[Mike Scarpitti]

Quote:

Originally posted by Stephonovich I was going write in again. My point has been re-iterated twice now by myself. We are the majority. You are the minority. You have money (if you have R10, obviously...). We do not. End of discussion. (-:Stephonovich

How old are you, lad?

 

[AndrewB]

Not sure, judging by the sheer number of Headphone 'break-in' believers, I'd be willing to bet it is fairly common.

Though, I am inclined to believe acclimation is more the issue, than break-in.

 

[Mike Scarpitti]

Quote:

Originally posted by AndrewB Not sure, judging by the sheer number of Headphone 'break-in' believers, I'd be willing to bet it is fairly common. Though, I am inclined to believe acclimation is more the issue, than break-in.

What is the MOST LIKELY explanation for alien abductions?

The question here is this: which is the MORE LIKELY explanation: 'Burn-in' or 'adaptation'. You know my answer.

 

[JaZZ]

Mike, your selective blindness is remarkable. You simply don't notice the proofs you're provided with (see my previous posts) and keep on with your dumb claims.

Can anybody take over, please? I've lost my motivation.

 

[JohnSmith]

 

[nales]

i think the placebo effect is more at play here than anyone cares to admit. people hear in the manner they have been cultured. if a user is discontent with his recent headphone purchase, he can place his faith in a burn-in period -- and miraculously it starts to sound better. the eggos were consistently praised until one or two came out and reportered problems -- slowly the overall opinion of this phone shifted, as people started to listen for the faults -- sure enough finding them (this time around).

placebo effect and also adaptation to the sonic signature (i would expect this one to have more of an presence on those listening to only those phones in question) are things to consider.

 

[JaZZ]

I wouldn't call it placebo effect, but of course pscychic accomodation is also in play, beside the physical break-in/burn-in.

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

How old are you, lad?

15; what's it to you? A teenager is just as capable of enjoying high quality music as an adult. And I'm sure you won't try to claim that teenagers aren't as good as arguring

I've said before, and I'll say again, burn-in (or break-in...) is somewhat pyschological. Your brain gets used to the signature of the headphones, and adpats to it. However, I still firmly believe they do improve.

One day, Mike, you will find a post from me, with a blind AB/AB test between burned-in and NIB headphones. And then, you will undoubtedly scoff and claim improper testing, or something similar.

(-:Stephonovich

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mike Scarpitti The question here is this: which is the MORE LIKELY explanation: 'Burn-in' or 'adaptation'. You know my answer.

Adaptation. Definitely. Or change in room or body temperature, humidity, mood, socks, diet, stress level. Anything but break-in.

 

[dd3mon]

Mike,

I grow tired of reading your extremely misguided comments, in many areas.

Get some experience with some cans that most agree change a great deal from break-in (most higher end sennheisers for example) or your opinion is far more invalid than ours.

If you had can listed in your profile that was known for dramatic break in, and still supported this position, I would respect your opinion for what it was (but still object to your crazy denials that we could possibly be right).

Fact is, your opinion is based off less first hand experience, and far more random speculation than anyone else who has written on this subject in this thread. Let alone scientific evidence.

MANY very well respected loudspeaker manufacturers include break-in information in their manuals. I think even you could agree that any break-in that could apply to loudspeakers, would also apply to dynamic headphones. Here is an excerpt from a Dynaudio loudspeaker manual (which no one could claim is not well respected):

Quote:

It is important to know that you just purchased Dynaudio speakers which contain newly manufactured moving driver parts which do not right away perform up to Dynaudio standards. A brand new Dynaudio speaker needs a certain breakin time period in order to sound harmonic, safe and beautiful as you can expect if from Dynaudio products.

They also advise Quote:

to give them a 3 or 4 minute warm-up time to fully develop their breath every time you start to play them

Through a very quick search of the web, I also found this website, giving hard, scientific data that fully supports the idea of driver break-in (especially regarding low frequencies):

http://home.hccnet.nl/ine.dick/p1.html

It's mainly a page describing some DIY speaker experiments and measurements, the section pertaining speaker break-in can be found under the "LF Driver" section, regarding measured T/S parameters. The rest of this guy's information is interesting as well, although fairly technical.

I'd love to see a respected, high-end audio company formally deny the existance of driver break-in. Also scientific data officially disproving driver break-in would be welcomed as well. However, I do not buy into personal beliefs and theories that do not even have at the very least, first-hand experience to back them up, let alone hard evidence.

-dd3mon

 

[Mike Scarpitti]

Quote:

Originally posted by dd3mon Mike, I grow tired of reading your extremely misguided comments, in many areas. -dd3mon

Remember, I don't have to prove a thing: YOU DO!

The sources you quote have outlined a very sensible and non-controversial procedure: let moving parts loosen up a bit. this is clearly NOT permanent, as they say. Any PERMANENT change is likely to be DAMAGE.

 

[ManiacSmile]

dd3mon,

If it were someone else and not Mike, your last responce would be absolutley sufficient to at least turn that person's attention and consider other standpoints. I sence this is not happening in this case. This thread is going the same way that "Stax Lambda Vs. Dynamic Cans " went - there's someone who is a "little" close-minded and his judgements aren't based on a hands on experience. I personally was very sceptical about the whole break-in thing...that's untill I got my HD600 and actually sat down for 40 minutes and wrote in short descriptions of 10 different songs that I knew very well. I left my cans playing for 4 days straight. And then I went through the whole process again, trying to figure out if anything happened. The difference was so noticable that it took me only 2 songs to join the "break-in exists" camp. But then again ... Mike is gonna say that I was pre-determined to hear new things, and that probably it's because of the termal changes in the transducers caused by that long burn-in... Well, to each his own ...

 

[Mike Scarpitti]

Quote:

Originally posted by ManiacSmile dd3mon, . I left my cans playing for 4 days straight.

That loosen them up. Put them in the freezer for a week, and then do it again.

 

[erikzen]

"It is important to know that you just purchased Dynaudio speakers which contain newly manufactured moving driver parts which do not right away perform up to Dynaudio standards. A brand new Dynaudio speaker needs a certain breakin time period in order to sound harmonic, safe and beautiful as you can expect if from Dynaudio products."

Just to play Devil's (Mike's) advocate, isn't it entirely possible that speaker manufacturers are aware of the psycho-acoustic phenonmenon that may occur as your ears get used to the sound? They don't want people returning their speakers so they tell them they have to break in. In the meantime, they anticipate that people will get used to the sound of their new speakers.

Just for the record, I believe that headphones burn-in.

 

[dd3mon]

Well, I gave it my best. I'm done.

I could care less about any of this now, you know why? I just went down and my Equinox cable has arrived! Woohoo! It's a used cable, so no need to worry about proper break-in, just plug and play.. Sounds great so far! Tons more detailed than the stock cable!

-dd3mon