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Bass Drivers - Quickest / Best Way to Break In?

As a proud owner of new EgglestonWorks Andra I speakers, I am completely impressed and satisfied with their sound, from 63 Hz and up. In my room, they are amazingly live, dynamic, detailed but natural, very well balanced (as the frequency response shows (Rives CD, RS analog meter)), and the sense of acoustic space is just unbelievable.

But then there's the bass...I know the Dynaudio bass drivers (two 12" in each cabinet) take some time to break in. I have bearly any audible response below 50Hz; the response drops 15 to 20dB from reference (80dB) very quickly after 63Hz. When I crank up the volume on the 20Hz tone, I get the woofers moving, but the equivalent volume level would be around 95db at 1Khz. That's loud folks!

I tried respositioning the speakers closer together, to simulate a friend's setup, also Andra Is, and he's only down 3dB at 31Hz. No such luck for me, so I don't think it's a room thing, not for the lowest octave and a half range like this, so it must be break in, right? My bass drivers just don't seem to want to move that much at 80dB.

What would be the safest way (for the drivers and the simple low pass bass crossover). I assume that playing the 20Hz tone repeatedly may cause overheating of either? I guess I am impatient! I have about 50 hours on the speakers thus far (yeah, I know, that's nothing!).

Thanks!
1markr
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,424 posts
 
I am leaning Grant's way here (on the driver or crossover perspective; I know it's not my system, since it was also used on my Andra IIs)...I only agree with you on the "can't gain 15db during break-in" statement, and not on the room issues. If it were a room issue (it's not, since my Andra IIs, similiar bass driver configuration) in the exact same spot had plenty of low bass at 30 and 40 Hz.
Well, having that addition info, I tend to agree. OTOH, it is hard to imagine that both speakers had the same malfunction. Is there any difference between them, tested individually?

While this may not be an acoustics problem, it sure ain't gonna be cured by break in.

Kal
tvad
9,467 posts
 
That just reminded me....I used to run off the 4ohm taps on the Dodds, now they are on the 8ohm...hmmmm, could that kill my lowest two octaves?
1markr (System | Threads | Answers)
No.

Mark, try the Andras one at a time before you do anything else. Be certain the problem presents itself in one, or the other, or both.

If it's in both, then connecting your CDP directly to the Dodds is a good troubleshooting test.

If the problem is on one or the other, then try swapping the L&R interconnects from your preamp to the Dodds to flip-flop the channels (in other words leave the ICs connected correctly at the preamp, but plug the left IC into the right Dodd and vice versa). If the problem switches from one speaker to the other, then you know the amp is the issue. If the problem does not flip-flop, then restore the ICs. Then, do the same flip-flopping of ICs from your source to the preamp. If the problem does not switch from one speaker to the other, then you know the problem is with the preamp and not with the source. If the problem does flip flop from one speaker to the other, then you know it's your source.

The VR-1 go into the 50s, maybe into the 40s if I'm not mistaken. Since you mentioned your problem starts at 63Hz, then these will work.
1markr OP
525 posts
 
Thanks Grant..all good points. Will do more troubleshooting tonight, and will post results later.
foster_9
1,610 posts
 
Hi Mark, can't be of any help. But good luck with your new Andra 1's. Hope the problem is not them.. Emerson
undertow
1,032 posts
 
Sorry to intrude, but fact is I have had very similar things occur and after 300 hours I have had drivers that were very stiff all of a sudden open up and drop quite a bit in impact and octave range... However this is not the whole story, your room has incredible impact on the results, room acoustics will in fact start erasing some of the holes in frequency response, especiall the room loading factor that will give you the smooth / full / wooly even bloom your missing to gain back warmer and much more impactfull presentation.

I really doubt eggleston would ever dare ship a non-fully tested against the reference speaker on site product, this is the practice of all super hi end companies from my understanding.... Unless you have shipping damage or really badly matched equipment.
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