Tweeter break-in

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JLM

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Tweeter break-in
« on: 8 Oct 2015, 12:38 am »
Just added ambience tweeters (at Duke LeJeune's suggestion - a variation of the LCS - Late Ceiling Splash concept where they sit on the floor behind my floor standers pointing up).  They are Dayton Audio DC28F-8, 1 1/8 inch silk domes, unshielded, 8 ohms, 91 dB/w/m.

The tweeters are new, but the main speakers are 10+ years old.  I know many recommend breaking in woofers by facing them towards each other, wire out of phase, and play lots of bass heavy music (in a closet).  Is tweeter break-in even needed?  If so, any idea how many hours should they be given to settle in?

TIA

Speedskater

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Re: Tweeter break-in
« Reply #1 on: 8 Oct 2015, 01:14 am »
By the time that you have played just one album, it's done all the breaking-in that it's ever going to do.

srb

Re: Tweeter break-in
« Reply #2 on: 8 Oct 2015, 01:39 am »
I think the biggest difference is speaker driver mechanical break-in is with larger non-tweeter drivers and varies with the type and stiffness of surround and spider materials and construction.  Not just subjective audio-speak adjectives, but in actual objective changes (usually small) Thiele Small Parameters which can be measured.

But on the other hand, if you believe that your speaker cables need 300 hours of break-in you will probably want to give your tweeters at least 3000 hours to account for both mechanical suspension and voice coil wire atomic level break-in.  ;)

Steve

*Scotty*

Re: Tweeter break-in
« Reply #3 on: 8 Oct 2015, 02:38 am »
What percentage of the total sound you hear is contributed by the tweeter? Also what frequency and slope are they crossed over at.
 The first question pertains to how big an impact on what you hear from your system an unbroken in tweeter will have. The second question will affect how fast the tweeters suspension will be broken in.
 For myself I would be unconcerned with break in phenomena. I usually just play music through loudspeakers from the get-go and enjoy the improved sound they might get from breaking in over the course of time.
If you like the results you are getting now you are probably going to enjoy them even more after they breakin. I would be tempted to try them with and without a zobel network however.
Scotty

JLM

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Re: Tweeter break-in
« Reply #4 on: 8 Oct 2015, 10:49 am »
The concept is for delayed arriving sound to help add hall ambience, solidify the soundstage, and in my case improve treble dispersion - not to modify the primary character/presentation of the main speaker.  This should be more subtle than the more common rear or top mounted tweeters and is different than omni-directional, di-pole, or bi-pole designs.  If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the tweeters contribute less than 10% to the total sound.

Yes, I just listen and "enjoy" learning the speaker through break-in, but the Dayton DC28F-8 tweeters seem to make some material seem "plenty" bright, but my speakers use a single 8 inch driver (the Fostex F200A, $525 each when still available, AlNiCo magnet, no whizzer cone) that are rated 30 - 20,000 Hz, so anything above >4,000 Hz starts to "beam".  In floor standing transmission line cabinets they are more bass than treble oriented, with a rich/full bodied sound - definitely not your typical thin/shouty single driver presentation - so my 59 year old ears are surely conditioned by now to less treble than most.  But overall it's a beneficial effect and one I may want to tweak by trying different speaker locations and/or swapping out different caps (Duke had suggested trying 1 - 3 uF).

Based on these speakers Duke suggested an ordinary 1.5 uF poly cap (at a friend's recommendation I bought Jantzen metallized polypropylene) in series with the tweeter and running it parallel with the mains.  The tweeters are rated down to 1,300 Hz (Fs = 834 Hz), as an complete electrical dunce I don't know what frequency/slope they crossover. 

I believe in break-in, but of both components and via re-conditioning of our hearing.  Reportedly the F200A takes 500+ hours to break-in, but have no idea how anyone would know that for sure.  From what little I know the TS driver parameters should be pretty well established after 20 hours.

*Scotty*

Re: Tweeter break-in
« Reply #5 on: 8 Oct 2015, 03:17 pm »
You have certainly modified the total power response into the listening room as well as the frequency response of the system as a whole at the listening position. 

The first thing I would do is put a pot inline with the tweeter and try turning it down until I was comfortable with the resulting sound. The next step would be trying a 1.0uF cap instead of the 1.5uF. You may prefer the sound better with a higher crossover frequency than you have now.



http://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-speaker-l-pad-attenuator-50w-mono-1-shaft-8-ohm--260-255

Scotty