Question for the scientifically minded amongst you. How does burn-in actually change the sound of a speaker? I always thought that the concept of audio gear burn-in was more audiophile mumbo jumbo but a recent experience with new speakers has changed my mind. They’ve gone from overly bright ear drum scrapers to sounding great after burning in.
Burn in is just your ears eq’ing to your new audio device
you know, this is absolutely testable
1: buy new speaker, set it up in a room you can lock down
2: set up measurement mic on a stand
3: very first sound coming out should be a REW sweep (measuring)
4: let it blast pink noise for a day or two with the room locked down, not too loud to wreck anything
5: do another REW sweep. make sure nothing else has changed in that room, including where you’re standing and wearing while the sweep runs
there, science
then everyone can stop posting this topic over and over again on every forum
i have personally swapped a dead driver with a brand new one and didn’t measure any meaningful difference between the new one and the one in the other half of the stereo pair.
Ok, so answering OP’s question, what is actually changing during burn-in in a speaker?
Yes, the effect is measurable, but I read the question as being “what’s changed in my speaker?”
From your final para, it sounds like it’s not the driver because putting a new one made no difference.
So do they put demo speakers on for a constant 100hrs before letting anyone listen?
The manufacturer of these particular speakers does burn them in before demoing them yep. I doubt every hifi store does though.
They obviously get used for a fair bit of time, by staff first and then demoing to customers.
Yup. One trick I heard was to put them facing each other and wire out of phase. The idea being that they work harder against the air pressure from the opposing speaker and breaking in quicker
The only time i have heard a very clear and obvious change on a new speaker was around 20 years ago when my dad bought a pair of Audiovector m3 speakers. We connected them and started playing, it sounded horrible, his jaw dropped and he looked really confused. I had heard some speakers need some time to play in. My own system usually sounded a little better after having warmed up for a song or 2 so i told him we should just leave the room for 5 minutes and then come back and hear if there was something wrong with them or they just have to loosen up a bit. 5-10 minutes later we came back and the sound was fine and he got a big smile on his face. I didnt listen enough to music on his setup over time to know if it changed much after the first few minutes but it really was a night and day change.
This is lifted from my Hifiman Sundara’s manufacturer documentation: Please allow for a period of “burn in” where you allow playback of audio for a period of 150 hours to allow the headphones to reach their fullest audio potential.
Burn in isn’t real. You want proof? Every abx and ab test you can find tend that way, and every person that believes in it speaks about what they heard without any measurement.
Another proof? If a few hours could alter the speaker to the point of changing the sound I would be VERY concerned about the long term reliability. It makes no sense that the company would make a speaker that tend to change after a while, why wouldn’t they make them “right” in the fabrication process? Since relying on how the user will treat them out of the box isn’t reliable for them and their reputation.
If you feel that they sound better, good for you but if you want the truth it’s probably you getting used to their sound or a Placebo.
And if you want my experience, I have really high end headphones (hifiman he1000 v2). I listen to them before and after a 100h burn in with white /pink noise. Result? Can’t tell the difference since audio memory last for a few seconds at best…
I think its ear burn in. But I love my Focal Alphas 65 now, more than two years ago, and I do think my SSL BIG SiX sounds better after a year of having it. I wish I had the money to buy two of each to make the test but this will not happen.
If burn-in is real, then why used speakers aren’t more expensive than new ones ?
It doesnt take that long and usually drivers have been used and tested before being sold in a speaker. 5-10 minutes was enough for my dads new speakers to go from horrible to normal so those have probably never even been tested. Speaker designers know parameters change over time so they always design with and test new designs with “burned in” drivers. (Probably not hundreds of hours but a few at least)
But no if you dont like a speaker after a few minutes or an hour you probably never will.
It’s not real. It’s just the listener getting used to how the speakers sound.
Exactly this
if there would be a REAL change in speakers it would be best to hook them up to some 24x7 source and go to vacation and enjoy the speaker afterwards. and again if there would be a REAL improvement why wouldnt the speaker companies let this happen at the factory and ship the very best speaker instead of putting this plague onto us customers ???
The speaker drivers have surrounds which become more supple with use, just like breaking in a new baseball glove. In the case of the speaker drivers, however, my paranoid young audio enthusiasts friends,… the resonant frequencies of the drivers become more low. All good speaker designers know this and design their speakers to perform optimally for their long term Theil-Small parameters as measured on drivers that have been broken-in properly. Your speakers sound better with use because the drivers are new with stiff surrounds and spiders which changes their Thiel-Small parameters and therefore obviously changes their sound.
It does seem that some materials in some speakers need to be used for acceptable pliability. This could include surround materials and/or possibly metal in the voice coil connections.
Whatever it is, it really does matter sometimes.
No.