[pwfletcher]

Hello all ... I am new here but am a longtime audiophile addict.  However, I recently had to turn my listening room into a playroom because someone keeps knocking up my wife ... probably me.  Anyway, had Mac Mini --> Bel Canto Dac 3 --> SimAudio i7 --> Dynaudio Confidence C1.  Got rid of all my gear due to space constraints and stick fingers wanting to poke in the silk dome tweeters of my Dyns.  5 minutes ago I received a new set of Audeze LCD-2 headphones in a pretty wood box and immediately plugged them into my Mac Mini server.  They sound great, but not stellar yet.  I have a Bel Canto DAC 1.5 with integrated headphone amp arriving Friday which, I am sure, will make a HUGE difference in sound quality.  However, my question is, do audiophile headphones have a break-in period like high end speakers do?  If so, how are you guys breaking them in?  Also, has anyone used the DAC 1.5 as a headphone amp yet, and if so, is it as good as the new Burson?
 
Thanks

 

[dagothur]

Most mechanical devices require a short period for the drivers to relax, but it's usually a day.  'Burn-in periods' of any longer are unnecessary, since at that point you're just getting used to the sound.  LCD-2's are easy to drive, so the amp should have no issue.
Quote:

Hello all ... I am new here but am a longtime audiophile addict.  However, I recently had to turn my listening room into a playroom because someone keeps knocking up my wife ... probably me.  Anyway, had Mac Mini --> Bel Canto Dac 3 --> SimAudio i7 --> Dynaudio Confidence C1.  Got rid of all my gear due to space constraints and stick fingers wanting to poke in the silk dome tweeters of my Dyns.  5 minutes ago I received a new set of Audeze LCD-2 headphones in a pretty wood box and immediately plugged them into my Mac Mini server.  They sound great, but not stellar yet.  I have a Bel Canto DAC 1.5 with integrated headphone amp arriving Friday which, I am sure, will make a HUGE difference in sound quality.  However, my question is, do audiophile headphones have a break-in period like high end speakers do?  If so, how are you guys breaking them in?  Also, has anyone used the DAC 1.5 as a headphone amp yet, and if so, is it as good as the new Burson?
 
Thanks

 

 

[pwfletcher]

Bel Canto DAC 1.5 just showed up ... it sounds absolutely amazing.  However, I have to turn the volume up to 100 to achieve a reasonable volume.  Is this generally the norm for audiophile headphone setups???  Since I am new to audiophile headphones I am not sure how loud these should get.  Thanks

 

[bcg27]

I am not familiar with that DAC, but a quick glance at the spec page indicates this was not really meant to drive headphones directly, but rather drive an amp. It quotes an output impedance of 200 ohms balanced, which will not work well with the low impedance lcd2. In addition, it states a maximum output power of 138 mW, but also neglects to say at what impedance. 138 mW into 50 ohms results in a max volume of ~112 dB for the lcd2, which should be loud enough, but I am skeptical that it can deliver that power into a low impedance load. 
 
It sounds like a nice DAC, although they don't mention what D/A chip they use, but if you want to hear its full potential as well as the lcd2s you should use it as an input to an amp.