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Changing characteristics of phones with music

post #1 of 5
4/15/11 at 7:11am
Thread Starter 
I'm starting to wonder if you listen to say bass heavy music a lot compared to classical music with the same headphones, you may end up with different characteristics. What do you think? It may explain some of inconsistent opinions on the same model of headphones which seem common here.
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post #2 of 5
4/15/11 at 8:47am
While there is evidence that different signals will cause drivers to "age" differently as it is used, it's been demonstrated that those types of changes are typically fairly small. I don't know if they would be audible, but other variables have much more effect on the overall sound than these changes.

These "other variables" would include differences between manufacturing batches. Headphone manufacturers most often do not make their own drivers, and even if they do, the materials they source from one batch to the next may not be absolutely consistent. Add to this any running changes they make in order to address specific cost/performance issues, and it's understandable how two headphones of the same model can have a different sound.

Jack
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post #3 of 5
4/16/11 at 12:40pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by codeninja View Post

I'm starting to wonder if you listen to say bass heavy music a lot compared to classical music with the same headphones, you may end up with different characteristics. What do you think? It may explain some of inconsistent opinions on the same model of headphones which seem common here.


Also factor in that people perceive frequencies differently depending on their ear anatomy, and then that people have different priorities (psychologically) in what they look for in music.

 

 

 

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post #4 of 5
4/17/11 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack-Micca View Post

While there is evidence that different signals will cause drivers to "age" differently as it is used, it's been demonstrated that those types of changes are typically fairly small. I don't know if they would be audible, but other variables have much more effect on the overall sound than these changes.
but, isn't it the same concept for burn in where you loosen your driver certain way and people use pink noise for even fq response?
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post #5 of 5
4/18/11 at 8:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by codeninja View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack-Micca View Post

While there is evidence that different signals will cause drivers to "age" differently as it is used, it's been demonstrated that those types of changes are typically fairly small. I don't know if they would be audible, but other variables have much more effect on the overall sound than these changes.
but, isn't it the same concept for burn in where you loosen your driver certain way and people use pink noise for even fq response?

Right it is the same as burn-in. There will be some driver characteristics change, but such changes may be small when compared to differences in driver characteristics between different production batches.

What I am saying is that try not to be too worried about driver changes as a headphone gets used since there are other factors at play that have a bigger impact on the sound.

Jack
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