[Tom22]

i was wondering if someone could explain the concept of "burning in" the headphones. does it need to be done with pink/white noise? how high of a volume? i hear some people say 15%+ normal, some say 50%
 
what does burning in do? will it possibly smooth out the bass on my klipsch image s4s? its a bit overpowering the rest of the sound
 
i'm currently "burning in " my klipsch image s4i and 8320s from monoprice. i put it on 50-60% volume. i normally listen to my music on my iphone at 3-4 clicks of the volume button.
 
I'm worried about shorting out the speakers for my headphones, had my klipsch longer than the 30 day period of return to future shop and well my monoprice is like $8 bucks. but still
 
 
any suggustions would be great!

 

[kmhaynes]

First, the overpowering bass of the S4 is the sound of the S4.  Burning in may tone it down some -- I noticed a slightly improvement in bass control, but not quantity -- still too high for me, and too hot in the trebles, so I sold them and moved on to better phones (for me at least).
 
"Burning in" is the process of helping a dynamic driver get used to moving back and forth to reproduce sound.  This can be done with pink or white noise, or simply playing normal music for 20, 40, up to 100 hours either before or while you listen to the phones.  There is no Best or Only way to do it.
 
Depending on the material and size of the cone, the difference in sound can vary, and some people believe the effort has no effect on sound -- or at least they can't hear a difference.  Your own ears and brain will be the judge.
 
As long as you don't put the volume at max, you can just let the phones play music for 24-48 hours straight to try it -- it can't hurt anything, and might help some.

 

[hitme987]

Burn-in is usually referred to make the driver diaphragms loosen up and reach a point that may change the sound quality. Burn-in may or maynot improve sound quality. It depends on the type of driver of that IEM. For example, Dual Balanced Armature drivers doesnt change a bit even burned several hours, My R-50 has not changed a bit and Ive burned it for over 150 hours.
 
Some IEMs may change drastically, mostly bass response would be improved, it depends. It might not change the sound to bad shape, so burning in might be good always.
 
Burning in with loud volumes might make the change fast. You can just make it play your albums or use various frequencies of sounds, pink and white tracks etc..I always burn-in with those pink/white tracks(I have about 70 diff frequency tracks of 450 MB), I make them play when I sleep or when my IEM is not in use. Some of my IEMs changed drastically ( atleast I felt)..Some say its just a placebo effect, but I feel its real and might make the IEM better

 

[Tom22]

Quote:

Burn-in is usually referred to make the driver diaphragms loosen up and reach a point that may change the sound quality. Burn-in may or maynot improve sound quality. It depends on the type of driver of that IEM. For example, Dual Balanced Armature drivers doesnt change a bit even burned several hours, My R-50 has not changed a bit and Ive burned it for over 150 hours.
 
Some IEMs may change drastically, mostly bass response would be improved, it depends. It might not change the sound to bad shape, so burning in might be good always.
 
Burning in with loud volumes might make the change fast. You can just make it play your albums or use various frequencies of sounds, pink and white tracks etc..I always burn-in with those pink/white tracks(I have about 70 diff frequency tracks of 450 MB), I make them play when I sleep or when my IEM is not in use. Some of my IEMs changed drastically ( atleast I felt)..Some say its just a placebo effect, but I feel its real and might make the IEM better

how loud do you play your music while burning them in? i'm just using normal music, on my sony xperia x10 at about 50-60%--> i'm just worried about shorting out the drivers, cause my logic is the drivers has a fixed number of times where it flexes, and if i burn them in for about 50-100 hours(which i'm planning to do) i don't want shorten its lifespan while burning them and having it short out while listening..
 
i'm a student soo it took me a while to save up for that image s4i, thats why i'm so cautious, sorry for the questions

 

[Lourdes]

I'd recommend having a read through the Sound Science forum. A lot of people, myself included, think burn-in is pretty much BS with little credible basis. Drivers would have to change very significantly to make any sort of audible difference to the sound, and if you read through the claims of how dramatically burn-in changes the sound and apply some common sense you'll realise this simply isn't possible. Were there any sort of change it would also occur almost right away from use, you won't get tighter bass at 50 hours and then heightened mids at 150.
It's not to say people don't hear a difference, it's just psychological. They're influenced toward hearing a change, they expect one, or just they get used to the sound. That might work for you too, but hopefully not.

 

[Doc-holliday]

I'd recommend having a read through the Sound Science forum.

+1

The thing I find interesting is that headphones, amps, cables, almost anything is rumored to "burn in". And somehow that burn in is ALWAYS for the better. I have said this before on here but people never get upset because their headphones sounded so good for the first 100 hours but now they have "burned in" and are just ruined.... for example. People do want them to get better so believe they are in many cases prolly.