Keith A. Hughes wrote:
snip

You're expecting them to sound ''bad' at first and 'better'
when you're done. Amazingly enough, they do. But the question remains,
was the change in the speakers or in your 'attitude'?

I don't know that expectation bias plays *that* significant a role
in the "notion" of speaker break-in. From my own experience, I've
found that several pairs of *used* (one pair with hundreds of
hours playing time on them) and/or *floor demo* speakers exhibited
the same break-in phenomenon when I got them home.

For my experiences, clearly the "break-in" required was a function
of *my* adaptation to the differing sound of the new speakers, and
*not* a function of physical changes in the speakers' performance.

But AIUI in the case reported, there was one listening session prior to
an extended break-in period (where noise was used to do the breaking-in),
followed by the second listening session. DUring the first hearing the
speakers were pronounced bad
and on second hearing they were pronounced 'broken in'. Since AIUI
no listening took place during the actual break-in regime, expectation,
rather than adaptation, would seem to be acting.

Of course, when 'break-in' involves an extended period of listening
to music, then adapatation is what's taking place.

--
-S.