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Speaker Break In- my experience

Until now I have remained skeptical about claims of the need for speaker break in time. My experience with a brand new pair of Shahinian Diapasons has proved to me that this is a very real phenomena. My experience is somewhat unique in that I had a 10 year old pair of Shahinian Diapasons that I was listening to daily before my new ones arrived. Imagine my despair upon hooking up my brand new $12,000 pair and hearing what I could conservatively rate as terrible. I'm sitting there thinking oh god these really sound bad. Then my wife in the other room confirms my fear when she says "turn the music down it's hurting my ears". Then the ultimate confirmation when my 8 year old daughter walks in the room and says " I don't like them, you should take them back and keep the old speakers". Of course I tell my wife about break in and how everything will be just great once break in is accomplished. But inside I'm thinking that no amount of break in is going to solve this. I'm panicking now, one of my thoughts was that Richard Shahinian was getting older and his revised design was compensating for his high frequency hearing loss. Then I think OK I'll just wait 30 years and when I'm 70 these things will sound good. I'll grow into them! I paid full retail so unloading them was not an option. My only option was to give break in a chance. Since then (about 2 months) I have been playing the speakers every chance I get. I leave them on when I go to work or when we go out to eat. After a month, the old Diapasons still sounded better. A friend came over who I had been bragging to about my system. I hooked up the old Diapasons because I knew he wouldn't like the new ones. Thats when I called Vasken Shahinian and told him I was worried. He told me to be patient. The process has been gradual but the end result has been amazing. The speakers after two months are entirely different and entirely better. I went from hating these speakers to loving them. I can now report that Richard Shahinian still has fantastic ears.
holzhauer
kana813
956 posts
 
All speakers require break-in. For $12K full retail, there are much better speakers, with much better components, and cabinets then Diapasons,that don't require a trip to the carpenter to make them look better.
holzhauer OP
201 posts
 
Kana, at first I was going to ignore your post. Then I thought of John Atkinsons review of the Shahinians and how it damaged Richard Shahinians business. Pear Audio lets people read Atkinsons review after they have listened to the Shahinians. All agree the review is dead wrong. Richard just may be the greatest speaker designer ever and he would be the last one to say it. I have listened to hundreds of speakers at the best shops and at CES shows. None has been as good as the Shahinian Diapasons. Unfortunately many Americans are missing out on the best speakers available. Why? because Richard doesn't advertise and keeps very busy producing speakers for the people who have been lucky enough to find hi-fi's secret treasure. Now I'll get back to the subject. My point was to say that my experience is that speaker break in is real not imagined.
hassel
248 posts
 
This is a misunderstanding. I did not take the Diapasons to the carpenter because the woodwork was bad, but because I bought them used, and principally do not like the look of oak wood. Otherwise, the quality of the cabinets is first-rate. So are all drivers - from Seas of Norway and Eton in Germany - and the crossover, as I found out when I took a long look inside. As far as overall quality is concerned, the Diapasons are one of the best, and cheapest speakers on the market. One month ago, we had a high end- fair here. I listened to a lot of new, partly incredibly expensive speakers - e.g. B&W Nautilis 802s, Dynaudio's C4, Triangle's Magellan (35,000 $) or Linn's Komri for 40,000 $ a pair. I came away very satisfied with my decision of having bought the Diapasons.
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