Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo speaker break-in

I'm wondering if anyone here has heard any speaker break-in effect for either of small Axiom fronts. . .in other words, any changes in speaker characteristics after 50-100 hours of use.

Axiom has stated that their speakers do not require break-in nor that the sound characteristics change over time due to use.

Your room/placement, volume, any processor settings enabled and the quality of the recording you are playing through your speakers at the time will be the biggest determinants on the perceived quality of sound. Psychoacoustics is another important factor to take into consideration when judging a speaker over time.

I have noticed break-in with some W22's I just hooked up (but not mounted in wall yet). The difference is in the low end. When I first applied power to them, they sounded tinny to my ears. I've played 2 CD's on them, so far, and the bass gets extended as I listen to them. I think most people would call that "ear adjustment" but I don't think so. Not after just 2 CD's. Same with the M22's I bought 3 months ago. The more I listened to them, the more bass I noticed.

I 'think' my 6 year old M22s/VP100 and QS8s sound as good today as they did when they were bought. Is that a long enough speaker break in?

Another break-in thread, why don't people search...no there is no breakin, contrary to what some will tell you readmc. However, your brain does break in.

Which is better....M60 or M80?

Uh oh...I know better than that now...

Should I bi-amp my M80's?

Are you trying to get banned?

Whatever you do, use a low-watt tube amp. Any tube amp is obviously better than any solid-state amp.

I like The Tubes.

Personally, I would say speakers are in a constant state of break-in as the moving parts start to wear ever so subtly, but it is not enough wear to be noticed, kind of like the wear going on in your cars driveline, you don't notice it till one of the components breaks.

Make sure you pre-heat your tubes for 20 minutes in a 150°F oven.

Speaking of break in, I noticed that the goofy thin yellow shady maple golden helix speaker wire mentioned in the static surround thread had a quote at the bottom their product page that said:


WARNING: DO NOT USE ANY BREAK-IN DEVICES OF ANY KIND ON OUR WIRES! They will seriously degrade the sound. Use only music to break in our cables.

LOL!

Link here
http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=GOLDENH

After a break-in my tube amp got wired and went bi. Does that count?

Thanks to Dr. House, for noting AXIOM's position on this.

As for the majority of the responses, if you don't have a useful or entertaining response to a post, why post at all?

You hav'nt been here long have you? We like to randomly respond with... stuff, the further off topic the better. Reading the posts backwards afterwords is even better.

Generally speaking, the original question gets answered somewhere in the thread though...

I sympathize with SirQs frustration, having been here way too long perhaps, but i have to say, the 'new' iteration of the search engine really sucks.
The old one was far better.
I tried the Google one that Peter setup but i haven't found it to be that accurate which is somewhat surprising for Google.

I think some of the older posts have gone the way of the dodo. Not certain, though, but that would explain why neither search appears to work well.

Right, let's bring power conditioning into this as well. I plugged my TV into a UPS, and now the TV speakers sound better than the crummy crossovers in my Axioms!

That's unpossible.

The direction this thread took reminds me of the Duffers in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Some of you might remember the monopod tribe who were generally good natured and enjoyed making obvious statements and agreeing with one another.

So reidmc, the guys on this foruum do have a wealth of helpful information and have helped me a lot in my home audio/video questions. Unfortunately, though, you hit upon one of the questions that is asked frequently and they got carried away. So stick around and feel free to ask questions. Don't let them scare you away.

-Dave

Who? Us? Get carried away? Not unless it's in a straight jacket.

Reid, welcome. Yes, this topic has been pretty much beaten to death over the past few years, but lets go into a little more detail anyway. The latest comment on it by resident Axiom audio expert Alan Lofft is found in this thread . It should be kept in mind that woofers cycle hundreds of times and tweeters thousands of times in their very first second of operation, which helps explain why any permanent "break-in" happens very quickly, most likely during testing at the factory. Research by Dr. Floyd Toole has also shown that there is no long term break-in process. A measurable "loosening" of the driver suspension occurs almost instantaneously every time a speaker is played, which then reverts to its resting state a few minutes after the speaker has been powered down, and no further permanent change has taken place.

Although we often read that as much as hundreds of hours of "break-in" are recommended for speakers, players, amplifiers and even pieces of connecting wire, there's no factual support for these claims, which are a relatively recent audio phenomenon. It's been said, not entirely tongue-in-cheek, that "Break-in was invented so that we couldn't return anything!".

If your speakers get too broke-in, you can always turn them into useful media cabinets...

Lol, that's brilliant Rick!!

Very nice.

That's awesome Rick.

How do the voicecoils fit? Does filling the internal cabinet improve the sound?

Hi Rick,

Love 'em! Trying to guess what those were (are)--old Cerwin-Vegas? Pioneer? Sansui? Or some house brand?

Alan

Wow! That's really cool!

That is really awesome.

Back to the topic at hand. How long did it take you to, you know, break them puppies in?

Actually I just google-imaged 'broken speakers' and found them, here's the step-by-step guide to turn old speakers into media cabinets...

Speaker Media Cabinets

Pretty slick!

Oh, you could've been a legend...

Just like Jesse James.

Talk about ROTFL.....I almost puked on this one....

Play them for a few hundred hours and call it broken in. No need to worry about it otherwise, one of the most subtle of changes in the chain.

Is that more or less subtle than the changes which occur after breaking in the speakers or cables?

I broke a cable last week and it affected the sound 100%.

I broke in my speaker with a hammer and it affected the sound 100% also.

I never watched "Broke Back Mountain"

I almost broke my back climbing a mountain once.

I've heard of "Breaking Benjamin"....

After a few more slices of this pizza, I'll doin' some breakin' myself.

I once broke into a speaker but there was nothing of value in there to steal. Just a bunch of white fluffy stuff and some random copper wires.

Isn't that copper worth something these days?

only in areas with high crime rates...

It looks to have doubled in price over the past year ~$1.50 to ~$3.31 Not bad.......I wish I bought some.

Quick, sell your cables!

Mechanical parts never change over use, therefor break-in is a fallacy

If you haven't read this quite detailed article on Audioholics, you should:

Speaker Break In: Fact of Fiction

For those in a hurry, here's the conclusion at the end of page 2:

I have an ifinity basslink in my car, I think I pretty much cranked it from the get go. Well anyways, after 2 or 3 weeks, the bass was noticeably more. This was the only speaker that I ever noticed, that had a breakin period.
The infinity basslink is a powered 10" sub with a 10" passive radiator. If anyone is ever looking into one, theyre actually pretty good, not earth shattering, but a healthy amount of bass.

On the break-in question, I recently bought some Orb speakers for a bedroom. In their manual they said that there would be some break-in: "Like all speaker systems, our speakers require a little time to break in. They will sound great out of the box, but even better as they play for a couple of hours over the first few days. Use the speakers normally during the break in period. There is no need to break in the speakers any other way. As you play them, you will notice that the output from the satellites becomes more well-rounded and the output from the subwoofer becomes tighter and louder. You will also notice that the overall integration between the satellites and subwoofer improves as the speakers break in: You might have to adjust the volume of the subwoofer during the break in period to best match the satellites. Once a balance has been achieved, you will probably not have to make many changes unless there are
differences in the dynamic range or recording of your various audio sources."

I'm frankly not sure if I hear any difference after the break-in period. I've listened for it, and think I hear a slight difference, but who knows. Any difference is subtle.

As an aside, I actually like the little system I got from Orb (including a nice little sub). Nothing like the Axiom setup in another room, but I don't think even Orb would claim to compare to larger speakers like the Axioms. I would have preferred Axioms, but they were too big for this particular room . . . .

Axiom does have some very small speakers, just fyi. Glad you like the Orbs.

What is this? Is this a subtle "shame on you for not buying Axiom's little speakers?"

Is this a subtle chiding?

I don't think so, it sounds like he didn't know Axiom had smaller speakers than the M2's which are of course the M0's and bought orb audio instead. He did say he wished Axiom had smaller speakers.

OK, thank you for not keeeeelllling me. Is that French?

I wouldn't mind hearing more in-depth impressions of the Orbs. I keep thinking of picking up a pair just to try them. As far as their use, I think they'd just go with my monitor (whenever I buy a new one) so I can still have computer audio when I'm using my main system for something else. Any small speakers would work, really, but I do like balls. Spheres, I mean.

Have not seen Achmed the Dead Terrorist ?

I didn't take kcarlile's comment as a subtle dig, just as an FYI.

I actually posted about my situation here and exchanged some e-mails with Alan. Just couldn't get any Axiom setup that would seem to work for my particular situation. I don't recall a mention of M0's, but it's possible someone did discuss those and I determined they wouldn't work. It's also possible I just asked the wrong questions and thus didn't get that information. In any event, it wasn't such a huge deal because it's just a master bedroom, and the Orbs seem to work well in my situation. In fact, I actually ended up doing something very different in terms of configuration than what I originally planned, and I think the Orbs in particular allowed me to do that. As I said, I would have preferred Axioms because I am so comfortable with the product and because, frankly, if I'm going to spend money on speakers I'd just assume send it to Axiom because I like the company so much. I'm sure they'll make it without my $700 dollars, though, or whatever the Axiom alternative would have cost.

CV: As for impressions, I am probably the last person to give a real review, as I don't know what I'm listening for on a more technical level. My ability to analyze these things is pretty much limited to "I like it," or "I don't like it." That being said, I think they sound good, particularly for their size. I actually like the sub a lot, seems to integrate well with the speakers and actually gives a lot of base for it's size. For a more meaningful analysis, though, you could take a look at this AVS thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=769976. Toward the end of the thread somebody comes in who seems quite knowledgeable and discusses some of the limits of the Orbs. He gets yelled at a lot (it's an Orb thread), but what he said seemed pretty reasonable to the unitiated like me. Someone with a better ear than mine might have some concerns with what that particular person was describing.

I can tell you that they're much better than bags of sand, but what they're attached to can really make or break 'em.

Thanks for the link!

And be careful how you tweak them. Don't just start fiddling with the knobs haphazardly.

That's what she said!