Speaker break-in - Myth or?

[Scumback Speakers]

There IS a mechanical breakin on the voicecoil, just as there is in a piston in a car engine.
During this process, the wires become almost polarized and the capacitance of the coil itself changes.
This also creates less resistance and higher power handling.

While there is break in, and the coil gets to a final condition regarding tone, it DOES NOT increase power handling. Coils handle X amount of power, and rarely any more. I and my clients have tested this to destruction, repeatedly. Any idea you have on a coil handling more than it's original rated power is flawed due to the melting point of the coil wires. A 30w coil won't suddenly handle 60w of power after it's broken in. In fact as coils get older, they can lose power handling capability.

The cone, doping and vibrations through the spider are also a factor that will be noticeable.

True.

On top of that, the magnetic field of the magnet actually degrades over time, though very subtle, it does change the tone of the speaker.

This is also a significantly erroneous statement. Magnets (unless damaged, de-magnetized, etc) DO NOT change their magnetism power to any degree the human ear would notice. Magnets degrade their power at about 1/10 of 1% over 100 years. Unless you're truly "ancient" as in over 1000 years old, you'd never hear the difference. I'm guessing since speakers haven't been around that long, then you haven't been either.

We're going to have to agree to disagree on many points, AA. Not sure what experiences you're basing your statements on, but I'm basing mine on failures of speaker coils presented with too much power, my clients doing the same, and having purchased over 500 old Celestions, over 400 being the old pre rolas from the 60's. I may not have seen (or heard) it all, but I've done enough purposeful "testing to destruction" to know that some of the statements you've made are not accurate.

But hey....what do I know, right? Sorry, but your posts don't reflect the reality of tests/failures I've experienced.

 

[nbarts]

In my experience the first 24hrs - dramatic difference
next 48hrs - some difference
after that it's just normal amortization

 

[Ancient Alien]

There IS a mechanical breakin on the voicecoil, just as there is in a piston in a car engine.
During this process, the wires become almost polarized and the capacitance of the coil itself changes.
This also creates less resistance and higher power handling.

While there is break in, and the coil gets to a final condition regarding tone, it DOES NOT increase power handling. Coils handle X amount of power, and rarely any more. I and my clients have tested this to destruction, repeatedly. Any idea you have on a coil handling more than it's original rated power is flawed due to the melting point of the coil wires. A 30w coil won't suddenly handle 60w of power after it's broken in. In fact as coils get older, they can lose power handling capability.

The cone, doping and vibrations through the spider are also a factor that will be noticeable.

True.

On top of that, the magnetic field of the magnet actually degrades over time, though very subtle, it does change the tone of the speaker.

This is also a significantly erroneous statement. Magnets (unless damaged, de-magnetized, etc) DO NOT change their magnetism power to any degree the human ear would notice. Magnets degrade their power at about 1/10 of 1% over 100 years. Unless you're truly "ancient" as in over 1000 years old, you'd never hear the difference. I'm guessing since speakers haven't been around that long, then you haven't been either.

We're going to have to agree to disagree on many points, AA. Not sure what experiences you're basing your statements on, but I'm basing mine on failures of speaker coils presented with too much power, my clients doing the same, and having purchased over 500 old Celestions, over 400 being the old pre rolas from the 60's. I may not have seen (or heard) it all, but I've done enough purposeful "testing to destruction" to know that some of the statements you've made are not accurate.

But hey....what do I know, right? Sorry, but your posts don't reflect the reality of tests/failures I've experienced.

I'm sure you are way more right than I.
I based all my studies on scientific experiments in school.
I was not referring to speakers being able to handle more power than they are rated, but that they will eventually reach their rating of power.
Your testing is obviously based way more on realistic conditions, whereas mine were isolated in a laboratory on a more molecular level.
And since I love your speakers, I totally trust you

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I heard gold plated dog poop sounds better the plain dog poop. And the dog poop gets smoother the more you play with it.

I can definitely say the cones, dope and spiders loosen up and smooth out. As said earlier in the thread, big change at first, then slightly more over time until they level out.

But as far as the coils changing for the better or the difference of how fast a signal travels through a 10 ft cable vs. a 20 ft cable being deciphered by the human ear, not gonna happen.

 

[MOAAH]

The same thing happens to audio cable.

Sorry mang, we will have to agree to disagree, cause the audio cable farce is the biggest crock in the history of HiFi, IMO

I agree with you in the sense of what people think they hear is night and day.
But you can't argue with the facts that all metals change after current is flowed through them.
Basic physics.
But I know what you are saying

Well that's too cool

I won't argue with physics, but I will say there are a lot more efficient ways to improve your sound than spend a pile of money on super speaker cable

 

[MOAAH]

I heard gold plated dog poop sounds better the plain dog poop. And the dog poop gets smoother the more you play with it.

LOL!
I know this to be true, but you have to change out all the knobs to Ivory colored chickenheads to get the full affect

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I heard gold plated dog poop sounds better the plain dog poop. And the dog poop gets smoother the more you play with it.

LOL!
I know this to be true, but you have to change out all the knobs to Ivory colored chickenheads to get the full affect