MoFi 888 making me mad!

The only time I experienced a sudden ‘coming alive’ moment was with a DAC—the Laiv Micro DAC. Right before I was about to return it, it suddenly came alive, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since.

I had this experience back in the mid 90s. I traded in a pair of Definitive Technology BP2000 speakers on a pair of Von Schweikert VR4 Silvers. After a couple of days I called the dealer to ask if I could get my old speakers back. No luck, already sold. So I just left the VR4s in the basement listening room playing 24/7 for almost a month. What I came back to was astonishing. I kept them for three years, which is the equivalent of half a lifetime when it comes to me and speakers.

Last year I bought a demo pair of Grado headphones from a local dealer and according to him, they only had about 10 hours on them and would need a minimum of 50 hours to break in. (They did and then some). I asked him why they had so few hours on them. He said they try to turn over the demo stock fairly quickly and most of the gear is sold far before the normal break in period. He kind of said that if it’s in the shop and fully broken in, it’s a sales dog. 
 

Anyway, my point is that your speakers probably weren’t nearly broken in when you got them. 

Any speakers I've ever bought have needed between 100 and 200 hours of playing time to sound like they should. I would doubt that a dealer's demo pair would have had anything close to that. 

@larsman 

Yeah, apparently not.