Way to make better use of time breaking in speakers while building amps.

[Mike_J]

Was irritated about an oversite I made on another project so decided to think of something else. Went by this speaker we use on the back porch and it is about shot from being outside all the time. Pretty sure it wasn't designed for that type of use. Noted it is 8 ohms which I am sure the other speaker would be as well. Then I thought how foolish it is to not break in these speakers in my amp speaker cabinets while I am working on rebuilding my amps.


That speaker wire looks pretty heavy to just break in a speaker but should be able to find a work around. Thinking of building an enclosure of some type to put speakers in and play music through them pretty loudly. Would have to make a very well insulated box that either 10" or 12" speakers could use. Would want it not to be too big of a production to replace speakers after speakers have their break in time.


I believe all but two of my speakers are 8 ohms and the other two are fairly well broke in. Would have to be able to go in a closet during the day on the other side of the house during their break in time.


Does anyone have experience doing this?


The more I think about this I would probably need to make two boxes. One each for the 10" speakers and another for the 12" speakers. Have a lot of insulation I bought to stuff in a speaker cabinet. Extra in the attic. Could buy some moving blankets. Making the boxes is easy. Don't want to spend a fortune doing this but have to spend enough to make it effective and try to keep the sheriffs deputies away from my door.


Thanks
Mike

[Mike_J]

Just figured out what to do with the 12 inch speakers. There is a special cabinet made for individual EVM12L. Pretty sure I measured the dimensions for them and could get both of them out of one sheet of Baltic birch. Those speakers are unreasonably heavy in pairs and probably alone. But that would be a good platform for the 12 inch speakers and when I finish breaking in all the speakers I have two cabinets that will be useful to help make the weight of those speakers more manageable. They are 300 watts each if I recall. Don't really need two of them but will try to figure out a way to connect them for both four ohms and 16 ohms or of course individually at eight ohms. Probably should just use the 5f6a cabinet and break in two speakers in at a time. Will need a lot of insulation and blankets for that one.


Thanks
Mike

[jordan86]

I’m struggling to follow your train of thought. Not really sure what you’re trying to accomplish. But here is a cool jack for running two 8 ohm speakers in parallel, series, or individually.

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/jack-plate-plug-and-play-mono-stereo

[jordan86]

If you’re breaking in two speakers at the same time, you could wire them out of phase with each other. Phase cancellation will cut down on volume and annoyance.

[acheld]

I know everyone says you need to do this, but I never really saw much of a difference.   

I do hear significant differences between speakers, no argument there. 

So I just use 'em.   If they break in, great.  If not, well . . .

[thetragichero]

hook speaker up to a solid state amp, plug in mp3 player, set the volume to just enough to get the cones moving, leave it alone for a couple days
when i was buying a lot of eminence speakers there was a huge difference in the before and after

edit: autocorrect fail

[acheld]

Got great sinuses, so I'll give it try.   

That's a good idea, though.  Next new one I get in, I'll give it a try. 

I've got enough speakers lying around from prior builds that I rarely buy new any more.  I do a lot of re-purposing now.   

[jordan86]

Jim at Scumback speakers has offered a lot of helpful data on other forums about break in times, rest time, amount of voltage. He uses a variac but the principles apply more broadly. He likes to pummel them as high as possible (safely) and then let them rest.

I do have a solid state amp that I connect to speakers at then run either a 60hz wave through it at like 10-12v (measured at speaker jack). Or I do a 60 min sine starting at 60hz and slowly climbing up to 120hz over the hour long cycle. Covers all the frequencies in that octave. I have the wav files if anyone wants them.

Or you can just play songs through it too.  That’s what Avatar speaker company does on their broken in models.

[thetragichero]

it's a lot more pleasant to hear music than a sine wave
same thing for running a test signal into an amp, always run on a dummy load while probing (even then the "EEEEEEEE" is quite annoying)

[jordan86]

60 hz is almost low enough to not be too terrible. Better with a second speaker out of phase. Once you get up above 80hz the hum/buzz gets super annoying. Music is much more pleasant.

And fwiw you don’t have to have the speakers in a cab. Much quieter without a box resonating and reverberating.

[Mike_J]

I’m struggling to follow your train of thought. Not really sure what you’re trying to accomplish. But here is a cool jack for running two 8 ohm speakers in parallel, series, or individually.

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/jack-plate-plug-and-play-mono-stereo

Agree with the cool jack. Have installed it in all my 2x12" cabinets with 8ohm speakers. Great for matching up speaker cabinets to amp heads. Part of my rambling was attributable to not being able to find my TL806 cabinet plan file and my desire to use the same jack for two 1X12" cabinets. Will probably figure it out once I get the wood for the cabinets but would be happy if someone has already addressed this matter and would share it.


Thanks
Mike

[acheld]

Those jack plates are nice, but I've had two fail on me over the past two years -- in each case one of the jacks failed.

They are easy enough to wire up -- the schematic is published in the documentation, and I just roughed up a board to fit the plate -- which itself is very nice.

In the future, though, I'm just going to install the three jacks in a row and wire them rather than spending the bucks on the plate.

[Mike_J]

Thank you for the suggestions. I bought my Variac for the purpose of breaking in speakers. Don't think I could possibly tolerate that buzz again for the length of time required to break a speaker in. Dug up a solid state amplifier that has a tuner in it and is connected to a nice CD player. Hadn't used it for probably 20 years so I will change radio stations when I get tired of listening to it and will listen to some old CDs that I am sure I will enjoy after spending the past 20 years in a cabinet. After only four hours of being connected to this contraption the speakers are already rounding out a little bit. Put me on the use and old solid state tuner/amplifier with a CD player connected to it list.


Biggest concern I have with this setup is the amplifier says it is 165watts. Have it in a bedroom on the other side of the house. With the door closed the volume is tolerable and wouldn't be objectionable to the neighbors.


Amp has two 8ohm channels. Probably best be careful with a P10Q (40watts) in parallel with a P10R (25watts) on each channel. Not worried at all about the amp but don't want to overpower the speakers. I am keeping it at around 35% and don't hear any cone cry but it is loud enough that I am pretty sure it will do the speaker break in some good.


Thanks
Mike

[Mike_J]

Those jack plates are nice, but I've had two fail on me over the past two years -- in each case one of the jacks failed.

They are easy enough to wire up -- the schematic is published in the documentation, and I just roughed up a board to fit the plate -- which itself is very nice.

In the future, though, I'm just going to install the three jacks in a row and wire them rather than spending the bucks on the plate.

Are those Cliff jacks? If so would you share which type? Shame when a good idea is put together cheaply. There is an advantage to the plate if only for the silk screening. Each person would have to determine what that value is.


Thanks
Mike

[acheld]

Yep, they are Cliff jacks.  They are stereo, switched, with solder lugs.  Stereo   S-H905   

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/14-jack-cliff-solder-lugs-switched

To build yourself, the only critical thing is the "stereo switched" spec.  Cliff jacks are inexpensive but pretty robust in my experience, but I think you could use any brand. These were handy because I could glue perfboard to the back of the jacks, which was really helpful in the repair. 

I used the schematic from the company. 

Story behind this is that I had just finished a build -- and plugged it in to my cabinet which gets daily use.  No sound.  Of course I'm thinking that my new amp was toast (what rookie mistake did I make now??).  Spent hours going over the amp with nothing seemingly wrong, and then plugged it into an old shop cab with an automotive speaker.  And of course it sounded great, just like the GTO the speaker came from.

Anyway, the jack plate was over the warranty period, as it would be.  So, in the spirit of this forum, I pieced together this little board as the repair.

[thetragichero]

Biggest concern I have with this setup is the amplifier says it is 165watts. Have it in a bedroom on the other side of the house. With the door closed the volume is tolerable and wouldn't be objectionable to the neighbors.


Amp has two 8ohm channels. Probably best be careful with a P10Q (40watts) in parallel with a P10R (25watts) on each channel. Not worried at all about the amp but don't want to overpower the speakers. I am keeping it at around 35% and don't hear any cone cry but it is loud enough that I am pretty sure it will do the speaker break in some good

only needs to be loud enough to get the cones moving, unless you want to listen to it

[Mike_J]

Biggest concern I have with this setup is the amplifier says it is 165watts. Have it in a bedroom on the other side of the house. With the door closed the volume is tolerable and wouldn't be objectionable to the neighbors.


Amp has two 8ohm channels. Probably best be careful with a P10Q (40watts) in parallel with a P10R (25watts) on each channel. Not worried at all about the amp but don't want to overpower the speakers. I am keeping it at around 35% and don't hear any cone cry but it is loud enough that I am pretty sure it will do the speaker break in some good

only needs to be loud enough to get the cones moving, unless you want to listen to it

Thank you for that information. Last thing I would want to do is blow up the speakers.


Listening to some SRV I haven't listened to in quite some time. He could sure play the guitar if you like blues music which I do. Increasing the pleasure of starting to rework my revibe unit.


Thanks
Mike