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Results of a HD600 Burn in Experiment! :) - Page 4

post #46 of 47
7/14/08 at 2:27am
I wanna try this, too! Who wants to get in on identical Ultrasones with me? =D
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post #47 of 47
7/14/08 at 2:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by b0dhi View Post
This is far from an ideal test. The reason being the assumption that the 2 headphones were "identical", soundwise. Different units, even those manufactured one after another, can (and most likely will) vary in response. Unless you have some accurate response graphs to prove this, it's incorrect to assume that they were originally identical.

It's possible that originally the 2 units sounded fairly different but became more similar when one was burnt in. It's also possible that neither of them changed at all, and the difference you are now hearing is due to natural variations between units. Unfortunately, there is no way to know.

If you want to perform a valid test of burn-in, you would need to use a single headphone unit, and ideally you would also measure response pre-burn-in and post-burn-in.
Great point. I had a SR-003 that was burned in, and then bought a new one, and the difference between them sonically was night and day - but I can't attribute that difference to burn-in since I have to assume that the two pairs were identical sonically, which may not be correct (even if in the past I erroneously cited this as an example of burn-in existing).

Still, burn-in is a pretty well-documented phenomenon in the speaker world, and to rule out that it can apply in the headphone world which is just a smaller-scale use of similar driver technology is pretty silly.

(and for people that will invariably pick on me for this - sorry, but I'm not going to bother to look up specific research articles on the subject, so please don't give me anything about "burden of proof..." I don't care)

I just think that h-f blows the effects of burn-in way out of proportion. It's also a great idea from a seller's perspective, with the net effect being that a buyer needs to keep his phones "burning in" past the allowable return date. So, every time I see MOTs and affiliated posters yelling about hundreds upon hundreds of hours of burn-in in their less-than-stellar headphones and other products, I have to question their motives.

RE OP: My experience with the HD600 was pretty similar - there was very little change when it came to burn-in, if any. The HD650 might have shown a little bit more clarity and separation with use, but then again it is just as likely that I have simply adapted to its sound signature. Likewise, I never heard any burn-in out of the SR-404, any balanced-armature canalphone, or most of my headphones in general, but a few examples do stick out, specifically, the afore-mentioned SR-003, and the DT770, which underwent a complete reversal of sound signature in the first 24 hours.
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