[franSSS]

@NEWZOOREVIEW

Please give us a take on the Herbies with your m3's. Keen to hear your findings since i too have the same Herbies titanium sliders.

[newzooreview]

They Herbies sliders slide well. The supplied Sapphire spikes (sturdy cones really, not pencil-like spikes) don't seem to move or risk slipping out when I slide the speakers around using the sliders.

The floors are wood laminate. They have some texture to them but aren't too difficult to slide things around on. I can't imagine having the speakers spikes sitting directly on the floor. Positioning and adjusting the speakers without the sliders would be very tedious. I doubt I would experiment with slight changes if I didn't have the sliders.

The sliders appear to provide a physical connection to the cones that is very similar to the cones sitting directly on the floor. The speaker spikes sit in a little well in a titanium metal disc, providing a rigid point of contact. The titanium disk sits on a stiff black rubber-like disk that seems to provide the give and flex (and vibration dissipation) that a hardwood floor would provide. The bottom is a cream colored smooth hard plastic that slides well.

I don't know that I'll be comparing the Herbies to directly coupling the speakers to the floor, with or without the tiny metal disks provided to protect the floor. Maybe in a few weeks when everything is broken in and dialed in.

For now the biggest changes are coming from break in, as expected. The bottom frequencies are gaining texture, everything is opening up, and the tweeter/mid is calming down. I'm only about 60 hours into break in. Maybe a week from today they will be 90% done if I keep them going 24/7. Playing Tool at about 75-80 dB seems to have helped the two 15" drivers break in.

[franSSS]

Awesome. Thank you for the feedback.

[newzooreview]

Enjoy! Better give us a write up too!

The break-in continues. If Clayton offered a factory break in for a 10% service charge I would have gladly done that!

[forky]

The break-in continues. If Clayton offered a factory break in for a 10% service charge I would have gladly done that!

I've read a lot of posts in this forum over the past month and last week I read a post from Clayton saying that he will keep them for an extra week to help break them in - so he offers this (I assume for free) according to that post. True story: I then composed an email to him requesting that he do this for me but then got busy at work and didn't send it. Literally a few hours later I received an email from Clayton that my speakers were shipping out! I was so happy that I didn't actually send that email because I wanted those speakers NOW. Funny how the mind works sometimes. Now that I have them I'm glad that I do (about 2 hours so far) but the realization has hit me that it will take me a LONG time to break in these speakers. This is because I have an open house (log home w/ lots of gaps) and a wife who really does not like anything loud and is stay-at-home also. Sound proofing has now moved to the top of my list but that won't happen overnight .

[Tyson]

I have a pair of X3's on order and I am absolutely going to have Clayton run them in for an extra week before they ship to me.  I figure he can run them a lot louder and more intensely during that week than I could.  And then the very worst part of the burn in process will be done.

[baka]

      Nice, I am glad that you are happy 
I hope I will get one M3 Sapphires 

[RonP]

I have a pair of X3's on order and I am absolutely going to have Clayton run them in for an extra week before they ship to me.  I figure he can run them a lot louder and more intensely during that week than I could.  And then the very worst part of the burn in process will be done.

Looking forward to your impressions of these speakers.

[newzooreview]

I've read a lot of posts in this forum over the past month and last week I read a post from Clayton saying that he will keep them for an extra week to help break them in - so he offers this (I assume for free) according to that post.

I wish I had known. I also work from home. Clayton recommends real music for best break-in. I can run brown noise at night, which sounds like a fan running with the bedroom door is closed. I can play music at night with earplugs in, but that can get uncomfortable. During the day I can put on bass-heavy tracks at about 80 dB and go for a walk. That gets me an hour of good break-in. But I still have to play a lot of music while I'm working to get through the break-in as quickly as possible.

Since I set them up Friday, Roon tells me I've played 119 hours of music, with about 1/3 of that being brown noise by necessity. At that rate, I should hit 200 hours sometime this coming Monday. But I expect that Clayton is accurate that things will change up to about 400 hours. That means I should be essentially done on Thursday 16 September.

[consttraveler]

I'm going to run my TV through my X-5's, as well as the stereo, I can easily get 12 hours a day that way.  Most of it will be background noise but break-in should not take too long.  I figure about a month for 400 hours.

Now, if they would just show-up (sound of thumbs twirling).

By the way, good info on Herbie's Sliders.  Thank you.

[glfrancis]

Regarding speaker break in, what about facing them directly at each other and wiring one speaker in reverse? Would that work to decrease the volume while still allowing sufficient break in? The downside is having to keep moving and rewiring the speakers. Just a thought..

[doggie]

Regarding speaker break in, what about facing them directly at each other and wiring one speaker in reverse? Would that work to decrease the volume while still allowing sufficient break in? The downside is having to keep moving and rewiring the speakers. Just a thought..

Tough with open baffle speakers! 

With box speakers you can face them together and wire out of phase.

[Tyson]

Regarding speaker break in, what about facing them directly at each other and wiring one speaker in reverse? Would that work to decrease the volume while still allowing sufficient break in? The downside is having to keep moving and rewiring the speakers. Just a thought..

You'll need to run something with bass through them too, to get the bass woofer surrounds and spiders loosened up, which is part of the break in process.

[glfrancis]

I was thinking that open baffle may kill that idea

[newzooreview]

Yeah, I don't have a room where I can put them with much isolation from the rest of the house.

It seems to me that the most effective tracks have been bass-heavy ones played at about 80-85 dB. Things seem to improve most, albeit incrementally, whenever I can manage to play a few hours of those.

Clayton emphasized when I talked with him that the 15" woofer are pro drivers with, if I recall correctly, an accordion type suspension that really needs to move and stretch and limber up.

Bass certainly affects perception of upper frequencies, but it really sounds like this corundum mid/tweeter needs a good bit of break in as well. And the capacitors and fairly long runs (for a speaker) of wiring.

So far, the bass has gone from boomy to more textured and balanced, the midrange and treble have opened up, and the screetchiness in the treble has eased off.

It's very fortunate that I heard a fully broken in pair at LTA. Although I initially said "nothing horrendous" when I first got them setup, things have not been very pleasant during the first 120 hours.

At least there is clear evidence that things are moving in a very good direction. This was all expected from other people's comments, of course. It's just different living through it and wondering if it will really get better.

[geerock]

Newzooreview
I wanted to send my X5's back as soon as I got them.  And even after putting on lots of hours still wanted to send them back.  Then I had to go away for 5 days and just put on a long playlist on repeat while I was gone.  I got home late at night and just shut down the system without giving it a good listen and went to bed.  The next night I said I'd listen one more time before packing them up.  Well....it was one of those wow! moments that just set me back in my listening chair.  Everything had bloomed sometime while I was gone and I was thankful I hadn't let my Irish / Italian temper kick in.  I was never a big believer in looooong break in, especially for speakers but these changed my mind. I'm presently listening to the finest system I've had.....and I've had a LOT of equipment in my days. 

[Don_S]

Newzooreview
I wanted to send my X5's back as soon as I got them.  And even after putting on lots of hours still wanted to send them back.  Then I had to go away for 5 days and just put on a long playlist on repeat while I was gone.  I got home late at night and just shut down the system without giving it a good listen and went to bed.  The next night I said I'd listen one more time before packing them up.  Well....it was one of those wow! moments that just set me back in my listening chair.  Everything had bloomed sometime while I was gone and I was thankful I hadn't let my Irish / Italian temper kick in.  I was never a big believer in looooong break in, especially for speakers but these changed my mind. I'm presently listening to the finest system I've had.....and I've had a LOT of equipment in my days.

I can't remember who but there was one manufacturer who refused to take their equipment back until a requisite amount of time had passed. I started breaking in new speakers two days ago. I am reminding myself to not worry too much about their final position at this point. It is too early. Changes are happening  Patience grasshopper.

[newzooreview]

I can't remember who but there was one manufacturer who refused to take their equipment back until a requisite amount of time had passed. I started breaking in new speakers two days ago. I am reminding myself to not worry too much about their final position at this point. It is too early. Changes are happening  Patience grasshopper.

Thanks. They went from "not horrifying" the first couple of hours to being bad and very worrisome in a strange mixture of ways for 120 hours to settling down today and starting to show some of their virtues.

No matter how much one reads that this will the case, there's the nagging doubt that this has all been a really inconvenient mistake.

But all is moving in a good direction now.

[Mr. Big]

Hang in I was throwing my hand up in horror, no just dam musical and sweet! 

[Audiosaurusrex]

I have one of the earlier M3’ sapphires purchased in 12/19 before Clayton changed to an outboard xover.
So almost 2 years of some serious listening sessions, they are finally so very very satisfying.
They are just so enjoyable and musical. After serious room treatments and some upgrades to the front end I realize what these speakers are capable of. It’s a very different listening experience coming from a box speaker.
I learned how important the room is and to hang in through out the break in period.