[Souchirou]

I finally decided to buy a above stock pair of phones they will arrive in a few days I have a few questions:

I've decided on a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50.

I've read up on the burn-in process and I have question about it.

Will the way I burn in my phones effect the end result and is there a burn in method that will enhance my phones for a certain music preference?

For example I listen to both (power, heavy) metal and to classical (violin) music. For the best result what burning in method should I use?

Should I just put on the music I listen to and have that play for +- 100 hours or would playing pink noise or static create a better result?

Many thanks for any replies

 

[plonter]

just put them on and listen to your favourite music. this is imo the best burn in method. from my experience not all headphones need a lot of burn in time (if any at all). don't know about yours though.
so plug in your new cans and just enjoy the music...don't worry about burn-in too much, if they will change in time you will notice it.

 

[David.M]

those are some excellent closed cans you got there !

burn in will make an immense improvement and you'll notice the M50's desired SQ as they were meant to sound.

any music will be fine. I use to be paranoid about this issue as well, burning in is just letting the drivers settle, so don't worry about it much. It's preferable if you have high quality (320kbps) songs, but as long as the music is playing, it's officially "burning-in"

also, don't max volume to 100% or else you'll do driver damage. just slightly above comfortable listening levels.

 

[EddieE]

My method is just to listen to them for a few hours a day as I would my other phones and within a week or two they hit their potential. You may as well enjoy that journey with the phones.

I don't believe any phones need the hundreds of hours burn in often cited. 20-25 hours accumulated should be enough. Just my personal opinion. Of course if you don't listen while doing this, it will seem to need longer as you are putting off the psycological burn in.

While I do beleive burn-in is a physical thing with dynamic phones although not to the extent or length of time many others do, a large part of it is psycological as well.

Ever notice how after a couple of weeks of listening to armature IEMs that the sound smooths out? It's just your mind adapting to a new sound signature and becoming comfortable with it. Armatures need no burn in at all and this fact proves the psycological aspect of this process.

Also - the ATH-M50 IMHO sound superb straight out of the box. Great cans, enjoy them from day one!

 

[Souchirou]

Thanks for all the replies

Yeah I've read the FAQ on burning in I'll just tune it on a volume I listen to.

I listen to flac at home and 320kbps on my mp3 player so music quality wise things should be solid :]

Bit of a other question is there a way to find out if my mp3 player can drive these cans properly or if I'm gonna need a amp?

guess I'll just pay and listen to the cans with my music of choice unless someone comes up with a good reason to go with another burn-in method :]

 

[Cyberbeing]

Everything I've read seems to point to Pink Noise as the best thing (safest bet?) to use for burning in headphones since there appears to be a myth that it's possible to burn-in your headphones unevenly if you don't play an even distribution of all the different frequencies. Some appear to believe the an uneven burn-in could even lead to your headphones permanently settling in with a different sound then intended. Since no one has proven it one way or another, it's one of those better to be safe then sorry situations.

Supposedly the ATH-M50 really do require a lot of burn-in (~200 hours) before they completely settle at their final sound.

What I've been doing with my ATH-M50s is just running a loop of pink noise with a few sine sweeps and an occasional rest periods mixed in whenever I'm either sleeping or leave home, to help speed up the process a bit. When I'm at home and awake I just use them normally, running music or whatever else through them.

Truthfully it likely doesn't really matter how you burn-in your headphones, with the only downside of non-standard methods being that it will likely just make the burn-in process take a lot longer then normal.

 

[Redo]

Pink noise is pretty standard for burn in, along side with some regular music along the way. I let the pink noise do the burning in what I'm not around, and when I'm around I listen to regular music.

Burn in times vary quite a bit from headphone to headphone. From Grado's that seem to fare well after only 30 or so hours of burn in, to the K701's that need 300+ hours before they hit their sweet spot.

 

[KriLi]

Some might say burn does affect SQ, some say it's a myth. Here is the proof.

YouTube - Headphone Burn-in Test

I asked Dave Rat about those specific headphones in the youtube vid how much impact burn-in would have on the frequency response. So this is 1 proof burn-in is a myth.

 

[Souchirou]

Awesome, I'll have a look

!

 

[MomijiTMO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KriLi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Some might say burn does affect SQ, some say it's a myth. Here is the proof. YouTube - Headphone Burn-in Test I asked Dave Rat about those specific headphones in the youtube vid how much impact burn-in would have on the frequency response. So this is 1 proof burn-in is a myth.

Oh please. Burn in burn in burn in. Headphone doesn't sound good? MORE BURN IN. Still not good? Try another 100 hours. Still not good? You should use pink noise. Still not good after all of this? Oh maybe the headphone isn't for you.

Just listen to the damn things. Don't worry about burn in. It doesn't matter if you believe burn in or not - we all have to spend hours listening to something to 'get' it whether this is mental burn in or physical burning in of the drivers or a combination of both.

 

[Souchirou]

Well I finally got these cans... they are hard to find in europe it seems so it took almost 2months for them to be shipped.

I went from stock to the ATH-M50S

I can honestly say burn in has a huge impact on the sound quality. These can't didn't sound all that better then my stock sony ie's at first. But I've left them on for about a week now and I can actually hear a difference.

Especially the first night when I left them on and playing the next morning I put them on to work and I was WOW now THAT is more like it!

After that I've noticed a steady climb in quality over the week. I still leave them on over night and every morning I put on the same song as I did the first time and every day it improves.

Well might be in my head who knows but I love these cans now ^_^.

 

[Ear Damage]

"Burn-in" is a successful marketing strategy still in use today where customers have their newly purchased cans put through a sound generator or the like while in the mean time they research what to buy next. This strategy has increased profit margins tenfold and has lead to the belief that dressed up standard cables also need "burn-in". In turn, changing the padding and material covering of the headband has increased or decreased certain frequencies to a desired level of the listener. It is questionable, though, if wearing a fresh pair of underwear has any affect on the headphones' tendency for sibilance.

 

[Souchirou]

Strategy or not I'm quite certain that there has been quite a change in the sound quality.

Especially from out of the box to what its now is major.

 

[EddieE]

ATH-M50 will sound superb out of the box.

They'll loosen up a bit over the first 20 hours or so of use but those differences will be subtle.

Just ignore the whole notion of "burn in" is safest. Listen to your new product and enjoy it, if it improves, all the better. If it sounds bad out of the box it will never sound good.

I hadn't thought about Ear Damages points above (although they are good ones) but it has occurred to me, when manufacurers say to allow their products "100-200 hours burn in" that 100-200 hours is long enough for the mind to "tune out" and get used to deficiencies in the product - if they have been preconditioned to believe they are improving they will experience that.

The mind is very creative.

 

[Souchirou]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieE /img/forum/go_quote.gif ATH-M50 will sound superb out of the box.

I actually didn't think it sounded that great just out of the box.

Bass was dull and mids and highs didn't sound very reassuring either. It really did improve a lot.

Friend of mine tried them on when I first unpacked them and wasn't impressed either I had him listen to the phones again and he said they sounded much better now.

So.. go figure.