[japc]

Hi.

People always talk of burn-in to get a better sound.

Is there a scientific, reasonable reason (pardon the expression) why headphones shouldn't sound *worse* after burn-in?

 

[mjrtoo]

Exactly, you would think the odds would be about 50/50 for something to sound worse after burn-in than better, or, when does something stop burning in at its ideal sound quality?

Burn-in is not a real life thing. It's more like brain burn-in, it's a psychoacoustic phenomena.

my .02

 

[myinitialsaredac]

Well,
Lets go away from headphones to say cars for a moment. You get a brand new car, they recommend having the oil changed at 2000 miles. This is because the parts are all cycling together for the first time and everything is beginning to sync (and giving off small metalic shavings) and become accustomed to fitting together and moving as they should.
Back to headphones, the driver is much like a piston. The driver itself moves and the diaphragm needs to break in to allow it to do this in an efficient way. The diaphragm starts out stiff, kind of like a leather purse, then as the driver moves the diaphagm becomes more supple and flexible allowing it to move properly.
Technically, after a lot of hours like 20000 or so, maybe more, I could forsee the diaphragm becomming overly worn, or other various issues arising, so that may be an uber extended burn in for it to be worsened =).

Dave

 

[ClieOS]

There are already too many threads on the same topic and the same argument and evidence have been presented over and over again. Rather than asking the question again, you should search the full size headphone forum for those threads and have yourself some reading time.

 

[mjrtoo]

Or, research home audio speakers, or even proffesional audio speakers. It all points to the same conclusion....

If there is a break in period it is so short for no one to notice, or, it isn't even valid at all. Now if this is a scientifically tested fact for full size drivers as in home audio speakers and/or proffesional reinforcement systems, why wouldn't it be true in micro driver as in IEM's? In fact, I would expect on such a small scale, it would even be LESS of a factor.

As another poster stated, there are results all over the internet for both headphone and 'standard' speaker systems...and from what I read, break-in is irrelevant if it even exists at all.

 

[Scott549]

The problem is that the perception of different sound is real, but people for some reason do not want to attribute it to their brain adjusting to the sound. Rather, they want to think the headphones themselves have changed. The way to test this is to take two sets of identical phones; let one of them run for 50 hours or whatever; then do a blind A/B test. I would bet that most (maybe even all) people who think burn-in is real could not tell the difference. If the phenomenon were real, you'd see actual evidence cited that people can do this.

Edit: Reference article: http://www.bruce.coppola.name/audio/BurnInLegend.pdf

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott549 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The way to test this is to take two sets of identical phones; let one of them run for 50 hours or whatever; then do a blind A/B test. I would bet that most (maybe even all) people who think burn-in is real could not tell the difference. If the phenomenon were real, you'd see actual evidence cited that people can do this.

Did that twice, with two sets of Sleek Audio SA6 and MylarOne Bijou3. Even did a blind test with my brother, which isn't an audiophile and have no idea I was testing for burn-in. He can cleanly differential the sound.

Note, not all headphone show significant difference after burn-in. Also, some manufacturers burn-in their headphone / transducer before sending them out. They don't call it burn-in, but more like QC. Nevertheless, the result is the same.

 

[mjrtoo]

That's BS Clie...there is no way that you can hear a difference. Come to grips with it brother...it's alright.

 

[chinesekiwi]

Considering you own the RE2's, which require very little/no burn-in at all..a bit rich saying that..no offense. Try out the Denon c751's and don't tell me they don't require burn-in.

 

[LeonWho]

Haha. Try out the Sennheiser HD555, burn them in and tell me you don't hear a difference.

If you don't hear a difference between the pre-burn and post-burn, you need to get your hearing checked.

 

[toughnut]

brain and ear diaphragm need time to burn in when using new pair of IEM/earphone.

how does that sound?

 

[myinitialsaredac]

Lets keep this civil now,
Lets take a gander at what mr George Cardas has to say about burn in for cables, so even if you refute that moving parts dont need to break in (by the way go buy a new dirtbike and ride pinned for 8 hours before your refute that) we can assume that cable burn in will affect the heaphones nonetheless.

Cable Burn In

Now, how about you get the king of burn in, a pair of k701s and a blackgated tube amp and let me know how you feel.

By the way, you will find a large demographic of people who allow their headphones to burn in alone for hundreds of hours after an initial listen of an hour or so to prevent psychoacoustic phenomena.

Dave

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjrtoo /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's BS Clie...there is no way that you can hear a difference. Come to grips with it brother...it's alright.

You can choose to believe me or not, but I don't BS. There are IEM in my collection that do shows change after burn-in, and there are those don't. From my own experience, I think I can tell what is real burn-in and what is psychoacoustic.

You might also want to know that Jason@Sleek Audio once commented that it required 50 hrs for SA6 to reach its final sound signature (most newer SA6 owner might not realize such an big change since Sleek Audio now carries its own 50hrs burn-in / QC before packaging.)

 

[mjrtoo]

whatever...

 

[Scott549]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeonWho /img/forum/go_quote.gif Haha. Try out the Sennheiser HD555, burn them in and tell me you don't hear a difference. If you don't hear a difference between the pre-burn and post-burn, you need to get your hearing checked.

I believe you that you hear a difference. If you hear a difference, though, do you agree it might be your brain and not the headphones?