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Okay, How Important Is Speaker Break In? (Dynaudio Contour 60i)

I have been running 25+ year old B&W Matrix 803 S2 speakers in my 2-channel system for about 15 years, and I finally treated myself to new speakers.  Mock me for buying based on research alone, but I got a really good deal and just unpacked my beautiful Dynaudio Contour 60i's.  The Dyn's are not broken in, just starting to play around with different songs, but I am expecting an improvement out of the box, and not getting it.  They are no more revealing, and slightly harder and more jangley in the mids and highs.  The bass is of course much better with the big Dyns, but the B&Ws with the Dyn Sub6 subwoofer I was running were better.  I have very good equipment so it is not a matter of driving bigger speakers (ARC Ref preamp and Bryston 7bSST2 monoblocks).  Unless speakers get A LOT better with break in, I thinking these Dyns may be converted back into cash.   Thoughts? Thanks.
mathiasmingus

Showing 1 response by glissando

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glissando
35 posts
 
It’s always entertaining to read this type of discussion here. So many adamant opinions. Many of which are completely subjective.

Speaker break in is real, as you’ve discovered.

So nobody has even asked if you ever had the B&W’s serviced. The capacitors in the crossovers of any speaker that age are most likely not close to spec and have skewed which driver is delivering which frequencies. Since this can happen slowly your ears may adjust and you never recognize it.
  
But hey, with nearly 30 years of experience as an audio engineer what would I know.

I’m breaking in new PMC monitors now. The company states 50 hours minimum, but that’s because they partially break them in before shipping. The change in the first 20 hours I’ve had them has been significant.
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