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RE: Not DO, But WHY Speakers Require A "Break-In" Period

Some musings, and some information passed on to me by some noted speaker designers. First is that john Bau (designer of the Spica line) claimed that he would have up to a dozen drivers 'breaking in' before he could effectively design a system around them. In his last designs for Parasound, he claimed that he had insufficient time to break in the prospective drivers before the company closed Spica down (this was in regards to a cheaper design being introduced suitable for rear channel applications). So it is obvious that some designers believe in the break in process.

Another designer, still active, and thus wishing to remain anonymous, says that he can measure differences in 'break in', but the differences measurement wise are quite small in contrast to the effect heard. I believed that the 'spider' assembly located at the voice coil was the mechanical reason for the change in sound. Indeed, in my experience reconing drivers, older cones have a 'softer' spider assembly than a brand new cone. I would liken the difference to purchasing old style jeans, which would be very stiff when new, and then got more supple with repeated use and washing.

However, this designer feels that a lot of 'break in' has to do with thermal related phenomena, pointing out that simply playing a speaker softly does not seem to really aid the break in process. In his experience, you need a lot of volume in order to achieve full break in. He likes to point out with a louder volume and more current, the voice coils and other inductors heat up, and he suspects that the heat may 'anneal' the wire to a certain extent. Of course, the temperatures do not get that hot, but it is an interesting theory. The heat may also realign the glues used to hold the coil structures in place and they may have a slight magnetic constituent which may conceivably affect the sound.

Food for thought, and again if you don't believe in break in, then please ignore the posting.


Stu

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