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Speaker burn/break in benefits?

Hi! I recently purchased a pair of Triangle speakers. I'm quite happy with the way they sound, they're only 2 weeks old. I stumbled upon some info online that claims that these speakers need 200 hrs break in. I have experienced break in with my previous rega speakers, basically the tweeter mellowed down and gained more body. The frequency range had better integration too. My ears didn't adapt because this all happened while I was at work and they were playing inside my closet. I'd check at night for 1 hour and got a pretty good idea of their progress.

The three way Altea EX I just purchased have a completely different design and the crossover is more complex, I'm sure. The break in is bound to bring other benefits/changes. I really don't need the twitter to mellow out, I like it as it is. I don't need them to develop more bass either, they're awesome in my room with my electronics. I'm slightly worried that this time around the break in would have adverse effects. Any triangle users (or any other 3 way design) here that can chime in on the changes their speakers have gone through when breaking in? I don't mind subjective opinions, they are all valid.

I'm still in time to go to my dealer to swap them for the cometes. I considered buying those before but didn't because of an over excited top end and lack of body when reproducing strings, but perhaps this would change after the 200 hours? hahaha what a weird hobby.
audiopanda
rower30
211 posts
 
Ummm, every high-end speaker I've recentlly owned (Vandersteen Quatro woods and DynAudio C4 signature II's) sounded plain weird till they broke-in. And I do mean weird. After break-in, all was good. How long? Hard to say but you know it when you hear it, that's for sure.

I have a hunch you are not yet to what you purchased as the speakers are designed with broken-in mechanical drivers. You should like them better and better with more use.
audiopanda OP
7 posts
 
Hi, thanks! Just a little question, how come you bought such expensive speakers if they sounded weird? Or did you audition a pair that was already broken in?
rower30
211 posts
 
I listened to older speakers with some "mileage" on them. Very high-end speakers are all break-in subjects. Even the owners manual will say, "sonic abberations are apparent during break-in". Speakers are just electro-mechanical devices that are NOT "like new" forever (thank heavens). They reach a mechanical equalibrium over a time and then settle down. Once broken-in good speakers can run for decades and sound good (I have some 30+ year old B&W 801's still going!).

So when you get ANY good speaker home, don't be too harsh on judgement till they play a hundred hours or more. Bass, midrange, and treble all change. Some speakers are weird in different areas (drivers use various technologies) as they break-in. This is no big deal as they reach the design intent in time. True, the electronic X-overs break-in, too, but compared to the mechanical drivers they aren't nearly the limiting factor from good sound.

So, you can't get around the break-in unless you buy used speakers (not a bad thing if you can audition them prior to purchase...or listen to a pair somewhere).
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