Does everyone here believe in burn in? - Page 2

My thing is, why does the result of burn-in always seem to be positive? 

That doesn't make sense. Maybe when the drivers loosen up, they lose some resolution or detail. Maybe they really sound best straight out of the box - but we are all conditioned to believe that better results are yielded from burn-in. That can't, statistically speaking, always be the case. 

90% sure. 

I BELIEVE

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Originally Posted by fatcat28037 

IMO burn-in is as real as the huge improvement in sound achieved by that $300 replacement headphone cable. Zero. The change is in your head, not your gear.

QFT!

What are people's thoughts when someone has access to multiple units of the same product - decide to unwrap a couple, listen to all of them brand new (just to make sure they're consistently manufactured), put all but one back in the box then burn that single one for few days then compare against the others from the box again?

Quote:

Originally Posted by randomkid 

I'm a believer, but some headphones change more than others with burn-in, and it's not as significant as most make it out to be

 

In personal agreement with you. Varies from product to product and at least in my experience, it's not night and day but more subtle.

P.S. What I can't say is if the changes was due to the dynamic drivers or the cable but gut and logic implies the moving part (drivers) are the ones that's the main driver (no pun intended).

I believe....but if I am wrong the placebo effect works just fine for me.....

I haven't noticed any effects regarding burn-in before, but I can report that Sennheiser PC-350 produces a great deal more low-end bass after I've used them for 50 hours.

Usually I only notice the headset being able to produce sound/noises I haven't heard before, often detailed, high hz sounds - because I've been using crap for a long period of time. I also experienced this testing a pair of HD25 compared to my old HD518.

However, I've never been unable to hear differences in volume and bass. When I turned these headphones up to 50% with Exciter Mode (Xonar Headphone Amp card) right after purchase, it was an enjoyable listening level for energetic music and I recall thinking "meh, mediocre bass. can't complain, I wanted the mic"

When I listen to the same music now, after about 40-50 hours, it would appear as if it produces lower hz bass at a higher volume with more punch to it.

As I listen to a lot of electronic music such as Hardstyle and Hardcore, it is almost as if I've upgraded my headset.

I do actually believe in getting used to sounds, it doesn't take long before I can digest crappy headsets in fact. But I've never been unable to tell bass apart, even if I easily adjust to mid-high levels being crap.

Headphone and speakers? Yes; those suspensions have to break in, and if properly engineered the parameters should be optimal after break in. I've had multiples of the same headphone in hand before (1 new; 1+ well used); some models show a more striking change than others. The HD650 and L3000 both start out somewhat dull and uninspiring (not bad, not missing any large chunk of frequencies; just mediocre) but develop their really nice and dynamic sound over time. That's a pretty striking improvement. On the other hand, will a headphone that starts out sounding bright and bass-anemic turn that around fully? Probably not...

With phono cartridges -- there's some, but it seems less in magnitude than with headphones/speakers. The cartridges I've heard right out of the box (all nice models) sounded at least close to excellent from the first drop, or very soon after (a few to several hours max). That's good since you certainly don't want to waste a cartridge's precious lifespan on burn-in. 

With solid state electronics? I'm at least somewhat skeptical. These days if I hear a new component that I don't dig right of the bat, then I'm not going to wait around for a magical transformation. I once had a headphone amp repaired by a guy that wired the output caps wrong -- and then claimed that "it sounded good now, but it'll take some time for those caps to break in". It sounded horrific! After digging around I figured out that the way they were wired (WAY too small a cap in series on the outputs), the amp had a 6dB/octave low frequency rolloff starting at 1kHz! Certainly, burn-in gets blamed/credited for a lot of other forms of stupidity.

We may seem to get a little crazy with the burn-in on Head-fi, what with stuff like "the bass finally appeared after 700 hours". But that's nothing compared to what goes on in high-end 2ch, e.g. $13,000+ racks that need 300+ hours of burn in and -- according to the manufacturer -- supposedly will "sound awful at times during the process". Talk about BS 

Here's my take. From all of the headphones I've owned except for the V-MODA Crossfade M-100, there have been some changes in sound over time. HOWEVER, that change in sound, in my honest opinion, is due to me either getting used to the sound, or the earpads/headband breaking in thus creating a better seal on my head.

I tried to do a burn-in log for the M-100's and I heard no difference in sound what-so-ever (the detailed log is in my review, which can be found in my signature). From this more "scientific" method, I'm still a non-believer.

Tyll at Innerfidelity tried to measure the effects of burn-in and the results were not decisive.

People who compare 2 headphones next to each other (1 burned-in, 1 new) and claim there are effects of burn-in, NEVER ever take in to account that there are quality control differences, so they will inherently sound different.

Quote:

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnakChan 

What are people's thoughts when someone has access to multiple units of the same product - decide to unwrap a couple, listen to all of them brand new (just to make sure they're consistently manufactured), put all but one back in the box then burn that single one for few days then compare against the others from the box again?

Originally Posted by miceblue 
 

People who compare 2 headphones next to each other (1 burned-in, 1 new) and claim there are effects of burn-in, NEVER ever take in to account that there are quality control differences, so they will inherently sound different.

That's why I proposed having access to many units. And that is easy especially during demo days when distributors need to open multiple units of a new model for exhibition a couple of days before. That's an easy way to test at the start QC, and thereafter burn only one unit to then determine if that model is susceptible to burn-in or not 'cos some models are more prone than others.

The issue I see here in this thread is the audience is looking for a black or white answer. Of which, at least in my opinion, there simply isn't any.

+10,000 to what miceblue said about pads breaking in.. Pads make one hell of a lot of difference.

I've always wondered why burn-in is welcomed. I for one do not want my headphones to change. I've got less than 150 hours on my Ultrasone and they're said to burn in at 300. I'm fine with its sound now.

"Here, try our natural and organic milk, but please burn it in for 300 hours"

"It's turned into cheese!"

"That's just the burn in sir"