Speaker break in?

Some may say that break-in is a placebo effect but it is not. I am not one to believe every tweek that comes along is for real, especially high dollar cable hype. But I would not have kept my Totem Ones if they had sounded the same after break-in. I had other speakers to compare them to. The last amp I sold sounded so much better than my new amp that I would never had sold it if the new one had not changed so much. It may not have been so apparent if I had not had an other amp to compare it to, but it was quite obvious to me and my wife. And my wife can be painfully honest. My last four amps have all sounded different and if change was not for the better you can be asured she let me know!

"Supposedly" - notice the quotes - it is a placebo affect. There have been discussions on other forums about this and the debate is still going. I am not sure, myself.

I do notice, if I switch between my speakers (Royd Doublets to OLD Bose 6.2 (yech!!) and a pair of Polk Audio Monitor 4A's that the speaker each speaker is grating on the nerves, initially. Then over time you don't notice it anymore. Placebo affect.

I would like to mention again that I don't think there is ANY mystery to speaker break in. Do yourself an experiment: Go to Best Buy, Circuit City, or Tweeter (they all have 30 day money back guarantees) and buy a pair of decent speakers. If you don't have the money, just apply for a store credit card. This will only take about 10 minutes and you can get the speakers on credit. Now take them home and hook up one speaker. Let it break in for a good 100 hours. Now hook up both speakers and, with a mono source, swap the balance back and forth between the two speakers. This should tell if there has been any change. Don't forget to take the speakers back before the 30 days is up. You might want to break the other speaker in before you take them back or you could leave them like they are and tell the salesman you're returning them because the two speakers don't sound alike. ???? Anybody up for this experiment?

I believe the rubber surround loosens up,its very stiff when new I had Polks that sounded very thumpy at first. In time the base smoothed out and got warmer sounding. Also the magnet assembly moving on the pole piece wears in , like a door hinge gets smoother with use.

Bufus, you do that 29-day test with a pair of speakers. Let me know the store location so I can then go in and buy them as "open-box"! :^0