[arda]

Hi all,
 
I'm new to the whole burn-in for IEM.
 
I have just bought the MC5 (ety) and read about people doing the burn-in for about 2 days.
 
My questions:
 
- When doing the burn in, what sounds is being played? is it any music with lots of bass? or is it certain sounds waves files?
- Does the quality of the recording play a role on how the burn-in result would be?
- How loud do I need to set on the vol when doing the burn in?
Thanks
 

 

[JxK]

Typical advice is to just play music at slightly louder than typical listening volume. Also realize, that like alot of the stuff on this site, burn-in is a contentious issue.
 
But instead of spending the time burning them in, just listen to the earphones. If they improve a little with time as you adjust to the sound (or if the driver actually burns in) great. If not, then even better, and you've just listened to your phones a little earlier than expected.

 

[jarrett]

Personally, I don't burn-in. I try to enjoy the new headphones the moment I get them.

 

[tops2]

I always burn in even though I'm not even sure if it really does anything.  I usually just let it burn in when I'm not listening to it for like the first week or two.  After that, I don't bother continuing burning in and just try to enjoy the headphones.
 
I downloaded a pink noise track a long time ago, and as mentioned by others, set to volume a bit louder than normal listening.

 

[soundeffect]

That's funny. I'm not sure if burn in works or not either.  I usually just listen to my headphones and a couple of them "seems" to sound better the next day...but I often wonder if it's because of burn in or my ears just adjust to the sound signature of the headphones.  I'm still hoping one day I will find the answer. lol.

 

[Bennyboy71]

Reading about burn in always makes me think of Schrödinger's cat 
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat 

 

[arda]

Thanks for all the replies.
 
it seems that I will just have to listen and enjoy  the new pair out of the box

 
 
Cheers guys!

 

[pizzafilms]

Quote:

I'm still hoping one day I will find the answer. lol.

Your brain adjusts itself over time to what it thinks "normal" is....WAY more than any piece of electronics or cable does.

 

[minuvera]

I know this is a very old post at this point. I definitely think there is some maturing of the sound of some headphones an iems after some playback time. I definitely noticed this when upgrading from my Etymotic HF5 to the ER3xr. When I tried the ER3s straight out of the box, they seemed overly detailed and emphasized in the highs almost giving a "digital" tone to the sound. I still listened to them though. I thought my HF5s had a smoother tone. I left the ER3s running overnight. the next day they definitely seemed to smooth out significantly.

There is a post somewhere where someone mesured frequency response of a pair of iems after 5 minutes up to 90 hours of playback at different playtime intervals. Comparison of the results showed a pretty clear trending shift in the frequency response. This is likely an artifact of what is called burn in.

I'm not convinced that it is mostly electrical burn in but probably more of the breaking in of the moving mechanical drivers. Every moving part has some kind of break in and adjustment from new.

 

[goodvibes]

I always find the 'brain burn in' reasoning odd for those that uses multiple earphones/headphones. Can't work that way though for others without multiples, getting accustomed to one thing does happen. I'm firmly in the break in camp but understand that it varies by device and situation.