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In Reply to: RE: How can we tell posted by RGA on June 04, 2015 at 21:46:09
However long it takes to "break in" a component I don't think that we can completely discount the possibility that, if/when the break in period seems to be running into the hundreds of hours, our ears might be breaking in too.It seems reasonable that the surrounds on speaker drivers might take several minutes or hours to loosen up.
Becoming personally comfortable with the way a pair of speakers sounds - making musical sense out of what we are hearing - might conceivably take hundreds of hours or more. After a few hours of this, however, I'd be hesitant to trust my musical memory.
What might be a reasonable amount of time to allow for "ear break in", if indeed it exists?
Edits: 06/05/15Follow Ups:
My experience has been that good speakers/monitors sound good pretty much right out of the box. A good speaker might get a bit better as drivers are broken-in.. Break-in seems IMO to be a psychological remedy that absolutely can be effective depending on the skills of the dealer or manufacturer.
If you listen for 30 minutes in your intended room and are not happy at all but liked the speakers in the showroom, better to start working on room positioning and set-up than wait in discontent for break-in. If still not happy, act happy in front of your spouse and make a plan.
If you've auditioned before buying you should be able to tell if the unit coming out of the box doesn't sound like what you auditioned. Also, for instance, if the bass response isn't right, like too tight, I don't think continued listening will change your mind that you are happy with that response. I can only speak for myself. Or, if you are hearing some harshness in the highs that over hours seemed to decrease and eventually disappear, it had to be break in. You don't listen to harshness for months and suddenly you love harshness.
If your theory held true then we could listen to any system and eventually be happy with it. I've never known that to happen. If something is annoying it remains annoying.
However, I admit there is some ear adjustment. For example, my system is is what I'd say is neutral having a tight controlled bass, and, bass only if it's in the program. My friend has a system where the bass blooms, sort of thick and large. So after visiting him it takes my ears a short time to adjust back to my system which at first seems a bit thin. Then I begin to hear the detail etc. I was missing and acclimate back to my system. But if I had his system no matter how long I had it, I wouldn't suddenly one day be happy with it.
I think there is no question that your ear can get used to the sound of something. Hence you breaking in (or warming up to) what the product offers you. This is why reviewers have stuff for a month. It has the huge advantage of allowing the person to get to know (get used to) the sound the product brings to the table versus his/her own reference speaker that he is very much used to. The new speaker may present horn instruments very much differently - at first the reviewer may not like it but over time gets used to the new version and may or may not like it more.
The alternative is the "listen to 5 speakers for a track or two and decide which one gets editor's choice. Shorter memory issues but kind of knee-jerk appeal as well.
Break in is certainly real on many other things with moving parts. Take shoes - If you have a shoe for a month or two you could probably join a five mile run and be fine - but man I tried that once not thinking with a brand new pair of shoes out of the box and had insane blisters. Agony. I did the same kind of thing 6 months later with the same shoes and had no problem at all. But the thing is still a size 11 brand new or 6 months later.
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