[rommy]

I know I weighed in on this once before but a couple of other headphones I've broken and we're grado 325is which sounded very strained when new, but opened up after 200-300 hrs. Up to 500 hrs. And klipsch s4i which sounded like a $25 pair of ear buds when I first got them and transformed into the best set of IEMs I've owned yet after 2 weeks of play at gym and work..i just got got a set of beyer T1s which sounded beautiful out of the box. I played them for about 12 hrs. And have been listening for about 2 weeks with no overnight playing. So far i hear no difference in sound..to me with certain cans it is an absolute must.

 

[radiofrog]

xnor, thank you for taking the time to type out all the thoughts in my head.  I'll read someone's post and start to formulate a response internally, then I find you've already gone ahead and stated it better than I would have done.
 
Quote:

  ...you can measure certain things more accurately than any subjective test will tell you. Can you "taste" or rather feel the difference between 850k and 900k scoville and reliably tell the difference?

 
I might not be able to tell the difference, but if I ate something that hot it might very well change the sound of my phones. 

 

[xnor]

On anecdotes:
 
Short version: it's not scientific evidence, see my signature.
 
Did you guys know that smoking is healthy? I knew a person that died at age 95. This person was quite a heavy smoker for many decades.
Another person died much earlier, but never smoked and had a generally healthy lifestyle. => Smoking is healthy.
...
 

I know I weighed in on this once before but a couple of other headphones I've broken and we're grado 325is which sounded very strained when new, but opened up after 200-300 hrs. Up to 500 hrs.

Other guys report in their anecdotes that you only need 50h. Others say they sound "brash" out of the box.
 
 

And klipsch s4i which sounded like a $25 pair of ear buds when I first got them and transformed into the best set of IEMs I've owned yet after 2 weeks of play at gym and work..

Other people said that after a couple of years of use they still have "muddy bass, muffled mids".
 
.. and burn-in in in-ears is the most unlikely since they have the smallest drivers.
 
 

 i just got got a set of beyer T1s which sounded beautiful out of the box. I played them for about 12 hrs. And have been listening for about 2 weeks with no overnight playing. So far i hear no difference in sound..to me with certain cans it is an absolute must.

Other people said that the T1 sounded like a Grado before burn-in, "bright" and "unrefined".
 
 
All of these anecdotes are quite unreliable and no evidence for burn-in.

 

[rommy]

show how many headphones have you owned and which ones?

 

[xnor]

I've owned several headphone that people reported to have experienced day/night differences with after burn-in, and even measured some. So what?
 
Hearing differences when switching headphones/speakers is natural in the process of getting used to a new sound signature. People also hear difference due to bias and expectation - a trap I've stepped into myself more than once.

 

[rommy]

no mine was perfect right out of the box. Best headphone I ever had

 

[castleofargh]

the problem is not to be sure if there has been a change with time, but what could be the reason of this change?.
when can we be sure that a long term difference isn't due to our brains adapting, or our memory failing us or simply the way we put the phone on our head or the pads giving in or ... ?
dunno for you, but my "burn-in" process is more about getting used to placing the phone to get the best comfort and sometimes my favorite sound when placement matters a lot. 2weeks doesn't seem too far off to really get used to put on a pair of phones. also with age I know myself pretty well now and my brains play tricks on me for the first 3 weeks, my opinion will go all over the map for those 3 weeks. only after a month can I be sure that my opinion on a phone will not change anymore (and strangely or not, I usually end up with something very close to what I though on my first 30seconds with it).
I really can't see how one can be absolutely sure the change in sound comes from some burn-in thing when so many external parameters can be responsible. it's the kind of stuff you can claim but never prove.

 

[xnor]

the problem is not to be sure if there has been a change with time, but what could be the reason of this change?.
when can we be sure that a long term difference isn't due to our brains adapting, or our memory failing us or simply the way we put the phone on our head or the pads giving in or ... ?

Exactly. There are multiple (logical) fallacies here like confusing correlation and causation, arguments from ignorance, non sequitur ...
 
 

it's the kind of stuff you can claim but never prove.

And we actually have some proof against the headphone driver burn-in as described in anecdotes.

 

[krismusic]

Good post.

 

[manbear]

Another problem is that we can't compare the same headphone pre and post burn-in side by side. Any comparisons require relying on memory, which is asking for trouble when the differences (if there are any) would be very subtle. Of course, we could take measurements at different points in time and then compare them directly. This has been done. I forget exactly where, but the results were far from clear.