I think it stands to reason that some form of burn-in exists since we are dealing with moving matter and there is bound to be some micro-friction occuring in the driver. With this said, I think that in the vast majority of cases, such small changes caused by moving matter in the driver are completely inaudible. This leaves the few better documented headphones that do change their sound signature slightly over time.
So all in all, I do believe that some form of burn-in exists but it is usually inaudible and most audiophiles completely overinflate its influence on sound. Nevertheless, there might be some specific cases of headphones that do change in an audible way, but they are exceptions that prove the rule.
Perhaps we burn in rather than the earphones. But believing does't do harm, personally I believe in the burn-in theory. because my akg k514 used to make annoying noise when performing high-frequency music, and it doesn't now
I don't believe that there is a dramatic change but it can't hurt to burn in a new pair of cans for a night or two. However burning cables and solid state amps makes no sense to me. It's digital, the signal is all or nothing. Cables aren't affected by much of anything except for heat in the most extreme cases. But to each their own.
After many years of listening, I definitely do for headphones & speakers.
I still haven't fully made up my mind on electronics and cables;
but if I were forced to give an answer I'd say yes to those as well.
(Many high end electronics like pre amps and amps don't have on/off switches -
because their designers want them to be on as much as possible. They say
this produces better sound., and they're smarter than me on this stuff.)
There may be some truth to the burn in of electronics, but I think the lack of a power button on these devices isn't so much as a burn in method, but more so because perhaps the on/off cycle can shorten the device's live. Plus, I truly believe that many amps and pre-amps sound their best when they are fully warmed up. Makes no sense to turn them off if they take hours to get to full operating temps.
(Many high end electronics like pre amps and amps don't have on/off switches -
because their designers want them to be on as much as possible. They say
this produces better sound., and they're smarter than me on this stuff.)
The most drastic encounter with headphone burn in resulted in trying these cheapo ear-buds which sounded horrible until about four hours of play. I worked at a mall and the guy selling them was my friend who let me do an A/B test with a new out of the box pair and you could totally tell the difference. Some headphones show it more than others. These bad headphones completely smoothed out in four hours of play and never became great but tolerable in the end.
I used to be a skeptic with burn in of headphones, but now I'm a slight believer. Burn in does change the sound slightly, but nothing drastic. You won't turn a set of DT880s into HD650s or anything, but you'll mature the sound of the cans and make them slightly more refined.
IMHO there might be minor changes to the sound overtime (due to aging of earpads, e.g.), but I believe that all these euphoric experiences of drastical changes in sound due to burn in that you read about on this forum are - no offense - bad cases of self-deception ,-) So no, I do not really believe in headphone burn in, but a change in how the listener experiences a headphone (brain burn in).
After using my K701's for around 200h I definitely belive in "burn-in". When they were completely new they sounded very bright and harsh, I could barely stand them. Then, I let them play for around 100h(without listening to them) and when I listened to them again there was a BIG improvement in the sound. Most of the harshness was gone and the sound had become "softer" and both details and bass were more prominent.
I absolutely believe in "burn-in" when it comes to headphones and speakers. It makes total sense that the diaphragm softens over time and therefore sounds better.
I absolutely don't believe in it when it comes to electronics(amps, cables etc.) however. I mean, what could possibly change over time? There aren't any moving components or anything..
This has always been an interesting topic for me. I do think, in some capacity headphones do change sound a bit over time. I have a pair of UE700s that used to literally distort on low bass notes. After many hundreds of hours, they no longer do. They hit the notes cleanly.
I do think some of it though, is you ears adapting to the headphones. You always notice how different another pair of headphones sound from another when you test them back to back. After awhile, though, your ears seem to adapt to the sound signature, and you start hearing the things you thought were lacking. Like a 'dark' sounding pair of headphones with really relaxed highs...after awhile, they don't sound so dark anymore. Or a set with lack of bass...listen to them long enough, your ears start to pick up the bass better, and you get 'used to it', and it doesn't sound all that 'bass lacking' anymore.
The only time I've experienced it was with my cheapo Panasonic HTF600's. And even then it was only a slight change after burn in, and couldn't raise the quality of the sound into something I can stand to listen to for any period of time.
I listened to them with specific songs prior to my last stage of burn in time...hideous. Then after burn in with pink noise for many hours tried again...still ugly, but a step up from hideous.
they came out of the box with very harsh highs and huge bass that wasnt tight at all. since then the highs are toned down a lot and the bass has become more tightened.
I had these cans and I ran them nonstop out of my home theater receiver for one full week. Burn in did help. While these cans aren't very good, they are far from hideous. I gave mine away to my dad and he is happy to have them.
The only time I've experienced it was with my cheapo Panasonic HTF600's. And even then it was only a slight change after burn in, and couldn't raise the quality of the sound into something I can stand to listen to for any period of time.
I listened to them with specific songs prior to my last stage of burn in time...hideous. Then after burn in with pink noise for many hours tried again...still ugly, but a step up from hideous.
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