Nope. Brand new pair (probably 10 hours total on them). I only have them until around Tuesday next week though. Any way I could fast-track that burn-in? lol
I'll try leaving them on pink noise + loud EDM all night with the volume cranked like 20% higher than I'd listen to and see how they sound in the morning. Maybe they just gotta shake loose?
With virtually no burn in, that's the answer to your comments about the Ether C's lack of bass. Frankly, it's quite useless to do a comparison of the Ether C's sound, especially with respect to bass and especially against the LCD-XC, until there is sufficient burn in. Dan himself has stated emphatically numerous times that 100+ hours of burn-in, preferably 200 hours, is required for the Ether C's sound (and bass) to develop sufficiently. Here's what I posted awhile back:
"Yes, Dan is not kidding when he says 100+ hours of burn in. When first received the Ether C sounds, frankly, somewhat flat and uninvolving and there is a disturbing lack of bass. But don't get worried, get busy running them. After 25 hours it's much better but nothing like 75 hours when things have really improved. But there is still a big further difference when you hit 100 hours -- bass is deep and solid, soundstage has opened up, clarity has really improved and dynamics are much much better. Now that's when they sound terrific!
My advice is to not even listen to them before 3 days have gone by. You'll just get yourself aggravated before then. 100+ hours? At the recent NY meet one of the Ether owners said he found further improvement at 150 hours of break-in. And that's what I'm doing"
And with the passage of time I can now say that 200 hours was actually required. That said, I have owned both the LCD-XC and the LCD-X, and the Ether C has a different sound signature and will never match those two headphones in the amount of bass -- nor was it intended to. The Audeze phones have a powerful bass heavy rich and "dark chocolate" sound signature which, to some, had too much bass interfering with the overall sound. Their sound is also slower which further gives the impression of heavy bass, but which is actually a form of coloration (but still a delicious and additive one, if you want that.) By contrast, the Ether C is faster and tighter, including the bass, and there is no lack of bass -- but only when they are fully broken in. At that point the bass is excellent, sufficiently full and actually with maybe a bit more sub bass than the Audeze phones.
But I don't think there is good way to speed up the break-in process. Maybe the best you can do is to run them with bass heavy electronic music at, as Dan has said, a "loud but not insane level."
