Do speakers break in kind of suddenly?

[Dave Locher]

I have always bought used but this past year I got two new speakers, an Eminence V128 and a WGS ET-65. Lately it seems like there has been a sudden shift in my amp's tone, warmer and more low mids.
I expected break in to be a very gradual thing, but this seems more like a switch was thrown. Am I imagining this, or do speakers sometimes just go from new to broken in without a lot of in between?
I have not played out at all, so it has been playing at low volume most of the time with quite a few "wife and kids aren't home, crank it up!" episodes.

 

[some_dude]

Re: Do speakers break in kind of suddenly?

It can happen fairly fast. WGS speakers were the hardest for me to break in. 8 hours of "I think I hate these speakers" followed by "Hey, these are starting to sound good".

 

[Jacew]

Re: Do speakers break in kind of suddenly?

I had same experience with 8" Eminence speakers I bought almost new. One day I just started to play and realized "wow, these sound good..."

Now I'm in the middle of break in with G12H's. 30 hours on them: Better than new, but just yesterdy I A/B'd them against the said 8" eminences. Those little $#$& slaughtered Celestions...

I hope they get better...

 

[IM4Tone]

Re: Do speakers break in kind of suddenly?

It can happen fairly fast. WGS speakers were the hardest for me to break in. 8 hours of "I think I hate these speakers" followed by "Hey, these are starting to sound good".

I've found break-in time to be all over the board. Some speakers, I haven't noticed any difference from new to 100 hrs. Others (particularly WGS) seemed to take considerable time for me as well. So....it depends!

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Do speakers break in kind of suddenly?

With a lot of speakers I have also noticed that soon after a few really loud jams, most speakers will just sound a little smoother and fuller. Warmer and with the mids shifted lower from wherever they were is exactly how I would describe it.

I have had two weber speakers, had them break in the speaker before it left the factory (they flex the suspensions and hook the speaker to a load for some time I think?) and the whole time I owned them (about 1 year on the first, 2 years on the 2nd) they sounded about the same.

 

[dave74]

Re: Do speakers break in kind of suddenly?

Must either be really fast or really slow because I've never even noticed the transition.
I never have even disliked the sound of new speakers. Maybe I just run the treble lower when they're new,,,,(hmmmm?)

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Do speakers break in kind of suddenly?

At least I know I'm not losing my mind. Warmer and mids shifted lower is exactly what I am hearing.