Okay, How Important Is Speaker Break In? (Dynaudio Contour 60i)
The normal progression is for cold and new to be harsh and grainy, with most of the dynamics and extension but little of the body and harmonic fullness. This fills in over time, and usually with varying amounts of improved extension at both ends, with the result being both fuller and warmer as well as more detailed, extended and dynamic. totally agree with mc on this description... |
New speakers are like a new pair of jeans - the material in the surrounds and spiders are stiff and need to loosen up with wear. No magic, just materials science. Paper surrounds requires more break-in than butyl rubber, foam is in between. Down the road, foam typically disintegrates first, then paper, and finally butyl rubber. A lot also depends on the environment. Light, especially UV is death to foam. Humidity, too high or too low causes problems with paper. Heat causes its own set of problems, especially with electrolytic crossover caps. So when you consider all the variables, there are lots of reasons why speakers vary in break-in and also break-down. |
Break in takes months with normal listening. Assume you addressed placement, power and cables. The Dyn C4’s I had were very revealing of all changes....cables made or broke them. The balance of sound will change over time. If still not satisfactory after couple of months and nothing else seems problematic, could just not be your cup of tea. The Dyn’s always seemed to be musical to me but...hang in there! I’m breaking in my B&W 802D3’s and after a month they are just starting to settle in...of course new cables and amp also needed running in! |
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Coming back to this thread with my conclusions a couple months on if this is helpful for anyone. The Contour 60i’s have been sold and replaced with Harbeth 40.2, and the Bryston amps are still here but I also have an ARC Ref 150 in the house for amplification duty. I thought the Dyns had smoothed out, but it was just some tracks that sounded okay. My conclusions: Harbeth 40.2 are superior in the mids and highs. I never gave the Dyn’s full break in, but they were just never going to be as good. The Dyns have superior bass, tight and almost subwoofer like. My room does suck and it matters, exacerbating my issues with the Dyns. With the wrong track (particularly rock with high pitched electric guitar sounds) my system is a little screachy....even with Harbeth + ARC tube amp + ARC tube preamp. Unfortunately, it is not a dedicated audio room, and my wife will not allow me to put whatever I want on the walls and over the damned uncovered GLASS windows and door, so I need to figure a plan there. The Bryston SS amps (7BSST2) are not materially harder or more grainy than the ARC tube amp, and they are slightly more precise. But on whole the REF 150 sounds superior to me - bigger sound stage, bigger & more "live," dense and real sound overall. I am likely a tube convert now...unless somebody wants to lend me their D’Agostinos! So that’s where I am. I am happy with the Harbeths and ARC 150 addition, and the system sounds quite good with many tracks. (I am using all digital front end, and vinyl would probably help, but I am not going to deal with tubes AND vinyl!) An REL subwoofer or two may be in the future to fill out the bottom end, and I need to figure how I can improve the room and keep the peace at home. Thanks for all the help from you more experienced fellows! Repo |
Coming back to this thread with my conclusions a couple months on if this is helpful for anyone. The Contour 60i’s have been sold and replaced with Harbeth 40.2, and the Bryston amps are still here but I also have an ARC Ref 150 in the house for amplification duty. I thought the Dyns had smoothed out, but it was only some tracks that sounded okay. Conclusions: Harbeth 40.2 are superior in the mids and highs. I never gave the Dyn’s full break in, but they were just never going to be as good. The Dyns have superior bass, tight and almost subwoofer like. My room does suck and it matters, exacerbating my issues with the Dyns. With the wrong track (particularly rock with high pitched electric guitar sounds) my system is still a little screachy....even with Harbeth + ARC tube amp + ARC tube preamp. I suspect vinyl would help (I am running all digital front end), but I’m not going to deal with tubes AND vinyl rituals. Unfortunately, it is not a dedicated audio room, and my wife will not allow me to put whatever I want on the walls and over the damned uncovered GLASS windows and door, so I need to figure a plan there. The Bryston SS amps (7BSST2) are not materially harder or more grainy than the ARC tube amp, and they are a bit more precise. But on whole the REF 150 sounds superior to me - bigger sound stage, bigger & more live, dense and real sound overall. I am likely a tube convert now...unless somebody wants to lend me their D’Agostinos! So that’s where I am. I am happy with the Harbeths and ARC 150 addition, and the system sounds quite good with many tracks. An REL subwoofer or two may be in the future to fill out the bottom end, and I need to figure how I can improve the room acoustics while keeping the peace at home. Thanks for all the help from you more experienced fellows! |
I have the same speakers, about 2 years old. I am still not happy with them and don't suspect it will change. My equipment, like yours is very good, with a MC preamp (C2500) and both a Classe and Balanced Audio Technology tube amp. I've been looking at an MC302 or 312 amp and will likely try that before selling the speakers.If that doesn't work, on to Lyric HiFi for a few hours to find the magic that I haven't been able to find. |
With the wrong track (particularly rock with high pitched electric guitar sounds) my system is a little screachy....even with Harbeth + ARC tube amp + ARC tube preamp.because it is arc sound signature,you need speakers or source with high freqencies rolled of.Esotar tweeter as seas tweeter is revealing what is wrong with equipment. |
I have owned a pair of Contour 60s for a year. The only advice I can give you is return them if you can. Those loudspeakers sound horribly before break-in and after 500 hours of break-in they sound a little better as horribly. My tiny Genelecs and my old Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mkII sound more natural and are millions of times more tonally accurate. Incredulous of the tonal horror of these speakers, I even sent them back to dynaudio to be checked again. When they sent them back to me they sounded a little better but still horrible. |
I have Evokes and this was very educational @mathiasmingus If I upgraded and I likely won't, this thread would steer me away the from contours. One reason I wouldn't - fun fact - my Evokes are amazing, sound better than anything I ever heard. But my whole system is under $4K- if I replace something it will not be the speakers |
When I looked at the latest offerings at $10k locally I had the persona 3f, the Kanta 2, and the C60 and on looks alone the c60 was a clear winner. I was replacing the revel salons v1 and the dealer who demoed me the c60 was doing everything he could to talk me out of them going as far as saying the A3 would be out within a year and he didn't want me to get mad at him...I really believe the B&M shops that are still around are because they can pass on the quick buck to help a potential customer. While I can't argue about something I haven't experienced regarding break-in the few pair I did buy new didn't change tonally near as much as component matching or positioning did, so while millercarbon does seem to be on a mission I agree with his experience regarding that. |
