I have heard speakers on two seperate occasions out of box set up next to speakers months old and there was a night and day difference. The models were tested at the store then again at my home. Same result. I was arguing with a dealer just as you guys are and he shut me up good. The older speakers were smoother sounding and had no harshness in the treble vs out of the box new performance.
I added a set of the same towers to my ht setup. When the speakers were compared, there was no listening to the new ones till they had ran in over 48 hours or so at moderate levels. I would listen to them once a day for a couple minutes and knew they werent done yet. This may not exhibit in all speakers, but you would have to be in a horrible space or near deaf not to realise the difference in the ones I heard. I added bookshelves later, same tweeter/drivers, same pattern. I should mention in the dealer tests and in my old theater there was controlled first reflections and a low RT60 time.
The return policy breakin conspiracy is what a crank would claim was the case!
::throws chum to the sharks::
Love to hear craigsub's opinion on this. I recall he breaks in his speakers before any critical listening.
