[anwaypasible]

start by asking yourself WHY you are supposed to burn in headphones.
 
1. melt the coating on the voice coil to create a heavier duty bond
2. loosen the surround of the speaker to allow the cone to move more freely
3. literally melt the intersections of the voice coil to allow an improvement in response timing
 
 
NONE of those should be done by an amatuer.
most people think number 2 is safe.. but do you REALLY know if the surround needs to be made loose?
what if it sounded better tight and you broke them before you started using them?
 
 
**edit**
 
once again.. this advice is for out-dated technology.
the government generally views things as perfect, and the only embarassment they deal with is other people.

 

[terente0081]

You have a valid point, but, either you want it or not, be it that you use special files to break-in the headphones (freq sweeps and tones) or just listen to your regular music, they WILL break-in, for good or worse. Sound WILL change in most headphones with usage. It's not a great difference, it's a subtle change for most cans and generally for the better.
It's just a matter of preference. Some break-in their cans in a year playing music on them according to their normal usage pattern, other prefer to leave them for a couple of days in a drawer with a pillow over them and "accelerate" time if I may say so.
I personally use a mixture of the 2. When I have a new pair of cans, I play tones and sweeps while away and listen music, watching movies while on the computer.

 
Quote:

start by asking yourself WHY you are supposed to burn in headphones.
 
1. melt the coating on the voice coil to create a heavier duty bond
2. loosen the surround of the speaker to allow the cone to move more freely
3. literally melt the intersections of the voice coil to allow an improvement in response timing
 
 
NONE of those should be done by an amatuer.
most people think number 2 is safe.. but do you REALLY know if the surround needs to be made loose?
what if it sounded better tight and you broke them before you started using them?
 
 
**edit**
 
once again.. this advice is for out-dated technology.
the government generally views things as perfect, and the only embarassment they deal with is other people.

 

 

[starNdust]

 
just for smile

 

[kingpage]

That's not fully burned in yet. Besides, only the drivers should be on fire.
 
Edit: It is darn annoying that we can't edit our posts without the freaking "edited by kingpage" thing. It used to give us 10 minutes "footnote-free" editing, now it's more like 10 seconds. Not good for those of us who proof-read after submission or always second guess yourself.

 

[3rdhalf]

Quote:

Jus picked up the E9 for $28 shipped on amazon.

It literally shot up to $111 while I was looking at it after reading your post....

 

[Jcmbruce]

Quote:

It literally shot up to $111 while I was looking at it after reading your post....

i wanna say the sale was during a 3-4 hour window somewhere around 3am this morning.  Thankfully I had two containers of french pressed coffee at lunch yesterday or i would of missed them too.  Now I’m constantly checking for another good deal like that one.

 

[knowhatimean]

Quote:

Just listen to music while you're burning it in, don't do the whole 50 hours straight of white noise stuff. Whether burn in is real, scientific, or not, leaving a headphone on for hundreds of hours at a time can't be healthy for its lifetime.

"can't be healthy for it's lifetime"? Not even close to being an accurate (or even reasonable) guess. Any headphone someone would consider to burn in should be rated to play for several thousands(or untold multiples) of hours before(if ever) experiencing mechanical problems even if inexpensive. It is more likely you will lose your hearing due to listening to unsafe volume levels before you "kill" a set of headphones! There is a physical reason to burning in headphones you are "wearing" in the surrounds of the speaker transducers . It will happen on its on you're just speeding up the process by a couple of weeks or months depending on your listening habits.
 
 

 

[fabio-fi]

 
Quote:

 
Edit: It is darn annoying that we can't edit our posts without the freaking "edited by kingpage" thing. It used to give us 10 minutes "footnote-free" editing, now it's more like 10 seconds. Not good for those of us who proof-read after submission or always second guess yourself.

Im with you. 
 
Some guys use the burn-in wave sounds with their hp's. But i rather enjoy the music. 

 

[RexAeterna]

you know most of the burn-in you speak of already takes place in the factory. the drivers go through massive hours of testing to make sure it reaches it's given frequency response. most of the burn-in do is all psychological when you get new headphones. even for speakers it's the same thing,especially woofers unless you re-foamed one yourself and then yes there is a break-in period.

 

[RudeWolf]

Are any hp's so horrid out of the box that one should not be able to enjoy them pre-burn-in?

 

[fabio-fi]

Quote:

most of the burn-in do is all psychological when you get new headphones. even for speakers it's the same thing,especially woofers unless you re-foamed one yourself and then yes there is a break-in period.

You remind me of this thread. 

 

[kingpage]

Quote:

you know most of the burn-in you speak of already takes place in the factory. the drivers go through massive hours of testing to make sure it reaches it's given frequency response. most of the burn-in do is all psychological when you get new headphones. even for speakers it's the same thing,especially woofers unless you re-foamed one yourself and then yes there is a break-in period.

 
No way. For test pairs and those still in the R&D stage, sure. It is easy to infer that they no longer test every one of the drivers in the production line before they are shipped out, since these days mass production technology allows for extremely precise manufacturing to meet every specification. It would be extremely costly to do testing on the entire assembly line, so quality control comes into play where a small percentage of products are regularly tested to ensure minimal defect rate. I think only very small companies can afford to do the kind of "extensive" testing you mentioned.
 

 

[charliex]

Quote:

Whether burn-in is real or imagined, it's worth listening to them through the process.  I will revise the instructions above:
 
 

1. Open Headphones from packaging. 

2. hook up to sound source.

3. Put to a comfortable listening level. 

4. Set onto ears and enjoy.

 - the best response!