[Volti Audio]

Check out my latest YouTube video

https://youtu.be/u3tSvl3Nfs0?si=AQ6FFemyPybvYB8n

Greg

[toocool4]

I agree with you, they break-in yes. Hundreds of hours no, not in my experience anyway. The last speakers I got was meant to take 150 hours plus, I have to say I could not hear anymore noticeable difference past about 29 hours.

[Letitroll98]

I had speakers that I put back in their boxes because after many hours in two different systems I still didn't like them, but when thru circumstances behind my control I was forced to use them for over several hundreds of hours they suddenly broke in and sounded like the reviews about them.  Now of course one might say that I simply got used to them, but I have multiple pairs of other speakers to compare to that sound very different and my impressions didn't change after switching out to other speakers.  Additionally I don't seem to need much break in at all when I buy used speakers, maybe an hour or two to settle in after being moved, it takes longer to get their placement correct.  So yes, long break in for speakers.

[Early B.]

Because there are so many diverse opinions on the length of speaker [and component] break-in for those who acknowledge the existence of it, I've concluded that our brains operate differently to identify, accept, and process sonic changes over time. For instance, even if speaker break-in took hundreds of hours, I'm not going to wait that long, so I give it a few hours. This process works well for me, but that's consistent with my typical patience tolerance with nearly everything else outside of audio.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Magnepan said 75 hours for my 1.6's to break in and they were spot on.

[Volti Audio]

This is great, keep em coming.  I appreciate all the input. 

I hear a break-in after just a few hours with my speakers and beyond that I don't notice anything changing. 

I do believe that when a system has not been used for a while, that there is another break-in needed for the components to settle in again.  At least 300 hours!   

Greg

[undertow]

Honestly, drivers are maybe 5 to 15 hours regardless what they are to loosen up the coils and surrounds, tweeters just thermal expansion and literally the temperature in the room can effect all of them.

The only real "Burn in" occurs in the changing character of capacitors in the crossovers.

Especially some of the higher end caps like Mundorf Oil versions can take at least 100 hours. They sound okay, then they sound thin, then they make speakers sound like they are out of phase, and finally they get more organic and balanced.

[Jazzman53]

I'm probably gonna catch some grief on this one but...

I think it's a two-way street:  That is; when we get a new speaker that we are unaccustomed to listening to, we perceive a qualitative change over time that's caused partly by the drivers' suspensions loosening up, and partly by our own brains adjusting to the new speaker.   

[Early B.]

I'm probably gonna catch some grief on this one but...

I think it's a two-way street:  That is; when we get a new speaker that we are unaccustomed to listening to, we perceive a qualitative change over time that's caused partly by the drivers' suspensions loosening up, and partly by our own brains adjusting to the new speaker.

Yep. We know our brains play tricks on us. Have you ever thought your system sounds incredible, and then a few days later, you're wondering what happened to it? If we perceive that our systems "change" even though there have been no system changes, then surely we can assume that hundreds of hours of break-in can also be partly or maybe mostly psycho. Likewise, even after we believe every component has broken in, we nonetheless hear "changes" occurring, so how do we differentiate these periodic sonic changes from break-in?   

[Tyson]

IME, burn in is absolutely a real thing.  But I find that (after the system is burned in), variation in my levels of enjoyment of the system are a result of changes in me, not the system.

Back when I drank scotch, I found the same thing.  Not about burn in, obviously.  But the amount I enjoyed a Talisker over time would vary based on mood and biological variations. 

[Bill Baker]

What about a system breaking in as a whole. I always tell my clients, when they get a new piece of gear, give the system time to break in as a whole. About 30 days.  Don’t change anything. Don’t change cables, tubes, components, etc. That’s the only way you will be able to truly evaluate any changes to the system.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Burn in is real.  My Maggies changed at about 70 hours. It was a night and day difference.  Same for a pair of Monitor Audio Silver S1 bookshelfs that I bought years ago.  I almost returned them because they sounded terrible but at 30 hours they blossomed.  I now use them for TV sound.

I replaced 12 caps in my BAT preamp and I thought I ruined it, it sounded so bad and bright.  At 150 hours the PIO Janssen Caps broke in and all was right again.  These changes were not due to psycho-acoustic babble that some people spout, especially on the Steve Hoffman forum where people will chastise you, belittle you and be down right nasty if you claim you can hear changes between cables, DAC's and the like.

[toocool4]

My Maggies changed at about 70 hours. It was a night and day difference.

In these cases, I rarely find the sound to be drastically different — ‘night and day’ implies a huge contrast. Yes, there are differences, but as the saying goes, ‘a fruit rarely falls far from the tree.’ The sound may evolve, but it never strays far from its original character.

[Phil_S]

Absolutely!  The Ohm Walsh 100's took several hundred hours to become listenable.  Base didn't settle in until 300+.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

In these cases, I rarely find the sound to be drastically different — ‘night and day’ implies a huge contrast. Yes, there are differences, but as the saying goes, ‘a fruit rarely falls far from the tree.’ The sound may evolve, but it never strays far from its original character.

By night and day, I mean it was easily heard.  They sounded stiff and flat initially. At 60-70 hours they became more musical and the sound stage opened up.  I would say that is night and day.  Yes it had the same character.

[Volti Audio]

By night and day, I mean it was easily heard.  They sounded stiff and flat initially. At 60-70 hours they became more musical and the sound stage opened up.  I would say that is night and day.  Yes it had the same character.

I'm often asked to describe the sound difference of single wire versus bi-wire on my speakers.  I describe it as an "audiophile" difference, meaning that normal people (I say this jokingly) don't hear these differences, but we as audiophiles have trained our ears and minds to hear these minute differences.  Even a minute difference is meaningful to us. 

Greg

[Volti Audio]

By night and day, I mean it was easily heard.  They sounded stiff and flat initially. At 60-70 hours they became more musical and the sound stage opened up.  I would say that is night and day.  Yes it had the same character.

That is really interesting.  I think if my speakers took that long to break in, I would have to do that for my customers so they wouldn't have to wait.  I would be too afraid that they might form a negative opinion of the speakers prior to really hearing them broken in. 

Greg

[I.Greyhound Fan]

That is really interesting.  I think if my speakers took that long to break in, I would have to do that for my customers so they wouldn't have to wait.  I would be too afraid that they might form a negative opinion of the speakers prior to really hearing them broken in. 

Greg

You just need to put it in the manual that it takes so many hours to break in. Magnepan does that or at least they did with my 1.6's.  My original MMG's also needed about 75 hours to sound their best.  The Fritz speakers that I just reviewed needed 60 hours of break in.  When I first got them, they had about 48 hours on them as Fritz ran them at low volumes for 2 days.  I put another 20 hours on them.  My son and felt they were veiled and lacked detail until we put another 20 hours on them and then they blossomed.  They became detailed and the sound stage opened up.  Fritz told me they needed more time to break in and he was correct.

I tend to believe manufacturers about their listed break in for their speakers.  It is not psychoacoustics. It is not pyschoacoustics when there is a lack of bass or sloppy bass, and then after so many hours there is suddenly great bass.  Same for detail and sound stage.

And yes, there are some days that your system does not sound good and that certainly is psychological.  But that is totally different when you have been playing speakers  for weeks and all of a sudden there is a significant change that does not go away.

[Early B.]

I tend to believe manufacturers about their listed break in for their speakers.  It is not psychoacoustics. It is not pyschoacoustics when there is a lack of bass or sloppy bass, and then after so many hours there is suddenly great bass.  Same for detail and sound stage.

And yes, there are some days that your system does not sound good and that certainly is psychological.  But that is totally different when you have been playing speakers  for weeks and all of a sudden there is a significant change that does not go away.

If I were a speaker manufacturer, I'd tout the merits of break-in for obvious reasons.

An interesting fact about psychoacoustics is you don't know when it's happening and when it isn't. We become accustomed to the way things sound (or look, or feel, etc.) over time. There's also this thing called "expectation bias" that can kick in. Lots of variables. It ain't so simple.     

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Yes,  expectation bias is real, but not for significant changes.  And when ever I buy a new piece of gear, I have no expectations because I have been disappointed with audio gear, more than I have been pleased. So I try and go in with an open mind and a clean slate.  When I was at that dealership house and he pulled out this $800 power cord, I was expecting to hear an improvement and we heard nothing.  You can't blame everything on expectation bias or psychoacoustics as the deniers would like you to believe.

I got into a discussion on the Steve Hoffman forum about hearing differences in dacs. And this condescending ahole who tried to belittle me and was totally disrespectful said it was all in my head.  Yeah, it's in my head that my Luxman has a warm, lush sounding compared to all the other dacs that I have had in my system. Or that the Exogal Comet that I reviewed for the company had this expansive 3d and holographic sound stage, same for the new Van Alstine dac.  Same for the highly touted topping E50 dac that the ASR guys touted which I use for TV but it sounds bright, veiled and thin in my reference system.  I guess that was all in my head.