[krismusic]

Er. These are speakers not headphones. Rommy I suggest that you do a search and read past posts on this subject. You will see that this is a much more contentious subject than you think.

 

[Brooko]

Stop trolling the thread Rommy.  No-one debated speaker break-in.  We know that happens - the spider develops tiny cracks in the epoxy holding it in place.
 
Headphones don't have this spider.
 
Here- suggest you read this (summary of actual headphone measurements)
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/measurement-and-audibility-headphone-break
 
Here I'll quote part of the summary :

  Conclusions
Have I shown that break-in exists? No. I wish I could say the slowly descending IMD products is clear evidence ... but it's not. Who knows what that measurement represents. I do think, however, that if break-in is measurable, it would be this type of measurement that would show it. I'm pretty happy something showed up at all.
Have I shown that break-in doesn't exist and is not measurable? No. The slight changes around 9kHz on the CSD plots, and the significant change in IMD products over time do indicate that something is happening, and happening in a way that seems to me to be properly indicative of the things I've heard with break-in effects. I think the nay-sayers need to acknowledge something might be happening here.
The one thing I think I have proved, however, is that if break-in does exist, it is not a large effect. When people talk about night and day changes in headphones with break-in, they are exaggerating. This data clearly shows that the AKG Q701 --- a headphone widely believed to change markedly with break-in --- does not change much much over time.
My hiking boots break-in; my sneakers break-in, too. But my hiking boots aren't going to turn into sneakers over time. This idea that you simply must let headphones break-in before you know what they are going to sound like is a myth. And this data busts it.

 
And here's another part:

  If you do want to break-in your cans, I suggest pink noise at a slightly louder than normal listening level. If you don't have a pink noise track, just play music. If they sound lousy out of the box, but they start sounding a lot better as you listen to them over time, it's your amazingly versatile brain figuring out how to cope with the world.
 
The miracle is in your head ... not in the headphones.

 
Are we good now ..... ?

 

[Lostinspace]

Essentially, headphone burn in is just a superstitious ritual. And every cult has its ritualists.

 

[rommy]

I'm sure you belong too many of them.

 

[Lostinspace]

Assuming you mean 'to' not 'too', then no, I don't.

 

[xnor]

... are we good now?

Not until you actually start reading and understanding what people write.
 
 
Now let me post something actually on-topic:
 
Shure:

 Here’s something we hear pretty often – that headphones require a ‘burn in period’.  What about it?
Yuri Shulman This is more myth than fact.  [...] again, what could be true for some loudspeakers [...] doesn’t directly apply here. [...]
 
Shure headphones sound the same a year after using them as they did brand new.

 
 
AKG (multiple replies by admins or global moderators that work at AKG):

From our experience and knowledge we cannot confirm that there is a burn in effect of the transducers taking place.
Normally the sound of headphones changes only over many years and then mainly caused by the ear pads (less low end since the ear pads get more densely by sweat etc.). 
(this reply was posted several times to people asking about the perfect "burn-in time")
 
Burning in is not neccessary for your K 701´s - they should sound superb right out of the box.

 
 
 
As for speakers, also read:
http://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/speaker-break-in-fact-or-fiction
http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_rodajealtavoces.htm
 
 
... are you reading now?

 

[WideBoy]

Burn-in: the Nessie of Head-Fi.

 

[Lostinspace]

Head-fi: the Roswell of headphones

 

[rommy]

when I sent you proof that grado suggests breaking in headphones that is no good right?furthermore you're arguing here is that nothing needs to be broken and it is perfect right out of the factory. My question to all of you is how many sets of headphones have you had? I have had plenty along with home speaker systems and car audio systems. I don't hear any of you talking about your own headphones

 

[rommy]

none of you even know what your babbling about, one day you're going to order a headphone based on reviews and when you listen to it you're going to hate it, then you're going to get back on this forum and ask everybody what the big deal is about and they're going to tell you to let it play for 200 hrs. (Like a grado) I didn't say that every headphone benefited from playing, I only said some of them do... you just haven't experienced it yet

 

[manbear]

Proof that Grado suggests something is not proof that Grado's suggestion is actually a good one. Nobody doubts that Grado says you should burn-in the headphones. The question is whether or not they are correct. 

 

[marone]

Essentially, headphone burn in is just a superstitious ritual. And every cult has its ritualists.

I take my new headphones, place them in a circuit with a solid state amplifier, and let them burn in for a week or more. Usually Classical, Romantic and other similar music. One burn-in is all Mozart. The amp is fed a separate feed and another feed goes to my listening setup and the hps I am currently using.

I listen to the headphones upon un-boxing, set them aside and then listen to them a week later. Thus there is no getting used to the sound.

Some improve. Some do not. SoundMagic IEM ES18 no change, JVC HA-S500 continues to change for hundred's of hours. SuperLux line a little change over 50 hours, Takstar Pro80 very little change over 20 hours, CAL little change over 10 hours, and so on.

It improves various aspects of performance, and these aspects are the ones that currently are beyond measuring ability. Sound-stage, instrument diffusion, harmonic hollowness, vocal accuracy, lobing, FR segregation, instrument dimensionality in the sound-stage, compression and 2-D artifacts, and so on. All of the things that are not measured in an SQ, FR, triangle wave or other test.

After a few months most cans will have settled in.

 

[brhfl]

when I sent you proof that grado suggests breaking in headphones that is no good right?furthermore you're arguing here is that nothing needs to be broken and it is perfect right out of the factory. My question to all of you is how many sets of headphones have you had? I have had plenty along with home speaker systems and car audio systems. I don't hear any of you talking about your own headphones

Humorously, your proof was a page wherein Grado told you not to do what you did. You 'hav[ing] had plenty along with home speaker systems and car audio systems' is still anecdotal evidence, just like the rest of what you've been offering. Nobody is 'talking about [their] own headphones' because, as has been mentioned, it's irrelevant. There'd just be more anecdotes waiting to be flushed...

 

[Brooko]

Rommy - you seem to be ignoring my posts.
 

• I listed my headphones
• I supplied actual links to measurements which you still have not commented on
• Are you saying Tyll is wrong and you are right?

 
Especially in refernece to this comment from you:
Quote:

I Owned A Pair Of AKG 550s, that were sounding great after about 50 hours of burn in and after 75 hours got worse, at 100 I couldn't listen to them anymore. I sent them back

 
And this from Tyll's report based on actual measurement and data:
 

The one thing I think I have proved, however, is that if break-in does exist, it is not a large effect. When people talk about night and day changes in headphones with break-in, they are exaggerating. This data clearly shows that the AKG Q701 --- a headphone widely believed to change markedly with break-in --- does not change much much over time.
My hiking boots break-in; my sneakers break-in, too. But my hiking boots aren't going to turn into sneakers over time. This idea that you simply must let headphones break-in before you know what they are going to sound like is a myth. And this data busts it.
<snip>
 
 If they sound lousy out of the box, but they start sounding a lot better as you listen to them over time, it's your amazingly versatile brain figuring out how to cope with the world.
The miracle is in your head ... not in the headphones.

 
Please enlighten me ........ after all you must be able to refute this clear evidence with hard fact?

 

[xnor]

I owned 2 Grado headphones in my lifetime. A new SR60 and a used SR225 iirc. I got rid of both because, while they sounded slightly differently, both of them sounded equally bad to my ears. Extensive (I really tried to like them) use of the new one didn't fix that.
Replacing the old ear-pads definitely did change the sound though.
 
Sure, in both cases I got a bit used to the peculiar sound signature, which made them sound better to my ears ... but switching back to my HD600 for a while resulted in the same initial reaction when I put the Grados back on my head.