Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions speaker break-in music

Larry, that sounds like my home when I was growing up!

What a dichotomy.

Being a non-believer, how could I possibly recommend break-in music?

I'm really going to have headache.

Best speaker break-in is a good solid square wave... maybe one that sweeps 20Hz-20KHz and back...

Oh, wait.. break IN not break DOWN... sorry...

Bren R.

When I went to the Axiom plant to pick up my speakers I talked to them about speaker break-in period. They were of the opinion that speaker break-in takes about half a second. The first time a live signal hits the drivers. Since the speakers are tested at the plant, your speakers are already broken in. Joe talked to me about the rubber used on the outside of the driver and how there are no chemical changes in the compound with use.

However he did say that "person" break-in is real.

If the manufacturer tells me there is no break in period, I tend to belive them!

Paul

I have heard no decisive facts to ever convince me speaker break in is real.

However, prior to even getting an interest in upgrading my sound system, the 'first song sounds crappy' scenario bugged me enough to ask an audiologist about whom I know from my years of working at a hospital.

He had an actual scientific name for this effect. He also explained that for a hearing test to determine at what point your auditory senses are beginning to fail, it is just as accurate to start at the inaudible and move up to a point where the subject can indicate he hears something audible.... However, it is always done the other way around to allow the subjects ears to grow accustomed to hearing the sound as presented by the ear phones.

I frequently ask myself how this type of legend starts. A lot of these "things" often comes from real phenomenon that are misunderstood (or squarely lied about!) or applied in the wrong context. Human psyche does the rest...

The one for electronic break-in could be an extension of the very real electronic "burn-in" tests where electronic is challenged (hot room, loads of power...) to age components artificially to weed out early-failures components (the vast majority of electronic components that fails will fail within six months; most of what survives that period will survive a long time). It is possible that some individuals throughout modern age have confused the purpose of the natural-selection burn-in test and extrapolated a required "break-in" period that would logically continue to "improve" while the only thing they are doing is further aging their equipment and reducing its life expectency.

As for Axiom (and if my memory serves me right), their burn-in period is 100 hours at at least 400W (M80s). I don't remember exactly (nor the details) where I got this; could be from a reviewer that had done a tour of the facility or Ian answering someone in this forum. If after that the speaker still needs "break in", return the speaker!

Play all of your country and western music backwards... that way your girl friend will return to you, your truck will repair itself, and your dog will come back to life!

So even though speaker break-in is a myth, the benefits of playing country and western music backwards are substantial!

Play Paul Anka covering Nirvana.....

Oh.

You LIKE your speakers.




Never Mind.

That is not break in it is torture.

>>As for Axiom (and if my memory serves me right), their burn-in period is 100 hours at at least 400W (M80s).

That's their "power handling test" performed on a single speaker from time to time, not break-in performed on every speaker. Each speaker does get hooked up to a signal generator and checked for frequency response (and distortion ?) but that is not considered to be "break in".