Is break in quicker with Planars and Stats?

Norton,

It is possible that you and Musicnoise buy your speakers from a builder/manufacturer like Johnk who puts hours of run in on their speakers before selling. Truly great high end service!

I have to shop at the value end of the scale where Maggies perform very well vs. cost although it takes a little time from new (maybe 100 hours) for them to come into their own.

Respectfully,
Jim S.

Perhaps it depends on the design. An Electrostatic with high step up transformers + high voltage capacitors is more likely to change over time than a sealed box speaker with a compliant woofer. In the case of a sealed box speaker single woofer the air suspension and driver back emf will probably dominate after five minutes of break in (five minutes loud is probably enough to make the surround and spider compliant). An array speaker with 8 cones that barely move might also be a different matter - it is conceivable that some drivers may not break in as quickly as others - leading to a long break in time. Designs with weak motors and light weight cones in an under damped box where mechanical suspension dominates may change response every time you play them as the surround is known to become stiff after a day without uses and takes a few seconds to become compliant.

So I guess it "depends" - it is certainly possible to design speakers that will not need breaking in after a mere few minutes or that will not change with age. The trick is to make the mechanical compliance a very small factor compared to everything else that it becomes irrelevant. This suggests a design with big motor and beefy amplifiers that control excursion and an acoustic damped suspension will need less break-in or next to no break-in, IMHO.

Norton, Before buying my 1.6 Maggies, I'd have had a similar opinion to yours. After listening to my new panels have the stereo image go right/left left/right fairly rapidly, within an hour of firing them up, I was changed. The 'forming' of capacitors and slight settling of the mylar is a reasonable suggestion. It has NOT happened again. The amp used, a Rotel RB-1070 had several hundred hours on it so was reasonably well conditioned.
I hadn't had a DROP to drink, and imbibed no mind altering substances. This was a stone-cold, out of the blue effect and very unexpected.

I have no difficulty believing Magfan's experience. But that is not what is generally referred to as speaker break in. The switching of stereo image rapidly back and forth sounds more like an impedance problem likely to a connection. Also likely is that with a little heat, the connection was made. My guess is that this occurence was dramatic, could not be missed by anyone in the room, and was initially viewed as a defect in the workmanship or the parts. Speaker break in is generally not spoken of in quite those terms, but more as a gradual shift that is not noticeable over short time periods, say 15 minute intervals. I also don't doubt that there are changes to all components over time. Otherwise nothing would wear out and all systems would last forever. Those changes are certainly measureable because we have instruments that are very sensitive and offer high repeatability and resolution - take as standard 4 terminal ohmmeter that can accurately measure a few milliohms. Whether those changes are of a magnitude that can be heard is another story. More importantly, what should be sought in any component is stability, the problem I see with a component that would exhibit changes over a period of 40 to 200 hours of use is that it follows that the changes would continue, and a continuing change that is noticeable in 40 to 200 hours of use is a change at a rapid pace. This would likely hurt sales so much that the component would not be on the market very long. Certainly mechanical systems with a good deal of motion and friction show considerable changes, particularly early on. But speakers, of whatever technology, are not in that class of mechanical systems.

I'm going to really stir the pot with this post.

My Dali Megalines required 450 to 600 hours before they performed to their maximum. The bass was non existent until after 300 hours and deep bass not until nearly 600.

A good friend and member of my audio group experienced similar frustration with his Kharma Exquisite 1De. He waited beyond 650 hours before his speakers produced best performance.

In both cases, I have ten or so associates that heard the long progress and final results. Believe it or not, it's absolutely true.

Maybe it's the ceramic drivers in the Kharma, maybe the 24 woofers in my Dali's move so little that break in is tardy in arriving. Whatever the reason, it's audible and frustrating to wait through.

My new tube crossover made a break through in performance this last Tuesday evening. Burn in was 605 hours at the end of the evening and a huge change from the week before when there was only 437 hours on the parts.

In the case of the crossover I know the slow break in is due to Teflon Caps, 14 in the main unit and more in the power supply. I called the manufacturer who designed and built the caps (the same guy that builds Cardas, V-Cap, DynamiCap and most of the other big names).

He was not surprised, said it would continue to about 1000 hours or beyond, same answer I got from several other engineers in the business.

My previous custom crossover was identical in design, hand built by the same guy and was working well at 50 hours, reaching maximum performance at about 350 hours.

The difference? It had traditional caps from Wima, F-Dyne and Illinois capacitor and half the chokes and power supply. Everything makes a difference when all the parts are pushed to the limit.