The spec sheets for at least some of the drivers suggest 100 hours at “very low volume.” What does that mean? 60dB? 70dB? That seems a bit vague. Lower? I’m becoming interested in the CHN-50 & Alpair 5.3. (The lack of a spider in the latter is fascinating.)
I'm on hour 30 breaking in a set of 12Ps!
I'm curious as to what is actually happening during this soft break-in. I have the volume low enough there is no perceivable (obvious it's actually moving...) cone movement, so what mechanically is happening?
If one got a bit carried away and ignored the break-in or cheated a bit on the volume, what would suffer and how? Aside from the comment that the performance/linearity wouldn't match the advertised response.
I'm no professional ear, but the 12Ps claim of "For those listeners who value absolute detail, dynamics and clarity" is apparent to even me, I'm really impressed so far.
I'm curious as to what is actually happening during this soft break-in. I have the volume low enough there is no perceivable (obvious it's actually moving...) cone movement, so what mechanically is happening?
If one got a bit carried away and ignored the break-in or cheated a bit on the volume, what would suffer and how? Aside from the comment that the performance/linearity wouldn't match the advertised response.
I'm no professional ear, but the 12Ps claim of "For those listeners who value absolute detail, dynamics and clarity" is apparent to even me, I'm really impressed so far.
Just listen to music at low volume, like background level. The idea is not to hammer them right out of the gate. They will play music fairly loud with no visible cone movement.
When the Alpair 10's came out, some people were complaining that the drivers weren't holding up. It became obvious that they were driving them quite hard. There was a thread about not treating them like a subwoofer.
See video:Markaudio Alpair 10M Gold 6" Performance Test - YouTube
jeff
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My SOP is to use a generator to feed it fs at about 1/3 to 1/2 X-max. Nothing special different on the Mark from any other driver. It wil be well below Pe. Doing at fs means less power. I have a little trick I use that gives me a tell-tale for displacement I can measure. I found about 48 hours will break in every driver I have done this on, including a pair of Alpairs. I measure the electrical parameters when new. Then test again at 24 hours, and at 48. Let it sit overnight to cool down then take the measurements I wil design with. They are usually not too far off the OEM data, though I have had drivers that are at spec only when virgin. No industry standard I guess. You will see a change in fs, Qts, and VAS that is significant. Some more than others. I believe this is another of the "magical" topics. I don't do magic.