With most high end audio speakers it takes a while for them to "break in" or "come alive."

Have you guys experienced this with the stock TL system? Does the system seem to sound better after a few months now?

 

I've read 20 hours or so for speakers in a guitar amp, not sure about a stereo speaker, but I'd guess around the same. Consider this fortunate, it takes a wooden guitar years to hit the 'sweet spot.'

 

not sure about the stock speakers in the TL, but I know for a fact that aftermarket equipment takes at least 20 playing hours for the speakers to break in and sound better.. I would say that this is the same for the stock ones, but I am changing mine out tomorrow and I won't have that answer for you..


Ryan

 

I am an electrical engineer, and write for two audio publications. We have done actual tests of loudspeakers, and found that the break-in claims are a myth. We found that after a few hours, the woofer's surround and spider will loosen up slightly, and extend the bass by a few hertz. Big deal.

We also found that if the speaker is then not used for a day, it reverts back to its original state, and it will take a few hours for those few hertz to return.

Tom Nousaine (The "Ace of Bass") has published these findings in The Audio Critic, and other publications, as well in the audio newsgroups.

As a former retailer, it is my belief that dealers and mfrs have perpetuated the "break-in" myth to reduce the returns of loudspeakers. People will notice differences in the loudspeaker quickly - the dealers tell you that the speaker must "break-in" because they know a fact of audio perception not known to many laymen: your hearing perception will put right speakers with poor amplitude response. That is, over time, your hearing will adjust to their flaws, and make the speaker sound "better". Thus, the dealer and mfr do not have to deal with higher return rates for speakers that disappoint.

As to amplifier, speaker cable, and other break-in myths, they are so silly as to be laughable. An amplifier reaches electrical homeostasis (thermal stability of the bias applied to the transistors) in about 15 minutes.

Guitars, of course, are quite another matter. Guitars are all about vibration, and the wood changes over time, playings, etc. Just the worng amount of humnidity (too dry, too humid) will make the guitar change its tone. My old Martin (1967 Brazilian D-28) took about 5 years to really come alive, and continues to mellow.

Amplifiers are not "alive". They are machines. They do not teach "break-in" at engineering school, I assure you. The fact that mfrs and dealers make such a big deal out of it is based on financial gain, not unbiased empiric experiment, which we have done.

Audiophiles can be made to believe just about anything, and a lie told often enough becomes the truth (an old Goebbels propaganda technique). Amplifiers have also been credited with "depth", "soundstage", etc. I ask anyone who believes in that to produce one degreed EE professor, at any accredited university, and with no financial association with any audio mfr, to state publicly that he teaches a course in electrical engineering that discusses the theory and techniques for an amplifier to produce "depth". I would then ask him or her to participate in a double-blind, matched level test to be able to identify amp 1 from amp 2, in a statistically significant number of trials. I have done, literally, hundreds of these tests over the last 20 years, and no one ever scored above mere guessing.

I actually measured the TL's audio system*, and it is quite flat in the midrange, with a bumped up bass response even in the "flat" settings. This of course is needed because a motor vehicle produces tremendous low frequency energy when operating, and swamps both the low and high frequencies with ambient noise.

*I used wide-band pink noise, a calibrated microphone accurate to about .5 dB, and my fast Fourier Transform spectral analyzer. I measured at 20 points in the vicinity of the driver's head, and averaged the results. I used C-weighting.

 

WOW! Excellent post!

I'm still waiting for my strat to dry up a little. it resonates like crazy, but when it's 40 years old, it's gonna sing like an angel.

 

Ok so after all that...

What you are saying is there is NO break-in period.


thanks for the post man.. much appreciated... and well my audio shop is saying the same thing about I need to let them breakin.


Ryan