Best Speakers for Vinyl

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  • 12-27-2011, 10:18 AM
    Mash
    Well, Joe, "breaking in" implies "wearing out" or "fatigue failure".

    I have not worn any audio equipment out except some tubes and a power supply cap that failed c1974. I have fried a cone speaker, and I have had a cone surround rot (long ago). I would not classify any of these as fatigue failures.

    To "break something in" means that you have introduced a permanent and irreversable inelastic change, a redistribution of retained stresses, or a wearing away of material, and so it stands to reason that any real "change" that had resulted from "breaking in" a product will continue to accumulate with further product use until a plastic, wear, or fatigue failure occurs. If a flexing system is operated safely within its fatigue and elastic limits then no change will occur beyond any enviromental or oxidative degredation. This applies to all solids (materials having a grain structure) with the exception of Aluminum which does not demonstrate a fatigue limit.

    "Breaking in" an item is a harmless fad in the audiophile world which manufacturers go along with so as to NOT alienate any potential customers. "Breaking in" is a harmless concept so no risk is thereby posed to the manufacturer. But audiophiles will swear that they hear a difference........

    Automotive engines do "break in" and (eventually) they will also wear out.
  • 12-27-2011, 10:49 AM
    Mash
    madarahr... you don't know how smooth your room is until you evaluate it.
    "The Master Handbook of Acoustics" will provide a method to predict room modes based on room dimensions, but this procedure is best done in EXCEL (or equivalent) so that you can then reorder the calculated modes in numerical sequence from lowest to highest to determine how smooth, or how uneven, your room is. You want to see a smoothly rising graph with a uniform slope rather than a series of steps with bunched modes. Note that some judgement will be required when that room's volume is joined to another significant volume by a large opening.

    Using more than one sub leads to a lot of work both with regard to placement in the room considering modes and also allowing for cancellation effects between or among subs as a result of their distances apart. If you have two sounds of the same magnitude, frequency, and phase combine, they add to a combined sound 3dB louder than the two original sounds. But if those two sounds are 180 degrees apart in phase, they add to ZERO dB. I have done the two-sub exercise in a large room and it was a good bit of calculating. I am not convinced the work was cost effective but it was fun.
  • 12-29-2011, 07:24 AM
    Claudio 1949
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mash View Post
    The JD9A looks like a great choice. The 12AX7 tube is a dual channel durable workhorse. They last a long time and are plentiful. Look for some Eurorean or Russian (Soviet) tubes because JoLida may be using Chinese tubes. I replaced the Chinese tubes in my JoLida 302B and that was a real improvement.

    My translations for info on the Yaqin SM12B were faulty so I have no opinion. I do wonder how you would ever get parts or service if there is a language problem.

    Hey Mash - Thinking of buying a Jo-Lida, but am concerned that it might take a while to use it until the tubes warm up.....is that so?
  • 12-29-2011, 07:44 AM
    Mash
    Audio tubes heat up about as quick as a standard lightbulb
    So 10 to 30 seconds should make everything fine. Some fret about letting tubes warm for minutes or even hours to get the purest sound, but that is like letting your car warm up for 2 hours so that you get the best gas milage & performance....
  • 12-29-2011, 10:53 PM
    madarahr
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Claudio 1949 View Post
    Hey Mash - Thinking of buying a Jo-Lida, but am concerned that it might take a while to use it until the tubes warm up.....is that so?

    It takes a few seconds like mash mentioned.

    When you bias the tubes make sure they have warmed up for 5 minutes.