breaking in speakers myth or reality? recording...post eq..blah..blah

reneisgod

reneisgod

Rene
Aug 28, 2006
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I don't recall this ever being discusses here in depth and I want too see others opinions on this.

I recently purchased a brand new Marshall 1960 4x12 (g12 75)
(Btw Im really not keen on v30's but I won't go into that.)

The idea was, 1 cab stays at home (recording) the other sits at our
Rehearsal space.

I figured id keep the new one at home and the old cab for Rehearsal & live.

I’ve been recording new songs/ideas over the last few days using the new
cab (same amp, mic, placement, pre) the tone is abysmal!, harsh high end, unpronounced mids, farty low end.

I figured I could sort most of these issues out using post eq but nope
The tone/recording is still a million miles away from the old cab and it
sounds at the moment Unusable in a mix.

So a few of questions

How do you know when your cab is perfectly broken in?

Quick Breaking in methods? I’ve heard of people blasting bass heavy
music (cds) through a cab for 20 hours+ makes a difference
How do the pro's on here break them in?

Also your personal opinion do you believe this is myth or reality, I can say in my case it's 100% reality!

Or/does every cab sound different? - Is it a possibility that both cabs will infact never sound the same recorded? My older cab was bought 2nd hand and had already been through years of use before i got it.

Ill post comparison clips if anyone is interested or cares to discuss this a bit further, im finding the whole thing rather interesting but stressful at the same time lol.

Also ive recorded each speaker and as usual i found that BL on both cabs sounds best, the older cabs BL sounding better by a long shot, every speaker in the new cab just sounds like shit compared to the old.
 
No cab is really perfectly broken in, it's just when the tone stops changing drastically.

If you're on the ground floor or have a garage/basement, I like to lay a blanket down, set the cab facing downward into the floor, and crank dynamic-ish music through it. Not necessarily super dynamic in a natural sense, but in the sense that it's not just constant sound (like a dance kick vs a metal kick).

I heavily doubt that the cabs will sound identical recorded, but they'll sound close enough. I know my two Mesa 4x12's sound pretty different, but it's more of a 'flavor' thing than a definitive "this one is better" thing.
 
There's a piece on the celestion site where they explain how to go about breaking in your cab, very informative. Doesn't take all that long. They won't ever sound exactly the same but they should both sound good.
 
if6was9 said:
There's a piece on the celestion site where they explain how to go about breaking in your cab, very informative. Doesn't take all that long. They won't ever sound exactly the same but they should both sound good.
Click to expand...

celestion

BREAKING IN YOUR SPEAKER
Brand new speakers usually require a “breaking in period”. Start with a few minutes with low-level playing or background hum. Then, turn up the power amp volume to full, and control the level with the preamp gain and play with a fat, clean tone.

Have the bass and mid up full, and the treble at least half. On your guitar, use the middle pickup position (if your guitar has more than one pickup) and play for 10-15 minutes using lots of open chords, and chunky percussive playing. This will get the cone moving, and should excite all the cone modes and get everything to settle in nicely.



I don't believe a word of it that.
10-15 mins lol to break in new speakers, i wish.

Id say 50 hours is more likely.
Ive been playing through this cab with my 6505 at about 3 (LOUD)
for a maxiumum of atleast 10 hours, and ive only noticed a slight difference
in tone thus far.
 
what i wanna know is how the fuck do you guys play music through your cabs.

i would use my framus to blast some drones to make the speakers sound better should i ever eventually use them for playing music again but i have no idea how to get any sound running through em.
especially since i dont have an amp.

i assume profire output to it wouldnt work?
 
line out of interface-> poweramp-> Cab.
Any power amp will do- head effects return, P.A power amp. Hell you could even wire a hi fi power amp using bare wire to the cab inputs. Easy enough.
 
''Any power amp will do - head effects return''

So feed the audio into your amp heads effects return?
I never touch the effects send/return in my amps unless im going direct with impulses.
This didnt even come to mind, and this won't cause any damage?

This will skip the preamp gain and eq's then ofcourse?
 
So it doesnt matter what kinda of signal/eq is being fed into your speakers?

to break your speakers in you could play anything from Techno - blackmetal, anything to get the speakers moving?

I was unsure if guitar speakers were strictly made to deal with certain frequencies?
I dont want to be blasting Techno through my g12 75 if its going to cause some long lasting adverse effect on the tone.
 
Don't overdo it with bass or you will damage your speakers. Put a HPF at 40hz or so on the audio going out of your computer just in case. There's a lot of debate about this, but I would definitely play it safe.

Speaker break-in is subtle and over-touted anyway. It's real and can be measured scientifically, but don't expect a night/day difference.
 
''I'm surprised that there hasn't been a proper AB test to demonstrate break in, at least none I've found''

Yeah you always hear alot of people talking about it but you never HEAR proof.

A comparison clip of my old vs new cab wouldnt exactly be a fair comparison, and it wouldnt proove anything regarding speaker break in on 1 particular speaker .I think ur right the only real way to do this would be (as you said)

''stick a mic in front of a cab, reamp a short clip, don't touch anything, break in the speaker for 40 hours or whatever it is and reamp it again''
 
reneisgod said:
celestion

BREAKING IN YOUR SPEAKER
Brand new speakers usually require a “breaking in period”. Start with a few minutes with low-level playing or background hum. Then, turn up the power amp volume to full, and control the level with the preamp gain and play with a fat, clean tone.

Have the bass and mid up full, and the treble at least half. On your guitar, use the middle pickup position (if your guitar has more than one pickup) and play for 10-15 minutes using lots of open chords, and chunky percussive playing. This will get the cone moving, and should excite all the cone modes and get everything to settle in nicely.



I don't believe a word of it that.
10-15 mins lol to break in new speakers, i wish.

Id say 50 hours is more likely.
Ive been playing through this cab with my 6505 at about 3 (LOUD)
for a maxiumum of atleast 10 hours, and ive only noticed a slight difference
in tone thus far.
Click to expand...

Harry Hughes said:
^I agree.
10-15 minutes would hardly do anything
Click to expand...

I love how you guys honestly think you know better than the guys who manufacture the fucking speakers :rolleyes:

If a significant difference had been found after an experiment of speaker burn in then we would all consider this as fact rather than it still being unsure as the whether it is myth or reality.

Surely it would be bad design on a manufacturers part to have a speaker that sounds different the more you use it? I can understand that there might be small changes from when the speaker is new, but surely once it's got to near full excursion a few times there's not much more that can change?

Mind you, if someone wants to do a test and show me the difference then I'll be happy to admit I'm wrong. I just think there's a reason that it's still considered a myth by some folk.
 
The only evidence I have is the comparisons I ran with the new / old cab.
Same cab same speaker, same mic position huge difference.
The only logical explantion that pops to mind is speaker break-in,
and ive ran the new speakers for 10 hours+, results being minimum,
hence why i believe 10-15 no way.

Ill continue to break the speakers in and ill post results here,
ill give it 40-50 hours, if the results r still poor then fuck knows,
and my findings would be what? this identical marshall cab sounds better
than this one lol wtf..............

I dunno dude im really just looking for answers i expected both cabs to sound similar
and they really don't, far from it.

Maybe ive been ripped off on ebay and the speakers in this new cab r ripp offs (lol Nervously)
 
Take any two brand new cabinets of the same make/model/year, even adjacent serial numbers, and they will sound surprisingly different. Also, enclosure design and variations in material density make a substantial difference on the voicing and frequency response. The type and amount of adhesive used in the construction of each individual speaker are also factors, and nothing is built to exact or perfect tolerances, especially in the guitar cabinet space. It's certainly nothing like hi fi audiophile speakers, and also far less consistent than microphones, even basic ones like 57s.

Everything affects the sound in some way or another, and there's a lot of small variable chaos involved.
 
''Take any two brand new cabinets of the same make/model/year, even adjacent serial numbers, and they will sound surprisingly different. Also, enclosure design and variations in material density make a substantial difference on the voicing and frequency response.''

That depresses me, how do you think the perfect cab lol

I think ive mentioned this years back and thats sounds insane but do you reckon Andy has went through a bunch of identical cabs to find the best of the bunch in terms of voicing and frequency response?
 
I don't think there's any myth about it. A speaker is basically a spring. Springs loosesn up Just like the spider and the paper cone loosens up over time. Your basically taking the stiffness out of a speaker when breaking it in. Also the the wood for the cabinet was made from different trees and the old cab the wood has dried up Where the newer cab is still moist. Ever hear about people talking about old acoustic guitars or violins sound better over time? The physics change which changes the sound. But like a few people here already said no two cabinets will ever sound identical. Use the old cab for recording and break in the new cab at rehersal
 
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