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
I had an interesting experience with a pair of Klipsch RF-25s. I plugged them in and I thought, these really could be refence loudspeakers. Two days later they had lost their edge and now sounded like a very average speaker. So in this case the break-in made them sound worse. I was a dramatic change, never experienced anything like it before or after. 
The normal progression is for cold and new to be harsh and grainy, with most of the dynamics and extension but little of the body and harmonic fullness. This fills in over time, and usually with varying amounts of improved extension at both ends, with the result being both fuller and warmer as well as more detailed, extended and dynamic. Sounds like your Klipsch did indeed go through this normal progression. Its just that in your case you actually prefer the harsh edgy grainy cold sound. Which is cool. You can leave all your gear off all the time. Edgy and grainy it will be, at least until it warms up.
The normal progression is for cold and new to be harsh and grainy, with most of the dynamics and extension but little of the body and harmonic fullness. This fills in over time, and usually with varying amounts of improved extension at both ends, with the result being both fuller and warmer as well as more detailed, extended and dynamic.


totally agree with mc on this description...
and then he has to be a jerk by adding:

You can leave all your gear off all the time.

It's just too irresistable for him...a jab needs to be thrown at every opportunity.  The mission is to demean. 
@three_easy_payments

hahaha

just like with our ornery half crazy uncles we try to take the good and ignore the bad... 🤭