Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Breaking in a set of axioms.

Thanks for all the replys guys, very interesting and informed discussion. Looks like I inadvertanty touched upon a topic of much heated debate. Lets just file it along side the great 'bi-wiring' debate and agree to disagree. At least we all agree that our speakers sounds great.

Here is my theory on breaking in speakers.

If I am a manufacturer of mediocre speaker and the buyer tells me that my speakers do not sound as good as another, I can always tell them that the difference is breaking in. Hoping that in time their ears will be used to the sound.

> the buyer tells me that my speakers do not sound
> as good as another, I can always tell them that
> the difference is breaking in. Hoping that in
> time their ears will be used to the sound.

I'm not an audio expert, but what you say makes a lot of sense.

This implies that what is perceived as "speaker break in" is really a psychological phenomenon, and is really *you* breaking into the speakers.

This point was mentioned before, but taking it one step further: if we assume that the phenomenon of "break in" is real, in the sense that something is in fact is breaking in, most likely the listener's ears/brain, etc., then the question is:

Do speakers that reviewers claim require a long break in period truly sound very different from other speakers. In other words, can we look back on the many "professional reviews" that have been done, and gain some insight into how distinctive a sound different speakers may have by looking at how long the reviewer claimed they needed to be broken in?

You mean if I hear someone scratch a blackboard enough times I would get used to the sound or it would change because my perception of it would be different? I don't buy that one bit.

A voice coil may not ever actually touch metal due to the magnetic field. However, it does get hot, tweeters normally use fluid to keep them cool. With heat comes expansion/contraction. Usually the first few cycles are the most critical and have the most change until the molecules become settled.

That sounds like a hypothesis which leads directly to the PhD.
Take it and go. Original theory is rare these days.

Actually this one makes sense.
Right now i hate the sound of nails scraping on a blackboard. If i were to hear that sound enough times, i would become conditioned to it and my perception of how awful the sound really is...would change.

When i first got my Axiom speakers, i thought the bass was really really thin. But i was so used to hearing sound from my old Technics system which has bloated bass and midrange.
Once i got to compare my Axioms direclty to something like Kefs, i could hear differences between the two speakers but both of them compared to my Technics system were far more alike.
After having my Axioms now for 8 months, the bass really is quite nice and integrated, not heavy and far more real a reproduction than what my Technics system pumped out.

Now of course i'm just hooked on trying to audition every speaker i can get my hands on just for fun. The search for perfection has begun. I like the Axioms alot, great first buy for us. But are they perfect?
No i would say, at least not for me.
Will i ever sell them?
Probably not.
Will i ever buy components for a second 'dream' system?
Yup, and now i've got the Axiom system as a great reference point.

Chesseroo, have you had a chance to audition Ascend or Aperions? Both are mail order and both have 30-day money back guarantee's also. Just curious to know how they compare.

I used to live by an airport. I no longer even notice planes but the noise used to make guests jump...

As to the heating of the tweeter, I would point out that Axiom tweeters are metal. Metal does not expand much until it reaches VERY high temperatures. We're talking 3000 degrees (F, I'm American and that's the way me likes it) to melt titanium. We're talking 1500 degrees before it reaches a 1:1 bend to thickness and it has a springback angle of 15 to 25 degrees. In otherwords, you have to heat it up to temperatures that would burn the wood case around it and you'd have to bend it more than 25 degrees before it would stay deformed.

I'm not seeing the magnetic field in a speaker doing that...

Source: http://www.timet.com/fab-p24.htm

It hardly takes the temperature to melt metal for molecules to expand. Ice melts at 33 degree's.