What's considered a "broken in" sub....

[Aaron 2NR]

quote="archangel2011"]hey i have a pair of 10" JBL Power subs in enclosure made for a wingroad wagon.these are the 1024, each is dual 4ohm.subs are 2 months old not broken in yet.these are really 12" in diameter and really pound hard.box is tuned to 36htz for mixture of loud and lows.[/quote]


was browsing the car audio sales forum and saw a sub for sale....can we say after 2 mths of playing a sub, that it isn't broken in yet? or does "breaking in" a sub means something else

[Aaron 2NR]

think user was afraid to post

For the most part, break in is just technical mumbo-jumbo to make the equipment sound high tech.

The flexible parts of a speaker -- usually called the suspension -- have a pretty good degree of elasticity in them. Over time those parts do tend to soften up a little bit.

That softening causes the parameters of the speaker to change slightly. Primarily, the resonant frequency of the speaker tends to decrease slightly.

However, there is no data supporting the theory that any type of break in improves the performance of the speaker significantly. And there's certainly no evidence that implies improper break in increases the likelyhood of damaging a speaker. Thats what I found. Id pick engine performance over speakers any day lol.

[nervewrecker]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=287167&hilit=breaking+in

[Aaron 2NR]

so if a sub has been played for 2 months, can we say it isnt broken in?

[- Rovin's car audio -]

depends

if its like a very stiff spl sub sometimes depending on install & usage it still may not be "broken in" even after 2 mths ....

[hi rollaz]

Is not only the stiffness of the spiders and suspension has to be broken in, the coil also needs time for the resin to burn off(at least what i think). Thats why a brand new sub you get a smell and after continuous play it goes away.
I ended up scorching a coil once due to maxing it out after it was newly repaired.

[Aaron 2NR]

so aget the burning smell, that means the sub is broken in?

[- Rovin's car audio -]

i thought sub\s smelling is a sign of something bad such as clipping , low voltage , over powering etc ....

[Aaron 2NR]

Danboirovinboi d man say Diaz how the speaker break in

[- Rovin's car audio -]

^^^^^ ...

[hi rollaz]

What a speaker repair guy was trying to explain to me is when a sub breaking in and the suspension and spiders stiff the sub will move sluggish and this will hamper the cooling, and playing it the coil temperature will rise thus you get the adhesive smell they use around the coil.
You also get that smell when clipping , low voltage , over powering occurs.

He said you can play the sub until you get the smell, then lower the volume and let the coil cool, after a while of this the spiders and suspension will get more free "break in" then the smell goes away.
I was also reading on another forum they use a test tone at the subs resonant frequency for a quicker break-in.

[Brian Steele]

Any sub that produces sound can be considered as "broken in". If it doesn't produce sound, then it's "broken"

[meccalli]

I ran a 04s10l7 in a car for 2 years, out of the pair, other wasn't played other than testing. Out of the car now, stiff as hell as the un-played one. susp, spiders..but yes subs do have a particular smell when they're new that seems to originate from the coil.

[nervewrecker]

I ran a 04s10l7 in a car for 2 years, out of the pair, other wasn't played other than testing. Out of the car now, stiff as hell as the un-played one. susp, spiders..but yes subs do have a particular smell when they're new that seems to originate from the coil.

Know how much people come and touch my sub cone then tell me it not broken it yet because it still stiff
I simply agree to avoid the long talk.

[meccalli]

ahah. that's the case with great subs with quality parts.