My new speakers arrived today, and I pondered a question that I have never before had the pleasure of pondering: What do I play first? Serious speakers deserve a serious consideration of inaugural music. Do I pick something with subtle nuances and expressive musicality? Do I go with classical or classic rock? Alternative or a cappella?
In the end, it wasn’t a hard decision. The maiden musical voyage: Van Halen’s Jump. It did not disappoint. (Well, the neighbors might have minded.)
SPEAKERS HAVE A BREAKING-IN PHASE, JUST LIKE A NEW CAR
The drivers need time to flex, the cabinets need to resonate for a while.
The sound will change after a couple of weeks. Some audiophiles break in speakers by playing white noise through them for a while, I’ve never done that.
Enjoy your music!
Listen to the Van Halen in a month, after using the speakers, and see if you can hear any differences.
Some of my speakers have had their initial cone-throb to the cadence of Alan Parsons Project’s “In the Lap of the Gods” from Pyramid; some were charged with reproducing Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (I do love that opening organ bass note); and Stokowski conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade has been used a couple of times too.
Break-in is bullshit, there is a slight increase in bass as the cone suspensions loosen but other than that, “break-in” is just a matter of getting used to the sound of the speakers.
When I got my new car, the first thing I played in it was Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
When I installed my surround-sound home theater system, the first thing I played was Dark Side of the Moon (which I bought specifically for the purpose).