Speaker Break In and How to Do It Yourself

[Colossal]

Huh. Well it makes sense. They put those hook speaker wire connectors on them, that was a mistake. And hardly anyone orders a speaker in the sub 65w power handling arena unless they're doing a full stack. It does come down to demand. That's why I don't make 10" speakers anymore.

I have both fairly old and new G12Ms and they use the little 0.188" male spade terminals, fortunately. But you're right, the 30s don't; just the goofy hook connections. As you say, I think these being discontinued is a further sign of the times. I'm probably the only one that cares about them anymore

[LightningPhil]

Not to go too safety police with my first post in the forum. But do be careful if using a Variac to break in speakers. They're not isolation transformers an so can connect you directly to neutral or live. Neutral may sound safe, but I assure you it is not always, and 99% of the time isn't, well, the same as safe...

Anyhow be safe.

For those reasons, I use a frequency generator and an inexpensive class D amp for the burn in process. All powered by isolated 12V adapters. Nice and safe. And, a very nice feature, you can do break in at very low frequencies. When done with a driver sitting on a rug and not in a cabinet, its sounds output is so low, even for massive movements, that you can't really hear it. Win! 10 to 15 Hz can work well.

And while the function generator and amp are both inexpensive, much less so than a Variac, I have several of those too. They're related to uses where everything is earthed, such as controlling the power to a mash tunn or gradually powering up old equipment.

To add to the thread a little more, found that dampening the surround very lightly with water or alcohol can greatly quicken the softening of it. This was done as an experiment to lower resonant frequency and has worked very well but not consistently. Cutting off the surround and replacing it with a foam one is much more effective and consistent. Yes, this was all risky and I don't recommend killing perfectly good speakers, but as an experiment it was both fun and enlightening as to some aspects of guitar speakers.

[xtian]

10 to 15 Hz can work well

This scares me. Perhaps 10Hz is so low, that you're nearly running straight DC thru the speaker? I mean, what if you went as low as 0.1Hz? That would definitely burn up a speaker in a hurry. So where's the safe frequency?

[LightningPhil]

As long as there's plenty of displacement to keep a draft flowing over the voice coil and the wattage is much lower than the rating, then win.

Aim for low enough frequency not to make much noise and not DC. Suspect 0.1 hz may be a tad on the low side.

Have to many speakers and as yet failed to kill any with this method.