[donutboy]

Hey! I just got my ATH-A900 from audiocubes.com... I'm kinda curious about how to burn-in my headphones. I read Burn-in FAQ and that after periodic playing of music, the sound changes slightly and makes the headphones sound much better.

I'm curious at what volume to use when I burn in the headphones. I listen to jpop like hamasaki and utada and I play alot of video games (Counter-Strike, World of Warcraft, GTR2, I'm a big kid). I noticed that when I listen to music, I cant turn my headphone up all the way cause the bass gets all crumbly and crummy.

Does sound from the headphone come out all crumbly when you turn it up all the way? Is it natural? I hope I didn't get a defective one. Would burning it in make it sound better at higher volume or let it reach a higher volume without crumbling the music? Like the bass gets all crumbly. What volume level should I use to burn in the headphones? Maybe I'm already deaf

I just want to drown in my music and feel all the estacy everyone is feeling.

Anyway, I'm new to music, and I trolled quite a few forums, and would appreciate any inputs if possible. I noticed that music from my mp3s dont sound as good as the streaming music from myspace. =[ I'm really sad at that. I thought this X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS and ATH-A900 would change my world.

With my X-Fi Fatal1ty, I turn on 24-bit crystalizer and set it to max too. I also set it to using 96KHz. The music quality of my headphones over my 2.1 speakers is only slightly better. Hopefully its due to my un-trained ears? I'm hoping so... I really dumped alot of cash onto my PC and Gadgets.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

Bass doesnt get crumbly or pop at high volumes on AT's or any decent headphones for that matter. Your source is the issue. Try running the signal without resampling and disabling all extras like Creative EQ, crystallizer, CMSS, etc etc. Run the signal straight off foobar at the native sample rate of the file.

You should not hear any popping, crackling or crumbling at any frequency. If this still continues time for source upgrade

A900's are terrific phones, unless the particular one you got is defective, you shouldnt hear any artifacts as long as your mp3's are high bitrate and your source (soundcard) is decent.

 

[Gilly]

turn off the crystaliser and use the audio creation mode when listening to music. enable bit matched playback (44.1Khz).

my A900's didnt distort when i got them, but there were wired wrong left for right.

burn in: slightly above listening volume run the cans for as long as possible

i found them to be bloated bass wise but not much, i didnt have much chance to play with them tbh

 

[qazwsx]

I'm not sure, my guess is the source.

As far as burn in, you can search Google for some downloadable pink noise files, or you can burn them in for music. It really doesn't matter, pink noise does it the fastest though.

 

[skai]

I think it is your source...I listen thru the crappy sound card on board and it still sounds fine with the bass

 

[donutboy]

jilgiljongiljing - All my mp3s are 128 kbps.

gilly - I haven't tried audio creation mode. I can't wait to try it with all the settings you mentioned.

skai - It sounds fine even at max volume? The speakers in my car get all horrible when I turn volume to max too. It's the same w/ the headphones.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

I'm a little confused. What are you talking about? Where did your car come into the picture?

128kbps is not great by any means, but that probably isnt the reason for the poor bass. Do you have any other receiver or cd player with a headphone out, you can test the AT's with those just to make sure its the soundcard that is the problem.

And if you find the volume limiting, get yourself a nice portable amp. Just search on the amps thread, there are several options for less than 100 bucks.
Then you wouldnt have to take the volume all the way up on the soundcard.
Did you try disabling EQ?

 

[donutboy]

The car part was just a real life example. I got stock speakers on my car and sound gets all messed up when I turn it max volume. Like it just cant play it at that volume.

I'll test the headphones with another source once I get home. Still at work =[ Thanks again for inputs.

 

[warubozu]

As for what volume to use during burn in, it should be slightly louder than your normal listening level but not so loud that it will cause your cans to distort. For the A900's, about 100 hrs or so of burn in is more than sufficient.
Some pink noise or music that's heavy in bass is suitable for use during the break in process.

The A900s can handle quite a bit of volume without the bass or sound distorting. The pair that I own sounds fine at all volumes and as it has been mention earlier your source may be the issue.

 

[phergus_25]

any can will distort when you crank the volume up to where the source clipps
turn it down,
almost any card should haev no problem driving 40 ohm cans easily
I would bet that your listining WAY too loud

 

[GendoIkari]

I am with phergus_25 here, I think you are listening way too loud. Most car stereos (even factory) get too loud for safe listening, and my crappy onboard sound will drive my 32ohm MS-1s too absolutely unbearable levels.

Please listen quieter, at first it may sound too quiet - but believe me it'll get better.

 

[clc220]

turn the volume down ... ur damaging the phones.

 

[donutboy]

Hey guys, I went to the audio creation mode on my X-Fi Fatal1ty and turned off CMSS, EAX, SVM, 24-bit Crystalization, EQ, and played music on loud and no distortion in sound. It wasn't as loud and didn't quite sound quite so good... I couldn't attain that level of immersion. =[ I guess the mp3s I played really sucked. Back to ripping the CD's using higher bit rate.

And I probably did play the headphones too loud. I can actually hear music 5 feet away from the headphones with it just lying on the table. I guess I'm going deaf. I'm kinda bummed now.

So I'm playing music with 24-bit crystalization, EQ, EAX and CMSS (I dont quite like the SVM cause it really lowers the range and intensity level of all the different sounds from my music), but with a lower volume. Got Bass and Treble at 50% and volume at 60-70%.

I'll post whats up later. And I still kinda doubt if I got good headphones. =[

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

bass and treble at 50% above 0db? remember not to EQ in the +ve, always EQ in the -ve. Reduce the mids if you want more bass and treble and leave those at 0db.

And trust me, if you come to a conclusion that these headphones are no good with an Xfi card with CMSS and EQ and EAX for listening to music, that is not being fair to the headphones.

 

[donutboy]

wow, you got me there, I dont quite understand the equalizer stuff. Looks like more research to do. I was using regular pop music setup for my equilizer built into the creative entertainment mode.

I take it I'm sorta cheating myself using the CMSS, EAX and 24-bit Crystalizer.

hehe

Be back once I learn how to use the equalizer.