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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Car Audio / March 2004do you really need to break in a speaker?
5/14 2 way speakers.... does a guy really need to leave his car playing music for 24 hours before you can crank it up??? (thats what a car audio salesman told me) whats the worst that could happen if you cranked it up after 1 hour of playing music at medium volume level?? >5/14 2 way speakers.... does a guy really need to leave his car >playing music for 24 hours before you can crank it up??? (thats what a >car audio salesman told me) A salesmen actually told you to leave your car running for 24 hours? How f.cking ridiculous. Crank up your tunes all you want. You will be fine. Nick >5/14 2 way speakers.... does a guy really need to leave his car >playing music for 24 hours before you can crank it up??? (thats what a >car audio salesman told me) > >whats the worst that could happen if you cranked it up after 1 hour of >playing music at medium volume level?? The concept of "breaking in" speakers is pretty big with the home audio crowd as well. There's a poster over at rec.audio.high-end that used to swear that brand-new speakers sounded different after he had been playing them at home for about a month. He noticed this with several sets of new speakers. Then one day, he bought a pair of speakers that had been demo units in the showroom and already had several hundred hours of playing time on them when he bought them. Sure enough, after he had them in his home for about a month, they sounded "different" as well. So he figured out that they didn't really sound different after being "broken in", his ears were just used to the way they sounded after a month or so. The long and short of it is that you should be able to play new speakers right out of the box without having to worry about any kind of "break-in" procedure. Scott Gardner > 5/14 2 way speakers.... does a guy really need to leave his car > playing music for 24 hours before you can crank it up??? (thats what a > car audio salesman told me) > > whats the worst that could happen if you cranked it up after 1 hour of > playing music at medium volume level?? No. Not just no, but hell no. Break-in is usually only even recommended for large drivers, and even then people with experience in the biz will tell you it is wholly unnecessary. Lemme guess... bought 'em at Circuit City or Best Buy...  Signaturethelizman "I didn't steal the FAQ either" Before you ask a question, check the FAQs for this newsgroup at http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq. It contains over a decade and a half of knowledge. teamROCS Car Audio Forums http://www.teamrocs.com/caraudio/ teamROCS Car Audio News http://www.teamrocs.com/news/ "It's about the music, stupid" This post is Copyright (C) 2004. Reproduction of its content anywhere other than usenet without the express written permission of the author is forbidden. > 5/14 2 way speakers.... does a guy really need to leave his car > playing music for 24 hours before you can crank it up??? (thats what a > car audio salesman told me) > > whats the worst that could happen if you cranked it up after 1 hour of > playing music at medium volume level?? Let me ask you this, what will you break-in on a speaker? The mechanical part that's moving doesn't even touch the other parts. Which is to say, the coil doesn't touch the magnet so there's nothing to break in. The rest is electrical. Tune up your system correctly, and blast it all you want. It's different on a car engine where all that parts are touching each other and they need some time to "fit" together well. That's not the case with speakers, since there's nothing to break-in there. --Viktor > Let me ask you this, what will you break-in on a speaker? The mechanical > part that's moving doesn't even touch the other parts. Which is to say, the > coil doesn't touch the magnet so there's nothing to break in. The rest is > electrical. Tune up your system correctly, and blast it all you want. The break-in crowd claims it's the suspension that needs breaking-in. Like stretching, or some such nonsense. Others claim that it's a matter of heating up the voice coil to bake away crap, or something. "MZ" zarellam@twcnyremove.rr.comspam wrote: >> Let me ask you this, what will you break-in on a speaker? The mechanical >> part that's moving doesn't even touch the other parts. Which is to say, [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >stretching, or some such nonsense. Others claim that it's a matter of >heating up the voice coil to bake away crap, or something. Break-in of speakers is bullshit. A transducer designer at a known company once told me that speaker spiders (made of cloth and goop) "do" break-in but that whole process occurs at the QC station when they come off the line or the first time you stroke the speaker. I've conducted 3 experiments with speaker break-in using identical woofers and 24, 48 and 150 hours of break-in (per manufacturers recommendation) and found that if you measure the T/S parameters of a woofer immediately after break-in when the voice coil is still hot you'll find that the Fs will have fallen by 4-10% but the Vas (compliance) will have increased by a like amount. Not only do they sound alike but you'll come to the same recommended enclosure volume with either set of T/S parameters. Measure the same driver a few hours later and you'll find that it will have returned to its original T/S parameters. So the best that can be said is that speakers may "warm up" but that doesn't affect sound quality or SPL. I would have thought "breaking in" was nonsense as well, but I overheard a conversation this weekend that leaves me considerning the possiblity. I was at a car stereo distributor's show and one of the guys at the M A booth was mentioning to the other about how much more likely their woofers are to blow when hit with maximum power during the first 20 hours or so of play. The indication was that the moving materials of the speaker are somewhat stiff after manufacture, and pushing them to their limit might cause the materials to separate rather than flex. I thought about this in terms of shoes. They're meant to flex as you walk, but are usually quite stiff for the first few wears. If this is true - you may not need to break a speaker in for SQ purposes, but it might be beneficial if you don't want to blow your speaker apart the first time you power it up. www.MAINSTREET-AUDIO.com ~ ~ ~ Where SERVICE never goes out of style ~ ~ ~ V I S I T O U R F O R U M http://63.74.14.174/forum/phpBB2/index.php > I would have thought "breaking in" was nonsense as well, but I overheard a > conversation this weekend that leaves me considerning the possiblity. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > after manufacture, and pushing them to their limit might cause the materials to > separate rather than flex. According to Richard Pierce, who's examined this very thing, the "stiffness" of the driver takes on the order of seconds to loosen up, and will actually return to some degree to its original stiffness after all. Besides, I would think that temperature would make more of a difference in therms of stiffness. "MZ" zarellam@twcnyremove.rr.comspam wrote: >> I would have thought "breaking in" was nonsense as well, but I overheard a >> conversation this weekend that leaves me considerning the possiblity. [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >Besides, I would think that temperature would make more of a difference in >therms of stiffness. If such a condition actually existed, which I doubt, the most likely cause would be adhesive that wasn't fully cured. > >According to Richard Pierce, who's examined this very thing, the "stiffness" > >of the driver takes on the order of seconds to loosen up, and will actually [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > If such a condition actually existed, which I doubt, the most likely cause > would be adhesive that wasn't fully cured. By temperature, I meant ambient temperature. My point was that 100 degree differences in temperature would provide greater differences in suspension stiffness than how new a speaker is. And even that is almost certainly inaudible. > >The break-in crowd claims it's the suspension that needs breaking-in. Like > >stretching, or some such nonsense. Others claim that it's a matter of [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > whole process occurs at the QC station when they come off the line or the first > time you stroke the speaker. Well, evidently Alumapro doesn't break in their drivers, at least according to Matthew Honnert from Alumapro. However, I've yet to be presented with any evidence that there's a difference. well... i got 1 pair of JL 6" speakers here....and 1 pair of Alpine Type S 5-1/4.... they gonna get 5 min of medium volume....then max volume.... Ill let you know how it turns out tommarrow :D > well... > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > they gonna get 5 min of medium volume....then max volume.... Ill let > you know how it turns out tommarrow :D Just put a ball in it and shove it under your mattress. >Just put a ball in it and shove it under your mattress. Don't forget to put some oil on it and bake it first. Nick |
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