275. Not horrible, but definitely not on my wish list of speakers. A pair of $9000 paradigm sounded better (same pre/amp). Neither was as good as the wolf nor gershman

 

It's fantastic you're really getting out and auditioning and impressive those speakers are in brick and mortar stores in AL no offense intended just very few good retail stores anywhere.

 

Actually Atlanta and Nashville, but 3 hrs is close. I could probably get an in home trial of the Wolf.son or Gershman if I decided to go with either of those. May even take another listen to the Grande Avant Garde with a different amp. The questionable 1sr trial still sounded better than most other speakers I have heard

 

If speakers don't sound not just good, but great to me right out of the box, I'm not even considering them. Long break in times etc., not sure I believe in that stuff, might be some complex psychoacoustic phenomenon more than anything else.

 

You know how I know burn-in is all in our heads?

When's the last time you heard of burn-in having a negative effect on the sound? Never, right?

It's our brains getting acclimated to a new sound signature. Which makes sense when you think about how the more you hear it the better it sounds.

 

Well, when I first had my speakers they sounded great out of the box, then over time they got better, then worse and so on through several cycles until the really started to sing.

Maybe we tend to forget the troughs when we discuss this subject and only mention the peaks, but the troughs definitely exist and to me that was and is self evident.

 

Listening to my recordings that I made of yesterday's session. the wolf von langa are REALLY sounding good (sounded good yesterday also).

 

I have 2 rooms that could easily work for listening rooms. Long term goal, but just about have my wife talked into speakers in each room. 1 room at a time of course

 

at least 200 hours

 

I suspect that the initial slope of the curve, for speaker drivers, is very steep (ie. relatively very few cycles needed) compared to most mechanical systems. In addition, I'm not convinced that there's much, if any, correlation between the curve and audibility, after those initial cycles. There's a lot of other factors at play besides the curve that can have an affect on perceived sound, and isolating the effect of the curve from them is not a simple task.

Personally my love/hate for a new pair of speakers could change daily over a period of years - even if they just sat there and were never used!

Jeff

 

Right. My new Heresy IV sounded great straight out of the box, too. But to audition them I first called the dealer and had them moved into a similar sized room and hooked up to a similar amp. No sense listening in a huge room with a different style amp, such as SS vs. tubes. IMO.