I bought a pair of Infinity Kappa perfect 12.1D, Dual Voice Coils. They are 12 inches, come with a three year no-questions-asked warranty and are damn expensive! Now, Infinities are finicky unless you break them in properly, but mostp eople just bump the **** out of their subwoofers the minute they install a brand new Type R set, and it pains me to see.
How can I properly break these in? If I play them too loud will they not break in nicely, but what if I play them too quietly, will it not expose them to too much veriety and they won't be as loud? Help!

 

Burn in is what it is typically called. And it is done at the factory when they woofers are finished being constructed... You are fine to "bump" from the get go..

Enjoy your new barkers....

 

Not all speakers are broke in or burned at the factory. I would put about 25-50 hours on them at low listening levels just to be sure. Would hate to see them blown and you having to order new ones or even if they replace them having to wait for them to get delivered. It is worth the time to break them in. You can still bump them enough that you will know they are there just don't go to extremes --- maybe about 1/2 power and then slowly increase them as they get more time put on them. My Polk Audio MOMO 10s have a 50 hour break in time reccomended by the factroy and you can bet I put all 50 hours on them to make sure. If you go to audio message boards alot of them put break in time on all of their speakers -- subs and mids. They need time for the surrounds and voice coils to 'stretch' a little. Usually you can tell when they start to break in as the bass will sound louder and 'better' or 'smoother' at the same levels as they get more time put into them.

 

Here's how I see it....

Crank them from the get go. If they are going to blow I want them to do it under warranty. This whole "burn in" business is a bunch of nonsense IMO anyway. Burning them in will help them to loosen the sub's suspension and allow them to go a few hertz lower in frequency response and that's it. I've been doing car audio for 28+ years now and not once have I blown a sub (or any other component for that matter) after not burning it in.

 

Yup Yup... Agree with LS1..

 

FYI: http://www.ls2.com/forums/showthread...threadid=39332

 

I do agree with the fact that if you want to take the chance on blowing your subs then by all means crank them the day you get them and hope you have a good warranty just in case. Then you may or may not have to wait while you get them replaced under warranty IF they cover them. The main point I was trying to make is that not all subs are burned in from the factory as audiopro stated. Many including POLK strongly recommend buring them in when installed and I would take a guess that if you try to return them a few days after you bought them due to them being blown they will point out that you didn't bother to burn them in at all. Then you may be stuck. More than likely you can get lucky and just crank them from the get go as many NEW stereo users do and not have any problems. Also you will get a little better 'sound' if you break them in properly --- will you notice the difference --- maybe not, but then again if you know burning them in properly will give the subs an overall better performance and won't hurt them early on in their life cycle then why wouldn't you take that extra time. More of your own insurance policy than anything. I know I would have loved to just cranked mine on day 1, but then again I would have been pissed if I blew them and had to go through the whole warranty deal. Just my opinion.

 

Depending on the speakers I break-in some, others I don't...

The Adire Brahma's that I've installed I've always broken in on the bench the night before. Mainly due to the EXTREMELY stiff suspension they come from the factory with. I'll do the same with any high-end car audio speakers. I'm just that type of person.

The Head Engineer and Designer of Adire Audio, who frequents caraudioforum.com, recommends the break-in with his speakers. The Head Engineer and Designes from Resonant Engineering also recommend the break-in for their subs as well. If the Engineers who design and test the speakers over and over and over recommend doing the break-in, I'll do it.