Speaker break in

[cincymat]

5 minutes ago, MetropolisLakeOutfitters said:

 

The spider is actually the biggest culprit.  Read page 11 from The LoudSpeaker Design Cookbook here:

 

http://usenclosure.com/Diffraction Graphs/Loudspeaker Design Cookbook - Seventh Edition (Vance Dickason).pdf

 

 

Another interesting post. Thank you.

 

Mark

[jason str]

3 minutes ago, WMcD said:

Thanks for the link Jason.

 

I'm very skeptical, still.

 

Doing the math, if you break in by feeding a woofer with 60 Hz, in 24 hours it has gone through 5.18 million cycles or 10. 3 million each way.   Yet people speak of weeks or months.  Even 10 days will give 50 million or 100 million stresses applied and strain in movement.  It is difficult to believe that it takes this long to change any elasticity.

 

I like Sherlock Homes and the story of the theft of the race horse Silver Blaze.  Holmes comments to Watson: The dog barking in the night is curious (or like that). Watson says, There was no dog barking in the night.  Yes, says Holmes, that is what is curious.  The reasoning is that whoever took the horse out of the barn must have been a friend.  

 

Overall, this is part of analysis of data.  What does the data show, what does it not show (missing data sometimes), what should the proponent be expected to show or not to support a thesis ?

 

Eminence does not show any change in T-S data or any data at all.  Curious.  If Eminence is so confident, were is the data?

 

A few decades ago I tested some woofers ( Eminence) out of the box and then after 12 hours of hard driving at resonance. for T-S parameters.  There was no change.

 

OTOH, there are many anecdotal reports that amps and speakers sound better after a long time of listening.  I think it is subjective.

 

These people reject ABX testing (no difference in many things) saying that it takes time to appreciate the nuances.  I say, fine.  Let's run an ABX test after you've listened.  But that does not seem to have been done. 

 

WMcD

 

 

 

 

The difference is easy to hear if you listen for it, i consider it a huge difference from start to finish but i guess if you just run through the paces listening to music around the house you could miss it

 

Don't tell Eminence you drove it hard at resonance as they would consider it abuse and probably not cover the warranty if it so happen to break.

 

Every woofer differs in some way, probably depends on design, materials and construction for the most part.

 

 

 

 

[jason str]

1 hour ago, bcarey13 said:

 

Thanks for posting this.....I'm about to try some Eminence Kappa 15c's in my LaScalas today that are new and I'll make sure to give them some time before I make a decision

 

Give them a few weeks and they will sing.

[bcarey13]

3 minutes ago, jason str said:

 

Give them a few weeks and they will sing.

 

Thanks, I'm hoping they sound great as the songs I listen to gravitate towards mid bass detail more so than lower bass....I tend to focus in on bass guitar quite a bit when I'm listening.  Since my speakers average about 4-5 hours a day I'm hoping I can get a good feel after a week or two

[YK Thom]

I have noticed very subtle changes in sound over a few days. Not much at all really.

I subscribe to the theory that what is actually breaking in for the most part is your own hearing, as you adjust to the new sound and your "audio memory" of your old speakers fades.

[Youthman]

3 hours ago, minermark said:

Now come back the next day, you be talking loose baby, and soon it will "Jump right the hell outta that cage.

Rememer you will NEVER use this wasted speaker again

Gotta love WD40

My question is if it jumps faster, is that something that you can hear audibly?

[minermark]

23 minutes ago, Youthman said:

My question is if it jumps faster, is that something that you can hear audibly?

You would always hear it work granted the coil is in working order.

Just make sense, WD40 eats pretty much all rubber, silicone impregnated rubber of course would soften slower.

Remember this is nothing more than a "See the Movement increase test"

 

Now for a speaker endurance/Breakin test:

with a Scope and Lab equip, you could take any speaker and cycle it wile recording push/pull movement.

From birth thru death, you could gage it.

One thing for sure, wile watching your test pulses

Everyday you would see measurable improvement of movement, there is "Your Break-in"

 

If someone had some time on there hands,(im Busy) this would be one hella "Confirmed" test. 

[garyrc]

On 2/3/2017 at 7:58 AM, richieb said:

There is probably more validity to this than the often used shame of breaking in cables I.e. interconnects, speaker wire etc.

When one pays $150/ft. foot for 10 ft. of speaker cable and isn't put into instant nirvana well then, just give 'em 100 hours of run in time at which point you will be thrilled. Not so much, you finally became acclimated to how they sound and like magic they are now worth the $1500 that was sucked from your wallet. 

Yes.  Even with speakers, it's very hard to distinguish between user adaptation over time and any physical effect of "break-in."

I can think of time consuming and expensive controlled and double-blind experiments that might shed some light, but would it be worth it?

Like almost everyone else, I think my speakers sounded a little better after a few weeks, but, I repeat, adaptation or change in the speakers?

[Paducah Home Theater]

1 hour ago, garyrc said:

adaptation or change in the speakers?

 

One doesn't negate the other.   I'm sure some adaptation occurs but that doesn't mean that speakers don't change.  

 

My ultimax's definitely were not adaptation, which was easily provable since I bought them at different times.  First pair, I only bought two, then ran them for a year.  They were very muffled at first, then opened up after 80-100 hours.  After a year they were nice and broken in, harmonics like on bass guitar was very clear.  But, then I added two more.  They sounded nothing alike.  The original two were very clear, and the new ones were back to being muffled.  I even A/B'ed them by running the Crown amp I had in stereo and there was definitely a very significant difference.  Same sub, only difference was one set had been ran for a year, yet one set was very clear on upper harmonics and one set only did thuds well and not much else, just like the good sounding set did when they were new.