[steel102]

hey guys, im a total newb to all this. i consider myself fairly knowledgable in the speaker department in terms of sound quality, but ive never really taken headphones seriously, and have been sticking with those cheap $20 sony back of the head silver ones. i recently got my ears spoiled by the sennheisers hd280's and i was amazed, and decided, i really need new headphones.

well after browsing some of the threads here, i came across burning in. are there any special programs which you recommend or songs which would be well suited to headphone burn ins. for speakers i just usually loop a couple heavy metal songs (slipknot, downthesun, mushroomhead, slayer, sepultura), a little nu metal (korn, disturbed) and some rap and dance/trance(dj doboy, dj quicksilver, dj hydro) for 8 hours or so. i also have 2 tracks called subwoofer test or something and "woofer wars". would these suffice or are there any other recommendations you would reccomend for headphones. im thinking in terms of the sennheisers px200, because those are the only headphones which are really in my price range at this point in time and they seem pretty good. thanks a lot guys!

 

[Duxxy]

Basically anything will burn them in. Just put the volume a little higher than you normally would and just set it to repeat for a nice day or so.

Normally i use a song i never listen to break my headphones in: mystikals edge of the blade. It's a real nice way to work those drivers.

 

[sliberman]

Wideband pink or white noise plus a tone sweep to excite
those resonances. Such as track no. 8 of the
Sheffield - XLO Test & Burn-in CD.

Played in a loop for 1 or more days.

 

[Lisa]

Is it ok to connect the phones to my receiver and change channels every couple of hours so they're exposed to all kinds of music?

 

[ClearYourMind]

Bass...

that is what is going to losen up the drivers. Deep bass. The vibrating effect opens them right up. Sure you can put any music on to break them in. Bass prob works the fastest because it puts the most stress and heavy vibrations on the drivers.

 

[Snufkin]

Guys don't get too carried away with burning your headphones in, it's not something you have to do - it's just a way to get rid of the "out of the box" sound.

There have been instances where people played sweeping test tones at high volume and ended up hating the way the headphones sounded afterwards.

Grab your favourite cd, put it on repeat, turn it up to just above your normal listening level and leave it on repeat overnight.. that's basically all you need to do. For the next few weeks just listening to the headphones will burn them in.

Of course you could also just listen to music straight out of the box and hear the sound change over the first few hours of listening

 

[Matthew-Spaltro]

Do you have a newish Sony walkman. If so get a album with deep bass. Put the mega bass on as high as it can go. Usually the Sony discmans will have three different stages of mega bass. Pump the bass up to the thrid level. Start out with the players volume down lower then you normay listen. Then gradulay every three hours or so pump up the volume untill it is so loud that it hurts to listen. But not ALL the way you don't want to ruin the driver. After that let them burn in for another day or two. And then your golden.

 

[steel102]

yes, i have one of the sony g protection diskmans, which is fairly new and it has diff. bass settings. thanks for all the advice guys. what do u guys think of the sennheiser px200's as light gaming headphones. in terms of their general sound quality, including bass (for explosions, bullets etc.) and mids (speech)

 

[BustedKeaton]

For whatever reason Sennheiser hd 280 pros require a lot of burn-in, like 100 hours worth. When I first got them the bass was ok and some highs, like vocals (specifically Louis Armstrong) would actually distort.

By 40 hours the bass was deeper and the highs less harsh.

By 100 hours the highs had mellowed considerably and the bass was nice, deep and tight.

I just put three CDs into in my CD changer and let it play for few days. I chose different types of music that i actually listen to. At least one CD was always something with bass, something like the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Funkadelic. The main thing is the volume. Loud but not too loud. I would put it just slightly above the loudest you would listen to it. You do not want break your drivers you just want to flex them. If you have a powerful stereo and you crank it up, the possiblity exists that you could fry your headphones.

 

[AIM9x]

I enjoy hearing the phones evolve as I listen to them. That way, your new phones just continually get more magical.

 

[sacriste]

I burned mine with a selection of test tones, frequency sweeps, filtered pink noise, very dynamic music, classic orchestral music is good because covers all the levels, and also heavy bass music to loosen the driver a little. That worked for me.
Other esoteric focus is to take your best sounding CDs and play it for many hours, so your cans could absorb that great sound

 

[steel102]

do you know where i could download some frequency sweeps?

 

[sacriste]

Not really, but you can found some in cleaning CDs, like Maxxell or TDK. The Sheffield test CD titled My Disc is what I use for that, you could buy it now for this use and for much more in the future.

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally posted by AIM9x I enjoy hearing the phones evolve as I listen to them. That way, your new phones just continually get more magical.

I allways listen to my music very not loud. [size=xx-small](don't know the opposite of loud in English

)[/size]
Will it take longer to break them in if the music is 'very not loud'?

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally posted by Matthew-Spaltro Do you have a newish Sony walkman. If so get a album with deep bass. Put the mega bass on as high as it can go. Usually the Sony discmans will have three different stages of mega bass. Pump the bass up to the thrid level. Start out with the players volume down lower then you normay listen. Then gradulay every three hours or so pump up the volume untill it is so loud that it hurts to listen. But not ALL the way you don't want to ruin the driver. After that let them burn in for another day or two. And then your golden.

If you follow this kind of misinformed advice you're more likely to "burn out" your headphones rather than "burn in"

Loudness controls (mega bass etc) are designed to compliment the bass at low listening levels and are not to be used at mid to high listening levels. Playing distorted music through your headphones means the amplifier is clipping and will inevitably burn your voice coils out.

All "burning in" means is that the headphones drivers loosen up over a period of time. High frequencies are just as important as "bass" in this process. Never ever crank the volume up until " it is so loud that it hurts to listen" or you may find you won't have a pair of headphones to listen to the next day as the coils have burnt out due to excessive clipping.

Treat your hi-fi with respect and think of it as a new car engine... you wouldn't drive out of the showroom with a brand new car and take it on the motorway and do 140mph would you? you'd treat it with a bit more care and would gradually introduce different speeds etc.

Play music in the normal way you listen to it and occasionally turn it up a bit and then down a bit. Play a wide variety of music to get the diaphragm used to the different signals... there is no point playing the same tune over and over again and to subject your headphones to hours and hours of a repetitive bass signal.

I find that something "classical" is the best burn in disc... highs and lows and constantly changing musical patterns... the more complex and varied the signal is, the better the exercise for your drivers.

Variation is the key to burning a driver in. Exercise it with lots of different music at lots of different volumes but NEVER turn it up to levels that are beyond the amps capability to deal with.

Remember, you will do a LOT more damage to a transducer with an underpowered amp than you will with an overpowered one.

Pinkie.

http://freespace.virgin.net/rock.grotto/index2.htm tweaks and tips for the headphone user.