Okay, How Important Is Speaker Break In? (Dynaudio Contour 60i)


I have been running 25+ year old B&W Matrix 803 S2 speakers in my 2-channel system for about 15 years, and I finally treated myself to new speakers.  Mock me for buying based on research alone, but I got a really good deal and just unpacked my beautiful Dynaudio Contour 60i's.  The Dyn's are not broken in, just starting to play around with different songs, but I am expecting an improvement out of the box, and not getting it.  They are no more revealing, and slightly harder and more jangley in the mids and highs.  The bass is of course much better with the big Dyns, but the B&Ws with the Dyn Sub6 subwoofer I was running were better.  I have very good equipment so it is not a matter of driving bigger speakers (ARC Ref preamp and Bryston 7bSST2 monoblocks).  Unless speakers get A LOT better with break in, I thinking these Dyns may be converted back into cash.   Thoughts? Thanks.
mathiasmingus

Showing 3 responses by three_easy_payments

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.
so apparently speakers don't need to be sent back immediately if they don't sound perfect straight out of the box?  Shocker!  Someone better let Einstein in on this audio secret.
and then he has to be a jerk by adding:

You can leave all your gear off all the time.

It's just too irresistable for him...a jab needs to be thrown at every opportunity.  The mission is to demean.