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Hi, Herb Reichert just reviewed the Zu Audio Supreme Speaker. He said every pair goes thru 600 hours of break in time.
I'm familiar with breaking in a baseball glove but of what use is that to a loudspeaker. If I listened to music an hour a day, and sometimes it's just tv, that would be about 2 years.
Does the speakers surround and spider weaken with time and sound better with age, or do they stiffen up with age and sound better? At what point do they have to retire like a ball player, for being worn out. After 600 hours why would they sound better and at 1600 hours would they get better still?
I'm as confused as Vinnie Barbarino......anyone know?.....Mark Korda
Follow Ups:
Mark,
good query- 500 to 600 hrs would be a minimum break -in for my ears.
Speakers retire when needs to be re-coned or replaced (driver/cross -over).
You would think 600 hours would do it but it seems full-range drivers can take much longer than expected. The Soul's are now sounding "more friendly" after two months and have changed noticeably since unpacking. Of course, I use them for everything: television, movies, and music. They play a lot during a day.
A buddy had a pair of Lowther's and joked that they break-in just before needing re-coning. I believe it.
Mechanical components in the suspension certainly do change with use, so "break in" may be occurring. The resonant frequency of a driver, for instance, can drop significantly due to softening of the suspension parts. My personal experience with loudspeakers is that there are some, usually small, changes in the first few hours of operation. These are measurable, particularly with subwoofers and larger woofers. Recently I tested a large subwoofer that had been used for nearly four years of serious duty and it showed about a 5% fall in free air resonant frequency and smaller changes in the other driver parameters. Whether these changes make a substantial difference in the sound varies with the specific drivers and the loudspeaker design.
Edits: 06/15/16
Driver break in is real, and the cited fall in free air resonance is a fact.
Now, as to the long break in periods claimed for other components, lots of power of suggestion and expectation bias going on here I think.....
Hi, all great answers you guys, I'm learning more from each person.
A guy I worked for 20 years ago had to go coach his daughters little league or softball league. He had a bag full of aluminum bats and said he had to go out and buy some more. When I asked why he explained the more they were used the more the metal lost it's hitting zing, like bending a coat hanger will soon break it theory.
So when I asked the question about speaker break-in some of your answers involved great sonics vs. time (hours, minutes). The only thing I can think of that effects break in time is in the speakers surround and to a lesser extent the spider.
If you think about the aluminum baseball bats, How are speakers said to sound better after hours of break in? Does a less ridged surround maybe mask some of an amps distortion? I don't think with time the surround gets tighter, does it?
I don't know any mechanical devise that gets better with a long break in time if properly crafted. Can you?, besides speakers.
Anyway, thanks for all the answers. You guys are my gurus! I got the day off so it's back to Perry Mason and Gilligan....Mark.
Woofer free air resonance will change, damping will change.....sometimes I like prototypes with the un-broken in woofer!
Weeks of playing. I think by a few weeks of a couple of hours per day most change is over. Those who say a year, with great changes, using terms like "ablow away"....well, those guys are usually trying to prove how sensitive and "high res" their systems are and make up a lot of stuff. Ego thing. I generally ignore that type.
Hi, you know Herb R. the reviewer made it real easy to compare the Zu speaker vs. the Orangutan speaker system both making the best of 1 watt or so.
The Zu had a wild woman boogie factor that swept thru Herb like a Cadillac ride to the Promised Land.
The Orangutan's seduced Herb with their saucy smile, barefoot dancing,and sequined Gypsy clothes.
Well that made it real easy for me, not for making a choice between the 2 sound producers but for telling my pot guy to step it up a little....sorry (Ted), had to use that line....Mark K.
No amount of time will tame the roughness (distortion) of the Zu's. Claims of break in times like that are to convince customers to hang with the piece of equipment and to get owners used to looking past the obvious problems, to hopefully become accepting of the product despite those shortcomings. It's a manufacturer and dealer trick that has been going on for decades.
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