Break-in period for Swan m200mkii's?

S

seemlessthunder

Gawd
Joined
Oct 10, 2007
Messages
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Hey, got these speakers just recently. But they seem very harsh to me. How long should I allow for break-in before I return them?

I have a pair of z-cinemas that honestly sound a lot better than these (although with worse midrange). Is it the lack of a sub that's doing these in? Any other suggestions?

These have gotten really good reviews so I'm inclined to try to like them and figure out how to get them to sound the way they're supposed to.
 
450 said:
What kind of soundcard do you have?
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This.

Mine are very harsh when using on-board sound, but the harshness disappears when using a quality DAC.

BTW, don't you love the white bags they come in? And the gloves. haha.
 
What does it comes with? I order mine from audioinsider and it never said what it comes with
 
yujie said:
What does it comes with? I order mine from audioinsider and it never said what it comes with
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The speakers? They come with a standard 3.5mm TRS to RCA cable to hook them up. That and some white gloves to handle them. :D
 
I have onboard Realtek HD Audio and Creative X-Fi Platinum. Both seem to sound about the same, no matter how much I tweak them. I even played around with SRS Sandbox some trying to pull the soundstage back, but that didn't really seem to help. Set the crossover freq to different settings within their range and still didn't seem to do much. Side note, Realtek actually seemed to sound a little more natural than the X-Fi though still harsh.
 
In an attempt to eliminate all possibilities...
what are you using to test he sound quality?
mp3 file? cd? dvd?
for example, a 128kbps MP3 file will almost sound worse on a nicer set of speakers because you can distinctly hear all of the faults and harsh parts of the song which seem to stand out, whereas before it all sounded the same..
 
192, 256, and 320-bit mp3 files.

DVD, HD, and BR.

When I say it sounds harsh, what I mean is that the sound itself sounds harsh, not that I'm hearing more than I heard before. The Z-Cinemas had excellent clarity without inducing fatigue. I seem to get fatigue almost immediately on these. Also, on music it seems like there's less detail. Like some details will come off sounding muted or barely audible that I can hear fine on headphones or on the Z-Cinemas.

Do I need a sub for these?
 
Fatigue...? As in bright sound that causes your ears to kinda bleed? That's really really weird because I would describe the M200MKII to have warm sound, not bright and harsh.
 
As in thin/muffled/ not really present, but also probably bright as well since I notice it the most on movies.

I really like that it hits the really high notes, but especially for softer sounds the detail just doesn't seem to come out as much.

Right now I'm using them with Auralex pads. I'm gonna try without as well as playing around with placement some, but this is frustrating.
 
Yeah, that's not normal. Maybe you should call in for an RMA or something.
 
Make sure you have the tweeters at ear level. Off-axis listening on these is a bit uncomfortable. I posted some of my thoughts on these speakers here.

A bad amp in my instance exhibited very noticeable distortion in the lows for a few minutes, followed by a very loud popping/fizzling noise, after which the right channel was dead.
 
Yup, the right channel just died on me. Are there any halfways reliable, decent sounding speakers in this price range? I am so sick of people recommending speakers that are either a) crap sound (logitech) or b) crap quality (Swans) or c) both (Klipsch).
 
Maybe I should just stick with the Z-Cinemas and get a good pair of headphones. Unless I'm getting a sub as well, I'm not really looking to spend $350+ for a pair of speakers.
 
I think it would be more like $280 or something with coupon code MW09.

Also, Swans are not crappy quality. Every company has a percentage of defects.
 
Alai said:
I think it would be more like $280 or something with coupon code MW09.

Also, Swans are not crappy quality. Every company has a percentage of defects.
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Yup. Mine have been nothing but superb. The OP is probably just pissed. I would be to if my beloved M200MKII's died on me.
 
you should have done more research, a couple of people have had problems with the m200mkii's here and over at head-fi.

I have own two m10's and never had a problem, I think the m200mkii' s that the audioinsider sells are the only swans with a high percentage of failure.

You need to do your own research and find the speaker that YOU like and stop being lazy and asking for others opinions just to later blame them cuz you bought a bad pair.
 
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Well I did my research, but several people claimed the m200mkii's had been fixed (the problem appears to be the same that plagued m200 monitors prior to them). Since most reviews seemed to be on the borderline orgasmic level, I assumed they were reasonably good quality, reliable speakers. This does not appear to be the case. Further, I see people parading the m200mkii's all over the internet as the "value champion" for speakers. Clearly if there's a major problem with them, they should not be recommending them over more reliable speakers. I would never recommend ProMedia's to anyone for that same reason. But hey, it's cool you like to troll and uselessly bash someone because their speakers were crap and they point out that it could've been prevented if people were more honest about the quality of these speakers.

Since you bring up the m10's, how are those for music and movies? I'm interested primarily in vocals, because that's usually where the difference is most pronounced.
 
seemlessthunder said:
Well I did my research, but several people claimed the m200mkii's had been fixed (the problem appears to be the same that plagued m200 monitors prior to them). Since most reviews seemed to be on the borderline orgasmic level, I assumed they were reasonably good quality, reliable speakers. This does not appear to be the case. Further, I see people parading the m200mkii's all over the internet as the "value champion" for speakers. Clearly if there's a major problem with them, they should not be recommending them over more reliable speakers. I would never recommend ProMedia's to anyone for that same reason. But hey, it's cool you like to troll and uselessly bash someone because their speakers were crap and they point out that it could've been prevented if people were more honest about the quality of these speakers.
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So you're pair went dead and they are therefore there is a major problem with them all? Could you be generalizing any more?

Mine work perfectly and sound amazing. Therefore they all must sound amazing and be completely reliable.

See what I did there?

We get it, you're pissed. You should be. Generalizing doesn't help anyone.
 
Sorry, that wasn't directed at you. It was directed at the people who had problems with theirs, but never bothered to post. When I looked online prior to ordering, the only ones who seemed to have this problem were the older m200's, not the m200mkii's. From mine failing, it looks like it's still a major (undocumented) problem based on probability of getting a bum pair out of the number of these that Jon has in-stock. There aren't millions of these made, so if mine had this problem, it's VERY likely others did as well and now that I post about it, other people come out claiming there's problems with these speakers.

I'll also point out it's not insignificant to ship these back to audioinsider, at which point I could've just ordered the A5's or something else, more reliable. As is, it's looking like I'll be out $40+ on return shipping and that's total crap. I'm not rich, and juventuscaddiliac's comments blaming my defective speakers on me were both useless and trolling.

I mean what would your reaction be if you post about high quality speakers you just bought that promptly died on you only to be told by other posters "sucks to be you. it's your fault you bought bad speakers". I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that people who had trouble with a product post about it before someone else posts saying they got a bum pair. If people only post their positive experience about these fringe brand speakers, then how can get a good sense about their overall quality and reliability?

I appreciate everyone's comments who had good experience with their speakers, but I do wish more people would come forward who had problems and post as such so that others know about it prior to ordering.

Well if anyone else is looking, it appears that the old problem with the m200's is alive and well on the m200mkii' so it's still a crapshoot, which I'd been lead to believe wasn't the case.

Again, I'm not blaming this on people who were happy with their m200mkii's. I'm frustrated that people seem hesitant to post anything bad about these speakers just because they're a fan favorite.
 
Possibly, they didn't feel it was a big deal to just ship the defective pair back to get repairs. Admittedly, that SHOULD be a big deal, but to some people, an extra $40 isn't a big deal. Do they definitely make you pay for shipping for repairs?

Also, maybe you could convince them to just ship you a functional amp that you can replace yourself?
 
Fair enough. I know see where you are coming from. In the end I hope you find some speakers that you are happy with. Good luck.
 
Yeah, I'm gonna give him a call tomorrow and see what they can do for me.

Shipping Agreement. All merchandise shipped by The Audio Insider on behalf of the customer becomes the customer's legal property at such time as received by the freight company responsible for delivery. (Goods returned for any reason remain the customer's property until such time as The Audio Insider receives them intact at our facility.) All merchandise must therefore be inspected by customer for shipping damage at the time of delivery to customer and all damage claims must be initiated by customer and/or The Audio Insider at the Audio Insider's sole discretion. By using this site, customers acknowledge that The Audio Insider is not responsible for third-party delays in delivery, product or property damages, nor is responsible for return merchandise arrangements and costs unless agreed in advance.
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Please post if you get anything out of Jon. He flatly refused any suggestion of mine that did not involve me paying 100% of return shipping. He CLAIMS a 1% defect rate but I can't imagine it's that low. If it were he could afford to raise the price to $190 from $189, cover return shipping on defective sets, and still come out ahead.
 
I'll post back either way. Sysjack, could you PM me your order number for the defective pair? I won't use it for anything other than to tell if our orders were within 100 apart or close enough that the we're above the supposed "1%". Thanks!

It's unfortunate I didn't wait a little longer to order or I'd have seen your comments and probably not ordered it :(

Totally unnacceptable IMO to have to pay ~1/4 the price of a product to ship it back because it was defective.
 
That's probably why they CAN'T afford to have it shipped back for free. They probably don't make a high profit margin considering it's got great sound for the price. AKA expensive parts + cheap sale price = low profit margin. Also, it's not like THEY are the ones dictating the shipping price.

Still, I understand why you are so pissed/annoyed. Just saying, I would find it hard to argue the logical business sense of taking in free shipping of defective units when shipping is so expensive. Especially if they are also going to pay for shipping back to the customer (is that the case? not sure...). Then that would be already 50% of the sale price gone bye bye.
 
Check their About Us page. http://www.theaudioinsider.com/aboutus.php

They're making tons of profit. All they do is drop-ship. The only time something sees their facility is if there's something wrong with it and then they make the buyer pay for shipping. So they basically have very little overhead, and if as Jon told Sysjack there's a 1% defect rate, they should be more than capable of handling return shipping for defective product. The fact that they don't want to implies they have a high defect rate. I mean, I can understand for non-defective returns, but this is different.

Regardless, I'll see what he says tomorrow.
 
Eh? Where do you get that they have little overhead or make tons of profit? If there's anything I've learned from accounting, it's that business costs aren't all that obvious until you actually see it all in numbers or in action. Besides, you don't really know their business model. There's quite a few variations of retail business models. There's some that are basically just a distribution extension of the businesses they service and then there are some that technically buy the products from the businesses and are wholly responsible for the sales of these products. I am sure there are other species of retail that I don't know of so don't presume you can say what a business's costs or profits are from their About Us page. Lol.
 
Their about us page says they drop ship! It says they ship direct from distributers.

I mean, I can also ask like you guys were suggesting about just sending out the replacement amp if he's willing to try that, but I don't know if there's more than just the amp wrong with it.
 
From what he told me the manufacturer's warranty covers the new speakers and the slowest shipping option to send them to the customer. They don't cover returning the defective speakers to him. Although actually you will be returning them to OZ Endeavors in Colorado.
 
New speakers need to be broken in, normally after a week of use a few hours a day your sound will change for the better.

Let them play overnight in a basement or something on a medium level if you don't want to wait a week for break in.
 
Sysjack said:
From what he told me the manufacturer's warranty covers the new speakers and the slowest shipping option to send them to the customer. They don't cover returning the defective speakers to him. Although actually you will be returning them to OZ Endeavors in Colorado.
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Ok, took a look over there. Thanks for that info. From the appearance of things, he's actually just selling B-stock items from them for profit. You can buy that cheaper direct from them. The retail, unopened ones are nearer to $300 from them. So basically the reason there's a high fail rate from theaudioinsider is that he's selling professionally repackaged store returns from OZ Home Theater Products, just drop shipping them and then making the customer pay for returns or warranty shipping if/when they turn out to be crap. That's totally unnacceptable.
 
Swan speakers don't need breaking in! They're broken right out of the box!
 
They sold me a broken set of speakers, I think I am within my rights to crack a joke at their expense. If they had any legitimate screening process that set would never have left the factory. I know you're desperately in love with your set, but not everyone feels the same. We can argue this in PMs.
 
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