Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Speaker burn in?

Hi I am considering purchasing some M80s or M60s(Ill ask more about them later:); I keep hearing in reviews about burn in time; can someone explain to me how to "burn in" my speakers and the best method? I feel sort of intimidated posing such a (Im sure) simple question considering that when I scroll through other posts I see there are biochemists and physicists and whatnot responding to much more complicated questions; any help at all would be appreciated - expect more from me if im not shunned

freesey

if you ask me, there's no such thing as speaker burn it. they'll sound great out of the box. it takes maybe at absolute most an hour or two of listening for you to begin to get used to their sound. it's your brain that needs burn it, not the axioms.

As much of a scientist as i may be, i'm not really sure i can answer this question...so i won't.
Someone else can try.

Personally though i just play some low level music/radio for about a day or two while i'm away at work. The house animals love it as company so what the heck.

If you're really a stickler, you can pick up one of those fancy Sterephile Test CDs with special burn-in tracks of misc. frequencies. This is pretty much a waste of time and money.

Putter around the house on a weekend and just let 'em play. You (and your spouse) will likely find this a FAR more appealing solution.

Then again, I'm no scientist:).

i would avoid leaving them on and leaving the house. you might come home to a fire!

Welcome freesey,

Search some of the recent posts (in the technical questions section - I think) about this topic. There are some posts by Ian and/or Alan that will give you some insight to this often misunderstood concept. My personal belief is that there really is no such requirement - but it really doesn't hurt to give the speakers an hour or two of use at medium volumes prior to any "critical" listening.

Now about those 60s vs. the 80s........

Randyman

In the event of fire, my insurance company can finally get me those m80s i always wanted.

damn! that's a good idea!!

a fire suddenly lights in my house... everything is burned...

nah, insurance fraud isn't my bag of tricks.

Who said anything about fraud?
I can always claim a couple of less cds and add the cost to the speakers. Total claim still equals the in house value.

Besides, who really wants that old Bon Jovi cd back.

Thanks

Thanks; that seems to be the general mood of the replies im getting

Thanks, that sounds pretty sensible

if we can talk about burning speakers and houses what about bongs
the object is to burn inside the house not the house itself

there is more merit to speaker burn in than there is to speaker wire types
speakers have moving parts these must stretch -grab a new rubber band and pull on it for 10 minutes (lol like bevis and butthead )
after a while it gets easier
every part that stretches eventualy breaks (fatiuge)
its purpose is to move as freely as possible for as long as possible
thats why new speakers have to wear in
when the parts are fresh it takes more to move them and they dont react as fast on the return
watch a speaker -its more than the ring moving-
also some parts wear in sooner than others -it takes awhile for every thing to balance out and party together
thats probably why axioms sound good -all the parts hang out and have fun making noise together

I tend to be with the camp that says a "burn-in" or "break-in" period does make a difference. I just had a pair of M3's in the house that had been getting broken in for a month. Initially, I found the speakers to be very bright - to the point where my ears were fatigued very quickly. At the end of the month I did not have such issues as the tweeters seemed to smooth out a little. I would have though that it would have been my ears adjusting, but then I took delivery of a new pair of M60's. Ouch, my ears were hurting again within minutes. I swapped the "broken-in" tweeters from the M3's and placed them in the M60's and I had immediate relief.
I think the woofer(s) loosens up for the most part within a few hours of listening, but (to my ears at least) the tweeters take a bit longer and may even continue to get better over time. I don't think most have ears as sensitive to high freq as mine (damaged them pretty good playing live rock unprotected for 6-7 years) and it seems many aren't bothered at all by the sound out of the box.
I left my radio on to the local jazz/npr station (or occasionally throw a fugazi cd in on repeat) for a few days at moderately low levels when I was at work (didn't want to disturb the wife and little one) and louder when I was in the house.
If they sound good to you out of the box, I wouldn't worry about breaking them in too much. If you do notice some listening fatigue early on, I would try and run them for a bit when you aren't in the room as well.
BTW - the M60's really sound nice. Almost effortless in their production of sound and seems to be plenty of space for all the instruments to come across clean and clear.
Just my 2 cents...