Seas Millennium Break-in time

I have never considered the speakers to be "rolled off" at all. They are a highly resolving speaker capable of reproducing what the rest of my system has going on, and allow me to hear quite accurately the difference/s in a system change. The better a speaker system is, the more obvious system limitations and shortcomings become. Of course, the obvious is also true...a good speaker will also allow a good overall system to shine through.

I think I will just wait until I have a good 300 hours on them prior to commenting (much of the time to date is at lower levels ).I also have a Portal Panache on the way & the suspicion my tube amp may need retubing so I had best wait until I have some knowns prior to commenting more. The speakers are changing with each passing day & sound smoother & less congested in the lower mids today. I am sure that I will enjoy these speakers once they are broken in properly & a amp that I am sure is functioning properly is hooked up to them .I did ask earlier whether playing the speakers at a louder level during pure break in time might speed up the tweeter break in a little,so I would be interested in your thoughts on that.

The other issue is around the impedance taps on the amp.I did switch after a couple of hours of listening to the 4 ohm taps and thought they sounded better there.. however many have reported that their 4ohm speakers sounded better on the 8 ohm taps on their tube amps. There is rather a cumbersome means by which these wires are changed however I think that I will try them on the 8 ohm hook up again as this HF roll off is curious given the reputation of the tweeter.

Thanks for replying,

Bill

The Linbrook monitors are rated at 4 ohms, I believe. My Linbrook floorstanding monitors are rated at 8 ohms, but seem to sound their best hooked up to the 4 ohm taps of my VT-100. Different speaker and amp, so probably not very helpful for your situation, Bill. Experimentation is probably the key here.

I can't help you with the volume level-break in issue, as I didn't make a conscious effort to do anything special to "break them in". I just listen to them and enjoy the evolution. Once you get your system all set, you'll enjoy the Linbrook's all the more.

Bill,

My pair of Linbrook Monitor Signatures needed about 200 hours of high-ish playing levels to optimize, after which any additional changes were almost inconsequential. The Millenium tweeter is the most natural sounding dome-type tweeter I've found, so good, in fact, that I sought them out for subsequent purchases and now run two sets of speakers with them in two systems. Yes, they do roll off slightly but not at the expense of air, transient snap, and fineness of detail. Importantly, nor do they ever induce listener fatigue. The fact that they don't draw attention to themselves, yet pass all of the highest frequencies through, is too rarely achieved.

If you're having trouble getting in the hours you might try setting them up as monitors for your TV for a while...all depending on which media gives them the most play time in your home.

The used sig mons I purchased from Tyler needed to have new drivers and crossovers install .You recall I had some issues with over one being brighter & then some graininess overall .I discovered after blaming my tube amp that one crossover component may have failed making one speaker seem more brighter than the other then after a few days the system became raspy when turned up to moderate volumes which I think was one of the millennium tweeters being over driven as the crossover element became worse.The raspy desertion was quite noticeable & I sent the speaker back to Ty who was more than ready to fix it & send it back ….great guy.

In the interim I have noticed that although the other speaker sounded reasonably good that I twas a little on the hard side when pushed a tad and I am hoping that since he replaced everything that I did not get a group of bad crossover caps or something like that. It is hard to tell because by driving only one speaker, I may be overdriving it a bit to get the volume which is about half due to there only being one speaker.Hopefully it is just a case of driving the one speaker a little too hard & that when there are two I need only drive them at the 11AM not the 1 PM position to get a decent sound pressure level with the Portal..The whole system has sounded a but hard ,grainy in the mids right from the start & I queried Tyler(Mr. Patience) as to whether there may be mutiple issues with this new batch of crossovers however he maintains everything sounded good prior to leaving his plant as he played them for 24 hours so I need to take him at his word since given his stellar reputation & eagerness to help.If he thinks the other speaker is OK than it is OK .It is hard to tell anything I have found historically from listening to one speaker. & I have to trust a guy like Ty.
One online magazine(Stereo Times) reported that the sig mons were a liitle congested at higher volumes so I may have to live with moderate volumes with these. I have two amps a RA Tempest II tube integrated & a 100wps Portal Panache that kicks out 200 into 4 ogms both in good working condition now & my Creek CD50 MK II is quite new having all the most recent updates & sounded good with the RA & the Silverline 17V3.

Have others found?

A) the tweeter in the sigs to be on the fragile side perhaps even sounding a little hard if pushed & B) any fragility in these drivers including the crossover?. I would rather play them at moderate volumes & have them undamaged (even if very slightly) for 5 years rather than be subtly ruining the tweeter and/or crossovers by playing them a tad too loud since most of my music I play at low to moderate levels.

Any comments along these lines would be apppreciated.It is obvious that these drivers & crossovers are subject to damage on one level given Ty had to replace everything including the crossovers on this trade in pair….notwithstanding gross abuse of course.

I lived with the original Quad ELS for many years so I know what it is like to live with speakers with limited spl before they start to fall apart. The Quads were always good right up to about 90 Db in a reasonable sized room but as soon as you hit 91 you were in trouble & always needed to back off..I really hope I end up with a viable pair after all the time & expense I have spent putting this system together.

Again,your comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

Bill