{Poll) A consensus on Head-Fi: Does headphone break-in exist? - Page 9

In my opinion, my SR60i's got "cleaner" over the course of several hours of listening.  It may have been perceptual, placebo, or the cups conforming to my ears better, but it was certainly "noticeable" as far as my mind is concerned.

Does something like better audio quality need to actually occur if a placebo change occurred and pleases you?

Only if you intend to make a claim of it. If you made me bet, I'd say it was the foam. I had SR-225s and you could change the sound dramatically with various alterations to the foam. HD-414 pads, HD-414 pads with a quarter cut out of the middle, reversing the stock pads, electrical tape around the stock pads, electrical tape + reversing the stock pads... Each of those had a pretty dramatic impact on the sound, altering the way that the drivers couple to your head. I think my favorite was electrical tape + reversed. Been awhile, though, and you know how sense memory is.

I guess it could be some shift in the construction to a nominal state... Although the most likely changes to a nominal state in the driver construction of a tiny driver like that ought to be done by, er, not very long into the listening process, I should think.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tool462 

In my opinion, my SR60i's got "cleaner" over the course of several hours of listening.  It may have been perceptual, placebo, or the cups conforming to my ears better, but it was certainly "noticeable" as far as my mind is concerned.

 

Does something like better audio quality need to actually occur if a placebo change occurred and pleases you?

I think Dave Rat did a few tests and noticed a 2 dB change after a 6-day burn it test.  He noted that although it could be audible, "he did not really believe in the voodoo that is burn in."  I always find it strange when someone discovers empirical data that supports one hypothesis and then makes a conclusion in complete disregard to the data.  Boggles the mind it does.

As for me there is no doubt that "burn in" exists be in audible or psychological.  I have had two pairs of headphones change significantly.  The first is the Grado SR-80 and the second is a pair of Sennheiser EH-250's.  The Grados opened up and the bass was full of fun vibrato whereas the EH-250's one day opened the bass up completely.  I have no empirical data other that audible response and will not generate a conclusion other than they sounded different to me.  The duration of the burn in was well over 100 hours.

If you can measure a difference and it is more than .5dB, your ears should be able to tell.  Little changes in frequency response could lead to an entire cascade of audible differences, especially when one considers harmonic generation and the Fourier Transform.

Personally I believe it to be a combination of 75% psychological ( changing of source, amp, DAC, music, listening level etc ) and 25% empirical alteration of the diaphragm and other physical components. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by NA Blur 

Little changes in frequency response could lead to an entire cascade of audible differences, especially when one considers harmonic generation and the Fourier Transform.

I agree.  This gets glossed over all the time.  
 

OK, it's been over a week with my T-1s sitting unused in a plastic ziploc safely tucked away in a drawer.....

Did they revert back to the really nice 650 like sound they had out of the box or do they still sound like the brighter 880 like house sound they matured to?

Well, they are still 880 like.  No reversion-what-so-ever and that's too bad because I liked them better the other way.

So much for burn in wears off if you don't use it.

Anyway, glad to have them back, but I will say one thing.  During the past week I used my 650s exclusively and I can tell you that aside from the spacial characteristics and increased resolution, the 650s still have a better, more realistic tone....  the 650s still sound more like my piano than the T-1s will ever sound.

In many ways they still are flagships.

I'm not sure, that puts me in the smallest minority

I'm not sure, either.

I'm open to the idea of headphone break-in; there are some compelling stories and a pretty good rationale for its existence. But whatever "changes" I've noticed have been very subtle, and easily interpreted as perceptual changes. In fact, I'm certain that perceptual changes happen. Whenever someone claims they hear "break-in" using a closed embouchure IEM - even though it's physically impossible for these devices to break-in. They don't have moving parts.  

I forgot to mention my experience with burn in a while back. My first "nice" headphones were the vmoda bass freqs which might just be the most fragile IEMs ever. They'd break once a month like clockwork, I NEVER got a pair to last longer than 30 days. Part of it had to do with my deliberate lack of care within the vendor warranty period for a pair of IEMs, I'll fold the wires and put them in my pocket without a case or wrap them around my ipod because I want to simulate the equivalent of three months of wear and tear to make sure that they aren't flimsy crap, and that they don't die on me two months after radioshacks pathetic 30 days warranty. Anyway, I went through between 6 and 7 pairs of those before finally upgrading to some s4s. Without hearing about "burn in" until my fourth pair, I recognized a definitive relative coldness to them for the first hour of use each time I bought a new pair. Now of course, they were still bass heavy, but less so than I found them to be an hour after use. Every audio system I listened to between a pair breaking and buying a new pair was substantially lighter than they were. So for me, I'm sold on the idea of break in for the first half hour to an hour.