Dynaudio burn in time and how you do it...

Several 100 hours..put on the cd and let it play.No real secret

I own a pair of Dynaudio Focus speakers. They took 200-300 hours to sound their best. Two audible effects of break in: (1) smoother treble; (2) greater coherence between the two drivers.

Face the speaker toward each other and change the polarity on just one speaker and the drivers will work with each other and break in faster. It also helps cancel each other out to lower the sound wave. Put them face to face (about one inch apart). Thats how I break in all my speakers. Hope this helps.

Just play the speakers and listen to them as they break-in. See if you can detect how/if they change over time. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.

03-06-10: Randyhat
Just play the speakers and listen to them as they break-in. See if you can detect how/if they change over time. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.

What? A common sense approach?
I applaud you sir!
Actually agree 100%. I for one would like to experience the difference before and after break-in for future reference.

Do any of you own the Ayre burn in CD? I have tried track 4, which makes the woofer move a bit...is this okay at moderate levels, or will it harm the woofer in any way? Sorry to ask stupid questions, but the liner notes on the CD offer nothing of what the tracks are for.

By the way, I LOVE these monitors! Dyn sound is very nice for sure. Thanks all for your input...appreciate it.

My C1's sounded great right out of the box. After about 100 hrs they did sound pretty bad. At around 200 hrs they back to sounding real good again. At 350 - 400 hrs they finally sounded great. I just looped cds day and night till I hit 500hrs.

As Randy stated above,just play music thru them.You can follow the progress from the first day "these sound good" to suddenly on another day "wow,these really sound good".Why buy speakers and not listen to them?Just my thoughts.Congrats on your new purchase,enjoy them.

My reply above is to break in the speakers as fast as possible. 200-300 hrs of listening time is quite a long time. The compromise would be , Yes, listen to them and enjoy them. But when not listening , the quickest way to break them in is as discribed above. Most importantly is to have fun and enjoy those great speakers. Hope this helps.

I’ve done speakers all sorrts of ways… and the thing I’ve found out is this… just play ‘em.

Modulating volume is good… play ‘em loud and soft and so forth… and all the time…. More or less. A month’s worth of daytime 12 – 18 hrs each day is plenty and all will be on track by months end usually.

There is something to be said too for playing them loudly towards the end of the deal though. I’ve had some speakers which simply would not ‘unlock’ until some ample juice got pushed into them.

So turn on the cable box to rock & roll, or what have you, and let them go! Listening now and then isn’t going to be really a noteable thing as in time, you’ll forget much of exactly what hamppend when… and just how much value is that to you anyways? Didn’t sound too good… then they sounded better… then not so better… then they were good… so what?

Drivers merely need to flex, and X overs need to have juice running thru them just like CDPs, preamps, etc. 16hrs per day = 102 per week. One month = Ready for prime time!! Usually.

At about 3weeks you can start shifting them into position and by weeks end you ought to be able to finally spike ‘em into place.

There is something to be said too for playing them loudly towards the end of the deal though. I’ve had some speakers which simply would not ‘unlock’ until some ample juice got pushed into them.

I agree with Blindjim.

These are great responses/insight folks! Thanks so much for your input and help.

I just bought some Evoke 20's and they sound OK but the tops are bright after about 10 hrs. on them, ie: high registers on piano and guitar are bright with only a so-so midrange. I've listened to a LOT of speakers but none at this price point. I'm playing classical through them now and stuff that won't make me tizzy but I am 69 and sort of fussy. I like my Klipsch RP-150 and my Dyn Excite X14's! The Excites were horrible when I first got 'em but did warm up some. Thanks so much for all your input!

I seriously doubt speakers require any break in whatsoever.  

exactly,my contour s1.4LE speakers sounded impressive from first notes,were completely new:)

This burn in myth is just crazzy  nonsense  !

I just got my Dynaudio excite 44 a week ago they sounding absolutely  fantastic out of the box what i noticed was my old lower priced speaker had more midrange which was tiring after a while listening to certain  music so i do prefer the sound of the new speakers..

Dynaudio tests every driver they make in house and after the speaker build is completed they test it again!

Someone was recommending   here to use a test signal for 500 hour?

"   zmanastronomy738 posts03-06-2010 9:58pmFace the speaker toward each other and change the polarity on just one speaker and the drivers will work with each other and break in faster. It also helps cancel each other out to lower the sound wave. Put them face to face (about one inch apart). Thats how I break in all my speakers. Hope this helps."

THIS MUST BE AN ABSOLUTE F***ING JOKE! !!!!!
Where do you see in the owners manual manufacturer  recommend brake in ????

JUST LISTEN TO THE DAMN THING and enjoy it! !
NO NEED ANY OF THIS NONSENSE!!

trumpetbri OP42 posts03-07-2010 3:22pmThese are great responses/insight folks! Thanks so much for your input and help.


I just hope you dont take SERIOUSLY  ANY OF THIS SUGGESTIONS before think them through using common sense! !!

This person asked for advice for a valid situation. Obviously those of us have experienced this and are giving suggestions. Why is it that in EVERY audio forum out there... non beleivers/experiencers have to BAD mouth and invalidate those that have experienced something and can assist others with their solutions to the situation? Why do they need to pipe in?If a topic does not apply to you... MOVE along!My Totem Mani 2's (Same drivers as Dynaudio) sounded so bad out of the box that I didn't listen to them for a week! I had heard about this... but never experienced it until now... I just left the tuner on at Medium volume while away... and low volume while at home, and even lower volume while sleeping. Every couple days I would play a song... NOPE.. still harsh, brittle, head ache inducing. After a week... I could start to listen to them... playing only a album... a few songs cranked up... as others have mentioned...  and started to notice them get smoother and smoother over the next few weeks. At some point you will just say Ahhhh... that's better!.. and start to really enjoy them.

Martin Logan states in the manual of my Classic ESL 9’s that their bass drivers need to loosen up and the sound may seem to lack bass during the first 75 hours or so. My experience confirms this, there was definitely a significant change for the better in the sound quality but it’s hard for me to tell how much time it took until the sound stabilized, especially considering that the amplifier was also new.

Anyone who doesn’t believe in speaker  break in is a straight up fool. Or trolling for  attention.

Probably also believes the world is flat.

I agree that they will take a good while before sounding their best.  I recently auditioned a pair of Evoke 20 in the local shop and the dealer turned it off after 2 min as we both heard shrill and congested sound with no stage at all.  He had just removed them from the box.  He also sells Magico and part of the service when is actually putting the 200 hours on them in the back room before delivery so when they arrive they are ready to rock!

shrill in sound means only one thing - system mismacth.And usually low-fi ,(cheap speakers paired with good amp) with bad crossover reproduce such sound:)
Life is too short burn in speakers for 500hours:) Better don't buy dynaudio if you don't have high current amp or you will have to burn speaker all your lifetime:) 

Yes from my experience they need burn-in time. For my Sapphires, Dynaudio specifies several weeks running in.
As to amplification, the user manual states: 

quote: Also, as the Sapphire has a relatively high sensitivity, even high quality amps with a low power rating can drive the loudspeaker to yield excellent results. Unquote.

Not sure where the myth originates, that Dynaudios only sound good with high current amps. 

I agree with the "listen to them and don't worry" suggestion. Break-in of any component has to take into account the fact that you're going to personally adjust to the sound anyway. I've had (recently actually) new speakers that just let me down after a while, mostly because the speakers I was replacing were great sounding and were only being replaced because I wanted something with more efficiency. When I put my old speakers back in I thought that the new ones had to go immediately, and they did. 

Those who are interested can read about this at  Dagogo.com in the article "Audio Blast: Thou Shalt Not Overemphasize Burn In"