[Rob80b]

  The thing that always gets me is that no matter what someone complains about with a headphone, the answer is "it needs to burn in."
 
The analogy of clothing "breaking in" would work except t...........

From personal experience, except with the HD700s (which took only a few hours) break-in doesn't or shouldn't radically change the sound characteristics of a specific phone, if you do not like it after a few hours or so, keeping it longer will not change anything unless you do, if the shoe’s too small…the shoe's too small.
So I’d agree that break-in should not be expected to solve specific problems and not to sound contradictory but I do whole heartedly believe that the drivers break-in exist but not radically as in changing the phone as some purport.

 

[joeq70]

I tried the shelf liner mod the other day(Easy Liner brand). At first I liked it, but after some head time, I think the liner softens the treble a little too much. I might experiment with it further, but I'm really pleased with the HD650 with back foam and spider cage removed, dynamat damping on the back, and nickel sized coil hole mod in the stock front foam. 

 

[Rob80b]

  I tried the shelf liner mod the other day(Easy Liner brand). At first I liked it, but after some head time, I think the liner softens the treble a little too much. I might experiment with it further, but I'm really pleased with the HD650 with back foam and spider cage removed, dynamat damping on the back, and nickel sized coil hole mod in the stock front foam. 

As a new  HD650 owner I've been looking into these mods, (although I was an early adopter of removing the foam on the 580/600s and replaces it with the “silk stocking mesh” back 2004) going from memory the 650s are not all that different from my ancient 600s, different and more open but still homogenize sounding, not a bad thing but if the sound opens up a bit more with these mods it would be a welcome change (as I believe these guys are already broken-in

) .

 

[rovopio]

  The thing that always gets me is that no matter what someone complains about with a headphone, the answer is "it needs to burn in." Literally no matter what the problem is.

 
Here's my take on it. I'm not a big believer of burn-in. In fact, I have a bias going in that "burn-in is just all in the head", "insignificant", "not going to pass DBT", etc. However, there are 2 of my headphone that actually changes sound in a noticeable way after some play time.
No 1 is this budget, ~$100 IEM. When I first got them, there was no bass. Semi-literally, there is very little bass going on on the IEM. For context, I hate midbass, the more brighter tilt a headphone sound, the better (Beyerdynamic, etc). Then after some time (I wanted to say <10 hours but definitely more than 5), suddenly came the bass. Overwhelmingly even.
 
Read the IEM's thread and turned out that in earlier production run, the air vent are blocked in some units, and those units have no bass. My unit is way, way later production run (where the price has even increased by $40 by then), and the company rep said that my IEM is not affected by the air vent problem. However, there it was, no bass -> way, way too much bass.
 
Another one is some brand headphone. I owned several of that brand's headphone at one point. None of them improved with burn-in, at least not in a noticeable non-hobbyist/average people would notice kinda way. There was this one pair, their $300 pair where when I first got them there was this envelopingly warm-like sound from them. I can describe the sound perfectly, it's a hd650-light sound. It's like hd650, but brighter. When I first head them, it feels like the midrange is warm and thick and the sound is at all not bright.
After a while, it's suddenly becomes bright (and thus, normal) and sound just like the rest of that headphone brand models.
 
While I can find a reasonable explanation of why el cheapo IEM may changed sound after burn-in, I still don't have an informed guess why some brand headphone sounds like hd650-light, then becomes normal after some play time. My baseless guess is that the driver needs to stretch? I still don't know why.
 
So I don't know if the burn-in is real or not. I still have a bias that burn-in is more like brain adjustment. But I'm more open to the possibility now than I was back then.

 

[joeq70]

   
I'll be honest and admit I hear no difference with Clipping Protection on or off. I'm 51 and definitely suffering slight hearing loss, particularly at the top end.
 

When you turn it off, you need to take the slider on the right and move it all the way to the top into the red. You should be able to hear the difference now.

 

[natalieann]

Does anyone think they will ever make a cipher cable with dac or lightning cable for the 600 or 650? 

 

[Rob80b]

   
Here's my take on it. I'm not a big believer of burn-in. .............
Then after some time (I wanted to say <10 hours but definitely more than 5), suddenly came the bass. Overwhelmingly even.
 
 
.........................
 
So I don't know if the burn-in is real or not. I still have a bias that burn-in is more like brain adjustment. But I'm more open to the possibility now than I was back then.

There is no denying all drivers are in fact motors which may or may not need time to warm (loosen) up, to what degree this changes performance is almost subjective, and again it comes down to music preferences and listening habits.
But addressing both sides of the argument the overall sound from my current version of the 650s sound super familiar from what I remember previously with my 2003 580/600s and there appears to be a general overall consensus with the sound.
My HD700s on the other hand fresh out of the box appeared to change their tonal qualities over a few hours and have been extremely polarizing in their overall acceptance....so who knows...???

 

[castleofargh]

 

   when something could have 10 causes and we decide to put all the blame on only one without any form of evidence,
.................
burn in or not, if the logic is completely flawed, then the person arguing is wrong.

So true, but even if it is not visually obvious with driver break-in the overall phones themselves will inevitably change over time for better or worse.

even diamonds aren't forever ^_^.

 

[axcel]

My 650s sound very smooth now except when the recording is dry, then it sounds dry. Yesterday night I removed the pads , while doing that, I accidentally tore the silver thing at top. It is a very small tear. Would that tear affect the sound quality? What is that silver thingy called? And what does it do?

 

[Solrighal]

Have you got a photo of whatever's left of your headphones?

 

[axcel]

Have you got a photo of whatever's left of your headphones?

That upper black line is pushed down a bit. Would that damage affect the sound quality?

 

[penmarker]

That paper-like membrane is supposed to vibrate along with the drivers, so yes it will affect the sound. But the question is whether it will be audible or not. A friend of mine accidentally tore the membrane on his Beyer DT-880 too and detected that there was a reduction in the deeper and lower bass. But his damage is large, yours I can't even see in the picture. So my money is on "It should be fine."

 

[Solrighal]

I don't see anything wrong in that photo. In fact, it looks pretty much exactly like my pair do.

 

[axcel]

Maybe it is not that visible in the picture, but the upper line while removing the pads got pushed down a tiny bit.
I don't hear any audible changes. Just wanted to make sure.

 

[Drrizzt]

I can now clearly see why this can have so much appeal when paired with a high end amp (Lake people G109 wich is not really considered very high end but highly transparent and powerfull amp). This is this unique combination of warmness/smoothness/musicality/beautifull tone, combined with this outstanding clarity and dynamics. All of this without fatigue on the long terms for the ears. What a delight.