I have ordered two 8" Dayton RS225-8s and two 3.5" Vifa TC9FD18-08s.
How does everyone go about breaking these in before testing with DATs?
Pink noise? Continuous Fs tone?
And for how long?
How does everyone go about breaking these in before testing with DATs?
Pink noise? Continuous Fs tone?
And for how long?
For woofers I use a sine sweep 30-60Hz. Trying to cover the area around Fs. Using a computer as a source, I alternate 10 sec with the sweep and 3 sec of silence on repeat, to avoid overheating the coil.
Let it go for 12-24 hrs. Look at the cone to estimate Xmax, you can exceed but just don't bottom it out. In free air you won't need much power. This is for pro woofers and subs though, I want to get them in the zone they would be in if pushed hard for a night of dance music. I like to hang the drivers with rope or bungee from a 2x4 between two sawhorses. You don't have to worry about how to securely clamp anything as the vibration is cancelled. If you put the drivers cone to cone and wire one out of phase they wont make much noise at all.
Tweeters I have never broken in. I've actually never used a dome, only planars and compression drivers.
Someone else will chime in about that I'm sure.
Let it go for 12-24 hrs. Look at the cone to estimate Xmax, you can exceed but just don't bottom it out. In free air you won't need much power. This is for pro woofers and subs though, I want to get them in the zone they would be in if pushed hard for a night of dance music. I like to hang the drivers with rope or bungee from a 2x4 between two sawhorses. You don't have to worry about how to securely clamp anything as the vibration is cancelled. If you put the drivers cone to cone and wire one out of phase they wont make much noise at all.
Tweeters I have never broken in. I've actually never used a dome, only planars and compression drivers.
Someone else will chime in about that I'm sure.
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I've read that some heat buildup from longer break-in is helpful. Makes sense to me but did your research reveal anything about that?
I used exactly your break in procedure for some Eminence drivers I was incorporating in some bins I built several years ago.
This time though, I'm building my own speakers for home use, so, like you, I wasn't too sure on how to break in smaller drivers.
I haven't conducted any sort of extensive research. At least not in the scientific sense of the word. But so far I've yet to have anyone show me before/after data that indicate that burn-in beyond a few seconds has any measurable effect on the speaker performance. I did read an article years ago where a speaker repair person compared a speaker after thousands of hours of service with a brand new factory unit and found their T&S parameters to be within reasonable measurement tolerances and not statistically significant from the T&S parameters of several new drivers.
There's also this: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/do-audio-speakers-break-in.11898/
It's interesting to note that proponents of break-in always notice an improvement after break-in. If there is a change wouldn't it make sense that break-in sometimes would change the speaker characteristics for the worse? Also, why isn't break-in handled by the manufacturer? They test the speakers, right?
I suspect break-in of audio components has more to do with psychology, specifically the mere exposure effect, than with any changes to the components.
Tom
There's also this: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/do-audio-speakers-break-in.11898/
It's interesting to note that proponents of break-in always notice an improvement after break-in. If there is a change wouldn't it make sense that break-in sometimes would change the speaker characteristics for the worse? Also, why isn't break-in handled by the manufacturer? They test the speakers, right?
I suspect break-in of audio components has more to do with psychology, specifically the mere exposure effect, than with any changes to the components.
Tom
My main concern was getting accurate T/S parameters to finalise my enclosure design.
However I have just read a reply from planet10 (Dave) to a simialr question to mine, and basically he said that the stated T/S parameters from reputable manufacturers are usually more reliable than those we can obtain from DATS v3.
Problem is that then begs the question - which manufacturers are "reputable".🙄
However I have just read a reply from planet10 (Dave) to a simialr question to mine, and basically he said that the stated T/S parameters from reputable manufacturers are usually more reliable than those we can obtain from DATS v3.
Problem is that then begs the question - which manufacturers are "reputable".🙄
There's a lot of psychology in HiFi.
.e.g $2,000 interconnect cables that audiophiles rave over.
If you try to break in a driver too quickly, for instance what Tom said, the spider can develop a memory and never perform as intended (simple material physics, very understandable when you talk to someone eho designs spiders). How severe memory issues can be depends on how the spider is designed, but it is still there.
I suggest putting them in a closetk, hooking them up to an FM station, and just let them play at a lowish level for a couple weeks. As time goes son you can turn it up a bit.
dave
I suggest putting them in a closetk, hooking them up to an FM station, and just let them play at a lowish level for a couple weeks. As time goes son you can turn it up a bit.
dave
Hi Dave
Based on what you posted in a similar thread to this some time ago, I'm now not be too concerned about testing the T/S parameters, which is what the breaking in process was all about.
It boils down to mechanical stretching.
1000 small stretches a a couple dozen large ones, all add up and tend (in the Math way) to a given final result.
I make Guitar/Bass amps and for convenience have a "bench" speaker, a 2cu ft cube with my generic 12" 80W 8 ohm speaker which I have been making since the early 70´s, go figure, more than 20000 of them.
it gets anything that gets on the bench, from 1W 9V battery powered amps to 300W Bass heads, overdriven 100W guitar heads, the works.
"But ... but ... but .... you said 80W, now mention overdriven 100W so some 160/180W squarewave or slapping thumping 300W at low frequencies? .... WTF?"
Point is, that abuse is for very short term testing, a couple chords, never ever destroyed a speaker that way , not time enough, although a couple times, with Guitar players who get carried away, I started smelling overheated Epoxy.
Ok, what´s the relation to this thread?
Test box speaker gets regularly replaced by a fresh , just assembled one, because Musicians INSIST on buying that exact one, (the already stretched one) instead of new, even when being warned about it.
So yes, there is a DEFINITE, very audible difference.
Which is?: smoother looser sound, lower Q (detectable by ear), less "cardboard sound", etc.
Mind you, I am talking a relatively stiff highish Fs (say 50-55Hz) paper edge speaker, bet having a very soft acoustic suspension foam edge and very large spider, where cabinet air compliance/stiffness/elasticity is dominant vs built-in "mechanical" one will show way less change.
1000 small stretches a a couple dozen large ones, all add up and tend (in the Math way) to a given final result.
I make Guitar/Bass amps and for convenience have a "bench" speaker, a 2cu ft cube with my generic 12" 80W 8 ohm speaker which I have been making since the early 70´s, go figure, more than 20000 of them.
it gets anything that gets on the bench, from 1W 9V battery powered amps to 300W Bass heads, overdriven 100W guitar heads, the works.
"But ... but ... but .... you said 80W, now mention overdriven 100W so some 160/180W squarewave or slapping thumping 300W at low frequencies? .... WTF?"
Point is, that abuse is for very short term testing, a couple chords, never ever destroyed a speaker that way , not time enough, although a couple times, with Guitar players who get carried away, I started smelling overheated Epoxy.
Ok, what´s the relation to this thread?
Test box speaker gets regularly replaced by a fresh , just assembled one, because Musicians INSIST on buying that exact one, (the already stretched one) instead of new, even when being warned about it.
So yes, there is a DEFINITE, very audible difference.
Which is?: smoother looser sound, lower Q (detectable by ear), less "cardboard sound", etc.
Mind you, I am talking a relatively stiff highish Fs (say 50-55Hz) paper edge speaker, bet having a very soft acoustic suspension foam edge and very large spider, where cabinet air compliance/stiffness/elasticity is dominant vs built-in "mechanical" one will show way less change.
can you explain this? my intuition says that the oscillation and heating would reduce "memory" at the materials level, not make it worse.
The breaking-in of the drivers should be left exclusively to manufacturers. DIYers might overworry things which is not good for your sleeping habits.
I would measure them right out of the box and then run a low level LF sinewave say 30Hz for woofers for an hour or so and remeasure.
Rob 🙂
I thought filtered white noise was common to bring up the temperature for testing.
Break in time wouldn't seem to be much more complicated than a few hours of low level listening
Dark Side of the Moon is about 43 minutes long
just listen to that album 3 times at low levels.
Consuming party favors of choice might enhance the noticeable difference.
I think its more feasible difference with drivers with coated cloth edge
that may be slightly stiff out of the box.
Otherwise taking it easy on the spider but getting it moving
for a few hours would apply to all drivers.
Break in time wouldn't seem to be much more complicated than a few hours of low level listening
Dark Side of the Moon is about 43 minutes long
just listen to that album 3 times at low levels.
Consuming party favors of choice might enhance the noticeable difference.
I think its more feasible difference with drivers with coated cloth edge
that may be slightly stiff out of the box.
Otherwise taking it easy on the spider but getting it moving
for a few hours would apply to all drivers.
Power testing like AES1994 is band limited pink noise with a crest factor of 6dB.
A spider is typically cloth impregnated with a stiffening material. As you break the spider in the stiffening cracks. If you do it qi=uickly you can quickly fracture the stiff stuff in one place and that will now be the goto place for the spider. If you break in slowly this stiff stuff is gently loosened up over a much larger area and can respond better to the small stuff… it does not remember how you broke the spider by exceeding its range of motion when stiff.
dave