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Okay, How Important Is Speaker Break In? (Dynaudio Contour 60i)

I have been running 25+ year old B&W Matrix 803 S2 speakers in my 2-channel system for about 15 years, and I finally treated myself to new speakers.  Mock me for buying based on research alone, but I got a really good deal and just unpacked my beautiful Dynaudio Contour 60i's.  The Dyn's are not broken in, just starting to play around with different songs, but I am expecting an improvement out of the box, and not getting it.  They are no more revealing, and slightly harder and more jangley in the mids and highs.  The bass is of course much better with the big Dyns, but the B&Ws with the Dyn Sub6 subwoofer I was running were better.  I have very good equipment so it is not a matter of driving bigger speakers (ARC Ref preamp and Bryston 7bSST2 monoblocks).  Unless speakers get A LOT better with break in, I thinking these Dyns may be converted back into cash.   Thoughts? Thanks.
mathiasmingus
tuberist
951 posts
 
I still vividly remember my present day loudspeakers when I took them out of the box and plug them in they didn’t sound very good. I had live demoed these speakers at the dealers so I knew what they were capable of. It took upwards of 400 hours until the speakers settled in and then it was night and day by that time
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
The assertion that all gear (particularly speakers with mechanically moving parts) must sound fantastic straight out of the box or you need to immediately send them back to the manufacturer/dealer is ridiculous.  Particularly among higher-end speakers where many of the differences between brands at similar price points can be quite nuanced - this is important if you're thinking of making a change to coax some sonics out of your system that are more desirable.  In audiophile terms we aren't just talking "does this sound good or does this sound bad?" and then act on that to exercise return policies.  It's about giving the speakers a chance the perform at their best so better listening comparisons can be made to inform our buying decisions.

When I first acquired my Devore O/96's with the intention of replacing my Spendor D7's it was clear cold out of the box that the O/96's didn't sound as good as the D7's that I had been using for years.  John Devore even states that his speakers will take 600 hrs to fully run in and can benefit incrementally up to 1,000 hrs.  I found the sonics in the O/96's to improve over the D7's at about 100 hrs and smoked them by 200 hrs.  All the while the 0/96's never sounded "bad" from day 1 - they simply didn't sound better.  Should I have returned them? lol That would have been a tragic mistake as they now have close to 1,000 hrs an amaze me every day.  It's a mere matter of physics - the speakers benefitted greatly from loosening up the huge foam surrounds and spiders on the 10-inch woofer.  While not all speakers require the same run-in time to coax the best sound from them, these categorical statements about immediately returning them are utter nonsense.
erik_squires
16,046 posts
 
Takes about a week of playing at listening levels. 

Also, before you keep going on your merry-go-round, having good room acoustics will make a lot more speakers sound good in your room.
joey_v
663 posts
 
I agree with a lot of what is been said above, if it does not sound remotely close to what you would like initially, no amount of break in will help.

honestly, you should’ve stuck with a new Bowers.


aewarren
643 posts
 
In essence, it's a lot like getting a new room mate~you have to get used to each other.
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