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Does equipment, speakers and electronics, sound better after some hours on them.


henry4841

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This came up on another thread so I was thinking the subject may be worth more discussion. After years of not believing they do improve after a breaking in period I am of the opinion now they do improve after some breaking in. Not really sure about speakers but electronics, yes. Lets hear what other here think on this subject. Please no conflicts or verbal fights. Respect others opinion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion as it is almost impossible to actually prove the topic one way or the other. Unless one can see improvement on test equipment the subject is pure subjective and not fact. 

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I'll go with 'Yes.'

Whether that's due to equipment or ears adjusting is open to debate. 

 

I've definitely heard new vacuum tubes 'open up' after a few hours of use.  Guitar speakers are quite well known for loosening up after several hours, I don't see why any other cone speaker should be different.

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What I've always 'noticed' in my life is that they either work or they don't, and if I like them or I don't. Never logged into my brain a slight better or worse performance in sound in our gear over/due to 'time'. Unless broken or altered.. 🙃 Just me and I may be wrong 👌 I've been before a few times.... ~Mike

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I would suspect some devices might, like tubes perhaps or brand new caps.  However I question a lot of what I hear on audio forums anyway.  Heck, some folks say you can replace a fuse and hear it so they spend 250 bucks on a fuse.  Then they- wait for it, turn the fuse 180 degrees and again hear a difference!

 

But to answer your question from my personal perspective, I have seen mfg recommendations on speakers and amps etc quote  200-500 hours needed to fully break in.  Who the heck remembers exactly what their system sounded like weeks/months ago? In short, I have never heard a difference but that's just me.  My last amp was bought new, sounded great then, sounds great now.

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Class A SS amplifiers with definitely sound better when they reach the correct operating temperature. In general terms the harder, hotter, you run a transistor the better it will sound. That is until it destroys itself. There was once a designer that built an amplifier and said it sounded better than anything he had heard before. That is for 10 minutes. 🙂

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4 hours ago, the real Duke Spinner said:

Guitar speakers are heavily damped with non compliant cone suspension to take the abuse


Some of them.  Then you get the older-school stuff with naked paper cones and tiny motors.

Few things are black-n-white.  Most things are closer to 'on a scale of 1-to-10...'

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5 hours ago, roninklipsch said:

I would suspect some devices might, like tubes perhaps or brand new caps.  However I question a lot of what I hear on audio forums anyway.  Heck, some folks say you can replace a fuse and hear it so they spend 250 bucks on a fuse.  Then they- wait for it, turn the fuse 180 degrees and again hear a difference!

 

But to answer your question from my personal perspective, I have seen mfg recommendations on speakers and amps etc quote  200-500 hours needed to fully break in.  Who the heck remembers exactly what their system sounded like weeks/months ago? In short, I have never heard a difference but that's just me.  My last amp was bought new, sounded great then, sounds great now.

Convenient way to avoid Returns. 😀

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A few months ago I may have been more skeptical and assumed it was more an issue of someone getting used to the sound rather than speakers breaking in or electronics warming up. That changed when I replaced woofers in some speakers. When I first listened to the speakers with the new woofers the sound was quite bad - no depth, poor imagery, lack of bass. I let them play on with a variety of music at a moderate volume level while I did other things around the house, occasionally going back to the room to see if I was mistaken. For a few hours I was not mistaken, they continued to sound bad. And I almost took them apart thinking I’d wired them out of phase when “Let It Be” came on. It sounded different so I sat down to listen - the sound stage moved back, imagery was better, and there was a notable increase in bass. Your results may vary, of course. When it comes to new speakers, I’m quite sure at least some need a break in period.

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2 hours ago, the real Duke Spinner said:

My Marshall SL

Goes to *11*


Yup, that would do it.  used to play bass for a guy that gigged with one.  the bar would let us turn it up to 0.8-1.1. Mesa V-Twin pedal for tone.  Apocalyptically loud.  😁

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