Why burn in?

[TrueSound]

Burn in in high-end audio is an excuse for the hobbyist to feel better about their lousy sounding stereo.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[john curl]

Oh, is that how it works. What if it NEVER breaks in? ;-)

[Key]

Break in with parts that have elasticity - speakers, cartridges - is perfectly legit and manufacturers of speakers will say that they design these things with the break in considered and calculated. I have seen a couple of speaker manufacturers explain the face to face break in technique as well. Only they give words of caution - do NOT play music through the speakers face to face and only do it with speakers that can handle large excursions. And it is only to break in the speakers faster I would think normal low level music over about 30-40 hours is much safer.

[TrueSound]

Originally Posted by john curl

Oh, is that how it works. What if it NEVER breaks in? ;-)

Well that's a tough one -NOT, if it sounds lousy and that doesn't change then it still sounds lousy. If it doesn't sound lousy anymore then it either doesn't sound lousy anymore or you now like the old lousy.

[arande2]

Originally Posted by TrueSound

Burn in in high-end audio is an excuse for the hobbyist to feel better about their lousy sounding stereo.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I have a woofer that I bought recently and I could barely push the cone in when I first got it. It also had LOADS of mechanical noise that I could not stand. Now after an extended period using it, I find that the mechanical noise has reduced to the point where I have to my ear right next to it when it is moving a lot to hear it. I also find the suspension compliance has increased in that now I can actually move the cone a bit.

As for how that affects sound, I did not do any testing, and cannot say anything.

[Rick J. B.]

You know I could always see the "burn in" issue with speakers because as has been said they do have suspension systems that will change over time. I know back when I had Lowther drivers they sounded different after a few hundred hours than they did straight from the box.

I recently was reading some information concerning some really pricey cables and the article referenced a break in period for those. Now I could be wrong, but that struck me as being complete **!

Rick

[Pano]

I think that we should differentiate between "Break-In" and "Burn-In".
Speakers definitely break-in. Anyone with a means to measure T/S parameters can easily verify that. It's mechanical.

Burn-In, on the other hand, is much harder to verify. It's supposed to be mostly electrical. Electrolytic capacitors might be the easiest to measure. (ask the photo flash guys)
But everything else.... ?

[Key]

Oh I guess I am wrong I see a couple of manufacturers say to play music with one speaker wired out of phase and speakers facing each other. I thought I read one from a manufacturer that was much more picky than that but I can't seem to find it.