[desik]

Question summary: If we leave a headphone unused for a while - weeks/months, will it sound again like a new out of the box headphone, before the burn-in?
 
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My experience:
I have a 9-years old HD485 headphone, which I had a hard time to replace with something better. This can definitely deserves some more talk on this forum. Recently I bought a used HD485 from ebay, because my old HD485 is pretty worn out, and getting a whole new one was just a little pricier than getting a new pair of cushions only.
 
Made a back-and-forth test for sound quality, and the new headphone sounds significantly worse than the old one. Less detail, more boring sound, instruments are mixed up. Yet the cushions look fairly used, used enough to qualify as burn-in. I posted the details here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/532844/headphone-burn-in/90#post_12294731
 
This experiment has the advantage of having no "brain burn-in" involved - switch from one headphone to the other was done in <1min, repeated back and forth several times.
 
The main explanation that comes into my mind is that the new HD485 were unused for a long time and reverted to pre burn-in state. Unfortunately I couldn't complete the experiment by letting the new cans burn and repeat the comparison. New cans had a defect - sound coming from just one ear, so I returned them. BTW, testing was done by outputting sound to one ear, on both cans.
 
 
P.S. To be honest, I believe the new HD485 sounded even worse than my first HD485 9 years ago. So, there might be other culprits besides un-burn-in. But I'm comparing from memory, so cannot be sure.

 

[castleofargh]

why another topic? wasn't the one you link called "headphone burn in" also situated in sound science, enough?

 

[watchnerd]

   
 
The main explanation that comes into my mind is that the new HD485 were unused for a long time and reverted to pre burn-in state. 

 
There is no electromechanical reason why that would happen absent extreme environmental factors (arctic cold, for example). The suspensions of mechanical drivers do loosen up after the factory, but they don't tighten up again on their own.  Just like the suspension on your car.

 

[milosingh]

There is nothing as un-burn in.

 

[desik]

Thanks, for replies. If there's no un-burn-in, I'm quite puzzled. That means the new cans lost their sound quality in some other way.

 

[watchnerd]

  Thanks, for replies. If there's no un-burn-in, I'm quite puzzled. That means the new cans lost their sound quality in some other way.

 
No, it doesn't mean that.  It means your ears acclimated to a different set of response curves while you were away from them.

 

[desik]

   
No, it doesn't mean that.  It means your ears acclimated to a different set of response curves while you were away from them.

To summarize, I compared 2 sets of HD485 at the same time, back and forth, 1 min switch delay. One - heavily used for 9 year, other one - recently bought from ebay, also used before, nothing else known. There was no "acclimatization" involved.

 

[Roly1650]

To summarize, I compared 2 sets of HD485 at the same time, back and forth, 1 min switch delay. One - heavily used for 9 year, other one - recently bought from ebay, also used before, nothing else known. There was no "acclimatization" involved.

One minute switching time is too long, our echoic memory is less than 10 seconds.

Your post above means you haven't got the foggiest idea whether they actually sounded exactly the same when they were both new. Sennheiser would be an absolute anomaly if they could manufacture with zero tolerance spread, they'd have accomplished something no other manufacturing concern has ever been able to achieve. Also, you've already said the second set were defective and needed to be returned, so you don't even have a clue as to whether this pair were ridden hard and put away wet before you got them, so a distinct possibility they're totally wanked anyway. Unburn in? Yea, right......

 

[desik]

Yeah, makes sense. Would be interesting to see some reports of sound quality degrading over time after hard use. Guess that would be even more controversial than burn-in.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by desik /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Question summary: If we leave a headphone unused for a while - weeks/months, will it sound again like a new out of the box headphone, before the burn-in?

 

That's because you allowed the earpads enough time to return to as close as possible to its original thickness. I cycle two sets of earpads for my HD600 for the same reason.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by desik /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Yeah, makes sense. Would be interesting to see some reports of sound quality degrading over time after hard use. Guess that would be even more controversial than burn-in.

 

Barring wear and tear or lack of general maintenance, or outright damage, the only cause for this is earpads. Very old earpads on the HD600 boosts the lows and highs so you get bass bloat plus grating cymbals. This is why I cycle two pairs, each used for roughly six to eight weeks, on top of which I've adjusted the headband clamp so there's as little clamp wearing them down also. Headband pads however wear out faster, but it's cheaper. If anything they're a real PITA to remove and replace, although I can easily tolerate worn headband pads on these as my hair is fairly thick anyway (I can't grow a nice beard, but among my friends, I'm the only one whose hair isn't thinning out up top).

 

Here's what it looks like after the headband adjustment and how it won't fit into the case; it's reversible, just not something you have to do on a daily basis.