PSI Audio
When I unpack a new speaker, what is the running-in time until it properly works?
The components we use don’t vary over time and the settling time is of a few seconds only. So in normal use conditions the burn-in is not necessary.
Neumann (Klein und Hummel)
Do I need to “burn-in” / “run-in” my loudspeakers?
Let us think about what parts can change their properties permanently in an active loudspeaker:
- Electronics – There is insignificant change with use over time. Permanent changes are usually the result of poor parts selection in design, early parts failure (bathtub curve), or user abuse. Some temporary change over short periods is seen due to heating up of components, but this resets when the electronics cools down. Active loudspeakers do not suffer significantly from these temporary changes as the sensitive crossover parts are positioned before the amplifier and so do not heat up much.
- Cabinet Mechanics – If this changes it is not well built!
- Drivers – The moving mass cannot change otherwise it means that something has fallen off, or some extra mass has been added. The self-damping should not change significantly otherwise it would mean that the cone material is falling apart. These two situations would only happen in the case of loudspeaker abuse or accidental damage. The suspension and surround can change their stiffness over time; however a good design should be robust to these minor changes. Even quite large, and highly unlikely in a correctly working loudspeaker, changes (doubling or halving the stiffness) will alter the overall loudspeaker performance by less than 1 dB in the low-frequency region only. Temporary changes are seen due to the voice coil heating up (thermal compression), but this resets when it cools down.
- Psychoacoustics – A human's auditory memory is VERY short, less than five seconds. This fact is well-known in the academic community, so one sees controlled ABX type listening tests with fast switchers to avoid the listeners forgetting what they just heard. Typically when burning-in loudspeakers a user listens to the loudspeaker for a while, does the burn-in over a long time period (say 24 hours, or even up to a week), then listens again. Having done this they are naturally inclined to hear a difference. Our decades of experience in servicing products has shown that products which have been in normal use for many years typically have less than 0.5 dB of variance compared to specification. The largest source of variance is seen when drivers have been replaced, therefore recalibration to production standards is advised after servicing. If the long-term specification is stable, the short-term specification should also be stable.
Concluding, burning-in loudspeakers came from the past when poorly-designed passive systems were common. Today we have well-designed active solutions that can be used straight out of the box. To take an analogy from the automotive industry: cars used to require a running-in period of 500 miles (800 km), these days it is not required.
