How long will it take to "break in" my Mini Monitors? (1 Viewer)

[james e m]

I was just curious if anybody has any knowledge of how long the break in period is for a pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors? The Paradigm site says to give them a couple of hours of break in time before they are given a critical listen. Is there a specific volume I should be playing the music to "break them in"? Right now I have Travis: The Invisible Band, and the Rachel's: The Sea and the Bells in my cd player playing at about 70db. Any info would be appreciated!

james

 

[Saurav]

Just play your regular music at your regular volume. I think I heard the sound of my Mini Monitors change over the first few weeks, but I was new to the speakers too, so that's hard to tell. On the other hand, with my phono cartridge, I'm much more confident that the sound changed as it broke in.

 

[Alan Ross]

According to a well respected speaker designer and manufacturer, it will take a few seconds to "break in" your speakers. However, it may take several weeks to "break in" your ears to the sound of the new speakers.

 

[Holadem]

Alan, is that a sub in your closet?!
--
Holadem

 

[Saurav]

According to a well respected speaker designer and manufacturer, it will take a few seconds to "break in" your speakers.

I'm curious - which designer/manufacturer is this? I've seen unverified reports of people measuring a speaker's frequency response during the first few months of its use and finding significant (up to 2dB, if I remember correctly) changes at certain frequencies.

 

[aaron campbell]

Thats funny, Paradigm states that it will take several hours to break them in.

Aaron

 

[Alan Ross]

The break in information came from Ken Kantor of NHT fame. The mechanical parts of a speaker that need break in are the spider and the surround, the suspension system. It generally takes only a few cycles to get the speaker suspension to "loosen up", after that the changes are minor, if any. The electrical properties will change with changes in temperature. So the voice coil and some crossover components will change their properties when electrical current flowing through these components warms them up. However, if the speakers are played at moderate levels, the steady state temperature is reached very quickly. If you play your music at ear bleading levels, then a lot more heat gets dumped into these components; and if there is inadequate heat transfer, they will keep getting hotter, changing speaker's electrical and mechanical parameters (rubber surrounds get softer with heat, etc.) and the spekers will sound different. But once they cool down the process starts all over again.
I don't dispute that break in is a legitime concept, I just think that a big part of it has to do with your brain adjusting to the new sound. Based on that I don't think it's particularly important what you play during break in as long as you are there breaking in your ears as well.
Yes, the monster in my closet is a SUBWOOFER. I use it to generate local earquakes You can see it here: Link Removed
For more sane music listening I usually switch to this one: http://www.zalytron.com/Socal/Image033.jpg I am also working on two more, a 10" small sub for the bedroom and a 15"/dual passive radiator for...., well I don't know what for yet.

 

[John Garcia]

I have about 30-40 or so hours on mine, and I notice no difference at all...they still sound great.

 

[Saurav]

Based on that I don't think it's particularly important what you play during break in

Agreed.

I was just curious about your previous statement because I rememebr a post on the RAHE newsgroup where someone ran one speaker of a pair for a few weeks or months, and then compared it to the other and found measurable and audible differences. Of course, this wasn't a rigorous scientific test in the strictest sense, so that's a factor in here too.