The best way to break in speakers.

I was told to play my Totems at medium (medium-high if desired), but not super loud. Here's the text from the owner manual:

. . . hours of actual music playing time as a minimal break-in period.
During this time, refrain from playing them at very loud levels. You will notice a definite gradual improvement
in the cohesiveness of the music reproduction as this occurs

Listen to music as you normally would and don't worry about it too much. I don't understand why a normal dynamic speaker couldn't be played loudly right from the get go.

Enjoy the journey and play them as you would normally. This is the fun part. There will be several "aha" moments along that way where a number of things will happen; soundstage will open up, bass response will improve...and you will undoubtedly refine their placement, which will yield even further improvements. It takes time to get to know your new speakers, and, hey, if you were to "arrive" at the final destination of speaker break in and optimal placement immediately, you would likely pull a David Byrne and ask yourself, "well, how did I get here."

I think if the loudness level is too low, the break-in period is unnecessarily extended. Consequently, I tend to to do break-in at levels somewhat louder than normal listening.

When I was working retail I'd always put each new floor model through the same workout.

I'd use a mono recording or take a Y splitter and feed a single source channel output into a stereo amp. Then I'd face the speakers towards each other and place them as close together as possible. I'd wire one speaker out of phase from the other.
Since both channels are not playing the exact same thing, they will cancel each other out pretty well. The point of this is to reduce the overall volume so that they aren't annoying while they are breaking in.

Then I'd put the source on repeat. Set the volume dial at about 20% louder than we would have it under normal listening conditions. And then let it run 24/7 for about a week.
Sometimes I would use special "break in" discs. But I found that, under these conditions, they really didn't work any better than regular dynamic music.
Kodo drummers was my favorite disc. LOTS of cone excursion combined with frequency extension. In other words, give them a good workout right from the start.

Anyone who says you have to take it easy on a speaker or do anything else special is giving you hogwash. IMO