[richard612]

I have a well-pounded-on 3-year-old set of 7506's here that sound very different from the 15-minute-old V6's I have on my head right now. Two things come to mind...

First, the new V6's are significantly louder.

Second, they have a hump in their mid and upper bass response that's so pronounced that it makes them sound downright muddy. My 7506's have the fantastic low-bass extension that makes this model popular, but the V6's are a little over-the-top.

Did I get lucky with my 7506's? Can I expect the V6's to calm down a little as they break-in?

RM

 

[richard612]

Follow up...

I don't have any test equipment here but I suspect that my 7506's have a higher impedance than the V6 here.

With a headphone Y adapter, I can plug in the 7506's without affecting the volume of the V6 much. Plugging in the V6 pulls the 7506's SPL down significantly. I'm driving them from a soundcard with an unknown output impedance (it's obviously not very low).

I can definitely see why people might conclude that they aren't the same headphone -- this particular pair is very different!

RM

 

[JiPi]

I'm pretty sure it's nothing but break-in that is making all that difference. I remember reading somewhere
here that the MDR-V6 and MDR-7506 are the exact same headphone except the gold plated plug if
I'm correct. Somebody even recieved a MDR-V6 (or MDR-7506) with a cup of each, just proving that they
definitly are the same.

Now about the break-in affecting them. I have read somewhere here (again) that some people say the
MDR-V6 are 'well broken in' after about 100 hours of break-in playing. And now that I think of it, I've
also read somebody talk about 1000 hours. I can't speak about the 1000 hours, but I did notice some
ameliorations after about 50~ish hours of break-in and use.

 

[Shurenuff]

Hello fellow Head-fiers! This is my first post so I would like to introduce myself. I can tell you my experience with the V6 and break in. When I first listened to them brand new, they were very similar to how you mentioned. To me, they were so bright that it almost hurt my ears to listen to them at higher volumes. I was somewhat disappointed and left them alone playing rather bass heavy music for 3 days straight. When I went to go listen to them again, what a difference! While still bright by nature, they were much less harsh. The bass, while never really sloppy to begin with, became much more tight and punchy. Overall, it became a more enjoyable and easy to listen to phone. Give your phones time and they should improve greatly (mine kept on noticably improving until around the 100-150 hour mark). I'm now a firm believer in break in.

 

[richard612]

I took the 7506's to work so I can no longer compare them.

I'm still amazed at how much power it takes to drive these old cans compared to the fresh V6's. Does driving a 'phone hard for years weaken the magnets or something?

For quite some time, these 7506's were inadvertently plugged in to a high-current (speaker) output on a soundcard while the line-out was being used to drive an amp. Setting the volume control to a good level for the line-out yielded way too much drive for the poor cans sitting on the high-current jack. They survived many days of this but I'm wondering if it altered them permanently.

They sure do sound better than the new cans, even though they take at least 2x as much power to drive...

Hmm...

RM

 

[swaffleman]

This is a really old thread, but I am having the same experience with my brand new V6's. I had an old pair (now defunct) and the difference between how they sound is huge.
 
Does burning in really make the V6's sound that much different? I'm currently burning them in with pink noise. I am not listening to them very much at all. I've been listening to my Sennheiser HD 203s instead because they are just more enjoyable and they don't fatigue my ears. My brand new (they even smelled new out of the box!) V6's hurt me ears above a certain volume. I'm hoping that a certain amount of burn in will make them sound like my older pair, because I just can't enjoy these.

 

[Noobiiee]

Not a lot but if it's hurting your eardrums then low the volume down! It might be because you're not familiar with the treble yet, coming from the Senns, which I supposed would sound smoother. 

 

[swaffleman]

Quote:

Not a lot but if it's hurting your eardrums then low the volume down! It might be because you're not familiar with the treble yet, coming from the Senns, which I supposed would sound smoother. 

I've got them turned down pretty low. Going up very high at all makes them VERY fatiguing for my ears. I have to keep them at a pretty low level to be able to listen to them.
 
I'm just finding this to be really odd as my older pair didn't have this issue.

 

[swaffleman]

Alright so I have an update. I was using pink noise at the highest possible volume, but it didn't seem to be doing much (then again, it could not have just been enough time of burn in). So I started repeatedly playing some Metallica tunes and some death metal. After a few days of this, I started to listen with them. The sound is much less fatiguing. It is still a little difficult to listen to for any extended amount of time, but they are much more listenable now and of course the sound quality is great.
 
I have a feeling that burning them in even more will cause them to get even less harsh, like my old pair. If that happens then I'll be very happy.
 
This proves to me that burn in is very real, though. The reason is that I haven't listened to these at all since I have been burning them in, and from when I first got them to now, the sound is very different. So, I have disproved the "psycho acoustic" explanation. And it makes sense, as anything having ANY force go through it at all will change from wear.
 
Anyway, I'll update again if the sound continues to change much. I was really worried at first because these were simply un listenable at first. Now I am using them a fair deal.

 

[markali88]

I'm currently trying to burn in my v6 as well after reading this post.
 
The heights are overly harsh..
 
excellent for playing piano however but anything else is not enjoyable for me.
 
I've got a 4hr playlist which I plan to play 1-2 times a day for the next month.. That should do the trick I'm hoping.. if it doesn't I might just have to sack these and save for an m50...
 
We will see what burn in and some beyer pads can do to these headphones.