[SilverEars]

I notice that my ears get very sensitive to treble when I am tired, not well rested.

For a while I was wondering why a headphone I find to be treble intense at times doesn't sound as treble intense other times. One that sounds a bit darker or smoother (HD6XX) sounds brighter when I'm in this condition (tired) like my ears hear the treble more intensely and in a way that benefits my perception of this headphone, hearing the details more treble boosted, enhancing the articulation of sounds.

The headphone that sounds treble intense sounds really treble enhanced when I'm tired to the point of the headphone response sounding really wonky and shrilly.

I'm noticing a pattern that my ears become more sensitive to treble when my body is physically in a tired condition. This is from lack of sleep I believe.

Does anybody else experience this or have a scientific explanation for this?

 

[bigshot]

My ears never hear differently, but I do have less tolerance for mediocre engineering when I'm tired.

 

[SilverEars]

My ears never hear differently, but I do have less tolerance for mediocre engineering when I'm tired.

You sure? We are not machines you know.

I always didn't think so either, and you wouldn't think so, but I realized why people believe in burn-in and all that jazz. It's the conditional changes our sensory system goes through which maybe more significant at times.

The reason people are so convinced in physical burn-in is just like your mentality, they don't realize they can hear differently at different times depending on their physical condition. They would rather blame on what's external to their perception. It's human nature.

 

[Pokemonn]

@SilverEars I also experienced the same things time to times.
I personally recommend trying Schiit Audio Loki(great sounding EQer) to tame treble time to time and tracks and tracks. Highly recommended!
and as you know, There is no perfect Standardized Mic/Recording/Mastering/headphone etc method. So you need to adjust treble to your preferences time to time.

Schiit Loki thread
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-audio-loki-mini-four-band-equalizer-head-fi-tv.861331/

 

[bigshot]

You sure? We are not machines you know.

I have a very specific and fine tuned response curve on my system. If my ears were changing, I'd be constantly parallel parking it. But I rarely have to change it except for specific recordings that are out of spec. If I have a head cold, it might change the way I hear, but that's to be expected. Most of the time with me it's my preferences that change, and that is more a matter of music I do or don't want to hear at a particular time. I can put on strident music that I'm not in the mood to listen to and the overall balance is correct, it's just annoying to me. That is different than hearing differently. Maybe it's more difficult for some people to separate physical hearing from subjective enjoyment.

The problem with burn in is that most people don't have a baseline for listening. They listen in a relative way... this one is more this way than the other, and that one is more that way than the other. That sort of thing leads to not being anchored to anything and can drift. Also the fact that there is a huge space of time between how something sounded a week ago and how it sounds now can skew the results a lot.