"Breaking in" new studio Monitors - advice/necessary?

Performance & Techniques Music Production
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“Breaking in” new studio Monitors - advice/necessary?

Hey all, I’m just really getting into the production side of things having been a DJ for years (and a member of this site, although a quiet one) and my want to produce is really starting to kick in!

I have my mac, Abelton and decent sound card. I have just bought a pair Yamama HS5 and balanced leads to go with them and I see some people online talking about breaking in speakers but I’m not sure if its necessary/needed.

If so what’s the best advice? Is it just lower normal use for an extended period or is there a better option?

Any advice welcome, thanks in advance!

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Some people believe in speakers needing to be broken in, and some people say it doesn’t do anything. Personally, I’ve always felt that after a few weeks of use new speakers tend to sound better. But I admit some of that could be just getting more used to them too, our ears are pretty remarkable in what they can adapt to over time.

If you want to break them in, you don’t need to do anything but use them as much as possible. Maybe put off any critical mix decisions for a couple weeks. The louder and more often you use them, the more broken in they will get (IMVHO, YMMV, ETC)

When I bought my mastering monitors last year, the manufacturer flat out told me to not even listen to them until they had 200hrs of music played through them first. I just blasted 96k pink noise through them for 10 days straight with the studio door closed :slight_smile:

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Thanks a lot @tarekith this is helpful, I’m thinking for the first 24-36 hours of using them at a normal level, maybe over new years eve so the neighbors have less cause to complain!

They are active monitors which I seem to see people saying are less prone to distortion without a proper “break in” and sometimes it can be based on the driver and cone material but you are right it’s funny that the human ear will develop with a sound and potentially this is where the confusion lies!

I have found a Youtube video with 10 hours of Pink noise so maybe this is an option too!

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Another thing I’ve heard is to start out at moderate volumes and slowly increase during the break-in period.

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Thanks for that, I’ll definitely add a ramp to my sound as we go, I’ll let you know how it goes!

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Speakers need a good amount of break-in to loosen speaker cones, surrounds, and modify the magnet strength - playing most speakers (powered or unpowered) 50 to 100 hours at moderate volume will improve out of the box sound. Ditto for electronics like amplifiers and even CD players.

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How do you break in a CD player? What does it do?

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Took the words out of my mouth.

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Nothing measurable in any way. The very claim shows a lack of understanding of digital audio.

Its just more audio voodoo.

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I assumed he was referring to CD players pre-2008. In that case the built in digital to analog conversion made sense.

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Assuming that everyone uses digital outs on their CD players is not wise.

If you use the digital outs, no real break-in is needed.

But if you use the analog outs (and their associated circuitry), break-in period will help “loosen up” the sound into near its final incarnation

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Yeah this is simply bullshit.

There is not even any theoretical explanation for why it would change the sound of a piece of electronic circuitry, let alone any credible studies that shows it does.

This is voodoo thinking at its best.

The whole breaking in idea comes from the fact that speakers are constructed with woods, glues, resins and all sorts of materials that will stretch over time due to heat and the excursion of the speaker.

To apply this to circuitry is just silly.