[Zasboy]

Hi,

Glad to meet all of you people. Been browsing throughout this message board for awhile and finally register. I'm new so it's obvious that I got a ton of questions but don't worry. I been searching and finding out great informations just from this message board, but there are some questions that I am a bit confuse on. So here goes.

I been searching through the message board and finally order the Sennheiser HD 497. I didn't really want an open headphone but I heard people saying that because it has a odd shape earpiece, circumaural and supra-aural, it is sort of like a semi-open or semi-close headphone. Well, I took the chance and ordered it. I'll be using this headphone mostly in the library or use them to study with, but will keep the volume at moderate levels. Can't study well with really loud music. Makes me want to pay attention to the lyrics and not the book

I should be okay right? It shouldn't leak a lot at low volumes? Only way to find out is to try them I guess.

While I'm waiting for them to arrive, I also been researching on the process of "burn in". Well, the search didn't yield great results. Most of the pages I been looking at were for the word search "in". From my research, I'm still a little confuse about how to properly "burn in" the headphone. I know I should play music through it for at least 48hours, but I don't know what kind of music? "A lot of music with highs and lows" is what I don't understand. I was hoping that I can play a variety of music on my computer and hope within 48hours that it will be "burn in".

Also, any advice, suggestions, comments, etc...are welcome.

Thanks

 

[jessica00]

yeah, just loop whatever songs have lots of bass, mixed in with some high trebel and high mid songs i guess. (i personally cant tell what a sound is beyond bass and real high.

 

[waffenschmidt]

I don't think it's an exact science. The idea is just to exercise the transducers to work out any stiffness. I think it's a good idea to use a variety of music, but bass is what really gets the transducers moving, so you'll often see recommendations to use bass-heavy music. I use whatever is handy, making sure there is some low, strong bass in there somewhere.

The other recommendation I've seen (and used) is to crank the volume up. Again, you need to generate some movement, and you need volume to do that. I think it's a good idea to start out with a moderately high level and go up from there. You don't want to get too carried away until you loosen things up a little. I've read that, for instance, that you can put a crease in the transducer on a Grado with really loud bass, especially if the cans aren't broken in properly first.

I generally start at a level that's about as loud as I'd ever listen for the first day. Then I crank them up to the point where it would be hard for me to listen to for more than a minute or so and leave them there for the second day. In general, I tend to listen at low-to-moderate levels, so my reference point may be different than yours.

Short of going too loud too fast, there's not much you can do wrong here. I think your plan sounds like a good one. If you're worried about how loud to go, start conservatively, go up slowly and add another day or two to your break-in schedule.

 

[lini]

Zasboy: Don't worry too much about burn-in - it's not so super important. You can just play back your favourite music with maybe a slightly higher level than your listening average for as long as you want - that's it. But the headphone will be burned in with regular use too, anyway. Burn-in is more or less just a way to ride in your headphone faster than with regular use - it's not a must, though.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: Another very common topic here it the often discussed question of the necessity of a headphone amp. Stay away from these threads! Because headphone amps are really an enlightenment for headphone users - so be careful or you'll soon end up buying one!

 

[s.c]

Quote:

Originally posted by lini P.S.: Another very common topic here it the often discussed question of the necessity of a headphone amp. Stay away from these threads! Because headphone amps are really an enlightenment for headphone users - so be careful or you'll soon end up buying one!

Or end up making one like me. I got many trouble on my first project T_T.

 

[wallijonn]

I've always enjoyed Gene Kruppa, myself. And you can't go wrong with Cathedral Pipe Organs and Tibetan Monks. Think "1812 Overture".

Think moderate volume levels. These are 497s, after all. Pesonally, I wouldn't even bother with burn-in for the 497s. I'd just burn them in through casual usage.

But I definietely would not be burning them in through a computer sound card. A Star Wars CD, SACD or DVD-A, maybe.

 

[Zasboy]

Hi,

I like to thank everybody who responded back. It's great info and I'll take it into consideration.

So my original plan will stay. Put my CD player on my boombox into loop mode and let it play some mix songs for 48hours. First day, will play at moderate volume levels, then crank it up slightly to give it a good workout and then let it rest for a day. Ok, got to find some songs and burn them on a CD....

I'm sorry, but I did read those headphone amp threads

Don't worry, I'm not TOO tempted to buy one yet. I'll probably build one or buy one in the near feature but I'm still researching if it's worth the money. Been reading mostly on portable amps such as Total Airhead, CMOY, Super Mini, and META42. All good amps but people have different opinions about using portable amp with my type of headphones. Some say, it is not worth the money while it is worth it. Still confusing but I'll eventually find the answer. It got to be somewhere in this message board.

Thanks

 

[jessica00]

my 497's took about 36 hours before the bass showed up in full.

 

[radrd]

Quote:

First day, will play at moderate volume levels, then crank it up slightly to give it a good workout and then let it rest for a day. Ok, got to find some songs and burn them on a CD....

Don't play them above what you would be willing to listen to. There's no reason to go any higher, and if you go high enough you might destroy them.

You don't need to let headphones rest either. They don't get tired of playing music any more than a television gets tired of displaying a picture. Everything has a life-cycle, and care will extend the life-cycle, but you don't need to worry about giving them rest. As long as you physically care for them and don't destroy the drivers with blaring music, they will last a long time even with constant use.

 

[SliPkNoT]

Play music with a lot of bass.

 

[Zasboy]

Hi,

Ok, so I'm starting to feel that this burn-in process is not very important because either way I do it, it will burn-in itself eventually. I can do the fast way which is continuous playing music through the headphone for 48hours or I can do the slow way which is use the headphone whenever I feel like it. Maybe use the headphone a couple of hours each day. It doesn't really matter which way I use because the headphone will eventually burn-in by regular uses. So yeah, no more worrying about burn-in. Now I just got to wait for the headphone to arrive.

Thanks

 

[Zasboy]

Hi,

Just received the headphone and plugged it into my speaker output on my soundcard. It sounds much better than my old Sony MDR-G56. I don't see why you need to burn-in these headphone. Maybe my ears are untrain so I can't really notice any major difference but I do know that it sounds much better than any headphone that I wore before. It's like the music just came to life. I can hear almost everyone single detail and it's so clear. I'm very happy that I bought these headphone. Now I got to send in the rebate.

Even though these headphone are open, the earpiece covers my whole ear. So does this mean now that my headphone are close? I thought an open headphone would only touch the ear and not cover it while an close headphone would cover the whole ear. Am I understanding this right?

Thanks

 

[waffenschmidt]

No. "Open" and "closed" with headphones refers to whether the back of the transducer is fully isolated from the outside (closed) or can "breath" (open). Closed phones have a solid enclosure while open ones typically have an enclosure with a screen, perforations or other openings. It is generally felt that open phones are easier to design with good sound, since you don't have to deal so much with any impact of sound waves reflecting off the enclosure and affecting the transducers, but there are excellent closed headphones too.

The trait you are referring to of fully covering and surrounding the ear is called "circumaural." Phones that sit on the surface of the ear are called "supra-aural."

According to www.headphone.com the 497s are open headphones. Regarding fit on the ear, they are considered to be a cross between circumaural and supra-aural.

Like you, my first experience with decent headphones was a real eye-opener. Now you just need a good source, a headphone amp, a couple more sets of headphones, another amp . . .

Welcome to Head-Fi, and sorry about your wallet (standard greeting).

 

[Zasboy]

Hi,

Thanks for clearing that up. So yeah, I been testing the headphone on different sources: My computer, MP3 player, boombox, and home receiver. Here's what I found out.

- On my computer: Sounded better than my old headphone. No question ask.
- MP3 Player: There is this buzzing sound when playing and figure out that it's the MP3 player that is causing the problem. Doh.
- Boombox: No good. When I plugged it in, all I can hear is static but with my other headphone, there wasn't any static. Hmm...
- Home Receiver: OMG. I can't describe how the headphone sounds. It blew me away.

So yeah, I think why the home receiver made the headphone sound soo much better because it had a high power amp? So maybe I should invest in a portable amp so I can bring it along with me. Now see what you made me do? Now I'm considering getting a portable amp

Yeah, also I got to look for another portable player since my MP3 player is dead. Hmm, was curious about MiniDisc. I'll research on that and other portable device such as PCDP, MP3 player, and also MiniDisc.

Thanks

 

[waffenschmidt]

It's all over now. You're hooked. 6 months from now you'll have $1,000 in new equipment laying around, a wish list worth at least another $1,000 and you won't be able to listen to any of the crap that used to pass as audio.

Welcome to the club. One tip - there are some excellent deals to be had on the Buy/Sell forum of this site, and most everyone here takes really good care of their equipment. Hard to go wrong.