TL;DR: it completely depends on your surround, the materials used, the coil(s) and what power levels you`re at. SOME new speakers will never change from the day they`re new, while others will take some time to loosen up. And that goes for headphones as well. I know, because I have ears and experience and have done proper AB testing. Anyone who tells you you HAVE to do burn-in is wrong, and anyone telling you burn-in isn` t real is equally wrong. THINGS ARE NOT ALL BUILT THE SAME! So stop it with this "is it real or not", because it completely depends on a number of factors, including your personal hearing. Btw, measurements are just an indication, not an experience.. As if a 2x2" full range bluetooth speaker with a tuned passive radiator is going to be the same as 8", 10" or 12" retro speakers. The only true answer is, it depends.

I bought Q Acoustics Concept 50's a few months ago. It was missing top end sparkle for a few weeks, then all of a sudden the sparkle was there. Guess it just needed time to open up.

Thinking of replacing my Diamond 9.0 with these , will I notice the difference ? looking for a better stronger mid range really , comments welcomed .

For my ears, the Leak had a bit fuller/richer sound, while the Pioneer was a bit forward and lighter. I think that could be reconciled using an EQ. Even streaming through a WIIM mini would help with that. I have two AB amps and two Class Ds. It all depends on the application. For watching tv and listening to music in my office or in my bedroom, the class Ds are perfect (I use an old blueray player for music in my bedroom-sounds much better than you'd expect) But, for a good phono session, it's gotta be either my Sony or Denon class A/Bs or if I'm in the great room. My components all seem to like my Denon best. It's even an old one that weights about 25kg (really weighs about 12kg- 26 lbs in US).

There is definitely a speaker break-in time, depending on the make and nature of the speaker. It would be great if you could review the Wharfdale Evo 4.2's. However, the size and dynamics of the room, also plays an important role.

Speaker burn in is a myth! I have bought 4 sets of speakers of the same model over a period of time for different rooms in my home (because I really like them) and they all sound exactly the same from new or years old. I have also bought different makes/models and of course they sound different....... and it takes time for your ears (listening) to adjust to appreciate them.... nothing to do with "burn in"!

I'm considering buying a pair of speakers from a direct-to-consumer seller in Latvia. The terms of sale read "The break-in period of our speakers is twice the time-period of our warranty in your jurisdiction. We only consider returns under warranty for speakers that have run the full break-in period." Should I be concerned?!

For Me breaking anything in from brand new makes sense and a sensible thing to do, as like someone said on here, even a pair of shoes, it could also be a new car, a kettle, whatever, the thing is, this should be common sense, to us all, in respect of Hi-Fi units, its your ears that should be the judge of when you have run components in enough. more so than manufactures guidelines.

You are an individual who has made a channel based around your own opinions and beliefs and express it in your own way. Plenty of people are interested hence your sub count. Keep going just don't become a shill, unless you have to. lol

I have always said if you can’t hear any difference between a new or a speaker with 100 hrs on it get any speaker

Hi, great review of this great amp mate. I’m thinking of getting one with the accompanying cd player. Could you tell something please, don’t know if you’ll d]see this though..what is the volume nob sensitivity like, is there any big jumps as you turn, say, from low to higher? Cheers man, all the best

Definitely a little bit of break in is required.

I think both. Break in and getting used to the sound.

It's your brain that adjusts, not the speakers (or amp, or cables, etc). We were moved to Mexico city for business. We had a nice house, built in the 1930s but NOW it was under the approach path for the Mexico City Intl airport. For a few weeks the sound of the train of airliners every couple of minutes overhead during the rush period was really noisy/objectionable. A month later...we didn't notice it. Visitors would say, "How do you deal with that noise? We'd respond, "what noise?" Break in never existed in the pre internet days. No speaker or amp manufacturer mentioned it at all. It's a marketing/internet shill ploy to get you to "adjust" to the sound. If you don't like the sound of a component the day you plug it in, return it. There is NO sound that humans can hear that cannot be easily displayed on an oscilloscope/other test instruments. That includes things like "soundstage" width and depth. Believing you can hear something that cannot be detected by test instruments is up there believing in the flat earth or that humans didn't land on the moon. ;)

Interesting topic. I've not experienced much break-in with speakers and headphones; not going to dispute that it happens though. My only finding is that those transducers I didn't like initially, still sounded rubbish to me hundreds of hours later.

Shut up and take my money! 🤑

The documentation for my Neat speakers (motive SX3) suggest “a running in period of at least 200 hours is necessary to stabilise performance”. I don’t have the ability to do an A/B comparison between brand new and 2 months old, however Neat themselves have done it and have said the speakers do sound better after at least 200 hours in them, and even better with more time on them (they have compared more than 1 year old with brand new and have said the older sounds much better), I presume the 200 hours is the point where the change slows down and the diminishing returns really kick in.

Speaker break-in is true but may not be true for ALL speakers.

Do I run speakers in no but I would like to draw your attention to speaker run off where you're daughter has a party in you're home and someone runs off with you're falcon acoustics ls3 5a and you cannot claim on your insurance because they were an invited guest my lovely daughter now resides in a local skip happy new year everyone 😢😢

Speaker driver break-in, at least, makes logical sense. Drivers are moving components, and it’s easy to understand how usage might subtly affect their performance over time. However, I can’t help but cringe when people start claiming that "burning in" the air in a room will somehow make their WiFi streamer sound better.

If after testing before and after running in there was no audible difference what was the point of it?

For everyone who thinks speaker break-in is real, you are missing one vital parameter; volume. Speaker companies will tell you how many hours, but never at what volume. A woofer will move much more, and therefore breakin much faster at 95db than it will at 60db. Without the volume parameter, the hour parameter is useless. I have never seen a speaker manufacturer put a db level in the manual. If Speaker breakin was real, they would surely have and provide this information to the end user. But they don't, because it's not a real. Also, if I were a speaker manufacturer and my product really needed 20 hours of use to sound it's best, I would make that part of the manufacturing process before i shipped it to the distributor, retailer, or end user. There is no way i would want a potential customer listening to my products unless they are performing at their absolute best right out of the box.

In addition to the comment by @477BravoJuliet, I can confirm that some "first use" break-in time is necessary before you will get the best sound from speakers. Many manufacturers use starches and coatings on their suspension parts to make them easier to handle and install during driver assembly. This essentially means that the cone in a woofer or squawker needs a bit of time to loosen up and move freely per design specs. Tweeters and other domed drivers, not so much. My experience is that the first hour will see the most change. After that the changes are relatively small and will be less audible. So what I do before I deliver a pair of speakers to a client is to face them against each other, hook them up out of phase and put a 20hz tone through them at about 10 watts for a few minutes. This usually gives them enough exercise so that the audible changes after will be relatively small. (face to face and out of phase, causes cancellation so that the 20hz hum doesn't bring your house down.) Conversely the break-in period specified for cables and electronics is pure BS. The notice that some manufacturers specify long break-ins as a means to bypass the return window is correct.

New speakers are like a stiff pair of new shoes. They need a bit of time to loosen up!

Totem Acoustic suggests50 hours break -in for some of their speakers and 100 hours for some others.

Andrew Robinson thinks paprika is spicy.

Nový reproduktor má trochu vyšiu Fs ako hraný. To je celé tajomstvo.

I don’t think it is always about improving the sound I am building cabinets for MarkAudio Alpair 12P 8" Paper Cone Full Range drivers The experience of others is that it is important to follow the directions and that at some point, after many hours, the sound characteristics change for the better I don’t really know but I am going to do what Mark Audio says in spite of any opinions I my hold to the contrary That worst thing that could happen is nothing really The best thing that could happen is not damaging the speakers Setting aside these particular speakers, I have no strong feelings one way or another Here is what Mark Audio says “Running in: Carefully run the drivers at low volume using light music (NO artificial signal generation of any-kind) for the first 100 hours. After this period, gradually increase to normal listening volumes with the introduction of music that contains some bass. The driver will reach optimal performance at around 800 hours of play time.”

I say fact, it's the suspension that breaks in , like a car. With guitar strings, when first fitted, they have a jangling sound. They settle in and sound great. But after a while of playing, they start to sound dead. But no, you don't need to run 24 hours full throttle with Rammstien. Something that never gets mentioned is transporting . Ideally on back, so cone moves in direction of road bumps and shorting the terminals will lock the diaphragms in place. Also people's acoustic memory over just a couple of hours is crap.

In my speaker manual, (Mirage) says the reason for bi-wiring is so you can use different speaker wires (eg, a pair best suited for the highs, and a pair best suited for low end). Simply using cheap, identical speaker wire like you're doing would skirt the point.

Thanks for this interesting and informative video. I'm sure that speaker breakin time varies with different speakers and most of the breakin, that makes an audible difference, would occur within the first 20 - 50 hours for the majority of speakers. Of course there are always exceptions.

I broke my last loudspeakers by sitting on them to warm them up

I've been at this since cassette decks were common in home stereos. Yes, if you have any form at all of a serious speaker(whether it's fancy and niche or utlitarian and oldschool business) it will benefit from speaker break in. For serious speakers it allows everything to heat up, loosen up and this generally improves at least woofers but it will help tweeters. There's no room for debate but is it essential to perform? No. Some people are content with products out of the box regardless of the fact it will improve things. As for integrated amplifiers, power amplifiers and receivers, they also need break in(but the same rules apply and some people are content with it out of the box).

Best example, my father's Jenson bookshelf speaker with 8 inch woofers and paper tweeters had the foam surrounds rot out. We replaced them with the radio shack kevlar woofers. For about a week the bass was real weak until the spiders loosened up, then the bass frequencies opened up because the woofers broke in. I'm a bass player who's choice of cabinets is ACME. The designer has special 10 inch drivers that produce low extended frequencies, at a cost of inefficiency. When they're new the drivers are so stiff bass players who crank up the volume immediately after unboxing it burn up the voice coil, trying to produce bass. The instructions are to play a CD continuously for about 8 hours. I looped a Focus CD for 8 hours when I unboxed my ACME 4-10. It sounded so tinny the first minutes I thought I got ripped off. Eight hours later the bass sounded better than any other bass cabinet. Years later I purchased an ACME 2-10 but being a jazz musician, I skipped the break in procedure as I don't play loud enough to burn a voice coil. I adjusted the EQ so the bass was solid enough for my sound but every twenty minutes the bass frequencies became overwhelming so I'd have to notch back on the upper and lower bass frequencies. This went on for about three days till the suspensions broke in Yes I believe speakers must be broken in. Wire and cable break in is nonsense. EDIT: I wrote the preceding comment before I listened to this whole presentation. I didn't realize how vicious this topic could get. Let me state that stand by my comment but could be wrong. It appears logical that woofers that need to travel in an out to a greater amplitude would be more affected by the stiffness of the surrounds and the spider. Materials do become more flexible with bending. You can't avoid the physics. I do believe however after watching this whole video, any break-in period over 8 hours is at best, diminishing returns, at worst woo woo science.

Some do some not so much, my Triangle genese trio where we'll over 100hrs, but worth the wait .

I have just bought a new CD player which apparently requires, according to online forums, over 100 hours burn in! It’s a quality player so out of the box it sounds very good anyway. After changing a CD today I could smell the caps and resistors, not in a bad way, in a way that tells you that you have a brand new product like a pair of new trainers. The smell was the electric current pushing through the parts and bedding in. I could see the break in period like a river carving a route on a mountain side. The initial pioneering is a little sticky but after some time the river flows more easily as the bed has been persistently carved out. I’m not an scientist or even an electrician but I may speculate that the electric current would somewhat act in the same way. If it does the the system in turn will have after some time a faster flow of power and so react or be more speedy in response and more fluid in general. I would highly anticipate that this would have an effect on most audio products.

Brand new out of the box my WD 12.2 sounded shrill in the treble, like an Eagle scream but after a few days they sweetened up as well as a more rich tone overall developed. The brittle edge vanished.

To me break in is when I test new speakers on various content to check if they are working. Psychoacoustics plays a huge factor during this process and beyond. It is closely linked to your mood which is why your experience with hifi can change one moment to the next.

Dsd with no pcm involved beats everything

I believe speaker bedding your speakers in is a real thing round about 20 hours but to be honest there’s not a massive amount of difference from the moment you start using a brand new speaker to the moment you think it’s broken in and not a lot of difference because think the flipside of a coin would be until 20 hours your speaker sound terrible that is what some people are trying to tell you and some of them more expensive bespoke speakers. They are putting an absolute pathetic amount of break in time that’s because they know their speakers are just good to average and they don’t want people spending tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars and sending them back sooner rather than later because they can argue the fact that you haven’t given them adequate break in time a lot of it is marketing. You will often find in these type of forums and these type of conversations the higher up the hi-fi system the more snooty. The people are the more self appointed gatekeepers. They are the bigger opinion they have and also slightly more obscure things they believe I think sometimes to make themselves feel a little bit better about what they have spent a lot of money on the promises so much you know where I’m going with that

Baloney

Good to get a range of evidence...but other KZbinrs?? Audioholics? Andrew Robinson?! Really? Manufacturer conspiracy? He's a joke...😖 Why not listen to speaker designers? Write to Peter Comeau! Plus 'on axis' frequency response is only one criteria... what about decay time, timbre and harmonics....I'm always amazed why people don't want to believe 'speaker running in' has any benefit...it's just the modern problem of impatience....

As the loudspeaker designer below rightly states, there is a break-in period on brand new drivers. As nearly everyone's listening environment is highly suboptimal, whether or not you'll actually notice the difference is another matter entirely.

I have had many great speakers and I find out of the box they sound brilliant. Over time they seem to improve but I do think this is just your ear acclimatising to them. Some break in I suppose makes sense but how good is people's hearing really. Must be only a small difference

I really think that the break in is the person listening to the speaker rather than the other way around. I have experienced this being a recording engineer, finding myself listening to a track that I initially thought was harsh mellowing out over time without me adjusting a thing. Your brain is a very powerful thing.

You have touched upon what I have believed for many years now. Quoting an extended break-in period radically reduces the likelihood that a customer will return the speakers. From my own experience, the last set I bought was a pair of Monitor Audio floor standers. Yes, they sounded awful right out of the box, but they were broken in within a few hours, certainly less than one day, and sounded perfectly fine to my ears.

What the manufacturers are really saying is wait a long time until you get used to how they sound before you start bitching to us and the internet. I have no doubt that speaker surrounds are initially stiff and perhaps tweeters as well but it is hard to imagine that 10 hours doesn't loosen them up. And the word SHOULD is does not belong in the conversation. It's not an engine.

Whether people hear any differences in sound quality or not concerning speaker “break in”, they automatically “break in” as you play them.. This is commonsense..Many Race Car engines certainly must be broken in to perform their best.. As per the Dodge company’s recommendation, I put the first 5000 miles on a 1972 Dodge Charger at different speeds to break it in for a friend, while he was a year at one of Alaska’s Radar Posts.. My father was a Pro Guitarist and always spoke of “breaking in “ the strings.. Shoes feel better after a period of “break in” .. Your new La-Z-Boy would even feel more comfortable to sit in, especially if Leather.. 100s of things benefit from a break in period ..Like a good “worn in” baseball glove.

Ain't listening to music complicated?😁

I don't, never have. I've only heard about this being an issue recently. In the past few years or so. 🤷🏼‍♂️