So what would cause the difference in sound? The big MLTL's by Chris have a wide baffle (if I recall correctly), and are bi-amped with line level crossovers. What did you listen to at Dave's house?
Enlarging the baffle with styrofoam to check if the treble changes shouldn't be too hard to do. That gives me two things to try (the other being adding wool). My A7P's probably have around 50 hours on them, but I doubt that break-in will eliminate the 6-16 kHz depression my speakers have. An issue related to diffraction and/or standing waves sounds more plausible.
So that gives me a third thing to try, and maybe I should do that first: put them in a damped box, close the lid and let them play for an entire week. I do this in the basement, but it has an open stairwell to the rest of the house, so playing music 24/7 with them mounted in my speakers is just not going to work.
timpert - the dimensions on the MTM in question are 402mm wide x 1207mm tall x 285mm deep. I haven't had a chance to hear them since they were dropped off at Dave's but in the couple of months in my system they were powered by an Onkyo TX NR818 - a great piece with on-board digital crossover and bi-amping capabilities - maybe not gold-plated audiophile grade, but certainly very flexible and easy to fly.
That makes me wonder if there is any way to accelerate the process. Depending on usage pattern, a week of full time playing represents several months of usage.
If I understand it correctly, it is the cone that needs this time most, more so than the surround or the spider. Would it work to use a first order highpass filter of, say, 500 Hz and then to crank up the volume until the cone can be just seen moving? In this way, the cone gets some good exercise past its break- up frequency without large excursions causing the surround to yank on its edge.
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Man, that sucks!
I mean, that is a tad impractical if you ask me. For others, it may become even more impractical. Consider people living in small apartments, or in a room/dorm. Leaving the system on 24/7 is bound to irritate people in such a situation, up to the point where the break in process may be a deal breaker for some. I sincerely think that a lot of (potential) buyers of the Alpair series would feel that an accelerated break-in procedure would be of great help. It may even advance sales a bit... Maybe achieving 100 % break in is not feasible/desirable, but say, 75% of the way with accelerated aging, and 25 % during normal use would be a good goal.
I am aware of the position of Mark Fenlon on this issue, but especially he is in a position where he will always have speakers to listen to, while his new creations are breaking in around the clock somewhere else, and so he has no reason to deviate from the process he considers best. But his optimum is not automatically someone else's optimum. I am not the kind of guy who takes "nope, can't be done" easily. But I also don't like to whine without contributing to a possible solution, so I'd like to think about the issue (perhaps in another thread), and offer up my pair of A7P's as guinea pigs, when a credible method comes out of the discussion. Does that sound reasonable/feasible?
I mean, that is a tad impractical if you ask me. For others, it may become even more impractical. Consider people living in small apartments, or in a room/dorm. Leaving the system on 24/7 is bound to irritate people in such a situation, up to the point where the break in process may be a deal breaker for some. I sincerely think that a lot of (potential) buyers of the Alpair series would feel that an accelerated break-in procedure would be of great help. It may even advance sales a bit... Maybe achieving 100 % break in is not feasible/desirable, but say, 75% of the way with accelerated aging, and 25 % during normal use would be a good goal.
I am aware of the position of Mark Fenlon on this issue, but especially he is in a position where he will always have speakers to listen to, while his new creations are breaking in around the clock somewhere else, and so he has no reason to deviate from the process he considers best. But his optimum is not automatically someone else's optimum. I am not the kind of guy who takes "nope, can't be done" easily. But I also don't like to whine without contributing to a possible solution, so I'd like to think about the issue (perhaps in another thread), and offer up my pair of A7P's as guinea pigs, when a credible method comes out of the discussion. Does that sound reasonable/feasible?
You mean you want to bring up the dreaded "break-in" debate.
Honestly, you'll just be encouraging all the trolls.
jeff
If I had some spare cash, that's what I'd bet on.
There are many on this forum, who believe that "break-in" is complete nonsense, and that anyone who believes or experiences it is either a moron, or delusional. Just a "heads-up".
jeff
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Finally pics of the A7p/A12pw MTM.
dave
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
dave