[bigshot]

I think it derives from cars. When you buy a new car, it comes with a different grade of oil that doesn't lubricate as much. It wears off any flange in the first thousand miles. Then you replace the oil with regular grade oil and you're set to go. Running pink noise through headphones reminds me of that. Personally, if headphones don't sound good on the first play, I don't wait to find out if they get better. I return them and buy something else. I want headphones that suit me. I don't want my ears to adapt to the headphones. There really isn't much to discuss about burn in.

 

[StanD]

I think it derives from cars. When you buy a new car, it comes with a different grade of oil that doesn't lubricate as much. It wears off any flange in the first thousand miles. Then you replace the oil with regular grade oil and you're set to go. Running pink noise through headphones reminds me of that. Personally, if headphones don't sound good on the first play, I don't wait to find out if they get better. I return them and buy something else. I want headphones that suit me. I don't want my ears to adapt to the headphones. There really isn't much to discuss about burn in.

I completely agree, and yet the story continues to rage on. And don't forget the need for balanced headphone cables, silly reasons range from cancelling interference/hum to increased power (even though things are loud enough on SE to burn one's ears off the sides of their heads). People are always chasing the next fable in the hopes of an ear opening improvement.

 

[castleofargh]

I completely agree, and yet the story continues to rage on. And don't forget the need for balanced headphone cables, silly reasons range from cancelling interference/hum to increased power (even though things are loud enough on SE to burn one's ears off the sides of their heads). People are always chasing the next fable in the hopes of an ear opening improvement.

for the anecdote the portable combo I got that was catching the most noises from all over (cellphones, security doors in stores....) was an amp with balanced output. I could tell you if somebody 2 rooms away was receiving a message on his phone. first ever NSA approved amp.

 

[bigshot]

My dad was a ham radio nut. He had an antenna that ran right over the roof of the house. We would hear him talking on his radio through the stereo in the living room even with the stereo turned off. I'm sure if I had gold fillings, I could have heard him through that. He instructed the whole family to tell neighbors that our TV reception was always crystal clear if anyone asked.

 

[StanD]

for the anecdote the portable combo I got that was catching the most noises from all over (cellphones, security doors in stores....) was an amp with balanced output. I could tell you if somebody 2 rooms away was receiving a message on his phone. first ever NSA approved amp.

Of course we know the signal was most likely riding in on the input signal or invading the amp's circuitry. I suppose someone will say that their headphone transducers have rectifiers for demodulating AM. My headphones have gold fillings in their teeth.

 

[StanD]

My dad was a ham radio nut. He had an antenna that ran right over the roof of the house. We would hear him talking on his radio through the stereo in the living room even with the stereo turned off. I'm sure if I had gold fillings, I could have heard him through that. He instructed the whole family to tell neighbors that our TV reception was always crystal clear if anyone asked.

When I was 12, my friend and myself built spark gap transmitters so we could experiment with radio transmission. Neither did the FCC approve nor did anyone in the neighborhood appreciate our experimentation.

 

[Strangelove424]

I think it derives from cars. When you buy a new car, it comes with a different grade of oil that doesn't lubricate as much. It wears off any flange in the first thousand miles. Then you replace the oil with regular grade oil and you're set to go. Running pink noise through headphones reminds me of that. Personally, if headphones don't sound good on the first play, I don't wait to find out if they get better. I return them and buy something else. I want headphones that suit me. I don't want my ears to adapt to the headphones. There really isn't much to discuss about burn in.

Exactly. That should be the beginning and the end of a burn in argument. It's just an excuse to get people to go past their return window on a headphone they don't like. Open the box. Put them on. Make a decision. Don't waste away your return policy arguing with people on forums, trying to convince yourself your cans are going to get better.

 

[bigshot]

I've been thinking about speakers lately because I bought a new set of rears and they're arriving Monday. I have a pair of custom made 6 way studio monitors that my brother had built for his McIntosh system and I love those things like my own mom. I never thought to find out what was in them. I just referred to them as having big fat old school sound. So I pulled the grills and tried to figure out what they are. It turns out that they're all JBL from the early to mid 1970s. The woofer is a classic- the D300 15 inch with the cloth surrounds. Amazing range and smoothness of response, capable of going extremely loud without breaking a sweat. The tweeters are JBL 75 Bullet tweeters. State of the art at the time and they look like something out of Buck Rogers. Quite directional but great sound all the way up over the range of human hearing. I'm guessing that the midrange speakers and rear firing tweeter are JBL as well, but I can't specifically identify them. They're definitely old school. I've never heard towers full of 6 inch drivers sound anything like these. No one seems to make box speakers like this any more. When I was in high school everyone had beautiful walnut boxes full of great big wonderful sounding speakers. I hope these last another forty years so I don't have to try to replace them.

 

[Strangelove424]

I wish I could do word working, primarily to make custom speakers. It would be awesome to choose my own design, wood, woofers, lining, I could go on and on fantasizing about the details I would obsess over. They don't make really great cabinets anymore with big robust sound unless you pay big money. My speakers are made of some artificial material, and covered in veneer. It feels cheap, but on the plus side, the artificial materials are improving quickly so they can manage to do curved cabinets for low prices.

Please post your impressions of the KEFs. I've been wanting a small stereo-only bookshelf system from B&W or KEF for a while, just not sure if it's worth the splurge. It's so hard to justify two bookshelves that cost 2x my surround speakers + subwoofer, but there's a primal lust I have for British speakers, possibly instilled from marketing and rock culture. I see yellow woofers and then I get excited for no reason, as images of Abbey Road fill my head. British speakers are mythological, and maybe even if the performance isn't quite up to the price, it might be worth it just to scratch the itch.

 

[bigshot]

The ones I got were on sale for $200 off each. $800 a pair. That isn't too bad. The sale ends in a few days. It's on the KEF site.

I'm wondering how I can really judge these speakers on their own. Once they are installed, they're mounted on the wall and all I can play through them is rear stuff.

 

[Strangelove424]

That's a lot less than I expected. Checking it out right now, the Q300 is tempting, Q900 even more so.

Hmm, maybe you can put the receiver in multi-channel mode (which on my receiver doubles up stereo to the rear), unplug the front speakers, then turn to face the rear. Sort of wonky, but it should work.

Edit: Come to think of it, you can tell your receiver to ignore or turn a speaker off in the menus somewhere. That would be less of a pain than unplugging, and it wouldn't waste power.

 

[bigshot]

The ones I got are the R100s. They get fantastic reviews. They probably need a subwoofer to be really serious, but they produce plenty of base to function as a really good bookshelf system.

I'm already running 5.1 with two sets of mains on A & B speakers. I could just disable all the other speakers, but it would still just be feeding rear channel information to the rears. It doesn't really matter though. If they can keep up with the punch of my mains, they will be doing very good.

 

[StanD]

As a quick break from speakers....I just thought of a great product to be marketed to audiophiles. A Multibit DAC that uses tubes for switches in the R2R ladder. OK, so tubes make lousy switches for such an application but I'm sure that can be explained away using a number of new audiophile terms along with some others like euphonic and so on.

 

[bigshot]

Do the tubes light up a pretty color and feel warm to the touch? That's a definite plus. Does anyone make faux tubes that are basically just very dim light bulbs? It would be good to have something like that to set on top of a solid state amp to make you feel better about it.

Edit: Hahah! I found one. This is a $150 solid state amp with some tubes that do nothing but light up! I assume the "power supply" really *is* a brick that just has a reflective surface to nicely accent the tubes.

It gets great reviews from audiophiles on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Nobsound-MS-10D-MKII-Amplifier-Bluetooth/dp/B00MN5NDYA

It has USB input so it must have a DAC in it.

 

[StanD]

That's not a DAC. Keep looking. C'mon multibit DACs and Tubes are the rage, what a marketing opportunity.
I'm sure we can incorporate LEDs for fancy lighting effects, or at the very least include a Lava Lamp.