dhruvmeena96
Headphoneus Supremus
To the OP and others about burn in.
BURN IN is a physical prove-able fact to a degree.
So what is burning in? It is normal wear and tear on a moving part. That's it. So what does burn in do for a speaker diaphragm. Now THAT is the AH-HAH! moment. Some speakers it does very little and some it does a lot. This is why some claim it is a myth and others a fact. So the answer to question of why is works on some diaphragms and not others is due to how those diaphragms are made.
Let's start with dynamic drivers since they are the easiest to explain. A dynamic driver is a "cone" of material attached to a voice coil set inside a magnet assembly. The voice coil gets alternating current at various amplitudes and frequencies. As the current changes, the voice coil generates a magnetic field around it with an alternating polarity in relation to the current. The strength, speed, and polatiry of the field generated by the voice coil is acted upon by the magnet assembly surrounding it which forces the voice coil to move in relation to that magnet. That movement also moves the cone diaphragm which moves the air next to the cone to produce sound waves. Then we get sound!
With the basics out of the way, the nuances occur. One thing is that the voice coil assembly is smaller that the cone. This can cause the inside of the cone to be moving in a direction opposite to the outside of the cone. When the inner part of the cone is moving in a different direction than the outer part of the cone it will cause audible distortions. To prevent that, most diaphragms in a dynamic speaker are coated with a very hard substance with just enough flexibility as to not crack the cone as it moves. Common substances are titanium and graphene. Here is where we get into the nitty gritty of burn in. As the driver moves back and forth, those substances are still going to break down and not be as rigid anymore. This will "loosen" up the driver which tends to warm up the sound signature a little bit. The amount all depends on how the driver is constructed. The material choices, the thickness of the coating, and other factors involved all make a difference when it comes to "burn in" of a driver assembly. Some manufacturers also pre burn in their units before selling them. There are some other nuances to the "burn in" effect in wear and tear on the driver assembly making audible sound differences as user can actually hear, but the one I described above is the main one. Of course there effects of wear and tear on planar and electrostatics as well. Usually burn in affect on those isn't a good thing at all especially in open assemblies that can allow dust inside.
So is "burn in" real? Yes it is. Are you going to experience an audible difference from burn in with every speaker or headphone assembly? The answer to that is it depends. Some you will and some you won't.
Burn in only effect the decay, so a very good and tight response set will not get any better and very decayinsh won't get better.
What burn in does is make the decay smoother overall so it sound more even on acoustic pressure.
Some iem can change drastically, some will not.
Some people will not hear change even after parameter shift and some hear even after no changes...