Quote:
| I don't know about burn-in, but I do know things can sound different to me in the morning and in the evening. I also know it has nothing to do with changes in my system. It is simply that various factors affect my perceptions from the time I wake to the time I go to sleep, and I have little understanding of, or control over, those factors. I've never tried to determine if heaphone break-in is real or not because I don't feel that I could accurately remember my impressions from the early hours of use v. after hundreds of hours, let alone from morning to night. |
That's a valuable argument. I often encounter the same myself: according to my mood, the sound is better or worse, sometimes the differences are dramatic.
However, that doesn't happen on an analytical level -- I'm quite conscious about my subjectivity and my own mood or at least the possibility of such dependency. Judgement of break-in effects doesn't base on single momentary experiences; it's based on several samples gathered in different periods and moods, with an analytical approach instead of the mere search for musical pleasure.
Another example: While one could love the complete sound of a Bösendorfer, appreciate the sound of a Steinway grand and detest the analyticalness of a Yamaha grand piano, at times they could (theoretically) be mistaken one for the other, in certain moods and heard over temporary distances. But as a whole experience, they all retain their specific sonic properties even for a subjective listener subject to emotional fluctuations.
Quote:
Placebo.
How stupid do you think a company like AKG is? Do you think they do not know about the exact behaviour of their products?
Do you think they're some kind of lucky idiots which produce one of the worlds most advanced headphones, not knowing their sound "explodes" after 200 hours of use?
If they knew, don't you think they would tell ya?
If they don't know, do you think it's possible developing such a good headphone, not knowing about the exact behaviour of the used materials?
Come on. You can't be serious. |
[Apostrophs corrected!
]
How about
Sennheiser, Stax, Grado... ? I remember (and I'm certain at least about the first two manufacturers) clear statements about physical break-in effects in their headphones due to mechanical membrane movement (wearing-in, distressing), compared to pages of a book getting softer with use in the case of Sennheiser -- and explicitely accompanied with sonic changes (smoothing). Now how about Sennheiser and Stax? Don't they know what they're talking about?
As to AKG denying audible break-in effects: they haven't stated anything like this. What they exactly said was in fact that their headphones don't
need dedicated break-in, like a car or a motorcycle (taking care of not too high RPMs during the first thousands of kilometers).
Quote:
| Burn-in probably takes very few minutes, and the change isn't radical. There is a slight change to the physical properties of the driver as it is getting used for the first few times. |
Another rather subjective and unfounded interpretation with no correlation to the actual experiences. How long does a pair of shoes take for optimum elasticity? A few minutes? Even though I agree that in most cases the change isn't radical, it may be perceived as such by some individuals in search for perfection (count myself in): They can accept the sound of their new headphones not before those have settled down and smoothed out every initial harshness. And according to my experience headphone drivers need between 120 and 600 hours, maybe more in certain cases, not to forget the (underrated) effects from earpads getting softer (= reduction of distance driver/ear as well as reflecting/absorbing properties) and headbands getting looser (= increase of distance driver/ear as well as change of sealing properties in some cases).
Quote:
| Burn in for headphones has to be real. As drivers move, they have to get looser. When they get looser, their sound has to change. |
That's correct IMO. And something every (hobbyist) speaker builder knows: Out of the box, the Thiele-Small parameters of speaker chassis are far from the nominal values due to the stiffness and brittleness of the whole spring/mass system. I've done numerous measurements myself during my speaker-builder career...
...and posted
some on Head-Fi.
Quote:
| Amp and cable burn in makes no sense though. |
My experience is exactly the opposite. Although in contrast to electrodynamic speakers (which I'm familiar with) I don't really know the mechanism behind the phenomenon. My latest amps and digital players took their time to settle down -- and it wasn't an easy time, as I was full of doubts if I have bought the right player (especially in the case of my now source reference, the McCormack UDP-1).
And even as a cable-sound «believer» I somehow doubted
cable break-in -- just to experience it myself in the form of the Zu Mobius.
So before making absolutistic statements be sure to have decent experience with the matter, not just theoretical biases.
.
