Out of phase breaking in, Anywone ever hear of it?

Sure, I've used it many times. It really reduces the sound output sound and allows me to play my system 24X7 in order to decrease the break-in time required for my new speaker purchases. I sometime also cover the face to face speaker pair with blankets to further reduce the sound output.

I agree that caution is necessary because the sound is greatly reduced by cancellation and you could drive you amp into clipping or overdrive the speakers without knowing it. It's best to first play your system in a regular layout to determine what position on the volume control is moderately loud before doing the cancellation setup. Never exceed the volume control level that you previously determined was loud in a normal setup.

TIC

Thanks for the reply.

It doesn't look like many folks are familiar with this technique. You have made very good points about finding the appropriate volume level to do this with.

In my experience under normal conditions many speakers never break in properly. I have found many "used" speakers that I have purchased were not broken in at all.

As an example I once pruchased a pair of Klipsch Heresey's from a professional video recording studio. They carried them around for the audio portion of their demos. The seller said that they were "too much" for their application and were going for something smaller. After using this breaking in technique the bass really opened up. I would say the low end increased by a third in apparent volume and depth. I wonder what the seller would have thought hearing the vastly improved in performance the Heresys were really capable of.

Thank you,
Ron

I have also done this for the first couple of days to expedite the process. But typically after 3-4 days, I break down and just put the speakers in my system for the rest of the break-in period.

I use this technique regularly. Works great. It makes me wish for a preamp with an old fashioned Mono switch, though.