beautypg.com

Running-in period (or great expectations), Care and maintenance of your an-e loudspeakers – Audio Note AN-E LX Specs User Manual

Page 9

background image

8

Running-in Period (or Great Expectations)

While we fully expect your AN-E loudspeakers to produce beautiful music, they may

not do so from the first moment out of the box. Don’t be alarmed; it’s perfectly

normal.

Dynamic loudspeakers have a running in period, during which the drive units “loosen

up” – mainly consisting of the suspension working its way up to full, normal working

compliance. During this period, it may sound somewhat dry, bright and constricted.

That’s because the bass unit will not display its full lower bandwidth and the tweeter

will sound slightly brighter than normal at the outset, and to a lessening degree

throughout the running-in period. As the suspension of both drivers “softens up”,

the fullness of the bass and the smoothness of the treble will start to emerge and the

sound that has earned the E its enviable reputation will be revealed.

We expect the AN-E to have a running in period of about 100 hours – for the

average listener, this takes about a month, based on three hours of listening per

day. This period can however vary considerably due to factors such as, music

types, listening volume and type of amplification used. (Loud heavy metal or Mahler

symphonies are especially effective!)

If the rest of your system is of commensurate quality, you may notice that when you

haven’t played your AN-E’s for a week or longer, they seem to experience a lesser

version of this running-in process again. Everything will be completely back to

normal within 5 to 10 hours.

Care and Maintenance of your AN-E loudspeakers

Care should be taken when using the loudspeakers with very high-powered

amplifiers. Although the AN-E is reasonably tolerant and has high power handling, it

is also very efficient and therefore requires considerably less power than other

similarly priced loudspeakers. If audible distortion occurs the amplifier or the

loudspeaker is being overloaded and damage is likely to result.

Should you be unfortunate enough to experience failure of a drive unit, either by

accident or misuse, please ensure that it is replaced with an original Audio Note™

drive unit replacement kit and that the relevant parts of the crossover are also

replaced. This will preserve the extremely tight driver and crossover component

matching established in manufacturing, and thereby maintain the speaker’s

performance.

The durable finish of your speakers will maintain its appearance for many years with

minimal attention. Wiping your cabinet down with a damp, lint free cloth is all the

general cleaning that is required. We recommend that you annually wax the

veneered surface of your speakers.

Keep the speakers away from radiators or other heat sources and avoid prolonged

exposure to direct sunlight.