breaking in a new cab?

Djadja

Djadja

May 25, 2010
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Santa Barbara Wine Country
#1
I decided which cab to invest in and my first brand new bass cab ever is due to arrive this Friday (a Genzler BA12-3)... school me on what I should do to break it in? Every cab I've owned was purchased used and most were "well loved." I don't know what special care is required, if any, to get the speakers to optimum performance.

thanks
 
#6
Don't worry about breaking the speakers in. Just play through the cab and enjoy it.

In general, the soft speaker parts may loosen up a little more. How much so will vary depending on the speaker. On some you won't notice any difference over time. With others, you may find that they will be smoother sounding, easier to drive.
 
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#9
In general, breaking in speakers is a much exaggerated internet myth because by the time you drive the speaker hard enough to change the properties of the soft parts, you are beginning to damage the suspension anyway. There may be a slight change, but it's really small under any reasonable scenario (and with quality parts).
 
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#11
quote from barefaced website: ( Barefaced Bass - Technical Information )


For breaking-in new woofers - JUST PLAY YOUR BASS THROUGH YOUR AMP THROUGH YOUR CAB(S)

When a high performance pro-audio woofer is fresh out of the box its suspension is very stiff. This means that the woofer is over-damped in the low frequencies compared to its design parameters, resulting in thinner bass response and lower efficiency. It also means that the woofer is under-damped in the mid and high frequencies, resulting in worse control of the higher frequency break-up modes and thus a harsher sound. During the first few hours of high SPL use the suspension loosens up and settles into its long-term design parameters. It doesn't change a vast amount but it's certainly noticeable.

The simplest way to break in your woofers in is to play bass through it - the louder the gig or rehearsal, the quicker the woofers will loosen up. We used to put a low frequency sine wave sample up here for customers to use to speed up the process but having had one 12" woofer blown (no-one has ever blown one of our 12" woofers in gigging use) and far too many emails asking about the procedure, we're no longer recommending you do this.
 
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#12
I generally sign them over to the Woofkanar, who are a well meaning but forgetful bass loving species. They take them back to their home planet, Pantflutter, and test them in a variety of gravities and atmospheres using the latest in alien bass technology. They will generally stress test them for 5,000 years, however due to time travel they bring them back to me before I purchase them.
 
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#13
I really hope that brand new speakers out of the box will never ever change suspension (spring constant) too much over time because it would make any fine (and final) adjustment of port tuning to a cab impossible.

I'd not like it to readjust cab tuning after "break in" like readjustment of bias current on tube amps after "burn in".
 
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#14
ThisBass said:
I really hope that brand new speakers out of the box will never ever change suspension (spring constant) too much over time because it would make any fine (and final) adjustment of port tuning to a cab impossible.

I'd not like it to readjust cab tuning after "break in" like readjustment of bias current on tube amps after "burn in".
Click to expand...

Manufacturers talk about runing new speakers as per a standard before they take any readings from the cabinet designs that they publish. For instance, CEA-426B specifies the conditioning before test are made. Hopefully this makes things more consistent. They also test sufficient samples to be statistically significant in their conclusions.

Eminence publishes cabinet designs that their speakers are tested in. Not sure if they get into how they perform their tests. They might tell you what standard they use.
 
#15
I'd say 5-10 minutes on level 3-4...make sure there are not rattles, buzzing etc..tap on all the sides, grill for rattles etc....another 5-10 on level 6-7....then go for whatever you want/need (levels being a general term).......don't know if I would hit a brand new cab with everything dimed and digging deep on the strings right out of the box though
 
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