Breaking in Subs? Alum or Copper?

[c0smo kram3r 10+ year member]

A buddy of mine has already purchased 2 new AQ2200d amps. Now, he's going to buy 2 new AQ HC3 15's. Would the copper get it done, or should he go up to aluminum? My other question is about breaking them in. He wants to wire the loads on the amps to 2ohm to begin w/ to break them in @ 1300RMS each. Then bump up to 1ohm on each amp to get the full 2200watts. Is this a good idea? If so, should he go w/ Dual1 or Dual2?

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[Kyle_Keating 10+ year member]

thats just silly.

first of all, you dont have to break in speakers. when people talk about that, tehy are talking about the glues and what not in the spiders. They will loosen up on their own. I have never seen a brand new spider break because it was not broke in and someone used it normally. In fact you can just push on the cone and do it yourself because it has nothing to do with the power going into the driver. Sometimes new coils smell a bit, there is often times excessive glue which gets banked on to the voice coil and former. This is normal if you're running a lot of power to a driver.

wire your sub for maximum current draw from the amp and the voltage (volume) is on you! Meaning you'll break it just the same on day one or 100. Its a matter of how much voltage (gain) you're going to have going to the driver. Wiring it to 2 ohms is like saying "i dont trust my hand to turn the volume knob so i'm going ot limit the amount of current i can get from the maximum voltage (gain) on my amp."

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Keeping the volume or power at a lower level for a "break in" is 100% counterproductive to your (his) goal. The only way to "break in" the suspension is to actually use it.

But as Kyle mentioned it's nothing to concern yourself (himself) about. Hook it up as he intends to use it and play it like he normally would. It will "break in" naturally over time with regular, normal usage. If he's really concerned about "break in", either do it manually as Kyle mentioned or run it free air at a good excursion level (near Xmax) with a low frequency test tone for a minute or two.

 

[c0smo kram3r 10+ year member]

Keeping the volume or power at a lower level for a "break in" is 100% counterproductive to your (his) goal. The only way to "break in" the suspension is to actually use it.
But as Kyle mentioned it's nothing to concern yourself (himself) about. Hook it up as he intends to use it and play it like he normally would. It will "break in" naturally over time with regular, normal usage. If he's really concerned about "break in", either do it manually as Kyle mentioned or run it free air at a good excursion level (near Xmax) with a low frequency test tone for a minute or two.

Ok, thanks for the info. But you say that post as if you think I was using my friend to express my worries lol. That's what he thought about doing & I figured I'd post for him.

I've already bought 2 18" BTLs, I'm just saving up more money for amps. Those HDC3's would've been my second choice if I couldn't get enough money for the BTLs.

 

[Towncar 10+ year member]

With that power, I would get the aluminum coils... Dj recommends breaking in the copper coils before going all out.. As for the aluminum, he said you can go ahead and crank it out of the box, as they are hand build, and better at taking the power..

Either way, Ide get the alum coils...

 

[John_E_Janowitz 10+ year member]

Just to stress again what Kyle mentioned, breakin is simply loosening up the suspension of the driver. The audio industry is filled with all kinds of voodoo about needing to run current through wire to polarize it. They sell "cable cookers" to do the same kind of stuff for interconnects. You can even buy a rock to set on your home CD player to take all the negative energy out of it and make it play cd's more happily. Unfortunately too many people buy into all this stuff and lose a lot of hard earned money for nothing.

Regarding the suspension, the phenolic resin used on spiders is the main thing that will soften up slightly as the driver is moved. Ideally you want to move the driver as far as possible with as little current to the coil as possible to prevent heating the coil. That means if you're doing it free air, you want to do it at the Fs of the driver. At Fs the impedance curve is at the highest point. Since power = current x resistance, as resistance is at the highest point, current is at the lowest point. In a sealed enclosure you want to see where the Fc point is. In a vented enclosure you want to see where the lower impedance peak is.

John