[music-o-death]

like LOGITECH Z623.........not unable to listen for hours due to its ear hurting quality satellites sound.
Does it'll produce better sound after days of usage.......?
It sounds harsh , even my 8 years old philips 2.1 blew them out of water in clarity,mids and pleasant natural production though its only of RS.1500 ....same quality costs over Rs.5000 now-a-days.
thanx in advance........

 

 

[ProtegeManiac]

DO 2.1 SPEAKERS NEED BURN-IN??

 
Technically, the term is "break-in," since this refers to mechanical components - for example the surrounds on dynamic driver speakers - while the even more debatable burn-in refers to inert electrical components. Personally I've only heard that happen to one speaker I've owned, drastic as the changes were, so assuming that there can be speakers that really need (as I can't really verify well enough even for myself) break-in, it's just as possible that not all of them, which can be due to:

1) some of them being given enough run-in time at the factory when they were tested by quality control; arguably only the best speakers would be given a test more rigorous than proper wiring polarity and basic frequency response given the time it would need would cost a lot for the business process
 
2) difference in materials or fabrication that makes the said components more pliable sooner
 
Short answer? If it doesn't smooth out within a few days, break-in - whether the drivers or your ears - isn't the cause of the harsh sound.
 

  like LOGITECH Z623.........not unable to listen for hours due to its ear hurting quality satellites sound.

 
Like I said, it's most likely these weren't broken in at the factory QC, and I can think of other reasons other than materials or fabrication techniques used:

1. These are probably designed more for spectacular SFX than for smoothing out music, as the intended market will probably have more use for hearing glass shattering in a video game than not screwing up (much less deliberately smoothening) a proper recording. It can happen whether it's a single driver all the way to the treble on the satellites with a harsh response common with cheap fullrange drivers, or a 2-way with a harsh peak because of a badly designed crossover.
 
2. Cheap. Not that it's a bad product, but like I said, spectacular glass-shattering among other SFX, RND costs in parts and time, etc will play a part in that.
 
3. It could be in the recording. What albums are you listening to? And what other systems can serve as reference (not absolute but relative) that don't have the fatiguing sound you're having trouble with?
 
4. It could be your ears and mind. Human hearing is not perfectly flat - healthy hearing has a plateau for the midrange (it's part of evolution along with vocal communication, as in talking, vs howling or screeching or leaving a scent trail to the honey flowers); damaged hearing can have a different response (you might just be hearing less of the midrange); or if it's your first system that can play fullrange up to 20khz or so you're just not used to hearing this much of it if at all (when I switch from my midrange-oriented, rolled-off treble IEM on my smartphone to my reference system at home, the latter sounds harsh for the first few minutes)
 
 

  It sounds harsh , even my 8 years old philips 2.1 blew them out of water in clarity,mids and pleasant natural production though its only of RS.1500 ....same quality costs over Rs.5000 now-a-days.

 
Go back to my earlier points about your reference system and whether previous systems have fullrange response. It's possible these Philips don't have fullrange playback, or as is more likely (based on the various Philips shelf systems we've had in the kitchen vs the Sonys), they are tuned to be a bit closer to the smooth side. Also the drivers could really be of better quality - what model Philips are those exactly? I still have a Philips2.0 shelf system I keep in the kitchen and the sound is incredibly smooth. Too smooth, given my HD600 sounds harsh compared to them.

 

[music-o-death]

   
Technically, the term is "break-in," since this refers to mechanical components - for example the surrounds on dynamic driver speakers - while the even more debatable burn-in refers to inert electrical components. Personally I've only heard that happen to one speaker I've owned, drastic as the changes were, so assuming that there can be speakers that really need (as I can't really verify well enough even for myself) break-in, it's just as possible that not all of them, which can be due to:

1) some of them being given enough run-in time at the factory when they were tested by quality control; arguably only the best speakers would be given a test more rigorous than proper wiring polarity and basic frequency response given the time it would need would cost a lot for the business process
 
2) difference in materials or fabrication that makes the said components more pliable sooner
 
Short answer? If it doesn't smooth out within a few days, break-in - whether the drivers or your ears - isn't the cause of the harsh sound.
 
 
Like I said, it's most likely these weren't broken in at the factory QC, and I can think of other reasons other than materials or fabrication techniques used:

1. These are probably designed more for spectacular SFX than for smoothing out music, as the intended market will probably have more use for hearing glass shattering in a video game than not screwing up (much less deliberately smoothening) a proper recording. It can happen whether it's a single driver all the way to the treble on the satellites with a harsh response common with cheap fullrange drivers, or a 2-way with a harsh peak because of a badly designed crossover.
 
2. Cheap. Not that it's a bad product, but like I said, spectacular glass-shattering among other SFX, RND costs in parts and time, etc will play a part in that.
 
3. It could be in the recording. What albums are you listening to? And what other systems can serve as reference (not absolute but relative) that don't have the fatiguing sound you're having trouble with?
 
4. It could be your ears and mind. Human hearing is not perfectly flat - healthy hearing has a plateau for the midrange (it's part of evolution along with vocal communication, as in talking, vs howling or screeching or leaving a scent trail to the honey flowers); damaged hearing can have a different response (you might just be hearing less of the midrange); or if it's your first system that can play fullrange up to 20khz or so you're just not used to hearing this much of it if at all (when I switch from my midrange-oriented, rolled-off treble IEM on my smartphone to my reference system at home, the latter sounds harsh for the first few minutes)
 
 
 
Go back to my earlier points about your reference system and whether previous systems have fullrange response. It's possible these Philips don't have fullrange playback, or as is more likely (based on the various Philips shelf systems we've had in the kitchen vs the Sonys), they are tuned to be a bit closer to the smooth side. Also the drivers could really be of better quality - what model Philips are those exactly? I still have a Philips2.0 shelf system I keep in the kitchen and the sound is incredibly smooth. Too smooth, given my HD600 sounds harsh compared to them.

Thanx for that very detailed review......but tell me if this so called harsh sound affect ears negatively or getting used to it will be equivalent to having damaged ears.
Smooth sound is better than full-range sound(not pleasant that much).........or not?
In short, listening to those(for long times) won't affect my ears?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  but tell me if this so called harsh sound affect ears negatively or getting used to it will be equivalent to having damaged ears.

 
If you're listening too loud, even a smoothed-out response won't protect your ears. Damage will have a lot more to do with the dBs than the response, which if anything will just cause more discomfort, or what kind. Too much bass you get a headache (Lil Jon fans will disagree), too much treble and it feels sharp, too much midrange and it's still fatiguing.

Technically you might end up damaging your ears with a smoothed-out or rolled-off treble (or an amp that has a very clean, high-wattage output). Why? If you think it's not loud enough because it doesn't hurt, then you keep listening at a volume that you don't realize is waaaay over 90db at your ears.
 

  Smooth sound is better than full-range sound(not pleasant that much).........or not?

 
They're two different things but you can have smooth, full-range sound - meaning it goes up to 20khz or higher and it's as close to flat as possible from 20hz to 20khz. Perfectly flat isn't possible for transducers of all types (ex. dynamic drivers' impedance changes with the frequency, so that affects its interaction with the amp on top of the diaphragm's properties) so there's some range of allowance for variances; a mild plateau may be better subjectively than a sudden, narrow spike for example.
 
In some cases some compromise may be necessary. Take for example the HD600, which is my reference headphone - it's basically as I describe in the preceding paragraph. However, on the go, there are many more considerations, like isolation (which needs to be balanced out with awareness for surroundings), fit (is it comfortable? for how long?), and portability in terms of size of the headphone or IEM and the associated equipment (ie will i need to strap an amp onto an iPod or can my smartphone or tablet drive it well enough?). With that in mind I ended up using the Aurisonics ASG-1, which basically sounds like the HD600 or HD650 if they had a little bit more bass, and their response at listening level is inaudible past 12khz, came in IEM form factor, and works well with smartphones and tablets.
 

  In short, listening to those(for long times) won't affect my ears?

 
Again, it's not the frequency response, but the loudness and time spent on it. There isn't a clear equation for how much loudness and time spent listening to it will affect your ears, unlike say calculating how much more speed at a given mass or how much more mass at a given speed will do how much damage, compared to the lack of solid mathematical equation for how much damage firing how many rounds of a 50cal machine gun next to your head will be vs listening to a 200watt system for how many minutes at full tilt will do to your ears, but the general advice is to not listen to anything over 90db for over an hour each day. If you have to drown out background noise by pumping up the volume, you should look into lowering or isolating yourself from that background noise level first. In my case that's IEM by day at lower volumes, headphones at 11pm before I sleep. If it's a weekend and I'm playing online all day, and it's hot over here so I don't use headphones, I have to use speakers on my game, speakers on my comms, and then there's the background noise outside with the A/C in my room and the sound of the GPU and rad fans driving me nuts...