breaking in headphones/speakers ..

[Coralie]

there was topic started by jason when he spoke of his favourite new sound thingies, the sony fontopia earphones: http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2388

i think it was is this topic that somebody mentioned 'breaking in' headphones. i'd never heard of this before. i've never claimed to be a an audiophile (geez, i love that word! :lol:), so i'm happy to admit total ignorance in this matter.

does anyone know what actually goes on with a speaker when it's broken in? i mean, what's different about it? i always thought a speaker was either good or bad, new or old, dead or alive. :?:

[Pony99CA]

there was topic started by jason when he spoke of his favourite new sound thingies, the sony fontopia earphones: http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2388

i think it was is this topic that somebody mentioned 'breaking in' headphones. i'd never heard of this before. i've never claimed to be a an audiophile (geez, i love that word! :lol:), so i'm happy to admit total ignorance in this matter.

does anyone know what actually goes on with a speaker when it's broken in? i mean, what's different about it? i always thought a speaker was either good or bad, new or old, dead or alive. :?:
I've never heard of "breaking in" speakers or headphones. On cone-based drivers, maybe breaking them in makes the cones less stiff, but I thought you wanted cones to be stiff to avoid distortion-producing vibrations in the cone itself.

Alternatively, maybe breaking in improves the travel distance that the cone can move.

Have you tried a Google search? I just searched on "speakers 'breaking in' audio" and got several hits. One site, Audio Note (http://www.audionote.co.uk/reviews/anvz.htm), made it sound like breaking-in reduced the brightness of the speakers.

Steve

[smashcasi]

For all things headphones, consult Head-Fi (http://www.head-fi.org/). For example, a search for 'burn in' resulted in this rather lengthy discussion (http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=9193).

[Coralie]

thanks for the feedback & the links. :D

can you believe that i totally failed to do a search? :oops: .. & here's me claiming to be the total geek! :lol:

[enemy2k2]

When I got my new car, I broke in the speakers by trying to play the radio as much as possible but at a good steady reasonable volume. I've never heard of anyone doing it for headphones. I have, however, heard of this being done for big sub-woofers...