Certainly an area of hot debate. Whilst break-in varies considerably from Company to Company due to the driver's properties, an area of improvement is on the way. The often overlooked spider which is usually made of woven cotton/poly-cotton or aramid fibers impregnated with a phenolic resin are a major cause of some speakers requiring many hours of break-in. This will improve considerably when the new Santoprene spiders become popular. Santoprene has a greatly reduced parameter shift, is much quieter in operation, and free from sagging over extremely long periods of time. Having tried Santoprene samples here in the Lab (below photo), the need for break-in is reduced considerably.




The length of time for burn-in depends on the properties of the drivers used. This can depend on the supensions used for the cones, as well as their material. One can use music with good deep bass tracks at moderatle levels for 15-20 hours for most woofers, and general music for the rest of the system, although Kevlar for example can take 50+ hours to reach it's intended properties. The changes from breaking-in tend to be more subtle in sound than some have said over the years. Also, no amount of breaking-in can make a poorly designed speaker sound good. If one is in doubt, the Manufacturer can usually supply further information and their recommendations on break-in.