breaking in a speaker

[JJretroTONEGOD]

I have just bought a brand new speaker and wired it up, a Celestion G10 vintage in fact, now part of my Vox VR30.

On the Celestion website it mentions 'breaking in your speaker' and says of playing with the master volume on full for 15 minutes.

Is this enough to break it in properly? as I tried that and it's not sounding that different.

from your experince what is the best way to break it in?

[Elliot]

MP3s foe 8 hours

[JJretroTONEGOD]

MP3s foe 8 hours

ok...

but I really don't understand that at all.

[Tone_Freek_Lurch]

I think he means hook it up to your computer or CD player or MP3 player and just let it run for a while. It'd take some adapters, but it's possible to get a CD player or a computer into the speaker/ amp. I used to use a PA system as my computer speakers O:-) Hello Neighbors

[Lew]

Well, for hi-fi speakers I have always left the radio on quietley for 12 hours, and then increased the volume, afaik you want to expose the speaker to a ton of frequencies before you start blasting it and torturing it with black metal.

This is what I was told by the sales guy last time I bought some speakers (M-Audio), I dont know how if at all that tranfers to a guitar speaker, but whatever you do dont follow my advice!!

 I would think playing with your master vol on full would be pretty dumb though?

[MDV]

Word to the wise:

If you can get it through it, pink noise is by far and away the best thing to break speakers in with (headphones too: thats what I tend to use it for: I'd rather play in guitar speakers ;) )

[Fikealox]

Excuse my ignorance, but what's pink noise? I love the term, I just don't know what it means ;)

[JJretroTONEGOD]

Well, for hi-fi speakers I have always left the radio on quietley for 12 hours, and then increased the volume, afaik you want to expose the speaker to a ton of frequencies before you start blasting it and torturing it with black metal.

This is what I was told by the sales guy last time I bought some speakers (M-Audio), I dont know how if at all that tranfers to a guitar speaker, but whatever you do dont follow my advice!!

 I would think playing with your master vol on full would be pretty dumb though?

I never play metal, but VERY LOUD rock, blues or even jazz.

why would it be dumb to play master volume on full? you are trying to loosen the speaker cone. It must be extremley loud to vibrate surely?!

How will playing it quietly help? your answer is even more confusing than the first.

[JJretroTONEGOD]

Word to the wise:

If you can get it through it, pink noise is by far and away the best thing to break speakers in with (headphones too: thats what I tend to use it for: I'd rather play in guitar speakers ;) )

in fact that is the best idea here, thanks!

I have used pink noise to do some acoustic tests in my studio, as it has all frequncies in it, this is perfect.

White noise is far worse, like a dagger in the ear.

[JJretroTONEGOD]

Excuse my ignorance, but what's pink noise? I love the term, I just don't know what it means ;)

It's a noise with all frequncies in it, and it has a sound like a dying vaccuum cleaner. Sound engineers use it for acoustic treatment tests to make a room 'flat' to get rid of peaks and nulls with bass traps ect

[hamfist]

Also be aware that different speakers take different lengths of time to fully settle and "break in". In my experience, it can take anywhere from an hour or two, to up to 100 or more hours of fairly loud volume playing.
   The worst offenders that I have experienced are the current Celestion G12H-30 70th anniversaries. They almost seem to take forever to break in. In the end I gave up. I couldnt't put up with the tone for all the time it would have taken. And yes, I bombarded them with high volume mp3's too. From other opinions that I have read, when they do break in, it can be quite sudden and profound. Weird !!

[Elliot]

My G12H30s broke in quite quickly - about a three days of playing MP3s through.

I read somewhere that MP3s and FM radio are great for breaking in guitar speakers because the compressed frequencies (therefore mostly in the mid range) are the frequencies that 12 inch speakers operate at.  It could be baloney, as so much is in the guitar world, but still using the speaker continuously with music is always going to break it in quicker than playing a guitar through it.

[Lew]

Well, for hi-fi speakers I have always left the radio on quietley for 12 hours, and then increased the volume, afaik you want to expose the speaker to a ton of frequencies before you start blasting it and torturing it with black metal.

This is what I was told by the sales guy last time I bought some speakers (M-Audio), I dont know how if at all that tranfers to a guitar speaker, but whatever you do dont follow my advice!!

 I would think playing with your master vol on full would be pretty dumb though?

I never play metal, but VERY LOUD rock, blues or even jazz.

why would it be dumb to play master volume on full? you are trying to loosen the speaker cone. It must be extremley loud to vibrate surely?!

How will playing it quietly help? your answer is even more confusing than the first.

It's not that confusing really is it?

I said for the first 12 hours not permanently, the idea A F A I K(!) is to introduce the virgin speaker to new frequencies slowly.

I also told the op not to follow my advice, and that it was something a sales person told me and it may or may not not be sound advice(something else I made clear in the post).

[Zaned]

On my experience, it takes about 10-20 hours of loud playing (gig level). Of course, the type of sound you use affects the length of time required.

I also tried that celestion advice and played with a very loud clean sound when I tried to break in V30īs in an ENGL cab.  To tell you the truth, they didn't break in for me :) I played clean chords, percussive playing and stuff like that. YMMV, once again.

In the end, I just played and after about 15 hours of playing, the speakers eased up. My advice: just play them and adjust your amp settings according to the speaker tone (less treble from amp, most likely). For me, there wasn't a sudden moment when the speakers broke in. It just happened gradually.

0.02 dollaaas.

Zaned

[JJretroTONEGOD]

Well, for hi-fi speakers I have always left the radio on quietley for 12 hours, and then increased the volume, afaik you want to expose the speaker to a ton of frequencies before you start blasting it and torturing it with black metal.

This is what I was told by the sales guy last time I bought some speakers (M-Audio), I dont know how if at all that tranfers to a guitar speaker, but whatever you do dont follow my advice!!

 I would think playing with your master vol on full would be pretty dumb though?

I never play metal, but VERY LOUD rock, blues or even jazz.

why would it be dumb to play master volume on full? you are trying to loosen the speaker cone. It must be extremley loud to vibrate surely?!

How will playing it quietly help? your answer is even more confusing than the first.

It's not that confusing really is it?

I said for the first 12 hours not permanently, the idea A F A I K(!) is to introduce the virgin speaker to new frequencies slowly.

I also told the op not to follow my advice, and that it was something a sales person told me and it may or may not not be sound advice(something else I made clear in the post).

what is A F A I K (!) ??! that's the only bit I didn't get there, cheers.