[Max Dread]

Hi all

My brand spanking shiny new Heed Canamp turned up this morning.

I've read up in the past about burning in headphones, but what do people think about burning in amps? If it is recommended, for how long should it be burned in? And (sorry if this is a stupid question) what exactly should I do......how loud should the volume be? Do the headphones need to be attached? ETC....

I seem to remember that some people regard headphone burn-in as a load of rubbish! SO I'd be interested to hear from people from both sides of the camp with regard to amp burn-in.

Cheers

Max

 

[anadin]

Yes you need the headphones or a load to be connected.

I have a Heed Canamp and to be honest I didn't find a great difference after burn-in with this amp.

My advice is just enjoy it, if any changes occur along the way then so be it.

 

[thathertz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max Dread /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi all My brand spanking shiny new Heed Canamp turned up this morning. I've read up in the past about burning in headphones, but what do people think about burning in amps? If it is recommended, for how long should it be burned in? And (sorry if this is a stupid question) what exactly should I do......how loud should the volume be? Do the headphones need to be attached? ETC.... I seem to remember that some people regard headphone burn-in as a load of rubbish! SO I'd be interested to hear from people from both sides of the camp with regard to amp burn-in. Cheers Max

Hey Max

I was certainly skeptical about burn-in for headphones and amps when
first started with this hobby but I can tell you after burning in quite a few
components AND headphones, it DOES make a difference.

For some it can be a tiresome experience, for others it is an adventure as
you hear sometimes subtle, sometimes major changes in the sound.

Incidentally, the component that changed most during burn-in (really
dramatically) was my CA DacMagic which just went from quite flat
and just changed across the board ending up sounding fantastic in
every regard.

Other people will be able to advise you better on the Heed Canamp and
the recommended burn-in time but most amps I've owned have taken
between 2-300 hours before settling. I've owned several Graham Slee
head amps and they take at least 300 hours.

The main reason for burn-in (and some will likely disagree) is to form the
electrolytic capacitors present in the signal chain.

You DO need to hook up your amp to a source signal and to your headphones.
You can feed any kind of signal : radio, CD, outpt from your laptop etc.
The quality of the signal (ie. Mp3 or FLAC etc etc) doesn't matter and you
should set the volume just a little higher than your normal listening level.

I tend to play a signal for 8 hours, power everything down for an hour,
and then start again. This supposedly helps the capacitors form but to
be honest, don't get too hung up on it as I know lots of people just
leave their equipment playing non-stop during burn-in

Headphone burn-in is not a myth. At least not in my experience. I'll save
you the blow by blow accounts but after owning several pairs of Ultrasone
headphones I can confirm 100% that burn-in makes a big difference with
these cans. The most believable reason I've read to support this is that
the drivers are quite stiff when new and take some time for the materials
to 'loosen up' - makes perfect sense to me.

Burn-in is a ritual that many believe in and actually enjoy (myself included)
while others will cite the placebo effect and call it a waste of time. As with
many aspects of the audiophile world, the best thing is to try it for yourself
and above all, enjoy some music while you're doing it

Have fun, the Heed CanAmp is a superb amp! And please let poeple know
how you get on.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Max Dread]

Thanks for the really helpful reply and for taking the time to write it.

Any other opinions and advice would be helpful too......


Chers

Max

 

[singular]

Same question here really - with the addition of what type of music to use. The same you normally listen to, variety of everything, or I gather it's also possible to get specific 'burn in' cd's...

 

[thathertz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by singular /img/forum/go_quote.gif Same question here really - with the addition of what type of music to use. The same you normally listen to, variety of everything, or I gather it's also possible to get specific 'burn in' cd's...

I've heard alot of people say Pop music or Dance/Club music is ideal since it
likely good variation across the frequency spectrum and a good driving beat.

I use a combination of Dance music and the Isotek System Enhancer CD -
this is a CD containing tracks which have been specially formulated to speed
up the burn-in process.

Anyone else care to chip in with some thoughts?

 

[Moontan13]

For any audio gear, I like to torture test new stuff, running it at near capacity for extended periods. I'm more willing to believe a collection of SS or tube parts may undergo changes than would wires. Given the heightened detail of headphones, I have to also believe there's the wearer's perceptional burn-in as well.

 

[punk_guy182]

I use a burn in tool that plays pink noise.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Burn-in is mostly ritualized audiophile superstition. Capacitors form up within seconds (there are formulas for this, even) and the other parts don't change much. Resistors used to drift in value with age, but new ones are much better. Mechanical devices, like a headphone driver, do change slightly over time. However, the ritual is unnecessary and I've never heard a new pair sound bad out of the box.

That being said, playing gear at modest levels when you're not listening is harmless. If you want to do it, there's no drawback other than wasted electricity. Or the time you could have spent listening to your new gear. And I don't knock ritualized behavior, either. There's a reason I like vinyl, though I make no scientific pretenses about my record playing rituals.

Also, if burn-in is so critical to the performance of an amp, why don't manufacturers burn-in before shipping? It's a small matter to build a board for caps, resistors, etc., so they could cook for hundreds of hours before being soldered in. You just need some connectors and a power supply - even a cheap wallwart would deliver power to the components. So why don't they do it?

Part of the burn-in mythos has much to do with human conditioning. If information is missing, the brain tends to fill in "known" gaps. Have you ever done the test to find your blind spot? A quick Google search will show you how. Your retinas have a spot where there are no light receptors because (IIRC) that's where the optic nerve connects. Your brain "fills in" that spot from other information, but you can trick yourself into seeing it. Similarly, your brain removes some information. For example, I wear rimless glasses that have metal screws at the arms and bridge that pierce the lenses. The screws are in my field of vision and were sorta irritating the first few days. Then my brain tuned them out. I know the screws are there, the screws really are there, but I can't see see them.

No, I haven't done any studies or research, but I am positive that similar processes take place when you "burn in" a piece of audio gear. I did not "burn in" my glasses, but they look different than when I first got them.

If you want to account for the change in something, you have to account for potential changes in yourself, too. Your brain rewires itself in response to new experiences and alters perception.

 

[Donald North]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, if burn-in is so critical to the performance of an amp, why don't manufacturers burn-in before shipping?

Some manufacturers do. I know Audio Note in England does a soak test for all their amps - I've seen it when I was there in August. One practical reason is to make sure the components don't have a premature failure due to a weak spot on the wire insulation wound into a transformer, etc.

 

[thathertz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Burn-in is mostly ritualized audiophile superstition. Capacitors form up within seconds (there are formulas for this, even) and the other parts don't change much. Resistors used to drift in value with age, but new ones are much better. Mechanical devices, like a headphone driver, do change slightly over time. However, the ritual is unnecessary and I've never heard a new pair sound bad out of the box. That being said, playing gear at modest levels when you're not listening is harmless. If you want to do it, there's no drawback other than wasted electricity. Or the time you could have spent listening to your new gear. And I don't knock ritualized behavior, either. There's a reason I like vinyl, though I make no scientific pretenses about my record playing rituals. Also, if burn-in is so critical to the performance of an amp, why don't manufacturers burn-in before shipping? It's a small matter to build a board for caps, resistors, etc., so they could cook for hundreds of hours before being soldered in. You just need some connectors and a power supply - even a cheap wallwart would deliver power to the components. So why don't they do it? Part of the burn-in mythos has much to do with human conditioning. If information is missing, the brain tends to fill in "known" gaps. Have you ever done the test to find your blind spot? A quick Google search will show you how. Your retinas have a spot where there are no light receptors because (IIRC) that's where the optic nerve connects. Your brain "fills in" that spot from other information, but you can trick yourself into seeing it. Similarly, your brain removes some information. For example, I wear rimless glasses that have metal screws at the arms and bridge that pierce the lenses. The screws are in my field of vision and were sorta irritating the first few days. Then my brain tuned them out. I know the screws are there, the screws really are there, but I can't see see them. No, I haven't done any studies or research, but I am positive that similar processes take place when you "burn in" a piece of audio gear. I did not "burn in" my glasses, but they look different than when I first got them. If you want to account for the change in something, you have to account for potential changes in yourself, too. Your brain rewires itself in response to new experiences and alters perception.

I wondered when Erik would turn up

Erik doesn't believe in burn-in, LOTS of highly respected people here do and
there are enough of them to suggest that changes do occur and that they
are identifiable. There are also many people here that get annoyed because
they can't hear the differences after burn-in or the difference between cables
when other people can.

Because they can't hear any difference, everyone who can must be wrong.

It's amusing the lengths some of these people will go to to convince others that they are
not actually hearing....what they are actually hearing.

To Max: Best advice: try it for yourself and have fun with your new amp

 

[singular]

I would have thought it's fairly simple to do an objective test. Simply have the exact same two pieces of equipment on the same set up playing the same music. One 'burnt in' for a couple of hundred hours, the other brand new out of the box. It would even be pretty simple to make it a blind or even double blind test. Could be an interesting test at some sort of meet/jam...

 

[bergman2]

burn in is NO lie...pink noise did wonders for both my earmax pro and senn 650's

 

[op2003]

Could you give an outline how burn-in of an amplifier works physically? Which physical processes do occur within the amp while burning-in?

 

[BMBROWN911]

I just thought I would also add that my Graham Slee Solo has burned in for over 500 hours and it indeed changed dramatically from day one as many people will attest with his products. Also if your looking for in depth information about burn in go over to the graham slee website and visit their community forum. He has an in depth explanation of what exactly is going on during the process with all kinds of data to back up his claims. There are also several other people who get the same results as I have after burning in there Slee products. Mrarroyo has been burning his Solo in for over 600 hours and says that it is still changing slightly. So I would have to say burn in is very real. Obviously some products will respond better then others though. If your curious about how to do it you could just plug in an mp3 player like I did and let it run 24/7 besides the times I was listening to it and hear the changes day by day. Anyways thats my 2 cents! Cheers!