Focal Diablo / Utopia III breakin really long?

Have not owned them but have a local dealer with whom I have listened with many times. The beryllium tweeter and stiff woofers take some time to relax and settle in.

I recommend that you put on a CD on "repeat" with great dynamics (Steeley Dan "Aja", "Gaucho",) Face speakers toward each other about 18" inches apart and reverse the phase on one speaker (switch the Red and Black on one side). Throw a blanket over them and let them run at 90-95db for a few days, especially while no one is home.

Have you had your dealer over to help with set-up? or a trusted friend with knowledge of speaker set up?

Good sound advice and your help is appreciated. I spent many years in the audiophile trenches and worked in the industry for a quarter century so I know how to set up a good sound. From my understanding the Utopia IIIs have an unusual and brutally long break in but I just trying to get general idea of required music hours to get them to sing.

Glad to know you have the experience.

As a general rule when buying new I like to make a deal on the demo equipment at the dealer. This ensures that you do not overpay and the unit in question will have several hundred hours on it before you get it home.

Let us know what happens in the next two weeks of listening.

Yes. 500+ hours.

Why would it matter if the speakers are in our out of phase? Why would the direction they are facing matter? I would assume the blanket is just to muffle the sound which makes sense to avoid driving people crazy, but the other advice seems to be void of any logical explanation.

Does you advice change in the northern vs. the souther hemisphere? Toilets swirl the opposite direction to I am sure audio is similarly effected.

I am honest curious about the whys behind you advice...

How loud do you play during breaking in? Also Avalon can have an extreme brake in. In owned a Meridian 800. The first one I bought needed 6 weeks of breaking in 24 hours a day. The sound was harsh and it needed 6 weeks before it was gone. I also thought it would not go away anymore. At the end it all solved. Good luck and give it some time. Sometimes we used some other amps and sources to make sure it was the speaker.

Placing them face to face with one speaker hooked up in reverse polarity will result in the acoustic cancellation of most of the sound. The blanket just takes it a step further. When implemented you can turn the volume up real loud, have the drivers pumping and have very little acoustic output. A tried and true way to break-in a pair of loudspeakers.

Tom6897 - After a bit more thought, I retract my snarky remark.

I'm guessing that the reason for connecting one speaker out of phase and facing them towards each other is to maximize on sound cancelation (e.g. Bose and Borla Exhaust). Where my brain is now spinning is wondering if having the speaker facing each other while out of phase (i.e. one driver going in while the other is coming out) actually would couple them again? Maybe side by side facing the same direction would yield better results?

Suffering the same.  Sounded best between days 2 and 12.  Now, for last few days it is unpleasing.  Sounds harsh/bright/edgy when I turn it up to live levels.  Driving with PrimaLuna EVO 400 separates.  500+ hours?  100 days of 5 hours / day.  Seems crazy. 
??When will it get back to sounding at least as good as it did between days 2 and 12??
Thanks!