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Old 08-28-2017, 04:17 PM
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ejr1953 ejr1953 is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Mount Airy, MD USA
Posts: 232
Default 100-200 Hour Break In/At Six Months Were "Awesome"

Quote:
Originally Posted by Questortapes74 View Post
@ejr1953 --- I agree that these Sopra #3's take some time to break in. I especially enjoy the midrange and mid-bass sound reproduction of the entire Sopra product line. Do you find that in your experience with your Sopra's?

@Blueoak --- I have really come to enjoy Focal over the years, but I enjoy and appreciate many brands. However if you have an interest in Focal specifically, I would encourage you to audition them and perhaps start with the Sopra product line. If you end up taking a listen, let me know what you think.

All the best!!!
@Questortapes, when I received my Sopra's I queued up several days worth of varied music on my computer, running Roon, at a really low volume, then each day upped the volume a tiny bit, after around 200 hours still not at a "normal" listening level, but I thought that breaking these in "gently" would pay off. After around 200 hours I started listening to some of my favorite albums and was immediately awestruck!

It took quite some time to get the toe in "just right", the room is not the best with its acoustics, especially the bass response, but when I got the positions "just right", the Sopra's had the "performer in the room" presentation I'd never experienced with any other loudspeakers.

When I got the Sopra's "dialed in", I ordered a pair of JL Audio F113V2 sub woofers...and "all bets were off". The bass that the Sopra's had was good, but I've used subs now for years and find they add a dimension that side speakers can't add. But my "man cave" had terrible acoustics in the low registers, adding a single low bass note to the music, regardless of what the bass player was playing!

Long-story-short, I got the bass under control with Room EQ Wizard and a calibration microphone, to help tune the subs and position the 10 bass traps in the room.

Fast forward to the Sopra's six month anniversary, I had a weekend where I hung out for long stretches in the "man cave" enjoying several hours of music each day and it hit me that this system had really "settled down", the Sopra's really seemed to "relax".

For a guy who is oftentimes looking to change this-that-or-the-other, no plans to look at other speakers!
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McIntosh C2500 pre amp, MC452 power amp, Autonomic MMS-5A server, PS Audio P15 power plant, DirectStream DAC, DirectStream CD transport, Focal Sopra No2 speakers, JL Audio F113V2 sub woofers (2), Sennheiser HD800 headphones, Dell laptop iTunes/Tidal/Roon, Wireworld cabling
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