The assertion that all gear (particularly speakers with mechanically moving parts) must sound fantastic straight out of the box or you need to immediately send them back to the manufacturer/dealer is ridiculous. Particularly among higher-end speakers where many of the differences between brands at similar price points can be quite nuanced - this is important if you're thinking of making a change to coax some sonics out of your system that are more desirable. In audiophile terms we aren't just talking "does this sound good or does this sound bad?" and then act on that to exercise return policies. It's about giving the speakers a chance the perform at their best so better listening comparisons can be made to inform our buying decisions.
When I first acquired my Devore O/96's with the intention of replacing my Spendor D7's it was clear cold out of the box that the O/96's didn't sound as good as the D7's that I had been using for years. John Devore even states that his speakers will take 600 hrs to fully run in and can benefit incrementally up to 1,000 hrs. I found the sonics in the O/96's to improve over the D7's at about 100 hrs and smoked them by 200 hrs. All the while the 0/96's never sounded "bad" from day 1 - they simply didn't sound better. Should I have returned them? lol That would have been a tragic mistake as they now have close to 1,000 hrs an amaze me every day. It's a mere matter of physics - the speakers benefitted greatly from loosening up the huge foam surrounds and spiders on the 10-inch woofer. While not all speakers require the same run-in time to coax the best sound from them, these categorical statements about immediately returning them are utter nonsense.
When I first acquired my Devore O/96's with the intention of replacing my Spendor D7's it was clear cold out of the box that the O/96's didn't sound as good as the D7's that I had been using for years. John Devore even states that his speakers will take 600 hrs to fully run in and can benefit incrementally up to 1,000 hrs. I found the sonics in the O/96's to improve over the D7's at about 100 hrs and smoked them by 200 hrs. All the while the 0/96's never sounded "bad" from day 1 - they simply didn't sound better. Should I have returned them? lol That would have been a tragic mistake as they now have close to 1,000 hrs an amaze me every day. It's a mere matter of physics - the speakers benefitted greatly from loosening up the huge foam surrounds and spiders on the 10-inch woofer. While not all speakers require the same run-in time to coax the best sound from them, these categorical statements about immediately returning them are utter nonsense.