Break-in period for new speakers - sealed boxes

I am an engineer, and familiar with the breakin characteristics of elastomers used for shock mounts and for speaker surrounds. I think that speaker breakin changes are related to changes of the properties of the surrounds, principally softening. This will usually result in better LF response, both frequency extension, and sonic quality.

The "conditioning" process (a better word than "breakin") depends on how much the elastomer is flexed as well as how long you do it. If you set your speakers going with a reasonably loud LF warble test signal in the morning when you go to work there should be a noticable improvement when you come home. If you just play music it could take many hours as you suggest.

Disclamer!! (These seem to be popular lately). I don't believe in breakin...except for speakers and phono pickups.

The suspension on all of the drivers will loosen up with use, but the drivers that will change the most in terms of electro-mechanical measurements and acoustic output will be those that make the longest excursions i.e. the woofers.

My basic suggestion is to play track #7 on the Ayre Acoustics disc entitled "Irrational But Efficacious" on repeat for as long and often as you can. If you aren't home, leave it on repeat and turn the volume up. If you're sleeping, let it play but at low volume. Some signal passing through the speakers or component being broken in is better than none.

Before doing this and leaving the house, i would HIGHLY suggest watching the woofer before picking some arbitrary volume setting. With sealed speakers, this is not as big of a deal as when using vented speakers. Due to the fact that this disc starts out with a tone at 5 Hz and climbs up from there, vented designs risk the potential for over-excursion of the woofer. This is because the woofers are "unloaded" i.e. there is no "air-spring" in the cabinet. Sealed designs have have a natural "high pass filter" built in and are far more secure in such a situation. As such, pick a volume that gets the woofers moving quite noticeably, but don't go gonzo right off the bat. After a day or so of this, you can increase the gain and really watch the woofers dance.

After rebuilding my Fathers' speakers a short while ago, we ran this track for 3 days straight at good volume ( he wasn't home ). By the end of the third day, the sound coming out of the speakers was nothing like what we heard the first day. After hearing the difference in sound, my Brother insisted that i had made other changes i.e. he had thought for sure that i had changed cabling, etc... We continued playing this track for several more days, mixing in various music discs for a total of two weeks of "burn in". When all was said and done, you would have thought that we had replaced the entire system with components that were 50% - 100% more expensive. Bare in mind that all of these components are several years old with the speakers having appr 15 - 17 years worth of time on them. Sean
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Sean I own this disc and respect your knowlege. At low volumes playing this disc on repeat, are you absolutely certain this will not put un do stress on all of your electronics, cables, amps etc ? Have you ever spoken to Cardas / Ayre about this ? Thanks !