[yepimonfire]

You listen to one for a period of time and then go to put a different one on and all of the sudden it sounds weird and "off". For example, i listened to my ety's all this morning on the bus to college, they sounded off and weird for about the first 30 minutes i listened to them eventually they sounded normal. Then, i come home and put on my AD900's and start listening to music and same thing, they sound weird and off. Eventually they will sound normal again as i re-adjust to the sound difference. 
 
It annoys me lol.

 

[Hellbishop]

Alot of people seem to go through the same thing. It never bothered me perhaps because am expecting things to sound different so i enjoy the changes. Am also a sound fanatic where even a 1970s portable radio has an attractive magical quality.
 
Things that bother me using multiple headphones:
 
1.I have to use only one per day to have an enjoyable experiance. Trying to use more then one headphone per day is like trying to mix wine with cod liver oil.
 
2. Making space for so many of them. I just recently had to put a bunch of them away in their original boxes to reclaim parts of my apartment again.
 
3. Maintenance and keeping them clean.
 
4. Feeling like am not using my bookshelf speakers enough.
 
5. Having friends who arent as musically inclined looking at me like am..odd.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

You listen to one for a period of time and then go to put a different one on and all of the sudden it sounds weird and "off". For example, i listened to my ety's all this morning on the bus to college, they sounded off and weird for about the first 30 minutes i listened to them eventually they sounded normal. Then, i come home and put on my AD900's and start listening to music and same thing, they sound weird and off. Eventually they will sound normal again as i re-adjust to the sound difference. 
 
It annoys me lol.

 
Heya,
 
This property has a lot to do with the underlying psychology of the mythical burn in phenomena.
 
I actually like it, if you swap up often, you're constantly undoing your brain's predictive work so that you have to actually hear what's coming out. It sounds off because your brain was predicting what it would hear. And the reality is, our audible memory is weak. It takes a good 48 to 72 hours measured for something audible to be stored in long term memory on average. So if you don't spend that much time constantly per headphone, you'll notice you always have to re-adjust when swapping headphones (and speakers too).
 
This is also why one should spend a few days on a pair of headphones at a time when doing a review or comparison. Constantly A-B'ing headphones actually will result in a lot of misinformation because your brain just cannot remember audio properties very well. We're not dogs and bats. We suck frankly when it comes to hearing. So we have to spend a lot of time slowly building a memory base to form the mythical audiophile grail of golden ears.
 
Very best,

 

[pelli]

The annoying thing about owning/using multiple headphones is.........

I only have two ears  

 

[yepimonfire]

Quote:

 
Heya,
 
This property has a lot to do with the underlying psychology of the mythical burn in phenomena.
 
I actually like it, if you swap up often, you're constantly undoing your brain's predictive work so that you have to actually hear what's coming out. It sounds off because your brain was predicting what it would hear. And the reality is, our audible memory is weak. It takes a good 48 to 72 hours measured for something audible to be stored in long term memory on average. So if you don't spend that much time constantly per headphone, you'll notice you always have to re-adjust when swapping headphones (and speakers too).
 
This is also why one should spend a few days on a pair of headphones at a time when doing a review or comparison. Constantly A-B'ing headphones actually will result in a lot of misinformation because your brain just cannot remember audio properties very well. We're not dogs and bats. We suck frankly when it comes to hearing. So we have to spend a lot of time slowly building a memory base to form the mythical audiophile grail of golden ears.
 
Very best,

yeah this is why i never believed in burn in, because every time i swapped headphones or speakers, i always had the same problem as i did when first listening lol. this is also why i have always been the kind of person to stick with one headphone for most of my listening. the only reason i even own seperate phones for portable use is because my open backed AT phones do a terrible job of blocking outside noise, and an even worse job of keeping their own sound in (therefore annoying anyone within 10 feet of me lol).

 

[machoboy]

I believe burn in changes the way a headphone sounds after being broken in a little bit. The myth to me is that burn in universally makes a headphone sound BETTER. You never see anyone say "man, these sounded great out of the box but after burning them in they sound terrible". It seems like the combination of slight changes in the sound coupled with the phenomenon discussed here -- just getting used to their sound -- results in a widespread assumption that the two events are one in the same and that burn-in is always positive.

 

[Chawanwit]

Yep I agree. I try to find what type of music I like best on each headphones and just enjoy how excellently each or my headphone portray those genre.

 

[Hellbishop]

Quote:

 
Heya,
 
This property has a lot to do with the underlying psychology of the mythical burn in phenomena.
 
I actually like it, if you swap up often, you're constantly undoing your brain's predictive work so that you have to actually hear what's coming out. It sounds off because your brain was predicting what it would hear. And the reality is, our audible memory is weak. It takes a good 48 to 72 hours measured for something audible to be stored in long term memory on average. So if you don't spend that much time constantly per headphone, you'll notice you always have to re-adjust when swapping headphones (and speakers too).
 
This is also why one should spend a few days on a pair of headphones at a time when doing a review or comparison. Constantly A-B'ing headphones actually will result in a lot of misinformation because your brain just cannot remember audio properties very well. We're not dogs and bats. We suck frankly when it comes to hearing. So we have to spend a lot of time slowly building a memory base to form the mythical audiophile grail of golden ears.
 
Very best,

 
Wowzers.. I just switched my Polk Tsi100 bookshelf speakers after only two days of use out of storage for my Insignia NS-B2111 bookshelf speakers which i was instantly comfortable with. After reading your post i realised the Insignia's sound alot like my Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones which i have been using constantly since getting them over the summer.

 

[vernz]

never bothered me
i usually use different headphones for different kinds of music.

 

[Origin89]

It used to be really noticeable until my brained learned what's going on, and now I can shift from my Etymotic HF5 to my Denon D2000 without that prolonged mental adjusting. Your brain is a learning machine. Keep throwing obstacles at it and it'll eventually adapt.