"but don't get bullied into reporting what you think you should be hearing"
BRAVO!!!
The last couple of posts by Jack and John were some of the best posts I have read in a while.
Thank you both.
I am going to add to the discussion for a couple of reasons.
1; I think that those who think that break in does occur get shouted down just a bit too enthusiasticly by those who do not believe in it. I certainly do not have enough facts, or knowledge of the physics of loudspeaker design and building or psychoacoustic (sp?) principals to side with either camp based on anything more than my own personal experience.
2; I am positive that I noticed a distinct difference in how my M60s sounded from the moment that I plugged them in to 20 minutes later. And I noticed even more of a difference 4 hours later. What that was caused by, well.. I think some of you may be better at explaining than me, but I am a very critical listener, and I am firmly in the camp that it was the speaker changing, and not my ears.
3; Lastly, I propose this as a question, because I have never seen it figured into this discussion or argument in anyting that I have read.
And please take this question from the point of view that I am not a scientist or have anything close to as much technical knowledge that I have come to enjoy from so many of you on this site;
Many people over time have had to replace the rubber surrounds around the driver. Correct?
When a speaker is working to produce sound, the only part of that speaker that is actually moving (well, I know that the cone is vibrating, right?) is that rubber surround that is holding the cone in it's frame. Correct?
So, that rubber surround is being stressed and pushed and pulled many, many times over the course of time. Correct?
Besides the fact that rubber dries out over time, and light, among many other things also acts as a factor in degrading rubber, neccesitating it's replacement, would not this constant movement also be a contributing factor in it degrading/changing over time?
And, if that movement is contributing to it's eventual breakdown, then that breakdown/change has to be occuring from the moment that the speaker is turned on, does it not?
Many of us have unfortunately known the sickening sound when a rubber surround on a cherished old speaker finally gives way. One moment wonderful sound, the next moment that horrible blatting dying fart.
In my mind, to know that this instantaneous change can, and does occur, and then to be unwilling to admit that the same process has been occuring from the first moment that the speakers were turned on -albeit at a much slower and less dramatic pace- just seems silly.
Sort of like the guys to whom a loss in the first week of the season merits a shrug, yet that last loss that keeps their team out of the playoffs is the end of the world.
They were both the same, yet one was barely noticable, and the other was the end of the line. But they were both the same.
To sum up;
A speaker is (just like almost everything else) constantly changing/degrading/ageing. It (or parts of it anyway) will eventually wear out. No?
I do not understand why it is not considered plausible, in some circles, for the beginning of this process to be apparent, even if it is in small degrees, just as the end of this process is apparent.
I will now put the helmet on and wait for the science guys to show me why I am wrong.
AND! Like the rest of the time I spend on this forum, I'll probably learn a Helluva lot about something!
(remember! this was all posed as a question and my opinion! I was not stating anything that I can back up as facts!)
