PaulE Posted August 6, 2001 Share Posted August 6, 2001 I've had my RF-3s since last wednesday, and I've run them for about 100 hours now. I never really subscribed wholeheartedly to the speaker break in notion. Yet, there's no doubt whatsoever that they are sounding Much Better. Upon first hearing them I thought the highs a little shrill, and the bass not as full bodied as I was expecting. But now, they're everything I had hoped for and more. But to muddy the picture, last night, I biwired them. I dont know definitively whether it was the biwire, or the increase from 16 gauge to an equivalent 11 gauge wire which made the difference. Or whether it was the combination of biwiring, and the speakers breaking in. Or the heavier wire, and the speakers breaking in. One thing which always puzzled me about the whole break-in notion: if speakers really needed to be broken in before their best sound could be heard, wouldnt factories consider it a worthwhile expenditure to break them in Before they went in the boxes? What company Wouldnt want their speakers to sound as good as they possibly could when Mr and Mrs consumer wired them up right out of the box?! If pre-breaking them in could elicit a 'W O W' from the customer instead of a more ho-hum 'wow', what company which aspires to impress the audiophile crowd wouldnt do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Klappenberger Posted August 6, 2001 Share Posted August 6, 2001 PaulE, There is definitly a breakin period for a speaker driver. I think it's on the order of 5 minutes! (?) Anything beyond that is you getting used to how they sound! I would bet that if you put your old set of speakers back, they would go thorugh the same "break in" no matter how old they are! I think bi-wiring is a true improvement. I have never tried it though. Al K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted August 6, 2001 Share Posted August 6, 2001 Did the sound improve or get worse with the bi-wire? Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulaelliott Posted August 7, 2001 Share Posted August 7, 2001 Hiya Keith, Here's my impression of biwiring results: There's no question to me at all that there was a definite improvement when I biwired the front speakers with 10 ft lengths of Ixos biwire, featuring 13 gauge bass cables and 15 gauge tweeter cables...Together, I think this presents an 11 gauge cable at the amp. The question I have is whether the improvement came from: The use of the heavier cable vs my previous 16 gauge zip chord. Biwiring alone. A combination of using the heavier cable and speaker break in. A combination of using biwire and speaker break in. The biggest question is really whether its the heavier cable or the biwire...I know, its a very easy test to determine which it is...Just attach the jumpers again...Without even moving the 4 terminal hookups, adding and removing the jumper will be equivalent single and bi wiring. One of these days I will get around to trying it....but I'm so happy with the way the system sounds now, I dont want to touch a thing...Who'd have thought that a Sony ES receiver driving an Audiosource Amp3 and Klipsch RF-3 speakers would give me by far the best system I've ever heard, bar none! It's certainly not the best system...it just sounds like one....I couldnt be happier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boa12 Posted August 7, 2001 Share Posted August 7, 2001 paul, when u do those a-b comparisons, if u can find another person to do the connections, get a blindfold for the blind test. that of course should eliminate the psychoacoustic elements Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.