[Dobber65]

So I had to replace my IE8s that were all of three weeks old (long story short, don't EVER let a drunk be anywhere near you on a transatlantic flight). They were burning in well, and had all the published attributes of IE8s with under 40 hours on them. And BTW, these were purchased at Heathrow from Dixons, and appear to be from an early lot as the display box was very dusty.

So I'm in the UK and a friend is able to order me a new set from Amazon, delivered today. I put them on, and whoa, the sound is excellent, with what I would say is less pre-burn-in mid-bass warmth, and a smoother and more detailed sound for the ~1 hour of listening this evening. These appear to be much clearer than my previous copy, but with all the attributes of excellent bass, clear(er) mids, and extended non-fatiguing treble. Pianos sound excellent, along with acoustic guitar (not the case with my other IE8s this early in their short life).

At first I thought I may have been sent a used pair, but the box was factory sealed and all accessories were included and also sealed. Maybe it's just me, but these just don't need the burn-in my previous set required. These new IE8s are much much clearer, detailed and extended, and faster right out of the box.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I will continue to post updates as these get more use.

 

[Antony6555]

Have you considered that the burn-in you perceived was psychological?

 

[Dobber65]

Possibly, but I've been listening to headphones, and dynamic IEMs, long enough to think some models may benefit from burn-in more than others. My lost set of IE8s sounded like the classic "wait 50-100 hours for them to settle in and then they improve dramatically", which I was doing. These new IE8s sound much much clearer than the previous pair (which were lost only last week).

 

[tstarn06]

Could be inconsistency across manufacturing. One member, Average_Joe, had a very similar experience when he got new replacement IE8s.

 

[iponderous]

I haven't noticed any change in the sound signature of the IE8, which I purchased new.

 

[Photofan1986]

For me, the change was quite noticeable. But as tstarn06 said, it is probably due to inconsitency in manufacturing.

 

[krismusic]

For me, night and day. I nearly junked them when I first got them. If what I am hearing now is psychological, then hooray for psychological!

 

[daouda]

The fact that most people seem to find its always their NEW pair of IE8 that sounds right just out of the box as opposed to their first one that needed 100 hours of burn in seems to indicate that its rather their BRAIN that has been burned in to the IE8 already. I do beleive that some burn in occurs at the "material" level but the most important part of it happens on the other side: our brain progressively learns to adapt to a new way of sounds reproduction and have us actually perceive the sound differently over time up to the point it got fully used to it. I wouldnt call that process psychological because it occurs at a deeper level.

Psychological burn in of course also is a fact and would be the time needed to appreciate a vastly different type of sound signature, for example from rather cold and bright to rather warm and bassy : there will inevitably be a first period of "signature shock" where everything would sound disgustingly overly warm and dark until we got open to what is enjoyable about that type of sound presentation. That would be psychological burn-in.

But the first type of mental burn-in i've talked about is beyond psychological because it has our brain trick us to actually perceive different things, and has nothing to do with taste. Those who have strong shortsightedness and wear BOTH glasses and contact lenses know what i'm talking about : when you havent worn your glasses for a while and have to go back to them, everything looks "bent", as if seen in a deforming mirror, and it takes some time until you can see "flat" and normal again. Yes, the brain is a wonderfully plastic thing.

So here'S what i think i've learned about the burn-in process :
letting your brand new earphones "cook" for 10 to 100 hours with pink noise or music without listening to it is fine but only takes care of (some of) the "material" burn-in process. After that, one should always at the very least give a minimum of 6 hours of listening to music to a new pair of earphones before allowing himself to emit any kind of judgement about them. Only after that can he start listening to the music with a more relaxed mind.

Well those are my 2 cents but i have to let you know i'm a noob to this game and i tend to like building theories about anything.

EDIT:
Inside the "psychological" kind of burn-in probably exists another type of burn-in that i would call "placebo", and would be the magical effect of our own will and also "peer pressure". Reading posts about burn-in, i noticed this type of scenario MANY times, with different phones (IEM as well as full-sized) :
Headfier got new IEMs based on recommendations, let them burn in (or not) for 60 hours (or more, or less) with pink noise/music before listening to them. After listening to them he is VERY disppointed, often due to harshness/sibilance in the highs. Discouraged, he very quickly stops listening to them, and go back to the forums where he reads so many positive feedback about his phones that he decides to give them more burn-in before another listening session. X hours of (unlistened) burn-in later, new listening session, and the miracle happens : no more harshness, the sound is now just right.
Now i am not sure about this one (it actually happened to me!), because im not sure if this is the effect of material burn-in or the listener's perception that changes. One would think that treble harshness and sibilance is a tangible, factual, objective thing, but it might be much more influenced by our perception that one would naturally tend to think.

I think that it'S about time a headphone company funds a real, extensive, big-scale, scientific study of burn-in!

 

[krismusic]

^^^^ That actually makes a lot of sense.

 

[scrane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daouda /img/forum/go_quote.gif The fact that most people seem to find its always their NEW pair of IE8 that sounds right just out of the box as opposed to their first one that needed 100 hours of burn in seems to indicate that its rather their BRAIN that has been burned in to the IE8 already. I do beleive that some burn in occurs at the "material" level but the most important part of it happens on the other side: our brain progressively learns to adapt to a new way of sounds reproduction and have us actually perceive the sound differently over time up to the point it got fully used to it. I wouldnt call that process psychological because it occurs at a deeper level.

Nice analysis.

If I may add an additional thought:
I think that we direct our musical preferences to those albums that sound the best to us with the phones we are using. Those with a particular kind of phone will subconciously over time modify their internal play list to suit that phone. When a new phone of the same type is substituted there is a ready made set of compatible music and expectations.

 

[daouda]

Quote:

I think that we direct our musical direction to those albums that sound the best to us with the phones we are using. Those with a particular kind of phone will subconciously over time modify their internal play list to suit that phone. When a new phone of the same type is substituted there is a ready made set of music and expectations.

^^
True... hence the inevitable signature shock when new sound signature is vastly different.

I will myself add another thought:
The time of adpatation from glasses-vision to lenses-vision (and reverse) depends on the time you have spent with either of them, and how long you have spent not wearing either of them.
This leads me to think that those who own a lot of very different kinds of earphones and frequently swap them (such as ClieOS) probably have a shorter adaptation (mental burn-in) time with new IEMs, as their brain is better trained to do that kind of mental gymnastic on a regular basis.

 

[chrisssssssss2]

Daouda said it perfectly. I do not believe in burn in, I believe in adjusting to a different sound signature. Great post!

 

[tstarn06]

For one, Daouda doesn't say there is no such thing as burn-in, he believes there is a period of "material" burn-in. So read his post carefully and you will see that.

As for burn-in, no burn-in. What's the difference really? This is one of those debates that pretty much is meaningless, hate to say it. It doesn't matter. If it works for you, no matter what's behind it (material change, psychological, perception, whatever), it does. If not, it doesn't. All the speculating is just that. I believe that one pair of phones I have, the Klipsch S4s, have changed considerably over time/use. Did my brain change? I don't believe so, because they were so sibilant and so harsh, they would have remained as such over time. IMHO, that is. Is the analogy with glasses/lenses relevant, maybe. But seeing and hearing might not be the same relative to this special phenomenon.

Point is, while it may be fun to discuss the issue and create theories and such, there is little to be gained by all the speculation. In fact, if you dig deep enough into the HF threads, you will find umpteen debates on the burn-in issue. Same at other audio sites. There is no real answer. And doubtful anyone is going to spend major cash on finding out via a massive scientific study.

 

[deephile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisssssssss2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Daouda said it perfectly. I do not believe in burn in, I believe in adjusting to a different sound signature. Great post!

This would mean that the same kind of "burn-in" (signature adjustment of the listener) fantasy should happen with BAs too, not just dynamic earphones. But somehow it seems that only dymanic IEMs sound better after the burn-in.

 

[tstarn06]

An excellent point, although some folks do believe their BAs improve with burn-in (albeit on a lesser scale than dynamics), but I have yet to own a pair of BAs that in my mind - I mean, to my ears - changed over time.