Steveo616,

Great questions!

Here's my theory / answer.

I'll first digress. Speakers don't "break-in" - your ears do. In other words you grow accustomed to what's familiar.

So you listen to the same pair of speakers for years and guess what? They usually keep sounding great to you. So if they deteriorate very very slowly, your ears may never notice the slow change. So long as they don't get to the point where something actually fails (like a physical defect that causes audible buzzing or distortion) you're still gonna like them - especially if you don't spend much time listening to other speakers - or don't have a new set of identical speakers to compare them to (which most of us don't).

Now in the case of crossovers, my own ears don't seem to be all that sensitive to their deterioration. Why do I say so? Because I've never noticed an audible difference between one that's been refurbished - and one that hasn't. I'm talking about speakers that have not reached that obvious "hey I'm broken" stage.

I've taken a pair in. Got their crossovers repaired. In the process they've had a good handfull of components (always caps and resistors) replaced - all due to either i) them being out of original tolerance or ii) being obviously badly corroded - to the point where they literally snap off at the solder connection. Brought them back. Listened to them side-by-side with another pair that still work. And could not tell the difference.

On the other hand I've taken some in where there is no sound coming from a driver or two, or where it's obviously badly distorted - and in that case the crossover repair has brought them back to life. (I've never had to replace a driver that has not been physically abused - like having its dust cover punched in.)

What is likely happening is that the ones that show crossover oxidation etc - but still sound "normal" - are still at the point where my ears are both used to them (as they currently are) and can't pick up the perhaps faint "signs" that there is something wrong. Given a little more time they become the ones where absolute and obvious failure occurs.

So to answer your questions (finally) it could very well be that yours are still 100% ok. But it could also be that they have deteriorated - but not to the point where your ears notice. In that case, and assuming continued deterioration, they eventually would "fail" in a way that would be noticeable.

My advice: find a place that gives free quotes. Take them in. Have them look them over - and test the values of the various crossover components, check for corrosion, etc. - and tell you if it needs fixing and if so for how much. The shop I use gives such free quotes. I'm always surprised at how bad the components that they replace look.

Hope that helps.