Speaker burn in

[Emil]

 
How do we as consumers of high end, expensive speakers, accept the fact that the speakers we've just purchased will not sound their best until we reach 500 hours of play? I'm following owners over at Aucdiocircle's Spatial Audio group and they seem just fine with it.
Just think. If you played music through your speakers 24 hours a day, it would take 21 days to be fully broken in and playing at their full potential.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying burn in is bogus. I would expect burn in to be done by the manufacturer and when they are at my home, they will play at their full potential.
So why isnt it done? I'm not picking on Spatial. Many if not all do this. Is it cost? How much could it be?

[S Clark]

Years ago I remember Danny Richie showing graphs of his before and after break in.  The vast majority of change happened in the first 3 hours- mechanical break in.  Electrical is another thing altogether.  If a manufacturer pitches huge changes after 500 hours, I suspect he's simply making it harder to return an item.  Again, not saying there is nothing to it, but I'm not waiting 100 hours to evaluate gear. 

[P.I.]

How do we as consumers of high end, expensive speakers, accept the fact that the speakers we've just purchased will not sound their best until we reach 500 hours of play? I'm following owners over at Aucdiocircle's Spatial Audio group and they seem just fine with it.
Just think. If you played music through your speakers 24 hours a day, it would take 21 days to be fully broken in and playing at their full potential.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying burn in is bogus. I would expect burn in to be done by the manufacturer and when they are at my home, they will play at their full potential.
So why isnt it done? I'm not picking on Spatial. Many if not all do this. Is it cost? How much could it be?

It is more a question of space.  Imagine having anywhere from 20 - 500 speakers burning in.  Then there is the cost of amplification...

[Emil]

How do we as consumers of high end, expensive speakers, accept the fact that the speakers we've just purchased will not sound their best until we reach 500 hours of play? I'm following owners over at Aucdiocircle's Spatial Audio group and they seem just fine with it.
Just think. If you played music through your speakers 24 hours a day, it would take 21 days to be fully broken in and playing at their full potential.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying burn in is bogus. I would expect burn in to be done by the manufacturer and when they are at my home, they will play at their full potential.
So why isnt it done? I'm not picking on Spatial. Many if not all do this. Is it cost? How much could it be?

It is more a question of space.  Imagine having anywhere from 20 - 500 speakers burning in.  Then there is the cost of amplification...

Maybe begin to burn in speakers and crossovers prior to assembly?
Cost of amplification? No answer for that. Just need quantity. Not quality.

 Spatial Audio are built to order. How many speakers from big names like Magnepan and Vandersteen build a day?

Amuse me. Just a pet peeve of mine 

[rollo]

  Our Qln line requires 200 hours. We allow for break in for return. None have been returned. We use 12 hours on 12 hours off after intial 48 hr burn in.


charles

[P.I.]

How do we as consumers of high end, expensive speakers, accept the fact that the speakers we've just purchased will not sound their best until we reach 500 hours of play? I'm following owners over at Aucdiocircle's Spatial Audio group and they seem just fine with it.
Just think. If you played music through your speakers 24 hours a day, it would take 21 days to be fully broken in and playing at their full potential.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying burn in is bogus. I would expect burn in to be done by the manufacturer and when they are at my home, they will play at their full potential.
So why isnt it done? I'm not picking on Spatial. Many if not all do this. Is it cost? How much could it be?

It is more a question of space.  Imagine having anywhere from 20 - 500 speakers burning in.  Then there is the cost of amplification...

Maybe begin to burn in speakers and crossovers prior to assembly?
Cost of amplification? No answer for that. Just need quantity. Not quality.

 Spatial Audio are built to order. How many speakers from big names like Magnepan and Vandersteen build a day?

Amuse me. Just a pet peeve of mine 

Vandersteen breaks in 60 woofers at a time by doing series/parallel wiring and plugging them into the wall AC!  Even wiring every other one antiphase that has to be quite a roar!

I get your angst.  That is why I ran every component in the BUSSes I built for 3 days at 240VAC.  Both for durabiity testing as well as trying to pre-bias the film in the PFC capacitor network.  Even so, during shipping that pre-burn will relax somewhat and they had to go through final burn-in. 

Think about pre-burn on a high quality crossover and then having the completed speaker sit in a box for a month. Gotta do the whole break-in thing again. 

[James Edward]

Years ago I remember Danny Richie showing graphs of his before and after break in.  The vast majority of change happened in the first 3 hours- mechanical break in.  Electrical is another thing altogether.  If a manufacturer pitches huge changes after 500 hours, I suspect he's simply making it harder to return an item.  Again, not saying there is nothing to it, but I'm not waiting 100 hours to evaluate gear.

I agree. I believe that if a component you’ve purchased doesn’t sound good to your ears after a couple of hours, it’s not for you. I own Spatial speakers, and look in on the AC circle about them- it seems that no matter the issue, more break in is required. I liked mine and the way they interacted with my problematic asymmetric room. Break in, in my mind, is incremental, and will not change the fundamental character of a piece of equipment.
I don’t care if it’s a DAC, a speaker, an amp, etc., if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. I’ve bought a lot of gear over the years- my first impressions did not radically change.
Speakers, electronics, cables, etc., can contain many components- how in the world can a manufacturer claim they’ve listened to all the associated variables and put out the product they feel is their best effort. Maybe that’s where the MK2 comes into being.
I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer about this, but in my experience, if you don’t like a piece out of the box after it’s been in your system for a day or two, it’s probably not for you.
Charles said QLN requires 200 hours- I loved a pair with minimal hours- I can imagine I’d like them even more as they break in. I don’t think anyone took them out of the box, listened, and said “I don’t know if I like these, but I’ll give them more time”. I guess it’s a difference of great and greater.
Rant over- I believe break in is real, but I don’t believe it’ll turn something you don’t like out of the box into a winner for your ears…