What Does "Break In" Mean ?

[SAPSEC]

I heard people mentioning about "Break In" with new speakers. What does it mean ?
Could somebody explain ? Thanks

[RGA]

I heard people mentioning about "Break In" with new speakers. What does it mean ?
Could somebody explain ? Thanks

The idea is that a speaker for example when you first buy it will have the woofer and or tweeter very stiff. When you first buy it it will not sound good yet because the drivers are not loosened up or settled properly. Thus after some long period of time - usually after the period it is possible to return them - the speaker will begin to sound optimal.

For cables this is probably argued that electrons heat up the metalic composite of the wirse so it too will sound better after a set number of hours. Or for CD players that the laser beam magcally reads the discs better because the glass lens needs to get uses to the laser and settle in better.

Speakers presumably like new break pads need to settle in before they perform their best. Is there any reason to support this notion? Yes - consider buying a pair of shoes. they may fit right out of the box - but if they are brand new you may not want to run out and do a 10k run - they will blister your feet really badly - if however you've worn them for 4 months and do the run - you are unlikely to have such problems because the shoes have broken in. Same for baseball gloves.

It is theoretically sound - and there are measurable differences between a set of speakers out of box and one with 100's of hours on them - little research has been done and some will argue that is a matter of the listener breaking in to the speaker - ie; you get used to the sound of the speaker after a while even if it's not so great to you at first.