Subwoofer Break In?

[SicAudio]

Touchy subject this. Anyone familiar with the high-end home audio scene will know it supposedly goes for capacitors in xovers and amps, and interconnects too.

IMO, subs do need a certain amount of break in as they are mechanical things. A good designer will design the sub to have the published parameters once the surround and spider have been flexed and softened up a bit. Playing a test tone at a high enough volume to move the cone a bit will break it in.

that is my way of doing it exactly! during the install while u r setting gains ect it breaks it in just fine.

[dwz]

When I first got my two Alpine Type-R's, I played them @ full tilt right away with maxed gains and of course a distorted signal. This was before I discovered a multimeter, and what distortion sounds like... All I know is that these two subs ended up failing within a month, and were getting their rated 500w RMS (distorted tho).

So on my next pair, after exchanging them at Best Buy, I played them @ half-gain and took my time breaking it in. I listened to it at half power for about 5 days. After that I gave them a solid 31.6v @ 50hz and they sound much better than the first pair did. Maybe it's a myth maybe it's not! But it definitely sounds better, even if its placebo.

If I were you I'd take it easy on them, you can't just wang on them right away cause IMO subs are fragile as shit in reality. You can in a competition but thats why they recone. Suck it up and play it half volume for the first week. If it helps the longevity of the subs and/or the sound, then sacrificing one week for those benefits is worth it.

Plus, you have something to look forward to when you end up turning up the gain...

[ryde2idie]

i dont..i play at low volume for few minutes to make sure everything is in order,then just hit it

x2 i play at low for maybe a song or two then gradually increase the volume to see how it holds up and see how the box handles it, just incase something does happen you can catch it before you wang on it full tilt and the box blows apart and the coil smacks the back wall.

[SicAudio]

When I first got my two Alpine Type-R's, I played them @ full tilt right away with maxed gains and of course a distorted signal. This was before I discovered a multimeter, and what distortion sounds like... All I know is that these two subs ended up failing within a month, and were getting their rated 500w RMS (distorted tho).

So on my next pair, after exchanging them at Best Buy, I played them @ half-gain and took my time breaking it in. I listened to it at half power for about 5 days. After that I gave them a solid 31.6v @ 50hz and they sound much better than the first pair did. Maybe it's a myth maybe it's not! But it definitely sounds better, even if its placebo.

If I were you I'd take it easy on them, you can't just wang on them right away cause IMO subs are fragile as shit in reality. You can in a competition but thats why they recone. Suck it up and play it half volume for the first week. If it helps the longevity of the subs and/or the sound, then sacrificing one week for those benefits is worth it.

Plus, you have something to look forward to when you end up turning up the gain...

i sold my 1st version R's to my brother a few yrs ago, (they are about 11 yrs old now) and they were rated at 300 rms 1000 peak, we ran 1100 rms to the pair (nearly double the rms, without clipping (38.1 volts) and they are still beating to this day on the same amp. I would venture to say the reason yours cooked was because of clipping not power. distortion will rape a new sub in seconds.