Speaker break-in effects are listener adaptation, not hardware change

Evidence

The “take it home and listen to it” process of subjective reviewing probably gratifies the reviewer, but it leads nowhere reliable. Reviews employing this method are as much a commentary on the recordings being auditioned as they are a critical analysis of loudspeaker performance—the variables cannot be reliably separated, and the room and its effect on bass is a significant uncontrolled variable unless the problems have been deliberately addressed. “Breaking in” is often mentioned and it is the listener that adapts, not the hardware that acquires musical abilities with time. It is significant that products never get worse. Without equal-loudness blind comparisons we get entertaining essays 546. and opinions, and without trustworthy measured data there is no way to understand or challenge the opinions. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1950

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies ‘breaking in’ as a perceptual adaptation phenomenon rather than a physical component change.
• CANDY: The observation that ‘products never get worse’ is a compact argument against break-in myths, shareable at a dinner party.