[xnor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ham Sandwich /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm not going to base a headphone purchase based solely from graphs.

Nobody is forcing you to.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

True. But a corollary to that is that graphs will only tell part of the story for what may be heard pre and post burn-in for a headphone driver.

 

[sampson_smith]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MomijiTMO /img/forum/go_quote.gif My opposition to burn in is how people claim their once CRAP headphones now sound OMGWTFBBQ AMAZING after 1000 hours! ... Peace out

OMG, that just made me spray hot coffee all over my keyboard. BBQ! Ha ha ha...

 

[Gbjerke]

Quote:

Whether its your ears or the headphones, something changes with *some* headphones. Where it gets silly is when folk start telling you that a headphone needs 400 hours before you can begin to appreciate it - life is too short.

Don't talk about my IE8s like that..

 

[eucariote]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koyaan I. Sqatsi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Of course there was nothing "burning in" during this time. It was simply my brain becoming acclimated to a new "pattern."

Excellent point. But surely someone has confirmed/disproved the benefits of burn-in by now. How, among all these mountains of gear, various meetups, stereo shops, has no one simply compared the 2 + models of same headphone after different amounts of usage?

I've got two headphones, one new (Beyerdynamic DT 250-250) and one old (Grado SR225) if anyone wants to come over and settle this.

 

[Leny]

I've not read the whole thread, but would just like to say: everything that moves needs time to "settle in" to some degree. Sometimes it's not important, such as a door hinge where the degree of difference between new and used is too small to be noticeable. Other times it can be significant such as the suspension on speaker diaphragms. So it is not really burn-in, but more a case of mechanical conditioning into a normal working state.

: )

 

[sampson_smith]

Ahhh... you mean "break-in"!

 

[roadwarrior]

I am neither a Yey or Ney!

I am from the "why bother" and "who cares" camp.

I "burn in" all my headphones in a well proven method - I use them!

 

[brendon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatchFire /img/forum/go_quote.gif (BTW, solid state burn-in makes no sense to me whatsoever, is there any logical argument for this at all?)

Believe it or not but I have experienced solid state burn-in !

I have a Meier Corda Porta III and paired it with a Head-direct RE1. The combination sounded good, nice bass, smooth mids and a really wide soundstage. All well and good except that the high notes seemed veiled in comparison to running the RE1 unamped.

I read a review here on head-fi that said the Meier Corda Porta III would give a nice boost to the treble as well so I knew something was not right with my amp. I was a firm believer in headphone burn-in but not in solid state burning (I mean there is nothing moving in there so how can there be a 'burn-in' ? )

But the veiled trebble was bothering me for the 5 days daily commute using the above combo and I was not enjoying my music much since the RE1 has less treble to begin. So I decided that with nothing to lose I will try to do a burn-in just for kicks. So I burned the amp in using Pink noise for 8 hours (my zzzz time) and guess what ? The veil had lifted considerably. On the next day commute I enjoyed the music much more than the past 5 days and with a further 8 hour burn in the veil was completely vanished. A further 16 hour burn-in did not make any perceptible difference to me but its not to say the sound did not change at all since its very possible that my ears could not detect any change in the sound.

Oh and I believe in headphone burn-in as well but I have no proof of anything so I will stop at mentioning that I also believe in solid state burn-in.

 

[TStewart422]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brendon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Believe it or not but I have experienced solid state burn-in ! I have a Meier Corda Porta III and paired it with a Head-direct RE1. The combination sounded good, nice bass, smooth mids and a really wide soundstage. All well and good except that the high notes seemed veiled in comparison to running the RE1 unamped. I read a review here on head-fi that said the Meier Corda Porta III would give a nice boost to the treble as well so I knew something was not right with my amp. I was a firm believer in headphone burn-in but not in solid state burning (I mean there is nothing moving in there so how can there be a 'burn-in' ? ) But the veiled trebble was bothering me for the 5 days daily commute using the above combo and I was not enjoying my music much since the RE1 has less treble to begin. So I decided that with nothing to lose I will try to do a burn-in just for kicks. So I burned the amp in using Pink noise for 8 hours (my zzzz time) and guess what ? The veil had lifted considerably. On the next day commute I enjoyed the music much more than the past 5 days and with a further 8 hour burn in the veil was completely vanished. A further 16 hour burn-in did not make any perceptible difference to me but its not to say the sound did not change at all since its very possible that my ears could not detect any change in the sound. Oh and I believe in headphone burn-in as well but I have no proof of anything so I will stop at mentioning that I also believe in solid state burn-in.

Can you document it? Did you DBT it? Heck, did you GRAPH it? Or is it completely subjective and we have no way of knowing whether it was placebo or just your ears adjusting?

 

[Speederlander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brendon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Believe it or not but I have experienced solid state burn-in ! I have a Meier Corda Porta III and paired it with a Head-direct RE1. The combination sounded good, nice bass, smooth mids and a really wide soundstage. All well and good except that the high notes seemed veiled in comparison to running the RE1 unamped. I read a review here on head-fi that said the Meier Corda Porta III would give a nice boost to the treble as well so I knew something was not right with my amp. I was a firm believer in headphone burn-in but not in solid state burning (I mean there is nothing moving in there so how can there be a 'burn-in' ? ) But the veiled trebble was bothering me for the 5 days daily commute using the above combo and I was not enjoying my music much since the RE1 has less treble to begin. So I decided that with nothing to lose I will try to do a burn-in just for kicks. So I burned the amp in using Pink noise for 8 hours (my zzzz time) and guess what ? The veil had lifted considerably. On the next day commute I enjoyed the music much more than the past 5 days and with a further 8 hour burn in the veil was completely vanished. A further 16 hour burn-in did not make any perceptible difference to me but its not to say the sound did not change at all since its very possible that my ears could not detect any change in the sound. Oh and I believe in headphone burn-in as well but I have no proof of anything so I will stop at mentioning that I also believe in solid state burn-in.

Heck, from day to day the "sound" of my system changes according to my mood. So I find it far more likely your ears adjusted to your system rather than anything else.

 

[Drubbing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brendon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Believe it or not but I have experienced solid state burn-in ! I have a Meier Corda Porta III and paired it with a Head-direct RE1. The combination sounded good, nice bass, smooth mids and a really wide soundstage. All well and good except that the high notes seemed veiled in comparison to running the RE1 unamped. I read a review here on head-fi that said the Meier Corda Porta III would give a nice boost to the treble as well so I knew something was not right with my amp.

Ever heard of the power of suggestion? Ever see Benny Hinn whip a group of true believers into being 'healed'? (providing they're not stooges).

A HF review of the Corda claiming it sounds a certain way re treble doesn't make it so. And...really wide soundstage? with a pair of canalphones?

 

[brendon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drubbing /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ever heard of the power of suggestion? Ever see Benny Hinn whip a group of true believers into being 'healed'? (providing they're not stooges).

^^ As I had said I have no proof so I will not think anything less of you (or anyone else for that matter) if you choose to disbelieve what I have said.

But I know this much - For 5 continuous days I used the amp on my daily commute of about 2.5 hours (to & fro) and I was not very happy with the sound. I could not detect any dramatic change in the sound from day 1 to day 5.

For the first 5 days (including the 5th day) I was truly unhappy with the sound since there was a definite veil in the treble region that was still very much present on day 5 though I felt it had reduced somewhat but not nearly enough for me to start enjoying the sound. (That could very well be psychological so please dont catch me on this point !)

However after the 8 hour pink Noise burn-in there was a Very noticeable improvement as I felt the veil had lifted almost completely the VERY NEXT DAY ! I actually enjoyed my music so much more than on the 5th day that I did not care that people were staring at me on the train as I was grinning ear to ear like an idiot.

If this was a gradual process I would have definitely put it down to a psychological effect as my ears could have 'adjusted' to the new sound. However it was NOT a gradual process. The previous day i was unhappy with the sound and the very next day I am happy. How can that be psychological especially since I was a solid state burn-in skeptic and cannot (even today) understand how a device with no moving components can 'burn-in' so I was not expecting any change whatsoever to the sound.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drubbing /img/forum/go_quote.gif And...really wide soundstage? with a pair of canalphones?

Oh yes and this time I have some experts to back me up !!!

I invite you to try out the Head-Direct RE1 with a nice amp. I love a nice big soundstage and since I had to use an IEM (since i travel by train I need isolation) I decided to the IEM with the best soundstage within my meagre budget.

I chose the RE1 after reading the reviews here. I have not heard any canal phone come close to the kind of soundstage that you can get with the RE1. Its a 150 ohm earphone so you NEED an amp to drive it properly.

Here is a group review of IEMs by ClieOS - http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/r...2-08-a-335851/

If you do a search for the RE1 you will see thats its the only earphone to
have got a 5 star rating and the average is about 3 - 3.5 stars for the other IEMs.

And if you see Skylabs review of amplifiers here - http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f105/r...mpared-214588/

and search for Meier Audio Porta Corda III you will see it gives a very nice soundstage for both width and depth so the pairing of the RE1 and Meier Corda Porta III is great for a soundstage lover like me.

(The only problem is that some people look at me like I am some sort of terrorist since nobody moves around with a big portable amp in a country like India !

)

 

[AdamWysokinski]

Another reason why I admire Harbeth speakers so much is that Harbeth UK is the only loudspeakers manufacturer that openly declares that there is no need for extensive burining-in (Harbeth UK).

 

[3602]

Look...diaphragm is a mechanical part, and like all mechanical parts, requires some "warm-up" to give optimum performance.
But the thing is, how big a difference? A Ferrari with a grand miles on it drives that much better than a fresh out of factory one? The whole thing is the study of psychoacoustics and subject-expectancy effect. Your brain is not really able to distinguish previous sounds from current ones, so in a sense, you are convincing yourself that there is indeed a difference.
On the other hand, cable burn-in is way more absurd. Does copper change when electrons pass through it?
Maybe the ****busters on Discovery should do an episode on this.