break in

[Tek18 10+ year member]

before anything how does my big 3 and amp wire look?

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/car-audio-build-logs-cars-trucks-suvs/529272-toyota-highlander-build-thread.html

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I don't know why there is so much hostility to the idea that a speak might need a little break-in time. People had measured woofers' T/S parameters before and after break-in. They change. I have seen on Hybrid Audio forums people say that their speakers need >20hours of break in time to settle down, though I personally ignore such warnings and start to listen critically after 2-4 hours of break in. For the subwoofers, my "break-in" consists of running a 20Hz tone with car's engine on for a couple of hours. I like this method because neighbors can't hear it and it does exercise the woofer excursion quite a bit. I adjust amplifier gains "by eye", aiming for 1inch peak to peak excursion.

 

[brandinooooo 10+ year member]

I don't know why there is so much hostility to the idea that a speak might need a little break-in time. People had measured woofers' T/S parameters before and after break-in. They change. I have seen on Hybrid Audio forums people say that their speakers need >20hours of break in time to settle down, though I personally ignore such warnings and start to listen critically after 2-4 hours of break in. For the subwoofers, my "break-in" consists of running a 20Hz tone with car's engine on for a couple of hours. I like this method because neighbors can't hear it and it does exercise the woofer excursion quite a bit. I adjust amplifier gains "by eye", aiming for 1inch peak to peak excursion.

I hope i read that wrong

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

I don't know why there is so much hostility to the idea that a speak might need a little break-in time. People had measured woofers' T/S parameters before and after break-in. They change. I have seen on Hybrid Audio forums people say that their speakers need >20hours of break in time to settle down, though I personally ignore such warnings and start to listen critically after 2-4 hours of break in. For the subwoofers, my "break-in" consists of running a 20Hz tone with car's engine on for a couple of hours. I like this method because neighbors can't hear it and it does exercise the woofer excursion quite a bit. I adjust amplifier gains "by eye", aiming for 1inch peak to peak excursion.

You should keep your mouth shut I think... OP as for break in ya Ill give a sub a little less for a few days to let them loosen up a little just cuz it doesnt hurt but you dont need to do anything special with it...

 

[>>SQL<< 10+ year member]

Isn't playing a sub below the box tuning bad?

I thought that is why we set the Sub Sonic filter at the tuning of the box to prevent the sub from unloading?

I would think playing a sub at 20 hz for an extended time in a box most likely tuned to 32 hz would be bad.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I believe in break-in in every piece of gear. In this case I would take it easy for at least 10-15 hours. Especially in home audio gear, amps, pre-amps, cd players, turntables, cartridges, speakers, cables, interconnects, tubes all need in a break-in period. The charaterics of the gear takes time to develop.

You can believe in Santa Clause too, it doesn't make it real. Just look at your punchline and think about how non-scientific that sounds. Total snake oil.

thanks for the thoughts guys! just from being in the previous hobby of RC's , i just believe in break ins, everything runs better once it got a nice break in instead of full throttle ( or full sound ) through it first time, was jwin. i feel full excursion would be good at a low rate

We are not talking about an electric motor or hydraulics (though I suspect many would argue against the need of break in there either). 80% of the softening of suspension will happen within seconds, and that is ALL that happens is the suspension softens a little bit, over time, through normal use.

lets hope FI did a good job!

Fi is not one of the companies notorious for building woofers that fail and then blaming it on "you didn't break it in" to not honor warranty. (Audioque sort of made this move famous)

I don't know why there is so much hostility to the idea that a speak might need a little break-in time. People had measured woofers' T/S parameters before and after break-in. They change. I have seen on Hybrid Audio forums people say that their speakers need >20hours of break in time to settle down, though I personally ignore such warnings and start to listen critically after 2-4 hours of break in. For the subwoofers, my "break-in" consists of running a 20Hz tone with car's engine on for a couple of hours. I like this method because neighbors can't hear it and it does exercise the woofer excursion quite a bit. I adjust amplifier gains "by eye", aiming for 1inch peak to peak excursion.

Again, the data I've seen shows that stretching the suspension most dramatically changes TSPs in the first half a minute, then from there they get softer at a much slower rate pretty much through their whole life. I will maintain that without precision test equipment you would be hard pressed to notice a change of 10% in the values that change and I would further suggest that you'd probably potentially have as much varience from one speaker to another just off the assembly line due to manufacturing intolerances.

Of course if it makes you feel better use whatever magic ritual you feel makes your subs sound better or whatever it is this is supposed to accomplish. Might I suggest a 24 hz tone since they say 8hz is the resonance of the earth and we then have a third wave of that (sounds pretty good huh?). Then you can play it for no more and no less than 88 minutes (since 88 is good luck in Asian countries where they make most of these woofers and parts).

While this is happening you can dress in a raincoat and dance around the car banging the largest pot you have in your kitchen with a wooden spoon chanting "say it now and say it loud, I am gay and I am proud!"

How's that for a good bit of snake oil? Much like the rest of this nonsense, will it help (probably just make you look silly for doing it), but it won't hurt, do it if it makes you feel better.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Isn't playing a sub below the box tuning bad?I thought that is why we set the Sub Sonic filter at the tuning of the box to prevent the sub from unloading?

I would think playing a sub at 20 hz for an extended time in a box most likely tuned to 32 hz would be bad.

Yes, normally we try to avoid playing below tuning, but apparently this is the way to "break in" something. Just goes to show how little critical thought or logic is behind much of this.

 

[duanebro 10+ year member]

Runing a sub at xmax, or worse, rms power at 20 Hz will put out a lot of heat. And the cone moving so slow will make it harder for the sub to cool its self. This is more of a torture test IMHO.

Proper break in of gas motors is different than subs. But from what I have read, in my owners manuals about it is: don't run wide open, and vary the throttle/rpm. Extending this to speakers - just play music!

As far as break-in goes for other audio items, like wires and amps. Your brain gets used to the sound- so after listening awhile your system sounds different to you. But you have changed, not the product being "broke-in"

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I hope i read that wrong

No, that's what I do. Not in general, just for the break-in run I mentioned.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Runing a sub at xmax, or worse, rms power at 20 Hz will put out a lot of heat. And the cone moving so slow will make it harder for the sub to cool its self. This is more of a torture test IMHO.

If the sub is weak enough to fail this, I'd rather see this happen in the first few hours of run time.. 1 inch peak to peak or less, that's less than 13mm one way. The subs I tried this on, have xmax of >17mm and quite a bit of throw beyond xmax. Most subs don't need that much of power to reach this excursion.

 

[DoesDad 10+ year member]

I don't get the whole "breaking in" thing either. I've had a lot of subs and yeah some are pretty tight when you first fire 'em up but after I put em' in the box I bang the sh*t out of 'em. Never had a problem blowing any like that (does this sound ****** for some reason?) LOL!

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Yes, normally we try to avoid playing below tuning, but apparently this is the way to "break in" something. Just goes to show how little critical thought or logic is behind much of this.

I use sealed box with my subs. There is no issue with playing such a low test tones.

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

You can believe in Santa Clause too, it doesn't make it real. Just look at your punchline and think about how non-scientific that sounds. Total snake oil.


We are not talking about an electric motor or hydraulics (though I suspect many would argue against the need of break in there either). 80% of the softening of suspension will happen within seconds, and that is ALL that happens is the suspension softens a little bit, over time, through normal use.

Fi is not one of the companies notorious for building woofers that fail and then blaming it on "you didn't break it in" to not honor warranty. (Audioque sort of made this move famous)

Again, the data I've seen shows that stretching the suspension most dramatically changes TSPs in the first half a minute, then from there they get softer at a much slower rate pretty much through their whole life. I will maintain that without precision test equipment you would be hard pressed to notice a change of 10% in the values that change and I would further suggest that you'd probably potentially have as much varience from one speaker to another just off the assembly line due to manufacturing intolerances.

Of course if it makes you feel better use whatever magic ritual you feel makes your subs sound better or whatever it is this is supposed to accomplish. Might I suggest a 24 hz tone since they say 8hz is the resonance of the earth and we then have a third wave of that (sounds pretty good huh?). Then you can play it for no more and no less than 88 minutes (since 88 is good luck in Asian countries where they make most of these woofers and parts).

While this is happening you can dress in a raincoat and dance around the car banging the largest pot you have in your kitchen with a wooden spoon chanting "say it now and say it loud, I am gay and I am proud!"

How's that for a good bit of snake oil? Much like the rest of this nonsense, will it help (probably just make you look silly for doing it), but it won't hurt, do it if it makes you feel better.

Yep to it all. I laughed pretty hard on the raincoat, banging pots line.. Break in subs what crap...

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

Meh, I don't see what your getting at what so ever.
How hard or easy you drive the product will not alter how it "breaks in". Including cables and wires and such is just well i won't go into that.

I have spoken my thoughts on this enough I suppose.

yes it does, the thing is the difference is negligible in car audio as it's such a horrible platform for music.

 

[MisterDeadeye 10+ year member]

I'm not sure why hispls is pushing so hard for misinformation; he started a topic several months ago saying he didn't believe in break-in. By the end of the topic(a few people had given him links showing tests done that prove the break-in theory correct. I was one of those people.), he had decided that maybe there really was something to break-in.

But, I guess failed logic wins out against fact for some people.

OP, break-in is real, and there is indeed a measurable difference in parameters of most dynamic drivers over a few hours time. You might not be able to hear a difference, but that doesn't make break-in a myth. If you expect your subwoofer(any driver) to change sonically from hot to cold, you'll be let down. That's not the kind of change that occurs.

There is plenty of debate on how to burn in(break in) speakers, and as far as I know, no one has found definitive proof showing that one way is "better" than another. I suggest just playing music through the sub with the same gain setting as you'd have normally(preferably set correctly). That's how I'll burn-in speakers until someone proves otherwise.