On 25 Sep 2004 20:54:32 GMT, "Wylie Williams"
wrote:

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote My only concern is - how
will I know when they have stopped breaking in, and started wearing out? You
can't reasonably have one without the other.

I haven't ever had a speaker wear out, and I don't worry about them
wearing out in home audio use. As I have done speaker repair for a few
years I have repaired many with age-deteriorated foam and I have also
replaced 20 year old capacitors on the general principle that they might be
deteriorated and new ones usually sound better. And I have seen speakers
virtually beat to death by musicians, DJs, and fans of very loud rock and/or
rap, but I don't anticipate that anything I do will cause speaker failure.
I just want to find out if anyone has made a serious study of the best
signal source to break in speakers, and ask them to share their findings
with me.

Tom Nousaine has made a considerable study of this phenomenon, and of
course Dick Pierce is an extremely experienced drive unit *designer*.
Their researches appear to indicate very clearly that there is no such
thing as break-in past the first few seconds. Since you yourself
acknowledge that you have not observed drivers wearing out, how could
they possibly 'break in'?
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering