How to "break in" a sub

[carshateme]

I need to know a few techniques people use to "break in" subs.

I know one is playing music at a low volume for 20 hours...but I have no way of doing that.
Right now I have the subs wired at 6 ohms so I don't over power them, after I figure out a way to "break in" the subs, I will re wire them to 1.5ohms, then sell em =D

-I have also heard about taking an electrical wire from a plug, plugging it in and plugging it to the sub.

[Frank Berry]

Just run the sub as you normally would. It will break-in over a period of time.

[weltersys]

Originally Posted by carshateme

I need to know a few techniques people use to "break in" subs.

I know one is playing music at a low volume for 20 hours...but I have no way of doing that.
Right now I have the subs wired at 6 ohms so I don't over power them, after I figure out a way to "break in" the subs, I will re wire them to 1.5ohms, then sell em =D

-I have also heard about taking an electrical wire from a plug, plugging it in and plugging it to the sub.

Most subs don’t change a whole lot after “breaking in”, probably not worth bothering with for something you are going to sell.
Playing music at a low level won’t do much to exercise the suspension, the parts that “break in”.

Plugging in AC wall power (120 volts, 60 Hz sine wave) would burn or tear up many speakers instantly, 120 volts is 3600 watts into 4 ohms, 30 amps of power.

To break in the suspension on a speaker, use a 20 Hz sine wave tone, run it up (without a cabinet) to about 20% less than the speaker’s Xmax rating.
Sine wave tones are available on many test CDs or free downloads.
It is easy to see the excursion looking at a point just inside the surround, remember peak to peak is double Xmax, which is a one way figure.

Measure the amps AC voltage to make sure you do not exceed the power rating of the speaker, but at 20 Hz, most speakers will exceed Xmax before Pmax by a good margin.
Voltage x Voltage divided by the speakers DCR = approximate power.

After a couple hours, the cone will be broken in, and may have increased to Xmax.

[adason]

Originally Posted by carshateme

-I have also heard about taking an electrical wire from a plug, plugging it in and plugging it to the sub.

don't forget to make the movie when you do that, should be fun to watch

[weltersys]

Originally Posted by adason

don't forget to make the movie when you do that, should be fun to watch

As I wrote in #3,
"Plugging in AC wall power (120 volts, 60 Hz sine wave) would burn or tear up many speakers instantly, 120 volts is 3600 watts into 4 ohms, 30 amps of power."
That said, I ran 120 volts, 60 Hz sine wave into one of my B&C18SW115-4 (four ohms) three times in a row, popping the breaker on the amp each time after a couple seconds before I realized I was turning down the HF instead of the LF output on the crossover.
The woofer did not even get warm.

The B&C18SW115 is an amazing speaker, I broke mine in with 11 Hz sine wave. Even with 50+ volts input at 11 Hz, the open air speaker barely exceeded Xmax !

Art Welter

[wg_ski]

Originally Posted by weltersys

As I wrote in #3,
"Plugging in AC wall power (120 volts, 60 Hz sine wave) would burn or tear up many speakers instantly, 120 volts is 3600 watts into 4 ohms, 30 amps of power."

If you wire a dual driver sub in SERIES you put 60 volts RMS to each driver. The B&C's will take that all day. Even most lesser drivers will take it long enough to break in. Most amplifiers putting out 60 volts RMS continuously will overheat and shut down before the driver breaks in - the wall socket won't.

[adason]

i would use variac

[CCU]

I downloaded a 10hz test tone and played that. that way you wont hear it playing. i let it run to about 80-90 percent of the full xmax.

remember to check the temperature of the coil. some driver will have problems cooling themselves when playing very low frequencies.

[weltersys]

Originally Posted by wg_ski

If you wire a dual driver sub in SERIES you put 60 volts RMS to each driver. The B&C's will take that all day. Even most lesser drivers will take it long enough to break in. Most amplifiers putting out 60 volts RMS continuously will overheat and shut down before the driver breaks in - the wall socket won't.

The point of the thread is to break in a speaker, not break the speaker :^).
The suspension contains the parts needing to be broke in, and doing the breaking in at a low frequency like 10-20 Hz (some amps have LF protection circuits that kick in below 20 Hz) requires far less power to reach Xmax, most speakers in open air will easily be driven to Xmax with little power.

[carshateme]

Originally Posted by adason

don't forget to make the movie when you do that, should be fun to watch

Haha, I already have a movie of it...It didn't die...and it still works perfectly xD It went on for 5 1/2 minutes and didn't blow


So play a song at 10-20hz...should break em in..