How To Properly Break-In a Sub?

[Kaotic Lazagna]

okay, i never owned a sub (other than my home stereo system), and i'll be installing my sound system in my car in a week (hopefully, just waiting for the radio installation kit and harness to come in). i was wondering how to properly break-in the sub. it's the 10" Alpine Type R (4 ohm) and M450 amp with a Clarion DXZ465MP HU. i have a few CD's that have a wide range of bass notes, ranging from deep and long bass notes to hard hitting notes. should i put the gains to the lowest position and listen to music at a decent volume? thanks.

[flint_mica_manual]

okay, i never owned a sub (other than my home stereo system), and i'll be installing my sound system in my car in a week (hopefully, just waiting for the radio installation kit and harness to come in). i was wondering how to properly break-in the sub. it's the 10" Alpine Type R (4 ohm) and M450 amp with a Clarion DXZ465MP HU. i have a few CD's that have a wide range of bass notes, ranging from deep and long bass notes to hard hitting notes. should i put the gains to the lowest position and listen to music at a decent volume? thanks.

Just don't overdrive them. Distortion is the enemy -- regardless of how old or new the speakers are. Set things up for the sound you like and then refrain from pushing them into distortion, and they'll be good forever. Easier said than done :)

[earljail]

Just don't overdrive them. Distortion is the enemy -- regardless of how old or new the speakers are. Set things up for the sound you like and then refrain from pushing them into distortion, and they'll be good forever. Easier said than done :)

What he said, very wise advice. There isn't any need to "break them in," just don't abuse a sub.

[blacksan]

I was really curious to see the answer to this. I often wondered if the people that tell you to break in your engine like an Indy car felt the same way about subs?

[Razr]

The most effective way to break in any speaker is to run it at its resonant frequency (fs) - it's at this frequency it'll get the most cone excursion per-watt, so you minimize the chance of overdriving it (power and heat wise), whilst maximizing the pyshical excercising of the suspension mechsanisms -which is what you're breaking in.

To do this you'll need a clean sine wave test tone as close as possible to the resonant frequency - you can get this with a tone generator, any one of a myriad of test CD's out there, or just a bit of clicking in something like Cool Edit Pro (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/Cool-Edit-Pro.shtml) and a CD Burner.

Making sure that no other speakers in your system are receiving the sine wave tone, slowly turn up the volume until you get close to the speakers rated xmax (xmax = how far the cone can move from the center resting point). If you hear *any* mechanical noises back it off - you've gone too far, and it's really difficult to hear distortion at a single frequency.

Once you've got it up and running properly, remember your settings and run it on/off in 5 minute cycles for 1 hour and you're done - and have probably saved yourself a month of normal listening to hear what it *really* sounds like :)

[eco]

Now that is an answer.

[spkrman]

coming from the self proclaimed type R master ;)... i've broken in/broken more type R's than lugs on the yaris, and made people wonder how many 15's I have stashed in my car when I was running only 2 R 12's =)

every woof is different, some need to be babied, some you have to beat the shat out of... some hardly change after breakin.

The R, beat on it... play it loud and proud, but be careful to not drive to distortion. The sub will handle even moderate to heavy levels of clipping at that power level so don't be scared to crank it up.

If you don't turn it up, it will never break in... the whole idea of "be easy on it" to break a woofer in is generally counterproductive... although there are a few cases where the spec of the driver is changed very drastically after breakin... normally power handling is HIGHER before breakin, but in some drivers I've seen it be MUCH lower.

If your up for the effort, Razr's post is helpful. I'd do that cycle, and in addition, leave the sub playing overnight at approx half excursion with the track on repeat. After that even the tightest subs will have loosened considerably and will without a doubt be broken in.

The R, however, doesn't take nearly that much work, play it hard for a day or 2 and your done... When taken to full xmax, it takes all of 5-10 mins for it to be broken in. As a general rule of thumb, the above process works great.

And I have one R 10 in the car right now, for that matter :)

[Kaotic Lazagna]

hey spkrman, i can play it as loud as i want cuz the amp i got is too weak for this sub. it's not pushing that much air. my factory speakers on the other hand, lol...those things are moving like crazy.

i want to save up for a better amp some day.

[GuySmily]

I remember reading that having an underpowered amp is bad for a sub, but I don't know if it's true, and it doesn't make any sense to me.

How do you like that sub so far though? Seems like everyone is getting those Alpine Type-R's now.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

my set up's cool for now. but i don't know how soon i'll be getting another amp. do you know anyone who needs an amp? it's only been in use for a little over an hour as of right now.

[Razr]

I remember reading that having an underpowered amp is bad for a sub, but I don't know if it's true, and it doesn't make any sense to me.

The quick answer to this is that it's much more difficult to hear distortion at low frequencies, thus it's much more easy to run your amplifier to the point of serious (and damaging) clipping (mega distortion).

The longer answer goes like this:

Every component in your system introduces a level of distortion into the signal chain, starting at your source unit and ending at your speakers. A typical source unit will add <0.01% distortion to the signal, a decent amp <1% and a decent subwoofer around 10%. Yes, 10%. Really good subwoofers manage 3% distortion across most of their bandwith, and maybe even touch 1% at frequencies higher up in their range, but 3-10% is very typical.

While 1% distortion on a good amplifier is usually fairly safe (1% clip = 1% of the duty cycle is DC voltage rather than AC voltage), 10% distortion gets really dangerous really fast (due to heat build-up in the voicecoil and the added stresses on suspension mechanisms at full excursion), but not *that* audible unfortunately, especially when you're having fun :)

So simply put, it's easier to drive a smaller powered amplifier into clipping when running a subwoofer than it is a more powerful amplifer. Hence why small amps are more dangerous for subs, voila!

:tongue:

[spkrman]

the amps arent dangerous, the guy pumping up the volume control and gain is dangerous :)

[Kaotic Lazagna]

oh yeah, the gains and eq. on my amp doesn't seem to be doing anything. the LP too. ????