Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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Burning in / running in / breaking in your new studio monitor speakers. What does that mean? Is it something you should be doing? Does it depend on what type of speakers you have? If you do choose to do it, how do you do it exactly? We’re going to cover all of these things in this video, so hop in and join me!
Speakers featured in the video. KH420 by @GeorgNeumannGmbH . Focal Trio 11 Be by @Focalofficial.
★ SKIP TO SOMETHIN’ ★
0:00 Intro
0:30 What is burning in?
0:34 Burning in vs running in vs breaking in
1:23 Overview of the components of a speaker
2:52 Focal’s recommendations for burning in speakers
3:15 Neumann’s recommendations for burning in speakers
3:25 Research on why burning in is not required
3:50 Why some people still recommend burning in
4:02 Psychoacoustics - human auditory memory
4:58 Do you actually need to burn in your monitor speakers?
5:16 How to burn in / run in your speakers
6:15 Outro
★ STAY IN TOUCH ★
Discord ➤ discord.gg/ZwNgZteGKw
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Facebook ➤ facebook.com/warpacademy
★ ABOUT WARP ACADEMY ★
If you’re new to Warp Academy, we empower artists to reach their full potential, create exceptional music, and live their passion. We’re a global, online collective that includes producers, audio engineers, label owners, sound designers, agents, coaches and more. We hook you up with all the education, software, and sounds you need to create professional quality music and launch a successful career. Join us!
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✅ Join our Discord Server ➤ discord.gg/ZwNgZteGKw
Burning in is the concept that a new loudspeaker, fresh from the factory, needs a period of running it before performance is optimal and that the sound of a speaker changes over time. By running the speaker over a period of time, some people say that you’re going to get it into a stabilized or optimal state.
I’m always reviewing and testing studio monitors so this is quite relevant for me and I wanted to dig a little deeper into this. Right now I’m testing the Neumann KH420 and the Focal Trio 11 Be monitors. It’s quite interesting because different people recommend totally different things. We’re going to peel back the onion, dig back into where this came from, what’s involved, and figure out if it’s relevant for you.
Let us think about what parts can change their properties permanently in an active loudspeaker:
▪ Electronics – There is insignificant change with use over time. Permanent changes are usually the result of poor parts selection in design, early parts failure (bathtub curve), or user abuse. Some temporary change over short periods is seen due to heating up of components, but this resets when the electronics cools down. Active loudspeakers do not suffer significantly from these temporary changes as the sensitive crossover parts are positioned before the amplifier and so do not heat up much.
▪ Cabinet Mechanics – If this changes it is not well built!
▪ Drivers – The moving mass cannot change otherwise it means that something has fallen off, or
some extra mass has been added. The self-damping should not change significantly otherwise it would mean that the cone material is falling apart. These two situations would only happen in the case of loudspeaker abuse or accidental damage. The suspension and surround can change their stiffness over time; however a good design should be robust to these minor changes. Even quite large, and highly unlikely in a correctly working loudspeaker, changes (doubling or halving the stiffness) will alter the overall loudspeaker performance by less than 1 dB in the low-frequency region only. Temporary changes are seen due to the voice coil heating up (thermal compression), but this resets when it cools down.
▪ Psychoacoustics – A human's auditory memory is VERY short, less than five seconds. This fact is well-known in the academic community, so one sees controlled ABX type listening tests with fast switchers to avoid the listeners forgetting what they just heard. Typically when burning-in loudspeakers a user listens to the loudspeaker for a while, does the burn-in over a long time period (say 24 hours, or even up to a week), then listens again. Having done this they are naturally inclined to hear a difference.
#musicproducer #audiophile #speakers
✅ Try Warp Academy for Free ➤ warpacademy.com/free-stuff-bundle
✅ Join our Discord Server ➤ discord.gg/ZwNgZteGKw
Burning in / running in / breaking in your new studio monitor speakers. What does that mean? Is it something you should be doing? Does it depend on what type of speakers you have? If you do choose to do it, how do you do it exactly? We’re going to cover all of these things in this video, so hop in and join me!
Speakers featured in the video. KH420 by @GeorgNeumannGmbH . Focal Trio 11 Be by @Focalofficial.
★ SKIP TO SOMETHIN’ ★
0:00 Intro
0:30 What is burning in?
0:34 Burning in vs running in vs breaking in
1:23 Overview of the components of a speaker
2:52 Focal’s recommendations for burning in speakers
3:15 Neumann’s recommendations for burning in speakers
3:25 Research on why burning in is not required
3:50 Why some people still recommend burning in
4:02 Psychoacoustics - human auditory memory
4:58 Do you actually need to burn in your monitor speakers?
5:16 How to burn in / run in your speakers
6:15 Outro
★ STAY IN TOUCH ★
Discord ➤ discord.gg/ZwNgZteGKw
Instagram ➤ instagram.com/warpacademy
Facebook ➤ facebook.com/warpacademy
★ ABOUT WARP ACADEMY ★
If you’re new to Warp Academy, we empower artists to reach their full potential, create exceptional music, and live their passion. We’re a global, online collective that includes producers, audio engineers, label owners, sound designers, agents, coaches and more. We hook you up with all the education, software, and sounds you need to create professional quality music and launch a successful career. Join us!
✅ Try Warp Academy for FREE ➤ warpacademy.com/free-stuff-bundle
✅ Join our Discord Server ➤ discord.gg/ZwNgZteGKw
Burning in is the concept that a new loudspeaker, fresh from the factory, needs a period of running it before performance is optimal and that the sound of a speaker changes over time. By running the speaker over a period of time, some people say that you’re going to get it into a stabilized or optimal state.
I’m always reviewing and testing studio monitors so this is quite relevant for me and I wanted to dig a little deeper into this. Right now I’m testing the Neumann KH420 and the Focal Trio 11 Be monitors. It’s quite interesting because different people recommend totally different things. We’re going to peel back the onion, dig back into where this came from, what’s involved, and figure out if it’s relevant for you.
Let us think about what parts can change their properties permanently in an active loudspeaker:
▪ Electronics – There is insignificant change with use over time. Permanent changes are usually the result of poor parts selection in design, early parts failure (bathtub curve), or user abuse. Some temporary change over short periods is seen due to heating up of components, but this resets when the electronics cools down. Active loudspeakers do not suffer significantly from these temporary changes as the sensitive crossover parts are positioned before the amplifier and so do not heat up much.
▪ Cabinet Mechanics – If this changes it is not well built!
▪ Drivers – The moving mass cannot change otherwise it means that something has fallen off, or
some extra mass has been added. The self-damping should not change significantly otherwise it would mean that the cone material is falling apart. These two situations would only happen in the case of loudspeaker abuse or accidental damage. The suspension and surround can change their stiffness over time; however a good design should be robust to these minor changes. Even quite large, and highly unlikely in a correctly working loudspeaker, changes (doubling or halving the stiffness) will alter the overall loudspeaker performance by less than 1 dB in the low-frequency region only. Temporary changes are seen due to the voice coil heating up (thermal compression), but this resets when it cools down.
▪ Psychoacoustics – A human's auditory memory is VERY short, less than five seconds. This fact is well-known in the academic community, so one sees controlled ABX type listening tests with fast switchers to avoid the listeners forgetting what they just heard. Typically when burning-in loudspeakers a user listens to the loudspeaker for a while, does the burn-in over a long time period (say 24 hours, or even up to a week), then listens again. Having done this they are naturally inclined to hear a difference.
#musicproducer #audiophile #speakers
