2. speakers
  3. 192006-94512

Do speakers need to be re-broken in?

Just purchased a set of speakers which have sat for quite while- 5 years from what I am told. I have heard the differences between new "tight" speakers drivers and a broken in pair, where the bass gets deeper and the speaker "breathes" better and sounds more open, and clear and resolves better, you know- just sounds better all-around.

I haven’t witnessed this personally in my own home in over a decade, and that was with planar drivers and not conventional cones, which this set has, but regardless of speaker technology I believe it is well understood this is a necessary process and manufacturers agree and suggest this- so not looking for any arguments there please.

But I would think used, or already broken in speakers would not do go through this process, but my ears are telling me they are getting better, so contrary to my assumption perhaps they do need re-breaking in? Anyone else gone through this?

128x128mclinnguy
jl35
3,980 posts
 

I just last night, hooked up a pair of bookshelf speakers that have not been used in 6+ months, ran them all night, and they sure sound better this morning. And it wasn't my ear/brain adjusting as I was sleeping while they were playing. Not sure why this topic seems to upset some people so much...

langla4
37 posts
 

I recently purchased a pair of AER BD-3 drivers and was told it could take over 100 hours for the paper cones to loosen up and settle in.

larryi
3,981 posts
 

AER BD 3's are really nice full range drivers.  Do you have any specific plans on how they are going to be used?

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,687 posts
 

If the speakers sat for five years they might have stiffened up a tad, but abut a few minutes of play should be more than enough time to bring them back. 

mclinnguy's avatar
mclinnguy OP
447 posts
 

Thanks for the responses so far. I was considering being one of those OP’ers who start a thread and then you never ever hear from them, until their next thread- but I am not that type of person. wink

I recently purchased a pair of AER BD-3 drivers and was told it could take over 100 hours for the paper cones to loosen up and settle in.

Again, new driver break is not being debated here, that has basically been concluded to be required by manufacturers, and most of our ears have accepted this to be a fact as well.

The speakers I have in question have Lowther drivers which from the Lowther USA rep require 300 hours of break in.

And yes of course my ears are being adjusted to the new speakers and their different presentation, and I am still playing around with setup positioning, and getting over a cold where one ear was plugged is also a definite factor.

My question was after 1000 hours of playing, then sitting for 5 years, should they require additional "loosening"? I am going to come to the conclusion of a "few hours", as some have suggested, not to mention the single capacitor between the Lowther and the tweeter may require a little juice to restabilize seems plausable as others have suggested.

 

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