speaker break in

@kenjit 
I bet you have never purchased a new subwoofer !  

@jljYI have ha this happen too. a set of PSB towers became overly bass dominant after 2-1/2 years.  Sold 'em.  

A recent set of Spendor towers took 250 hrs to sound really good and they were still changing after that.  

A new set of Harbeths are sounding great at 70 Hours   (all above hours carefully logged).  

Not that I’m a fan of Klipsch, but- they may have a valid opinion on the subject, given they’ve been in the game for a while: https://www.klipsch.com/blog/how-to-break-in-a-speaker#targetText=After%20about%20100%20hours%20of,while%20others%20can%20change%20dramatically.                                                                                                                                                                                 Then there’s: https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/blog/how-run-speakers                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Oh, and these guys MIGHT know a thing or two, as well: https://www.eminence.com/speaker-break-in/                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Opinions on hours vary widely, as do the mechanics/materials of various drivers.

It will vary wildly from speaker to speaker.  My experience on my speakers has been for the first 5-10 hours after install dynamic changes in volume within a piece of music are incoherent.  Transitions from quiet to loud are poor.  This has been the case with both SEAS and Eton drivers.  This was called out to me by the engineers at Eton as something to expect.  

Over the next 10-50 hours I have not heard a significant change in the character of the sound but detail improves and the soundstage comes together more easily.  The louder they are played, the more quickly they break-in.  

Yeah, sure, pal. 🙄

break in is psychological. If you feel the speaker needs to break in you should get rid of them and buy something that sounds perfect from the start. This is a common problem with speakers that are not custom tuned.

Why worry....just listen to music

Be careful with your new speakers and don’t crank them up to speed the process I blew up one of my twitters after one month because of this !
 it’s better to operate on modest to normal volume at the first 200 hours of break in .

Why not simply email AP and ask them about your specific model's break in time

Thanks everyone. To get the speakers to sound dynamic I have to put volume higher than I want for long term listening sessions. I’m thinking break in is still needed

It not really a matter of hours but sometimes months. I once bought a pair of Wharfedale Denton bookshelf speakers and they still sounded rubbish two years later.

It depends on how much resolution your system has.  On extremely high resolution and revealing systems, you may have to go 200-300 hours.  On warmer and softer systems, 100 hours is probably fine.   One thing you need to know is the speaker definitely needs to be played at volume because the suspension on the woofers need to be flexed and broken in as well.  This requires movement. 

I've found most improvement in first 100 hours, still some more after that...normal volume, don't crank them up to speed the process 

Depends. Which direction are the voice coils wound?

Are you sure about that?  My GE Triton References stated 40-50 hours and it was pretty much on the money.

For every speakers 200 hours is absolutely the minimum for break in .