Speaker Break-in Period - why is this needed?
In many speaker and amplifier reviews I have read, there is a mention of "break-in" period. For example "initially the speakers sounded harsh, but after 100 hours of break-in period, they sounded great", etc.
Questions:
From the viewpoint of the speakers, why is this break-in period needed for them to sound better? I would like to understand it from an electrical/physical charateristic and something that is measurable. For example, maybe the crossover capacitors not fully-formed, the woofer spider suspension is not sufficiently pliable, etc.
I am sure that wood for cabinets, the copper or aluminium wires for voice coils and the speaker magnets themselves should not change their properties in 100 hours to make the speakre sound better.
Speaker break-in is real and takes 5-10 minutes of heavy use
The driver's spider (suspension) is stiff and breaks in upon first use.
FS and QTC typically decline up to 5-10% while VAS increases up to 5-10% permanently.
This is often done during quality control testing at the factory.
While many people claim to hear this effect over 50-100 hours,
it's funny they never seem to mention similar changes EVERY time
speakers are used and their voice coils heat up -- there are similar
changes to T/S parameters (as above) that disaappear after the voice
coils return to room temperature!
In reality most audiophiles imagine hearing break-in effects beyond the first hour or two of use simply because they expect to hear them and human aural memory is very short.
I've been building speakers since the 1960's -- most drivers have no
audible break-in effects and some have weak bass for 5-10 minutes.
Of course it could take much longer to break-in drivers playing
string quartets at 65dB -- I use loud (85dB+) bass heavy rap music to stroke new
cones 1/2 of their rated XMAX or more ... and I leave the house for 10 minutes.
RG
one's
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaree
In many speaker and amplifier reviews I have read, there is a mention of "break-in" period. For example "initially the speakers sounded harsh, but after 100 hours of break-in period, they sounded great", etc.
Questions:
From the viewpoint of the speakers, why is this break-in period needed for them to sound better? I would like to understand it from an electrical/physical charateristic and something that is measurable. For example, maybe the crossover capacitors not fully-formed, the woofer spider suspension is not sufficiently pliable, etc.
I am sure that wood for cabinets, the copper or aluminium wires for voice coils and the speaker magnets themselves should not change their properties in 100 hours to make the speakre sound better.