Speaker break in?

My experience with a new set of speakers was similar. My VR4 Gen III's were unlistenable when first played. I followed the manufacturer's recommended break-in of 100 hours of LOUD music & now 5 months later they sound fantastic.

Interestingly during this break-in process my amp apparently had never been run very hard & it finished breaking in too. It is 7 years old & I've had it just shy of a year. How do I know the amp wasn't broken in? I could smell an electronic smell coming from it the first two times I ran the VR's hard. My dealer suggested it had been run long & hard enough to finally heat up everything to complete the process. The manufacturer corroborated this.

Its easy to accept that speakers take some time to break in with all the mechanical parts that move and stretch and I have had new speakers that went from horrible to wonderful. It can take over a month.
More suprising is that electronics can change just as dramaticly. My latest amp was purchased new and sounded dreadful next to my other amp (that lists for the same money). It had rolled off highs and could not even track the basslines on some of my CDs. A few weeks of play and it is now at least as good as my other amp in all respects. Top end opened up and the bass is excellent now. Cant begin to tell you why, but there is no question that break-in takes place.

Agree with the above about mechanical break-in for speakers (true of cartridges as well), not just electrical. I have heard this quite clearly when replacing drivers, not only in my hifi speakers, but also in guitar amps. I'm sure the internal cabling and crossover bits break-in too, just like any other electrical component, but the mechanical factor adds yet another dimension that can make the difference even more obvious. New drivers that have not been run in can sound too restricted both dynamically and in power bandwidth, often displaying a spotlit frequency range relative to the whole, and/or excessive texture that smooths out eventually. This usually results in sound that is less transparent, smaller in soundstage, and is edgier and reticent-sounding compared to the fully broken-in version of the same. My assumption has always been that comfortably loud playback levels must speed the break-in process along faster than quiet levels will. BTW, new stringed instruments which produce their sound via a vibrating top soundboard also undergo a lengthy break-in improvement as they are played, following along basically the same lines.

Totem recommends break-in at low to moderate levels. I guess if the surrounds were too stiff you might damage the bond between the surround and woofer frame. Take it easy at first, but it would probably take some real abuse to damage a woofer.

Absolutely! 250-500 hours playing time should do it for virtually any higher-end speaker.

peter jasz.