How much burn-in for Soliloquy 5.3s


Hi,

I recently purchased a demo pair of Soliloquy 5.3s, which I figured might have enough hours on them (dealer said he thought they had about 50 hrs) to sound reasonably good out of the box. Wrong! They sound absolutely horrible; very compressed, bass muddy and distant, treble subdued to the point of being almost not existant. At one point I actually thought the tweeter was nonfunctional since I could barely hear any extension at all. I hope I didn't make a big mistake. Anyway, I am hoping that folks out there with experience with these might be able shed some light (sound!) on what I can expect.
cody_the_cat
I recently found out (through Audioasylum.com) that Soliloquy installed a bad bacth of crossovers in their speakers some years ago and was wondering: 1) if anybody else heard the same thing, 2) if so, what year(s) did these duds get released, and 3) did the bad crossovers have something to do with low and high pass on the crossover????

Also, when connecting for biwiring does the low freq. cable connect to the upper or lower binding posts. The posts are not marked and the tweeter is situated beneath the bass drivers.
Cody- Call Soliloquy and just give them the serial numbers of your speakers and express your concerns. They are honest good folk and will assist you. While there are some discussions about brightness etc of the speaker, these are detail personal prefernce discussions at best-- your situation sounds different to me.
YOU GUYS WERE RIGHT!!!!!!
I managed to log about another 150 hrs (beyond the 50 the dealer said were on them) on my Soliloquy 5.3s. The sound has improved significantly; treble sweetly extended, the bass deep and firm, and with alot more air between the instruments. They are most impressive when the volume control on my 150 w Musical Fidelity A3cr preamp is cranked to about the 10:00 o'clock position. Man those mid drivers are pumping and the bass is phenomenal for such a small floorstander. With another 150 hours I am anticipating alot more mid level resolution. By the way, I just purchased a pair of Analysis Plus Oval 12 biwires to see how this configuration sounds. I hope it will help to open up the sound and improve inner detail, particularly in the mid range. I will keep my Kimber 8TC/4TC biwire just in case.

Thanks again for your urging to perservere with these speakers - it was worth it. I must say, though, that I do miss my PBN Montana SP IIs and can not help comparing them. Admittedly the Montanas cost $1500 more than the Sol 5.3s, but in the end the Sols may be a contender.
Keep going, Cody the Cat. At 200 hours, you are probably past the point of thinking you made a mistake. But it's not until 3-400 that you will begin to hear the magic of those speakers. If there is anything unbalanced or unsettled to the sound, rest assured that they are not close to being broken in. And while bi-wiring the Soliloquy's improves the sound IMO, the break in period is even more harsh than with a single wire. Enjoy!
Cody, I have a pair of 6.2's that took at least 250 hours to sound good. Fed them white noise all day long while I was at work for weeks. Well worth the effort, though! I have had them for 8 months now & they still get better. Hang in there!
Tony