Test CD

"12-21-14: Will62
How they sound in a showroom will not be representative of how they sound at home. I bought the Klipsch Heresey's back in the 1980' after listening to them in the store. Got them home and they definitely didn't sound right at all. Too bright and lacking bass and I don't even desire a lot of bass. Messed around with placement but to no avail."

No question that's a valid point, but I still think you can benefit from doing store demo's. As an example, I'm very sensitive to high frequencies. I can easily weed out speakers that have HF issues that I don't like, right there in a store. Granted, its not a perfect way to judge SQ, but you can rule out speakers that you know you won't like. Also, the Klipsch speakers you mention are very odd. Your description of them is pretty much the same as mine. I wouldn't use them as a reference to compare other speakers to.

I should have mentioned this earlier, but I forgot. You may want to give The Cable Company a call. They have a program where they send you demo units of anything you want to try. I'm not sure if they'll send you speakers, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. They may do it. Also, Cable Co is the largest cable and accessory store there is. If you're still interested in a test CD, they probably carry every one on the market. If you don't live near any B&M stores, they can be a very valuable resource.

Hello,
I prefer to use music to break speakers in.
Pink noise is great for analyzing but can be hard on the mechanics of the driver if they are too still out of the box and you push the noise a bit too hard.
Also, music breaks in the speakers to match your musical preferences.

I use the ayre disk...has track 4 that can get the junk movin...no music can do that...track 3 pink noise.

"Pink noise is great for analyzing but can be hard on the mechanics of the driver if they are too still out of the box and you push the noise a bit too hard.
Also, music breaks in the speakers to match your musical preferences."

I don't suppose that you could back either one of those 2 statements up with some info on why that's so?

"Also, music breaks in the speakers to match your musical preferences. "

So a speaker "broken in" on The Rolling Stones music is going to eventually sound different than speakers "broken in" on by Mozart? Really??

I at least agree with the idea of "breaking in" speakers using music but not because it will sound different than speakers "broken in" on pink noise, or pink floyd, or the female singer Pink. This whole "break in" ritual is yet another opportunity for audiophiles to over think and over complicate something that is relatively simple.

Enjoy listening to your speakers break in. I suspect there is a mechanical process at work during the break in process that changes the sound in subtle ways but I think there is an equally significant process at work where your ear and brain adjusts to and adapts to the sound.