[ricmat]

hi guys!

Just read A LOT about burning in processes, but still have no conclusions.
Have read somewhere that: yes, indeed, burn in not only changes the sound, as it is necessary to achieve HP greatest, and elsewhere that it is all nonsense, it has no effect.
Read also that pink noise is the best to burn in once it samples all frequencies and burns all the HP - bass, mids and highs. But then also read it could also damage the drivers, because the sound is too complex for them to reproduce, and therefore, one just "kills" hours of life to the HP...


So, is there any consensus outhere that I dont know yet??


Thanks!

 

[cooperpwc]

I found the Edifier pink noise generator to be very effective. Edifier developed it for breaking in their speakers so it should be more than safe. It generates a recommended 3 hours of pink noise at a time and automatically turns off at the end.

 

[MaZa]

It depends. I believe in burn-in somewhat as it did occur to me with DT-880, though it only too an hour as that horrible sibilance left almost completely. After that I didnt notice any change. Pink noise is safe if you intent to do overnight burn-in procedure, but keep the volume below moderate. Good choice is to use few minutes of pinknoise and few songs of some bassheavy "car-music" in repeat.

If burn-in is really real or not, is not scientifically proved. However, its only logical that flexibility of headphone driver changes somewhat in use so... My friend, who has not even heard about a thing called speaker/headphone burn-in, said that their car-audio speakers and subs sound slightly different than straight out of the box.

 

[ericj]

Scientifically, headphone drivers are nearly always voice-coil driven microphone-style sculpted diaphragms.

A regular speaker has a ridgid cone and a flexible surround, but a microphone-style diaphragm has to flex to do it's job.

Scientifically, the points where the membrane flexes will fatigue slightly after some use, and thereafter the fatigued areas will be softer and more pliant.

The reasons people think it's a myth are:

1: It's usually not a huge difference. This is by design - it hurts sales when your headphones can't be demonstrated without several hours of burn-in. AKG's 'varimotion' manufacturing process, for example, makes it possible to assure that the points that need to flex the most are as thin as possible.

2: Many manufacturers mechanically fatigue the membrane at the factory. Grado, for example, brags about it's proprietary 'de-stressing' process.

 

[ricmat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooperpwc /img/forum/go_quote.gif I found the Edifier pink noise generator to be very effective. Edifier developed it for breaking in their speakers so it should be more than safe. It generates a recommended 3 hours of pink noise at a time and automatically turns off at the end.

Thanks!! great contribute!

The program explains all!

 

[ricmat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif It depends. I believe in burn-in somewhat as it did occur to me with DT-880, though it only too an hour as that horrible sibilance left almost completely. After that I didnt notice any change. Pink noise is safe if you intent to do overnight burn-in procedure, but keep the volume below moderate. Good choice is to use few minutes of pinknoise and few songs of some bassheavy "car-music" in repeat. If burn-in is really real or not, is not scientifically proved. However, its only logical that flexibility of headphone driver changes somewhat in use so... My friend, who has not even heard about a thing called speaker/headphone burn-in, said that their car-audio speakers and subs sound slightly different than straight out of the box.

Yes, i understand, but I was searching and I found this:

http://www.vikash.info/audio/xls10/
http://www.vikash.info/audio/audax/break-in.asp


I dont exactly know all those values - what they mean - but I can see a pattern, and by numbers I am tempted to say that burning in is not a myth - am i wrong?

(of course i understand that the membranes have to change - it's the new shoe old shoe comfort thing - but to speakers, does it make sense to burn them with pink noise, make sense at all to burn them with some special kind of noise? or I am tottaly wrong and there's just the warm up effect and the all burn in process is just placebo?)

 

[ricmat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif Scientifically, headphone drivers are nearly always voice-coil driven microphone-style sculpted diaphragms. A regular speaker has a ridgid cone and a flexible surround, but a microphone-style diaphragm has to flex to do it's job. Scientifically, the points where the membrane flexes will fatigue slightly after some use, and thereafter the fatigued areas will be softer and more pliant. The reasons people think it's a myth are: 1: It's usually not a huge difference. This is by design - it hurts sales when your headphones can't be demonstrated without several hours of burn-in. AKG's 'varimotion' manufacturing process, for example, makes it possible to assure that the points that need to flex the most are as thin as possible. 2: Many manufacturers mechanically fatigue the membrane at the factory. Grado, for example, brags about it's proprietary 'de-stressing' process.

Exactly! I also though about that!

Is that there are so many people saying otherwise and saying there is no numeric proof!... ...

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricmat /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, i understand, but I was searching and I found this: http://www.vikash.info/audio/xls10/ http://www.vikash.info/audio/audax/break-in.asp I dont exactly know all those values - what they mean - but I can see a pattern, and by numbers I am tempted to say that burning in is not a myth - am i wrong? (of course i understand that the membranes have to change - it's the new shoe old shoe comfort thing - but to speakers, does it make sense to burn them with pink noise, make sense at all to burn them with some special kind of noise? or I am tottaly wrong and there's just the warm up effect and the all burn in process is just placebo?)

Pinknoise and whitenoise burn-in has been used in speakerworld for ages as a burn-in method for ages. If it is a myth to you or not, you have to test it yourself.

 

[cooperpwc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricmat /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks!! great contribute! The program explains all!

You're very welcome. Don't play it too loud though. It should be comfortable to wear your headphones with the pink noise generating (then you can take them off...

)

 

[ericj]

I don't know that anyone has ever sat down and tried to measure it. That may be what they mean by "no proof".

But even the most cynical professional sound engineer will tell you that they've heard the difference on at least one product.

I can tell you that my NOS MB-Quart QP55x - old enough that they say "Made in W. Germany" on them - sounded significantly less shouty and more balanced after a couple hundred hours of listening. I'm sure that a big part of that is psychological, because the quarts have a grado-like bright & punchy sound and I'm more used to beyers and AKGs, but I won't buy that it was 100% psychological.

Take a piece of plastic or metal and bend it back and forth a bunch of times in the same place - it gets softer where you bent it. That's fatigue. The effect is far less pronounced when you're talking about a 12 micron mylar sheet, but it still exists.

 

[BushGuy]

in addition to what ericj just posted, I'd like to suggest you go to Meier Audio site and look at Jan's burn-in regimen. While a bit conservative - it makes a lot of sense. I do not use Pink Noise and have no inclination to transition to it. I'm a little bit more aggressive than Jan, but that works for me.

 

[Jazic]

ehh the potential for damaging the coils now has me worried. I'm new to head-fi and the high end headphone community so I am worrying that using brown noise blended with music would damage the speakers in my new HD650's. I've got maybe 40 hours or so running brown noise at about 40% of the volume of the music.

I think I'm safe. Hopefully the money I'm spending on these cans will protect me from damage where other cans will break due to quality.

 

[Lamprologus]

I have always played regular music when I'm "burning in" a new phone. Maybe the process is faster if you use a certain type of sound, eg. pink noise, but I'm usually not in a hurry.

I don't think that any specific burn in process will result in the phones sounding better than if a different process had been chosen. As long as you don't abuse the phones that is .......