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Insignia Speaker Issue

tommywpg

tommywpg

Active Member
I'm working on a deal to buy two sets of those famous Best Buy Insignias. One set is NIB and the seller tested it and says, "one speaker in the box was sounding "funny", kind of too high and no base at all".

From reading up on these, many have said that the break in time can be long and some found oddities that went away after a short time and further breaking in continued to improve the sound.

Can any of you Insignia owners share your thoughts on this?

Just so you know, I live in Canada and they aren't available here. Also the price is below their best price at BB.
 
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From my experience the high-end smooths out a bit after about 12 hours plus of play. Not a dramatic change, just some improvement. They sound pretty good out of the box.

I did not notice any big change to the bass, they have good low end out of the box as I recall.

Cheers, Snade
 
Snade said:
From my experience the high-end smooths out a bit after about 12 hours plus of play. Not a dramatic change, just some improvement. They sound pretty good out of the box.

I did not notice any big change to the bass, they have good low end out of the box as I recall.

Cheers, Snade
Click to expand...
I would agree with Snade. The amount and quality of the bass response is surprising for such a small inexpensive speaker.
For what they are. They are a great sounding speaker! Even at the high price point of $50-$70.
They are a good bang for the buck. YMMV
 
Mine also sounded fine out of the box, but it may have something to do with placement. I've found mine sound best on the concrete floor in my workshop about a foot away from the wall. They don't sound very good on the shelf over the workbench though. I've actually never had a set of bookshelf speakers sound anything approaching good on a bookshelf though.
 
I agree that it may be a bad woofer. If it is new, it may be that a wire has come loose during shipping.

My only issue with the Insignias is that I am using them as a near field type speaker and their angle of dispersion is rather narrow. If you are out of the sweet spot the dropoff is significant. I like them though.
 
tommywpg said:
From reading up on these, many have said that the break in time can be long and some found oddities that went away after a short time and further breaking in continued to improve the sound.
Click to expand...

IMO, don't rely on "break-in" to change the sound of a speaker or your impression of it.

If one speaker sound different than the other, one of them is not working properly.
 
I understand that a speaker should sound good out of the box, but it is also true that most new speakers require a fair number of hours playing to break in or loosen up enough to sound their best. Am I wrong?

Anyhow, as far as the Insignias go, I was hoping to hear from those who own them. I was desperately looking for someone to make me believe that the speaker in question would be just fine if it was played for a while. I didn't have much more than a faint hope.

Thanks for all the responses. Which of you guys actually own a pair?
 
Sounds like the one speaker might be bad. After seeing the original thread on these last month I had a friend who works at BB get me a pair $39 his cost. I thought they sounded really good right out of the box.
 
tommywpg said:
I understand that a speaker should sound good out of the box, but it is also true that most new speakers require a fair number of hours playing to break in or loosen up enough to sound their best. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

To put it bluntly, I think speaker break-in is mostly bunk.

I believe there can be small changes in the driver parameters as some claim to have measured them. However, I really doubt the audibility of said changes.

After 40 hours (a fairly common number for "break-in") two things have happened...

1. You can't accurately recall how the speakers sounded 40 hours ago, and
2. You have become accustomed to the sound of the speakers.

I DO own a pair of the Insignias. I use them in a garage system along with a cheap Rat Shack sub and an Onkyo TX-4000 receiver. It sounds decent.

If there is a clear difference in the sound of one speaker, it would be a miracle for playing ("break-in") time to fix it...ain't gonna happen.
 
I don't disagree with you, whoaru. Especially point #1 which sounds totally logical to me. Like I said earlier, I was deluding myself about the bad woofer because I really wanted the deal to complete, another loved one off my Christmas list, to discover for myself what all the hype is about regarding the Insignias AND I was going to hook a pair up to my freshly cleaned up Yamaha receiver to hear it for the first time.

Between reckless couriers, DOA gear, and last minute auction losses. My heart gets broken regularly over deals and equipment let downs, but it's the thrill of the chase and finding beautiful pieces of audio gear that do great music justice that keep me going.
 
Someone should do a test. Break one pair of speakers in and leave the other in the box, then see if you can tell the difference.
 
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