Breaking In New Speakers

[msmith4432]

Oh my! There's a theory?

Yes ANDY OH ANDY..... Come and give this man the break in theory... Tell him the truth, unless he pushed them to the limit of their power they will never Break in

[alanbama]

Man! I'd have to have a sound proof room to do that in my neighborhood. I can't imagine you all pushing 4/12 cabs to their limit! Wow! Now that's got to be loud! I wonder if there's any difference between a 10 inch or a 12 inch break in time. Oh great. Another question. lol You all are very helpful with all your ideas and experiences. Thank you all. Ok now, where's Andy?

[a.hun]

Who me?

How long? Varies a lot between different speaker types. The V.30 we all know and love / hate / tolerate is one speaker type which actually takes a lot longer than most to break in, and also changes a lot more tonally as they do.

And my theory on them is that a lot of us Orange-ites NEVER really get to hear them properly broken in! Simply because they are very robust speakers and the amp / cab combinations with most Orange combos / (half) stacks never see them pushed anywhere near their real limits.
An AD30 2x12 = 30W amp --> 120W rated speakers. Yeah, not exactly straining things.
An R.30C = 30W --> 60W rated speakers? Should get closer, but I don't think mine sounds anything like broken in to be honest. And if that is so than a 100W head into a 240W 4x12 isn't going to get you there any quicker at all - quite the opposite!

Funnily enough I got to compare a really well broken in V.30 to a newish Celestion Gold in the same powerful (Mesa) 2x12 combo a while back. They both sounded great, nice and smooth, well defined but sweet, and er... surprisingly similar!
So much so that the owner wasn't planning on keeping his two Golds even though he'd picked them up nice and cheap! But then he recently told me that he'd stuck with the Golds which have apparently changed a lot since then as they broke in properly! He now likes them even better than the already really nice V.30s!

Other speakers though you can literally hear breaking in within the space of a single 2 hour gig! The super powerful Eminence Kappalite drivers in my 1x12 and 1x15 bass cabs are kind of like that - within a few hours I could back off the amp's bass control noticeably because the cabs were clearly putting out more real bottom end as the drivers loosened up!

So my other theory is that the best way to break speakers in is just to use them!

My other other theory is that if you really want to break in several speakers at the same time you should simply them in pairs face to face (not air-tight though!) and put a fairly loud bass sine wave through them, 25 or 30Hz. Putting them face to face like that means you get a lot of frequency cancellation and so annoy the neighbours / loved ones a lot less than you otherwise would.

Speakers break in quicker the harder they are driven and the more bass frequencies they are driven with. I don't think that is a theory, I think it is a fact!

Main thing with breaking speakers in is not to actually break them. Other than that I don't worry about it too much. But that's not so much a theory as an attitude I guess.

That do?


Andy.

[msmith4432]

There he is

[alanbama]

WOW! And it all really makes sense too! Thank you Andy for the info and I printed it out for reference. Thanks again.

[a.hun]

Noooo... did nobody tell you you shouldn't believe everything you read on the world wide woven spinny spidery thing. No? Really not?

Well I just did, but there is a certain amount of quality German beer in my system so you should maybe just ignore that advice and print this tip for the day out instead:

"If it sounds good it is good. If it doesn't play it again - better!"


Andy (well and truly) over and out!

[alanbama]

Noooo... did nobody tell you you shouldn't believe everything you read on the world wide woven spinny spidery thing. No? Really not?

Well I just did, but there is a certain amount of quality German beer in my system so you should maybe just ignore that advice and print this tip for the day out instead:

"If it sounds good it is good. If it doesn't play it again - better!"


Andy (well and truly) over and out!

Too late now! I just blew my first speaker! Not really, just kidding. I wish I had some of that German beer!

[ironlung40]

I think the guys at avatar speakers just load their speakers into dummy cabinets and then play rap music through them overnight to really break in the speakers with bass.

I think I could've probably said the word "speakers" more times in one sentence.

[thornicated]

the thing about breaking in speakers is...you don't have to push them to break them in...aka loud loud volumes (especially for a 4x12)...you just want to get the speaker moving...break the cone in...you at least want a moderate volume...b/c that helps move the cones

the one thing i really found was...i had been using a 2x12 with G12-75's and then switched to V30's...without changing the dials on the amp, i almost blew myself out of the room...the volume difference between those two speakers was quite impressive...once i had the V30's broken in, i really did not like the sound of the 75's...

[alanbama]

I think I have the 10 inch speaker in my CR35LDX broken in. It requires a lot less bass with that tone control than it did.

[megalithic]

Just play at normal volume one or two hours a day, and in one or two weeks it should be fine. I've done this.

The crazier theories are just asking for trouble, for example hip-hop with heavy bass could blow a speaker, so could the volumes from an mp3 player (much louder than guitar at the input).

[bclaire]

Noooo... did nobody tell you you shouldn't believe everything you read on the world wide woven spinny spidery thing. No? Really not?

Well I just did, but there is a certain amount of quality German beer in my system so you should maybe just ignore that advice and print this tip for the day out instead:

"If it sounds good it is good. If it doesn't play it again - better!"


Andy (well and truly) over and out!

My favorite quote:

"You can't believe everything you read on the internet."
Abraham Lincoln

[Thinline_slim]

I do have a process for breaking in speakers which involves a tone/white noise generator program, a solid state power amp and an old futon mattress but I willing to take the gamble between breaking in a speaker and blowing it.

There have been a few speakers that have greatly benefited from it too that I just don't have the time to play guitar through it for 2 hours a day for two weeks before a gig. Hell, many times I don't get gear more than two days before a gig much less two weeks.

Maybe I wouldn't suck as bad as I do though if I actually played to break in my speakers..... That's kind of a win-win....