Breaking the subs in

[justin113311]

I finally got all the money to finish the system in my truck, i got two of the rockford fosgate 10'' p3 shallow mounts subs, with a 1200 rockford fosgate amp. How long should i go easy on the subs before i crank it up so i dont ruin um?

[Exalted512]

The P3 shallows need an unusually long time to break in, to be safe, about 20 hours.
-Cody

[lowriderbowtie]

break them in the same way you will play them all the time

[Soilarch]

Say what? I'm newb to CAR audio but not to stage and studio audio...is this "breaking in" of subs kinda like breaking in a new barrel? Some swear by it, some laugh at it, most don't care about it, and nobody can prove anything?

I've NEVER heard of this in my 8 years of being in and out of the bass guitar world. (Some of these guys take their speakers VERY seriously...and no, they aren't "just" pushing 400watts)

[KWHITELAW]

just ****ing play them. you wont play a sine wave through them for 20 hours so **** it. just beat on them since you have a warranty. you do have warranty, right? anyways, play them as you normally would.

more importantly, make sure your amp is set up properly. when i install a system, i cant tell a customer "you just spent $4000 on your system. but you cant crank it up for 10 hours or so." most companies admit that they dont expect consumers to baby their subs/speakers for a certain time. just use common sense,

[Exalted512]

Well, when you open up the box, it specifically states that these subs need to be broken in...I dont think RF would put it in there if it wasnt true.

Like I said, 20 hours will keep your subs working for a long, long time.

Subs have a lot of moving parts, just like an engine does. To think that the sub will be the same after heating it up a couple times is pretty narrow minded.

Proof? In SPL trucks, you will hit higher numbers after the subs have been broken in for several hours as compared to when you drop brand new speakers in. That is FACT.

"Crank it, you have a warranty right?" And people wonder why some of these companies have to charge so much to get a profit...
-Cody

[justin113311]

yea i figured id take it easy on um for a lil while, just spent a good amount of money and i dont wanna ruin them

[KWHITELAW]

my point is. rockford cant expect the end consumer, be it a dealer putting a sub on display, or the customer themself, to play at a lower volume for 20 hours. do you know how long that would take in real time driving? **** my commute is like 20 miles a day. it'd take me a month to "break" them in.

do you think that my customers drive out of the bay with their new w7's and maintain a normal listening level for 20 hours? you're naive if you think that.

to the originial poster, if you are fine waiting the "required" time of 20 hours then cool. you are one of a select few, on this board, and prolly involved in car audio in general, that would do that. these companies know that.

if you bump one of the subs right away, save the 2nd one and break it in "properly", and the first sub blows, do you think they are going to determine that it wasnt broken in properly.? no way, they can tell if you overdrive the woofer sure.

[KWHITELAW]

I stand corrected. being as rockford takes the measures to inform you upfront that those subs specifically need a break in period is reason alone to follow it. i still feel its foolish of them to think that consumers are going to do that. 99% will not. imo, they should perform the break in at the factory and then when the box is opened at the store they are ready to go.

my apologies cody and to the original poster. i was slightly inebriated when i posted that last nite.

[Heathd]

I stand corrected. being as rockford takes the measures to inform you upfront that those subs specifically need a break in period is reason alone to follow it. i still feel its foolish of them to think that consumers are going to do that. 99% will not. imo, they should perform the break in at the factory and then when the box is opened at the store they are ready to go.
my apologies cody and to the original poster. i was slightly inebriated when i posted that last nite.

i strongly agree

[tylerj]

play the subs like you normally would and yes they will get louder once they break in, but you dont have to baby them.

[Exalted512]

Do I expect customers to? Hell no. I'm not an idiot. Would it make my job easier, hell yea. Thats why I promote it. Ive blown several subs because I didnt break them in properly. I had some Polk MOMO subs that required 40, yes, 40 hours of break in. Did I ever do that? Hell no, they got about 5 hrs at most. And I blew 6 subs before I figured it out. Broke them in for about 25 hours the next time around and never had a problem.

Yes, I believe they should break them in at the factory. I dont think itd be that hard. Tie a bunch of them in series and hook them up to the wall for a while. Unfortunately, this doesnt happen. They leave it to the consumer. I guess they figure the money lost due to warranty claims doesnt outweigh the cost of them breaking them in at the factory.

I believe the actual paper that comes with says 15 hours. But you can download sine waves online, burn them to disc, and let that run in your truck for 2 hours a day, and youre done in a little more than a week. Not to mention, if you have to send the subs off for warranty, chances are youre going to be without them for more than the week it took to break them in.
-Cody

[justin113311]

slightly inebriated hahaha its all good, i just wanted to see what other people thought about weather or not i should break um in, i dont wanna screw um all up before i even get a chance to enjoy um.

[///M5]

Meh, as long as the install is proper and you are playing music there really isn't a need to break things in. The real reason drivers fail early without break in is exclusively to get them to move people get gain happy. The only reason I ever break in a driver is to get it to equilibrium before measuring its parameters. Of course for a sealed box in a vehicle making actual measurements is pretty much unnecessary so then I'd just "wang" away.

[BassBaller5]

while in not going to argue weather or not breaking in a sub will have positive effect on the life of a diver, i will argue tha speakers will tend to play louder and clearer once they have been played a certain ammount of hours. The spiders loosen up and the glue in the speaker relaxes.

It took my door speakers about 10 hours to reach their full potential and my tweets are STILL improving

[badkelly]

me and wkdspd put together a system with a pair of 12" kicker compvr's and like an 850 amp. i beat'em down right out of the gate and one of'em seperated from the bottom yellow part (looks like ripples in a pond). forgive me if i don't know the name of that component.

anyways, we gorilla-glued it back together and it held. it was awesome

[silveradokid]

i had a two 12" off brand subs in my ford explorer sport, i gave them hell from day 1, they wore out FAST. i bought a 15" T1 rockford fosgate, i took it real easy on it for about 2 weeks, and never maxed it out, it seemed to help, i do it just to be safe i guess, after you spend all the money, i like to be safe, but hey if you wanna blow your subs, its your money.

[BassBaller5]

me and wkdspd put together a system with a pair of 12" kicker compvr's and like an 850 amp. i beat'em down right out of the gate and one of'em seperated from the bottom yellow part (looks like ripples in a pond). forgive me if i don't know the name of that component.

anyways, we gorilla-glued it back together and it held. it was awesome

gotta love gorilla glue man!