Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Axiom's view on speaker break-in?

Frankly, is it the speaker that requires break in or is it your ears and brain that are the things that are actually "breaking in"? I tend to lean towards the logic of the fellow at "Audio Science Review" who states that when you have had a set of speakers for a considerable amount of time, you are used to listening to them, however, when you replace them, you are then doing more critical listening, hence, paying more attention to what you are hearing and after a little time your brain senses what you perceive as improved sound.

I have never bought into the idea of hundreds of hours of break-in time required for anything especially amplifiers that the so-called 'audiophiles" claim is necessary before things start to sound better. If one is spending thousands of dollars and it it doesn't sound its best right out of the box then something is wrong somewhere.

See above. The thiele small parameters change. Measurable.

Probably, a bit of both ... depending ...
In the next post I'll share thoughts about the ear-brain evaluation question


I’m for the most part with you …

Most solid state devices are not going to change much with break-in (Note: you can wear out some solid state parts like SSDs but for the most part I’d need some convincing on it changing a transistor's transfer function). I can understand needing some time to warm up as temperature changes effect components. I can also understand that in a poorly design circuit having components change because they are being stressed. Most solid state designs I've worked on were run for a few hours to reduce infant mortality, as most components have a higher fail rate early-on. By "burning-in" for a time you can bring that down to a reasonable rate. Maybe someone more in the know on this can come up with something here. I've just not seen it.

Mechanical systems wear, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. I can definitely see how a stiff speaker could loosen up or a material become more playable by wear. How much depends on the system and the materials.

On Tube stuff, I’ll take a pass, just don’t know enough in this area.

The ear-brain thing leads into ... a more fundamental question one ...
How do you know what you perceive is better, is really better.

Think I'm going to put this on it's own thread ...

As a sort of related comment…..

As some of you guys know I’ve moved homes recently. And I’m in a new , larger, and by default , not well furnished space yet. But it’s been like living with new or slightly different speakers. I know now and realize that my old space was WAY better or at least more emotionally satisfying then the current space given the system I have.

I guess my point is, yes we do get used to our daily driver systems and that becomes what I call “ my reference “ or baseline for any tweaks or changes.

Bottom line, we are all actually listening not just to our respective systems and speakers but we are actually listening to the room more than we’d like to admit!!

Im “breaking in” my new room.

The room has a big impact on sound. Different setups sound different in different places

Mojo has about a trillion words written on trying different speakers in different places. On how it’s not always the “best” (highest-end) speaker model that worked the best.

Anyway, with some work you might be able to bring some of what your missing back in your new room … or even take it to a new level.

BTW, This is the stuff we are all trying to figure out … the what, where, and how of the next big improvement to our systems … room, speaker placement, and even parameter adjustment in your prepro/AVR are often overlooked for more sexy things like speakers, amps, and other new electronics

True dat

Very true Rrlev. When I first got my m60 I was convinced I needed a fresh power plant. I was hell bent on it. You kind people here convinced me otherwise. I experimented with placement and then bass ports. Got a quality DAC and dam do I miss my old space and set up with in it.

So I have to say, the small improvements and nuance really do matter.

Yes I do.....