[autumnholy]

Just wondering, people speak about burning in their audio equipment.
 
But have we wonder, are we actually burning in our ears. As in, not literally light up a fire on your ears, but train your ears to notice different sound produced by instruments, vocals, or plain noise (disturbance). I do notice this because the more earphones/headphones I have, the more I notice sounds which I didn't realize before. It may be due to the better quality setup I'm possessing.
 
However, when I go back to my previous headphones/earphones, I notice that particular sound albeit not so clearly or forwardly. I wonder if this is all due to my ears and brain being more capable to identify sounds.
 
What about yours?

 

[dvw]

I think it is because you are looking for detail when you have the new phones instead of listening to music. I have one CD with Sting playing in a house with a fire place. Someone told me he can hear the fire crackling in the background with his phones. I never noticed that until I looked for it.
 
I do believe your ears get burn in though. When I listen to a new phone it sounded different, some performed brilliantly and some performed poorly. After awhile the phones sounded the same until I picked up the old phones. Now I stopped looking for the detail and just listen to music. So now I enjoyed music out of almost all my phones. The key for me is comfort.

 

[bigshot]

I don't believe ears "learn", but they do become accustomed. If you go into a room with greenish flourescent lights for a while, when you come back out into normal light, it seems very orange. Ears are like that too. They adjust to whatever sound they're hearing.

 

[RushNerd]

Music instruments are exactly this way to, if you can relate.

 

[AKG240mkII]

Quote:

I don't believe ears "learn", but they do become accustomed. If you go into a room with greenish flourescent lights for a while, when you come back out into normal light, it seems very orange. Ears are like that too. They adjust to whatever sound they're hearing.

The thing is, sound actually sounds of 'something' and exists in the real physical World, colours do not exist in real World .
Light doesn't have any colour, it's just the way our eyes are made (and our training) that makes us think it does .
But you are somehow right anyway, it isn't our ears that are learning, it's our brains ..

 

[xnor]

Quote:

The thing is, sound actually sounds of 'something' and exists in the real physical World, colours do not exist in real World .
Light doesn't have any colour, it's just the way our eyes are made (and our training) that makes us think it does .

It doesn't make sense to compare color to sound. You should compare light to sound.
We derive colors we see from the spectrum of light (different wavelength and intensities) just like we derive notes we hear from differences in air pressure. For example an A4 is defined as a sound wave with a frequency of 440 Hz and red is defined as light with a wavelength of ~700 nm.
 
edit: On the thread starters question:
I agree with bigshot in that we do get accustomed to, lets say, a specific frequency response. The more you are accustomed to it, the easier it will be to pick out details not heard before.
But I do think that training can help you to hear stuff that you wouldn't notice without it. Best example: mp3 compression artifacts.

 

[bigshot]

Actually, I vividly remember when I first heard compression artifacting. It stuck out like a sore thumb because it was a sound I'd never heard before. The same with video artifacts on cable TV. I don't have cable, and when I visit a friend who does, I'm horrified by the blurry frames and jpeggy squiggles around sharp contrasts. My friends don't notice it any more.

 

[TMRaven]

I personally make it a valid effort to burn my hair in after every haircut I get.  Sound can be a little sharp and glaring after a trim, so after the hair softens up the sound becomes fuller.  Also after I wash my hair, the sound becomes a bit cleaner.

 

[xnor]

Quote:

Actually, I vividly remember when I first heard compression artifacting. It stuck out like a sore thumb because it was a sound I'd never heard before. The same with video artifacts on cable TV. I don't have cable, and when I visit a friend who does, I'm horrified by the blurry frames and jpeggy squiggles around sharp contrasts. My friends don't notice it any more.

Well I wasn't talking about blatantly obvious artifacts but close-to-transparent artifacts. Like higher bitrate mp3/ogg/... tracks or h264 videos. Unless you know what to listen/look for you might not even notice the lossy compression.

 

[autumnholy]

Quote:

Well I wasn't talking about blatantly obvious artifacts but close-to-transparent artifacts. Like higher bitrate mp3/ogg/... tracks or h264 videos. Unless you know what to listen/look for you might not even notice the lossy compression.

 
Yes, that's what I was thinking. The word is "noticing".
It's not like the ears cannot listen. It's more that the brain doesn't know what to notice and interpret