Grado Fan Club!
Apr 14, 2021 at 1:48 PM Post #46,876 of 65,063
I find myself amused by people who will write long and angry diatribes at me while insisting they don't care what I think. You do care, and that's fine. This is a passionate hobby. Just be honest about it.

So we are shifting the argument to whether I care or not? Okay.

No, I don't give a schiit about what you think about me. I replied to your post because you are being a rude to other members who post in this thread. I do care about that. It's so nice and calm in the Grado thread until you decide to go on one of your crusades. You know, you can still be a crusader and not be a dick about it. Maybe it's in your nature and you can't help yourself. Hmm...
 
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Apr 14, 2021 at 2:49 PM Post #46,878 of 65,063
Ach du Schande, probably shouldn't have uttered these fighting words. But here we are, so a few remarks are in order: a) i liked the Hemp - a lot - from the very beginning b) with the large majority of headphones i've listened to there was no (to me) discernible change over time and c) i have never met a headphone i disliked that suddenly became good 'because of burn in'. But that's definitely all, i have better things to do with life than fighting wars of religion.
 
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Apr 14, 2021 at 3:24 PM Post #46,879 of 65,063
SomeGuyDude makes an interesting point that the majority of all "burn-in" is reported as in a "positive" direction -- i.e., the head/earphones improve in sound. Rarely do you hear anyone say "I burned them in for 100 hours, and now they sound WORSE."

This is the strongest argument that majority of "burn-in" is in the brain, no matter what percentage you want to assign to it. Personally, I put it about 15% driver change to 85% brain acceptance of the new sound.

Regardless, WHY are we arguing over this??? Whether burn-in is real or not, It's not worth starting fires and burning bridges IMO. Let's be friendly and gracious.
 
Apr 14, 2021 at 3:33 PM Post #46,880 of 65,063
SomeGuyDude makes an interesting point that the majority of all "burn-in" is reported as in a "positive" direction -- i.e., the head/earphones improve in sound. Rarely do you hear anyone say "I burned them in for 100 hours, and now they sound WORSE."

This is the strongest argument that majority of "burn-in" is in the brain, no matter what percentage you want to assign to it. Personally, I put it about 15% driver change to 85% brain acceptance of the new sound.

Regardless, WHY are we arguing over this??? Whether burn-in is real or not, It's not worth starting fires and burning bridges IMO. Let's be friendly and gracious.
Great post. Can we kill this discussion on burn in for now or move it elsewhere
 
Apr 14, 2021 at 3:40 PM Post #46,881 of 65,063
SomeGuyDude makes an interesting point that the majority of all "burn-in" is reported as in a "positive" direction -- i.e., the head/earphones improve in sound. Rarely do you hear anyone say "I burned them in for 100 hours, and now they sound WORSE."

This is the strongest argument that majority of "burn-in" is in the brain, no matter what percentage you want to assign to it. Personally, I put it about 15% driver change to 85% brain acceptance of the new sound.

Regardless, WHY are we arguing over this??? Whether burn-in is real or not, It's not worth starting fires and burning bridges IMO. Let's be friendly and gracious.

My guess is that headphones are designed and tested for the end result i.e. after several hundreds of hours of use. And it's too expensive to age all components before selling the headphone. So there's that.

Also when i burn in headphones i have them playing something for a week. And it's not like i listen to them all the time. I maybe use them every day for 10 minutes. So there is really no time for my brain to be burnt in. What i remember usually is that in the beginning i sometimes didn't like a headphone all too much or it was ok but not very good. And if this changes after 7 days of hardly listening to it then it's supposed to be my brain that changed and not the headphones?
 
Apr 14, 2021 at 3:47 PM Post #46,882 of 65,063
Apr 14, 2021 at 3:51 PM Post #46,884 of 65,063
What's the next special edition model going to be? A GH5? Another whiskey barrel model? A bigger Hemp with G cushions ?

A Skittles headphone with L-pads in 7 colours!
 
Apr 14, 2021 at 5:26 PM Post #46,886 of 65,063
😄😄😄
As long as it doesn't lead to heated arguments about which color pads sound the best.

(Because obviously the red pads would sound the best)
Wrong again! We concluded in the TH900 thread the blue version sounds better than the red at least for most of us. Then somebody said the color of the wooden cups can't matter.

:D
 
Apr 14, 2021 at 8:21 PM Post #46,887 of 65,063
Wrong again! We concluded in the TH900 thread the blue version sounds better than the red at least for most of us. Then somebody said the color of the wooden cups can't matter.

:D
Well yea, blue wood sounds better than red wood. But red foam sounds better than yellow, orange, green, or purple foam. This is basic stuff. 😜

Those Emerald green Fostex tho 😍
 
Apr 15, 2021 at 11:09 AM Post #46,889 of 65,063
Yes, but have you ever noticed the "break" is always sudden and immediate? Show me a headphone that's ever "degraded" to having a really weird and wonky sound and I'll agree with you. I don't mean like "the left driver went out," I mean "the left driver suddenly has really loose and flabby bass and the right driver doesn't play treble anymore."

That's how you know this is just crap. You can find vintage headphones from the 1970s that still sound like they did back then. For what you're talking about to be related to the concept of "burn-in," then if you played your headphones 24/7 for a year, at the end of it they'd have this really weird sound from the cone/motor/coil having so much wear and tear it can't maintain structural integrity.

I mean this genuinely. Find me any example of someone who had a pair of headphones for 5-10 years and said that the sound of them had gradually degraded over that time, because I've never heard it. Meanwhile I know of people who have had a pair of Senn HD580 or HD650 for 20 years and never replaced them. If burn-in existed, after 2 decades those speakers would be so worn out they barely work right. But that never happens. Sometimes they break, but it's always "made sound, don't make sound." Which tells you that the failure point is not where you think it is.

If burn-in was real, people would INSIST not to buy vintage used headphones, because they've been used so much those speakers won't sound right anymore. People hunting for Joseph Grado HP1000 or buying discontinued models would be getting headphones that sound wrong because they've been used so much they're breaking down and won't sound like they should. But we all know that ain't true. People on here love getting those old discontinued models because they still sound awesome. Why do they still sound awesome? Because they ain't wearing out like that.
I'm not an advocate for burn in or a denier. That being said, what if burn in was only to a certain point. Loosen up the drivers the first XXX number of hours and then burn in stops? Hence there would be no degradation of the sound and drivers as time moves on. Same with cables......That being said, I agree that you should be able to measure some of the effects of burn if it truly occurred... Measure changes in treble, mid's and bass. I wonder why that hasn't/isn't happening? Not sure why people get so worked up. I've definitely heard burn in.. But is it me or my equipment? Don't know, don't really care..... Just my 2 cents
 
Apr 15, 2021 at 11:28 AM Post #46,890 of 65,063
Having a decent number of phones and amps both. My best solution with my limited space is hard cases for my favorites or in lesser phones perhaps the just the original box. The main trick is to keep them in the same place when not in use. Most of the amps are set up so I have a rack of just headphone amps along with two other areas.
Not ideal but it works for me.

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I just showed your pictures to my wife. Thank you! Now she knows my addiction isn't that bad...yet. Time to order more gear!
 

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