How to "break-in" new speakers??

All of this becomes confusing when one considers that one of the golden rules of audio is to 'listen before you buy'. Well, if it can take almost 2 months of listening before you discover how speakers, and other components really sound, shouldn't the dealer break all this stuff in, before offering for sale. This also applies to all other components including wire. I ask your forgiveness and forbearance in advance for using LOGIC.

Rok2id
You are on to something for sure. When I talk to transducer designers, they thing this "break in" thing is lunacy, particularly with cone drivers. "If a driver changes after X hours it will continue to change-what is to stop it? The physics of it don't support changes that progress to a point and then stop when it sounds best".

Yet some of customers do report improvements, particularly in low end, after time.

Now ferro fluid tweeters, different story. They DO change and do need periodic replacement. We use Audax high power tweeters in our large in soffit mounted studio speakers, and they do need replacement after a year.

Brad

Break-in time is a myth.
For speakers mostly.
Why should a speaker need time to work properly? The suspension of the drivers (mostly rubber or plastic) does not change its stiffness in a few days or weeks time. And after that time what? It stops changing? Why? How?
That would be the designers nightmare.
Only a difference in temperature alters temporarily the characteristics of the suspension. Blow your woofers with a hair dryer for a few moments and until they reach again the normal temperature your speakers will play louder dew to the softer suspension!
Perhaps when many years pass, some materials may lose the proper elasticity and the speaker performs out of speks. Materials degrade as they get old, they dont perform better.
Our brain needs a few hours time to adjust to the new sounds, not the speaker. When this happens, we think the new speakers are now o.k.!!!
Maybe brak-in time had a meaning in tape recorders of any kind in the old days (mechanical construction, proper speed, wow, flutter, not just circuits). Elecrical circuits also get old with time. Every time we power them up, they stabilize in a few moments (or minutes if there are tubes in) and that is all.
Enjoy your music!

Actually, dealers "break-in" speakers and electronics before auditions.
Yes, speakers do continuously change. The largest changes (and the most noticeable) happen during the first hours of use. Like any other electronic or and mechanical device.

Just play them, and enjoy your music. In all of my years of listening to stuff, I have NEVER heard a significant change as a consequence of break-in. I once ran some speakers loud for a weekend (Vandersteen @Cis), came home and found that they sounded the same as when I left, and my house wasn't burned down by my neighbors.

They were a great speaker when they were new, and remained great for my time with them. Now I don't know if "break in" is a myth, or if we simply get accustomed to the sound of things, and don't notice the subtle changes that occur as a product beds in.

Either way, I wouldn't worry about it. Just know that if you don't like something, you aren't going to magically like it after it "breaks in."