[LoopyDood]

Yesterday my new pair of Audio Technica ATH M50s came in the mail. They're my first ever pair of headphones the average non-audiophile would consider high end. I've read that when you buy a pair of high end headphones, you start to notice imperfections in your music that you'd never notice with low end headphones.
 
I listened to them out of the box for a bit, and the sound wasn't satisfactory. After a couple of hours of listening it improved tremendously. I'd been reading around before getting them and heard that is to be expected, and that the sound only truly shines after burning them in with pink noise.
 
Last night I downloaded a pink noise generator and ran it through my headphones for 10 hours. The volume was loud but not blasting, so I could listen to the noise if I wanted to. This morning, I unplugged them and brought them to work. After I started using them there I noticed something... I was hearing a lot of crackling noises I'd never heard before! The noises are worse while listening to some tracks than others, but they usually occur when a crash cymbal is hit and during other high frequency/stressful sounds.
 
Since I've never owned a pair of high end headphones before I don't know what compression artifacts sound like, but I do know that damaged headphones make crackling sounds. I only got these yesterday and I really don't want to have to return them. My question is, are these sounds because of the MP3 files or the headphones? Are there any test files I can listen to to find out?
 
If I am allowed, I will upload a track that I find particularly bad.
 
Thanks.

 

[B-Dawk20]

What is the MP3 bitrate?

 

[LoopyDood]

On one of the bad tracks, Rockbox says 295kbps. (VBR)
 
Edit: Another one is 320kbps, not variable.

 

[francisdemarte]

Find the same song on a CD and listen to it. 

 

[olor1n]

Oh dear. You should have just listened normally to burn them in. Any other method just seems potentially harmful to me.

 

[LoopyDood]

Quote:

Oh dear. You should have just listened normally to burn them in. Any other method just seems potentially harmful to me.

 
Well, now I know. I can still hear the artifacts while listening to CDs. I'm currently digging up the info I need to return them.
 
Thanks.

 

[buffalowings]

Quote:

Oh dear. You should have just listened normally to burn them in. Any other method just seems potentially harmful to me.

overly aggressive burn in can damage the drivers, or at least shorten the lives of the drivers, except for the jamz....you need to run it over with your pick up truck hit it with a mallet so it won't become soft

 

[Slaughter]

Normal volume noise will do nothing bad to headphones. I usually burn mine in a couple notches above normal listening volume. Sounds like they might be bad, but that is rare.

 

[LoopyDood]

Hm... Are there any free tracks out there I can listen to to decide for sure if they're defective? I would need a high quality file with harsh sections.

 

[LoopyDood]

After plugging my regular speakers in and listening very close, I can still hear the crackling noises. It looks like this is just a problem with the original recording. The ATH M50s are much much more precise than anything else I've used, and they just bring the crackling out a lot.
Looks like I won't be returning these any time soon.

 

[dub Beatz]

This same thing happened with me. I purchased the Gorillaz Plastic Beach limited edition CD with the two extra tracks and one of them has horrible distortion throughout the song. I thought my TPGs were going but then I listened to it through my MBP, and my car speakers and could hear the crackling just as easy. The other thing that torques me off is iTunes claims you can download albums in HD, but they only go up to like 256kbps. I would prefer FLAC please!

 

[WonderSlug]

Why even burn them in with "pink noise" ?
 
I burned my ATH-M50s in by just plugging it into my FM Stereo tuner on my A/V receiver and setting it to play the music style I normally would be listening to, at the volume I would be listening to.  I left it that way for 72 hours.
 
Bam.  Done.  Burnt in nicely.

 

[khaos974]

If the crackling noises occur exactly at the same section and the crackling is exactly the same each and every time the play the track, odds are it's is an audio artifact. If it changes, you may have damaged your headphones.

 

[Aizura]

Since the fact the crackling only occurred after the burn in I suspect you damaged the drivers.
Long continuous burn in without any breaks is bad for your headphones, especially if it's on reasonably loud volumes. You should give the drivers a small break every 2 hours or so.
I always give mine a break of 10 minutes every hour, just to be sure.

 

[LoopyDood]

Yeah, I'm never burning in a pair of headphones with pink noise again. Now it just seems like an exceedingly bad idea.
I'm not entirely sure that the crackling only started to occur after the burn in. I may have just noticed it after then. I'm going to go to a music store and test some other headphones with my music, just to check if the crackling really is part of the music or caused by the headphones.