[swbf2cheater]

YouTube - Headphone Burn-in Test

He says he doesnt believe it to be true, and wants a credible source proving it. He tested the Denon 2000s btw.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I am not convinced at all that poor sounding headphones will turn into great sounding headphones after burn in. That, to me is psychological and not wanting to admit you have made a mistake and bought headphones you do not like.

The tester has proved that the signal sent by that machine has not changed (give or take a decibel) over a period of time. But is that the definitive test proving no burn in?

OOps! Should have done a search first, there is already a thread discussing the video here

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/burn-myth-468146/

 

[AFK]

That thread is closed, but burn-in is definitely a myth, and a hilarious one. It's all placebo effect. I even tested this myself for ****s and giggles. I had a pair of Ultrasone DJ1s 2-3 years old and then recently just bought a brand new pair. They sound EXACTLY the same when A/Bing them. I suspect that 99.9% of all people who claim that their headphones sound better after burn-in are not A/Bing them with a new pair. They are trying to compare the sound from MEMORY, and that's easily prone to the placebo effect.

 

[brendon]

Sigh, this is a topic beaten to death by believers and nay sayers. Neither side is going to believe the other side short regardless of different tests thrown about to prove or disprove burn-in. So lets stop beating a dead horse !

 

[b0dhi]

Quote:

In my opinion, only speakers with moving, mechanical parts require burn in. I think cable and headphone burn in is really nonsense and might sound better to you because you want to think of it that way.

Apparently speakers have burn-in while headphones create sound by really, really trying hard. Not by speakers though.

The question isn't "does burn-in happen", the question is "is it audible", or rather, "is it audible considering the psychological burn-in that happens also".

About the video, the guy says it shows a couple dB difference. Obviously that's a small difference, but it's an audible one. Also, he doesn't seem to know a lot about headphones, since that response graph isn't supposed to be flat. For speakers, yes, headphones - no.

 

[brendon]

You cant classify all headphones as equal. I have heard MAJOR differences in some headphones and practically no difference in others. If I had heard only the two headphones that did not show any burn-in I would have said burn-in is a myth. However I have had 7 headphones/earphones that have shown a noticeable improvement with burn-in (3 slight but noticeable burn-in and 4 very noticeable differences) and two of the very noticeable differences were confirmed by my friend as well.

However I cant offer any conclusive proof but the argument of burn-in believers is simple, just because you have not experienced it does not mean it does not exist !

 

[SilverCans]

well in the loud speaker world, driver T/S paramters do change slightly after some burn-in, but this does not necessarily translate into a huge difference in sound.

 

[Guidostrunk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swbf2cheater /img/forum/go_quote.gif YouTube - Headphone Burn-in Test He says he doesnt believe it to be true, and wants a credible source proving it. He tested the Denon 2000s btw.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guidostrunk /img/forum/go_quote.gif

This is Sound Science and not the main headphone forum. We can talk of such things here without the need for popcorn. You should have posted your comment in the full size headphone forum before that thread was locked. You'd fit right in with their level of discussion on the topic.

 

[MadMan007]

His gear looks to be plugged in to a giraffe's ass therefore it will sound like crap no matter what.

 

[sesshin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilverCans /img/forum/go_quote.gif well in the loud speaker world, driver T/S paramters do change slightly after some burn-in, but this does not necessarily translate into a huge difference in sound.

On this note, I was modeling an enclosure just today for a subwoofer driver (RSS315HF-4) and I found two different specs from the manufacturer, one before burn-in and one after, and one set yielded an enclosure of 2 cu. ft. for a Q of .707 and the other was 3 cu. ft. That's not a difference in SQ but is a big difference in enclosure size.

I don't know how this transfers exactly to headphone burn-in but it does show that loudspeaker burn-in, in general, can be an influence.