[Tiemen]

LOL, my GMP 250 are sounding worse after break-in. The bass is boomy now, it wasn't out of the box....

Edit: and they became duller, no matter which earpad I put on them. It was as if life sucked out of them with aging.

 

[ArmAndHammer]

Not sure yet if I believe in it but I figure what's the harm. Let my cans play pink noise while i am asleep and in a few days if it helps great, if not, well, I am not out anything.

 

[mape00]

I think this sums up my beliefs on this subject pretty well:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/q...7/#post5222619

The measurements on GS1000 was as expected. I'd like to see more graphs of this kind, especially for headphones which some people claim change drastically with burn-in.

Something does change when listening to headphones, I've experiences that myself, but I'd say it's mainly getting used to the new sound signature, or unconsciously learning how to get a better fit. The logic that because the sound changes, it has to be some weird process happening in the drivers/cables/whatnot which cannot be explained by science is to me preposterous. Without proof for such an extraordinary claim, I find it much easier to believe that the effects are mainly psychological (which is not the same as saying it's nonexistent), in accordance with Occam.

 

[Alec E]

I'm bumping this thread in the event that anyone's come up with anything else like the graph linked to on the previous page.

 

[JohnFerrier]

AKG indicates that wear of the K701 ear pads may cause changes in the low frequency response.

Headphone "break-in"


.

 

[SillyHoney]

I don't know how big is considered "huge difference" when people talk about recabling. But for me, burn-in makes a HUGE difference.

 

[fjrabon]

yeah, from what most non-mom and pop headphone manufacturers (ie not Grado) will tell you is that it's mostly a combo of getting a better fit on your head through break in (ie the headphone sits more firmly and in a better position on your head) and your brain slowly adjusting to the sound.

An experiment I had people do in undergrad was had them listen to a pink noise track alternating with a white noise track. Then just a white noise track by itself. We told them that the second track may or may not slowly change pitch to be between the two tracks they had listened to earlier, and we asked them to identify whether it was doing so or not. 80% said they could hear the track, very very slowly changing pitch. When in fact none did.

Point being, if the brain expects a sound to sound a certain way, it will slowly make you hear it that way. Our brain isn't some passive sense monitor, it makes educated guesses about the way things "should" be and then adjusts input so that we have a more consistent sensory experience. The brain assumes that it's just as likely that our senses mess up as it does, so if it gets something slightly off, it adjusts.

 

[Ninkul]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnFerrier /img/forum/go_quote.gif AKG indicates that wear of the K701 ear pads may cause changes in the low frequency response. Headphone "break-in" .

Emailed AKG about it a while ago and possibly got the exact same reply. I still have the email but i'm too lazy to open it up .

 

[xnor]

There is at least one or two more linked measurements (showing negligible differences, most probably just measurement errors) in the sound science forum. Use the search, luke!

Talking about beliefs.. I don't think that anyone can deny that something like a transducer changes over time. However, people over here exaggerate massively. Overnight a bass-lean headphone suddenly becomes a bass monster and muddiness vanished while resolution improved massively and so on and on - it makes no sense whatsoever ...

People are just defending their equipment. Of course they do, since nobody wants to hear that the stuff you just bought sucks.

This and also what fjrabon wrote are reasons to make people hear whatever they want to hear, so don't take things with a grain of salt, take them with a tablespoon of salt.