Do speakers need to 'charge's to come on song?

[Legolas]

Bit of a weird question maybe, but I notice (hear) a marked increase in speaker performance after about 30 minutes, even taking into account amplifier warm up. Has anyone else noticed this phenomena?

My guess is maybe the caps in the speaker need to 'charge' to get to best performance. If I had to put a value on it, my wild guess would be 20% more performance after 30 minutes.

 

[Robh3606]

Could be just frame of mind and taking a few minutes to settle in. Unless you have a Charge Coupled crossover they should not charge at all. There is no DC to bias them. They should let the AC signal just pass through.

Rob

 

[Holmz]

I wonder is active XOs then sound good from the moment they come on?

 

[mtemur]

Aside from the warming up of coils, capacitors, and resistors in the crossover, the most important aspect is the warming up of the speaker voice coils themselves. In my experience, it takes around an hour for a speaker to fully warm up. YMMV.

 

[Robh3606]

I wonder is active XOs then sound good from the moment they come on?

Well just as quickly as your line level preamp would. Do your electronics need time to sound good? Mine don't at least not that I can notice. Sound good a couple of minutes in. The time it takes to choose and load media.

Rob

 

[Robh3606]

the most important aspect is the warming up of the speaker voice coils themselves.

Voice coil warming is proportional to the input power. They warm up quickly just like a filament in a light bulb. The issue is keeping them cool and dissipating the heating generated by the input power. Ideally you never want them to warm up you want the VC temp stable to keep the DCR of the coil as low as possible to ward off power compression.

Rob

 

[mtemur]

Voice coil warming is proportional to the input power. They warm up quickly just like a filament in a light bulb. The issue is keeping them cool and dissipating the heating generated by the input power. Ideally you never want them to warm up you want the VC temp stable to keep the DCR of the coil as low as possible to ward off power compression.

Rob

I know. Back in the day I fried a couple of voice coils myself.

The coil warms up and heat is transferred to the magnet and frame. When everything warms up from spider to driver surrounds it starts to sound lusher, smoother and more dynamic.

 

[Kofi Baffour]

Bit of a weird question maybe, but I notice (hear) a marked increase in speaker performance after about 30 minutes, even taking into account amplifier warm up. Has anyone else noticed this phenomena?

My guess is maybe the caps in the speaker need to 'charge' to get to best performance. If I had to put a value on it, my wild guess would be 20% more performance after 30 minutes.

Haven't experienced it with my system. It's always ready to go but I've seen data on some amps needing time to be stable in their operation after being switched on so there's that

 

[Alrainbow]

I can say I think speakers are affected by room temp
but since I use headphones I think it's a system wide effect
if my amps are off over night it takes some 2 hours to settle .
I leave on all I can to help
Servers , premap ,dacs phono pres
But amps I can't justify, the krells run hot at 115 degrees at sinks and there is two amps
Up north I keep my place at 65 degrees so things do need to settle .

 

[Mike Lavigne]

any chance it's a time of day issue where your listening time is consistent and the A/C power grid gets more friendly predictably in your area? or maybe in your home there are appliances or other things that shut down a little after your session starts?

i know this is a long shot but it's possible. just something to check off as not relevant.....or not?

i have a 10kva isolation transformer and am in a separate building from my home and there is never any variance in system performance regardless. except one of my tt's (high mass thread drive non servo motor) does take 90 minutes for speed to stabilize at exact speed. also my tape deck tubed preamps sound better after an hour.....even better after 3 hours. my dart solid state amps and Wadax digital both are better after at least a day plugged in. my Esoteric Clock needs about a week to sound it's best.

 

[Kofi Baffour]

I can say I think speakers are affected by room temp
but since I use headphones I think it's a system wide effect
if my amps are off over night it takes some 2 hours to settle .
I leave on all I can to help
Servers , premap ,dacs phono pres
But amps I can't justify, the krells run hot at 115 degrees at sinks and there is two amps
Up north I keep my place at 65 degrees so things do need to settle .

Yes ambient temp affects some speakers

 

[Holmz]

I can say I think speakers are affected by room temp
but since I use headphones I think it's a system wide effect
if my amps are off over night it takes some 2 hours to settle .
I leave on all I can to help
Servers , premap ,dacs phono pres
But amps I can't justify, the krells run hot at 115 degrees at sinks and there is two amps
Up north I keep my place at 65 degrees so things do need to settle .

Well the whole box tuning sort depends on the air. The volume is constant but the density and humidity change.
(EU5 emissions car need to use humidity sensors to get the dual-air mixture right.)

Friend said his Duntech person told him that the XO is tuned for nominal condition but it changes diurnally and seasonally.

Aside from the warming up of coils, capacitors, and resistors in the crossover, the most important aspect is the warming up of the speaker voice coils themselves. In my experience, it takes around an hour for a speaker to fully warm up. YMMV.

How much heat are the voice coils getting if they are typically operating at 1W input?

There is also motor hysterysis, which would NOT be a thing with field coils.

 

[mtemur]

How much heat are the voice coils getting if they are typically operating at 1W input?

I really don’t know.

 

[Holmz]

I really don’t know.

While it is possible to model it, an iR thermal camera.gun should work.
But I doubt that the temp of the VC is making any difference… It may, but I doubt it.