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New Speakers - break-in question

#25
Eden recommends running music for several hours, which I did for both of my D112XLTs.

When I built the BFM Omni15TB cab, I broke in the Eminence 3015LF with 30Hz for 24 hours before installing it.

Since I had the equipment set up, I ran 27Hz through both 112s for about 16 hours, just for good measure. Lowering a bit from 30Hz made less noise, since the drivers were in the cabs. I could have hacked a polarity-flip cable to make the cabs cancel, but running 'em in my garage was no problem. Basically sounded like a motor running in the room above.

So, whether or not there's a difference in the Eden cabs after the 30Hz "second" break-in isn't really an issue for me. It was easy to do, so I did it.
 
#26
bassman10096 said:
I can vouch for the change in the neo's Schoeder puts in its 1515+L cab after 10-12 hours of play time (even at moderate volume). When I first unboxed the cab, I was concerned about how mid-heavy the sound was and how lacking it was in deep lows. Jorg told me to listen for the cab to "deepen down" after a while, but I figured it would take some time and might be a subtle change. So I stacked the cab with a BagEnd ELF 118 sub I use for big rooms and played around with both for a while, switching the sub in and out every so often. After a couple of days I noticed the sound was pretty warm and thought it might be time to listen to just the 1515 alone. When I went to turn the sub volume down, I found the 118 was already turned off and it was the Schroeder making that nice, warm 215-ish sound. Nice cab, BTW (especially at only 51lb). The break in effect was pretty noticable for the Celestion neo's Jorg has in my cab. :bassist:
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I must admit that my 115L+ is the first cab I've ever owned that I do seem to hear a subtle extension to the low end, now that I've had it on a number of gigs. Jorg says these particular Celestion Neo's are very 'tight' out of the box, so I guess this makes sense. With the Berg, Aguilar, Epi, etc. cabs I own, they sounded identical from day one to, in some cases, 7 year later:smug:

That being said, as with all cabs, I just took it out of the box, made sure it worked, and then off to the gig! If a speaker needs to 'break in', it will do it for the most part over a few gigs, so nothing to really think about or worry about IMO and IME.
 
#27
Jorg says these particular Celestion Neo's are very 'tight' out of the box, so I guess this makes sense.
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Just had my first full-volume rehearsal with the 1515+L last night. The difference in these speakers between new, out of the box and played for a week is very real. Plus these 15s sound the way 15s always should have...
 
#28
I heard the difference on my cheap KLH speakers that I bought for my interim TV/Stereo... after about a month they warmed up, became less strident.... but Bass speakers ??? I don't think I would be able to tell if they "warmed up" after playing through them for a while.......
 
#29
I don't think I would be able to tell if they "warmed up" after playing through them for a while.......
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Sure you could. They cover the deep end of the notes better and their attack is smoother and has lost it's "barky" sound. Considering this change all happened within a week of moderate to heavy play, it was pretty identifiable.
 
#30
OK, I'm the OP, and I played a full volume practice with my rock band last night. My results are in already.

When I initially fired the cab up, I hated the fact that it did not go as low as I hoped it would. It was ok loud, but not terribly deep sounding. I felt like I had to give it all the juice I had, and even then it didn't quite measure up. Guess I've been spoiled by my Eden D212XLT. ;)

I thought to myself, "The Eden would eat this thing for lunch in terms of depth, but the perceived volume of the Neo HD-212, due to its extended midrange, would probably function well on top of the Eden at larger venues."

I played it for about 2 hours, and then it hit me... Damn, this cab sounds great now! After playing for just a couple of hours at full stage volume (with my Stewart World 1.2's clip light only occasionally flickering), the low end really opened up. The B string was tight, focused, and controlled.

To be fair, it probably still can't do the deep, deep lows like my Eden, but the tone I'm getting out of the cab is quite pleasing.

So either I got used to it sounding like crap, or the new Neo Emi's break in good and quick. I am a happy customer.

Thanks again to Dave at Avatar for selling me the 4 ohm DeltaLite 2 LFs. Great price for a great speaker.
 
#31
...the low end really opened up. The B string was tight, focused, and controlled.
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That tight, focused tone is often more clearly audible and still perceived as "warm" at high volumes than the massive, pillowy ultra low fog produced by a lot of speakers. I'm anticipating that even for big rooms, I won't run my sub full open anymore (I used to keep it at the max).
 
#32
When I first got my Carvin BR610neo I was afraid I'd be sending it back.

It lacked the low-end I thought it should have.

Well, I've still got it and it sounds great.

It took about 3-4 hours of playing to loosen up the neos.

I wouldn't trade it for anything 'cause it fits my needs so well.

lowdowndad:bassist:
 

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