Has anyone actually tested the burn-in myth?

[PoorBastard]

Hello guys,
Have you seen any links where somebody tested headphones' frequency response before and after burn-in?

UPD. Well, I found this test:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/learn/break-in

UPD2. I personally don't believe in burin-in, it's just this subject was raised in my recent conversation with a friend, and I decided to see some test data.

 

[bagwell359]

Hello guys,
Have you seen any links where somebody tested headphones' frequency response before and after burn-in?

UPD. Well, I found this test:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/learn/break-in

Entropy is real. Materials, glue, rubber, plastic change with stress (movement and time).

Dynamic sub-woofers not broken in come out of the box have a certain excursion. After 40-100 hrs 5 of the 6 drivers I used building my subs had more measured excursion and more output at the bottom of the range.

Ever since the 1970's when Magnepans first came out, I noticed when I was demo'ing (as a salesman) and owning MG-1's and MG-2's that they had an edge to them that went away after a few hundred hours. Jim Winey the designer confirmed that to me about a year later. My run of Martin-Logans had the same effect - and the Maggies and ML's I had the mylar replaced at the factory went through the same changes again.

The HFM HE-6 SE I got new, I would listen too them every 10 hours of break-in with an hour of the HD-600 and HE-500 (my refs at the time) before and after using the same tracks every time, and making sure the VAC, and other conditions were essentially the same. I noticed a change at 30 hrs, another smaller one at 60 hrs, and the final change a t 80 hrs, after that no changes thru 120, when I gave up the test.

If I buy those test results you reference, and I have no reason not too, that proves that those types of tests had those results. Taking that to cover every permutation isn't something that seems reasonable to me. Agreement if you want it, I am sure can be found in the science thread.

 

[chesebert]

Hello guys,
Have you seen any links where somebody tested headphones' frequency response before and after burn-in?

UPD. Well, I found this test:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/learn/break-in

No one has conclusively proved that burn-in is real, outside of large speakers and subwoofers. If you have the cans for a few days and still don't like it, just return them for something that you like from day 1. People who tell they hated x then after 500 hours it is magic, are full of

 

[geek707]

If this is a white rabbit hole (Alice in Wonderland) you feel you must go down, have fun. I have seen burn-in attributed to almost everything in this hobby, and not seen evidence to indicate reality. As I read it, the test you found says nope, and all I've seen agrees with that.
That said conspiracy theories are fun to explore even when you don't believe. I look at burn-in on the same level.
Have fun.
Short answer see @chesebert's post.

 

[Whitigir]

Let’s just say, sometimes it can’t be measured (tested) because we don’t know how to measure (test) it.

So, let’s just say, if you can not tell the differences. Why the fuzz ?

 

[HipHopScribe]

The HFM HE-6 SE I got new, I would listen too them every 10 hours of break-in with an hour of the HD-600 and HE-500 (my refs at the time) before and after using the same tracks every time, and making sure the VAC, and other conditions were essentially the same. I noticed a change at 30 hrs, another smaller one at 60 hrs, and the final change a t 80 hrs, after that no changes thru 120, when I gave up the test..

Unfortunately you couldn’t control for the most variable condition of them all, your brain.

 

[bagwell359]

Unfortunately you couldn’t control for the most variable condition of them all, your brain.

In the case of the subs the increase of the excursion and performance was measured - do work on those reading skills....

 

[ThEvil0nE]

One listening session should be enough to know if a headphone is right for you, well at least for me.

 

[geek707]

I'm curious how often the burn-in goes bad? The item being burned in gets worse.
Or for that matter, if your target is always changing, how do you know when it's reached it's "sweet" spot. 10 hours, 100 hours, 120 hours? And what happens after? Nirvana? And for how long? Forever?

 

[megabigeye]

Hello guys,
Have you seen any links where somebody tested headphones' frequency response before and after burn-in?

UPD. Well, I found this test:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/learn/break-in

Tyll Hertsens tested for burn-in with measurements and subjective listening. As I recall, he started out saying, "maybe so?!" and later changed to "eh, maybe not, too hard to tell."

Here's an old thread (with outdated link to Inner Fidelity) discussing his initial findings.

 

[megabigeye]

Archive of that original article.

 

[HipHopScribe]

In the case of the subs the increase of the excursion and performance was measured - do work on those reading skills....

Did I quote the part about subs? No, I quoted your claims about headphones, where such a thing has never been measured and which was based entirely on your subjective impressions. My reading was fine

 

[chesebert]

I'm curious how often the burn-in goes bad? The item being burned in gets worse.
Or for that matter, if your target is always changing, how do you know when it's reached it's "sweet" spot. 10 hours, 100 hours, 120 hours? And what happens after? Nirvana? And for how long? Forever?

Going bad? Never. It’s always zero to hero in 500 hours

 

[Merkurio]

I'm curious how often the burn-in goes bad? The item being burned in gets worse.
Or for that matter, if your target is always changing, how do you know when it's reached it's "sweet" spot. 10 hours, 100 hours, 120 hours? And what happens after? Nirvana? And for how long? Forever?

Stop your annoying logic and rationality, someone may get hurt!

 

[jagwap]

This is a subject that rolls on by opinion rather than gathered facts, like many other aspects discussed on the internet. The fact of the matter is , if you do not want to hear a difference, that just as easy to achieve, as hearing a difference that is not there.

The industry best acoustic measurement, Klippel, shows that there are mechanical changes over time as measured by their high resolution laser Interferometry measurement equipment. As these changes do not commonly affect frequency response significantly, it is often dismissed by less experienced audio experts.

https://www.klippel.de/fileadmin/kl...tigue_and_Aging_of_suspension_AES_NY_2011.pdf

The change in stiffness can result in a change in sound, as not everything about sound quality is in the frequency response. But because a significant amount of this change generally comes from changes in the spider, there will potentially be less burn-in in headphones as they don't tend to have this part in their suspension systems.

The burn-in tends towards an optimum as any product that is extensively tuned, it will be done on devices that have been used for many hours before the tuning is signed off.