Reference 7 breakin period

[Osinoff]

How long does it take to break in a new pair of Reference 7 Speakers and will the sound open up much?

[GeorgeV]

My speakers sounded very good right from the beginning. However, I did notice a slight improvement during the first 10 to 20 hours of playing. The key in getting the best sound from the RF-7 is your components. A high quality amp (either SS or Tube) is a must and a very good pre-amp is equally important. I have not heard a receiver that is able to play the 7's to their full potential.

[Osinoff]

I have a Krell 300 ix solid state amp. It has 200 watts per channel, two channel. I have a Denon 3803 surround I guess I could use as a preamp but its not as good for music which is my prime use.

[Osinoff]

I have a Krell 300 ix solid state amp. It has 200 watts per channel, two channel. I have a Denon 3803 surround I guess I could use as a preamp but its not as good for music which is my prime use.

[Erukian]

For me, i balance the klipsch's somewhat harsh highs out with my gear. For example, the source is the biggest source of tonal clarity which can bring in a very laid back sound or a very fun lively sound depending on the quality and brand of the DAC. The source matters more than the amp when it comes to sound quality. Trust me, if you don't, google around for yourself.

compare an onboard computer sound card to a high end dedicated cd player, your jaw will drop.

I suppose those who are older and might have a bit of hearing loss because of age and might want to bring out the highs even more, but for me, I got a fun lively sounding source, an amp with smooth highs to balance out hte source, then with the source I use a shelf eq that cuts off .6dB on everything over 7000khz.

But that's just me. It's all a big balancing act in the end.

-Joe

[lynnm]

Assuming the speakers do have some actual defect they should require about 0 seconds of break in.

A one second burst of music with a normal distribution of frequency will cause the woofer cones to move through about 3000 forward and back excursions.

The tweeter diaphragm will go through many times the above number of cycles.

If you speakers do not sound right in your listening room then the most probable factors are that:

1. You are not yet accustomed to the way they sound in your listening room.What may well later become appreciated as detail and clarity really can produce an initial impression of harshness particularly at the high volumes most audio enthusiasts tend to play a new set of speakers ( including me

) when we first get them home.

2. You have not yet determined the optimal placement for your new speakers. I suggest you leave them where they are for a week or so and then start playing with placement. Like most modern speakers the 7s benefit from being placed away from the rear and side walls. There are numerous helpful sites ( including this one ) that feature discussions of placement strategies for floorstanding speakers. One suggestion that I found particularly relevant when running the KLF 30 was if possible to avoid absolute symmetry in speaker placement, (ie the speakers should not be exactly the same distance from the rear and side walls....don't sweat the dreaded WAF a difference of even a couple of inches from the grill to the wall can make a major difference).

3. Your room/equipment/speaker interface may need some tweaking. That said, do any upgrades one piece at a time and give yourself time to become accustomed to the speakers.Once you have had them for a while you will be more able to accurately assess where any deficits may lie.

[Erukian]

that's some good advice lynnm

-Joe

[Deang]

For me, i balance the klipsch's somewhat harsh highs out with my gear.

Garbage in garbage out.

[Erukian]

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On 7/3/2005 1:40:32 AM DeanG wrote:

Garbage in garbage out.

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I'm not so sure that applies. I could use a tube pre-amp which will provide some nice distortion (just like an equalizer) and a little negative feedback to give me a very plesant sound, which actually cover's up a bit (just some) of the edgyness and harshness that a high end DAC outputs.

I also had the chance to demo some Boston Acoustics, Totems, Dynaudio monitors/bookshelves, and they all have much more mellow highs than my horn loaded tweeter. While they might not have the uber detailed mids/highs of horns, they certianly don't sound as sharp. Cutting back on the treble isnt such a bad thing when playing klipsch speakers at loud volumes, as long as you dont pull back on it so hard that you sacrafice realism with the high hat and ride cymbals

I'm not trying to bash the horn here, It just IS very forward/fun and sharp by nature packed with layers of detail. that's why I believe people love tubes in here. Tubes distort the signal in a plesant way. Equalizers distort the signal in a plesant way. If your audio chain consists of very low levels of distortion all the way through, the sound can get harsh especially at loud volumes. I'm not telling you though, i'm sure you already knew that.

-Joe