[Satir]

n/a

 

[Mr Rick]

  I've been into quality audio since my overseas U.S.Army tour from early to mid 70's. Since then I've owned a plethora of audio systems, headphones and mobile fidelity from quite expensive to rather modest. Through all those years I've become increasingly uncomfortable with forum talk about discernable improvements from inordinately long break-in times for cables, speakers, amplification components, source components and headphones. I accept certain instances, without scientific test validation, where audio components can change in ways that positively affect sound quality (I've heard tubes change over weeks of break-in, but for the good is for the ear of the beholder) based on listening, but am very skeptical of tales of big improvements in sound quality with long break-in periods. Scientific method and psychology will never make a dent in changing the minds of those who adhere to better sound quality from long break-in of audio components anymore than science will change the minds of most climate change deniers. Speaking for myself of course.

 
Some people will believe anything after hearing it, seeing it, or reading it, enough times. I doubt this will ever change.

 

[Satir]

n/a

 

[Muinarc]

I remember back in the day break-in was 50 hours, then it morphed into 100 hours, now I'm seeing 150-250 hours all the time. I read some paper a long time ago about this and the equipment designer that wrote it said that there can be changes in both speaker drivers (spider softening in dynamics for instance) and electronics over time..... but that time is measured in a few dozen minutes at most. He even showed measured response out of a speaker after 1, 5, 10, 20 minutes of use up to I think a few days and it showed a change in the first maybe 30 minutes then it was consistent from there out.

 

[ChrisAllen]

I am not a believer of all the break in BS either. I think its a matter of hearing something for long enough and getting used to the sound. The guys over at Audioholics have some good articles about it. 

 

[Music Alchemist]

It baffles me whenever I read about mechanical burn-in, especially significant changes, because I owned around 50 headphones and never once noticed anything like that. I don't even experience mental burn-in either. I can get used to a headphone's sound and tolerate its weaknesses, but it doesn't actually sound any different.
 
Now, one thing that definitely did happen was ear pad break-in. An extreme example was when one headphone's pads were basically torn apart to the point that the foam was exposed. That changed the sound quite a bit. A less extreme example was when I bought two units of the same headphone: one brand new, the other used. The pads on the used one were broken down and softer, making it sound a bit warmer and darker than the new one.

 

[Vatnos]

I have seen some interesting measurements of burn-in, but they involve half-decibel changes at most over 40 hours, and it's tough to eliminate variables like positioning from those measurements.
 
I used to believe in burn-in but as I've gotten more headphones I've started to realize how insanely pliant my perception of sound really is over time. That does seem to explain most of it. Still, the various resonance frequencies in the driver can have small changes, and those can potentially add up throughout the spectrum into something perceptible.