How to "break-in" new speakers??

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."

I did hear a difference in my Maggie 1.6 as they broke in, they became smoother in the high end and the bass became looser and more natural (after a few months) but I think it is the nature of the planar design where the mylar needed to stretch a bit.

This argument that seems accepted to the point of "of course its this way-where you been?" has little or no support in the high end pro community of mixers, mastering engineers and others who listen for a living. I would be horrified if a customer who just installed a $40,000 pr of monitors called me to say they sound WAY different after a week of use. I would also be horrified if I sent a replacement woofer for a blown one and after the swap, George Massenburg told me "they sound different and I can't work on these for the next 500 hours" . Or a year later, "the Left woofer sounds different from the right" (because the left one is older than the right). George can hear a 1/4dB difference in EQ at 2K, he can hear compression artifacts I cannot hear, and he has never said such a thing to me. So for a pro, this is tough one to buy in to.

What DOES happen is changes in your ears day to day. Weather, humidity, your health, how tired you are, can play a huge role in sound "quality" (i.e. your personal perception of sound ). Also, your attitude makes a huge difference. If you want to hear a difference, you will. This is demonstrable. And Temperature of the drive unit DOES make a difference, especially when you are the edge of power compression, a result of heat inside the coil. So could the difference be that the speakers sound better after being on for an hour and heated up? This could 100% be true. It would also be true then that the speakers sound worse after being driven too hard (too hot) and you have to let the spear cool down for it to return to normal (I HAVE heard this many times). But was time the factor-no, it was heat.

The idea of speakers loosening up doesn't seem to have the same level of scientific support that other issues that are based in science and really do affect perceived performance. I wonder if other reall issues are being attributed to break in time?

Brad