[KneelJung]

Physical burn in or mental burn in of new "cans"?
 
That's the burning question for my first ever post.
 
My primary phones are Grado SR60i's that replaced some Some Sony MDR150's. When I first got the Grado's I couldnt tell much of a difference between them and the Sony's. The more I listened to the Grado's though the better they started sounding. Then I got a little red Udac which dramatically enhanced my listening experience. My primary source is a PC and the headphone out on it isnt even as good as my laptop's was; or maybe it was a soundcard issue or both. Oh well I got the Udac...problem solved. Now I'm thinking about getting an amp to pair with the Udac and some nicer cans
 
I just got a set of PortaPro's to go with my new clip. I tried some Skullcandy Titan IEM's first and took them back after listening to them for a couple of weeks. Dont know if it was because I couldnt get used to the IEM thing or I just didnt like the sound. I'm liking the PortaPro's more and more though with each listen.
 
I mostly listen to blues and classic rock.so if anyone has some other headphone suggestions I'm all ears
 

 

[Uncle Erik]

For blues and classic rock, you can't go wrong with the SR-60. Listen to them for awhile and resist the urge to upgrade. Those are great headphones. Be sure to spend some time enjoying them before spending more money. Burn-in is a mental phenemenon and part of the folk wisdom here. Your brain adapts to the sound and fills in the missing gaps. I recently switched from rimless to "browline" glasses. There's a thick plastic line at the top of my lenses now. It was really noticeable the first few days. Then my brain tuned them out. The black plastic is still there, but I don't really see it. The glasses didn't change, but I did. The same thing happens with headphones.

 

[appophylite]

The SR60, SR80 and the PortaPro have, for me, very similar sound signatures with the PortaPro sitting at the lowest of the three and the debate between the SR60 and SR80 being just as simple as 'Which sounds better?' I've personally found myself to be extremely satisfied with the primary trifecta of the Koss PortaPro, Grado SR80 and the Klipsch X10 as my portable, home and IEM.
 
For blues and classic rock, I'd say you're set up well right now.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

There is a lot of mental burn-in with your brain learning what sounds right.  Especially with headphones since headphone listening is unnatural compared to the real world.  The brain adapts and headphone listening becomes more natural.
 
The brain also adapts to what sounds tonally right.  Listen to good headphones with a flat EQ and the brain learns to accept that as what the sound is supposed to be.  Then when you listen to lesser headphones that may overly hype certain sounds (like bass), or mask or blur details that you are used to hearing, or deaden the highs, you'll be able to pick those changes out because the brain has learned what is "good" and you'll be able to pick out or notice when a headphone is not as good.
 
Physical burn-in of the drivers in the headphone is very very minor (if it happens at all) compared to the mental burn-in of learning how to listen to headphones and learning what recorded sound sounds like.

 

[Fido2]

Hey a Neil Young fan! U rock! On the burn-in note if it was ALL brain adaptation then by and large a crappy sounding headphone or speaker should sound OK after my brain "adapted". But alas, often this is not the case and a shrill crappy headphone/speaker is still shrill and crappy weeks down the road. My $.02

 

[KneelJung]

Thanks for the replies.
 
I'm pretty new to listening to music through headphones. Like I said I satrted out with some Sony MDR150's. They were pretty adequate and did the job. If my laptop wouldnt have crapped out I might still be using them. The laptop crapped out though and when I plugged them in to the new PC is when my quest for better sound through headphones began.
 
That's when I discovered head fi. It was the posters here at head fi that led me to the Grado's. They didnt sound much better but I did notice the more I listened to them the better they started to sound but they still didnt have the punch I was wanting coming straight out of the PC. As luck would have it head fi was having a huge discussion on the Udac at the time. There were some other threads regarding the benefit of  dac versus an amp and dac with an amp versus an amp with a dac discussions that were very interestinjg. Anyway I went with Udac over the total bithead. Not sure what the bit does better if anything because this DAC amp combo from Nuforce rocks.
 
Listening to some Bonamassa right now with the PortaPro's plugged into the Udac

 
I've only had the PortaPro's for a few days but they rock. When I'm not listening to them I'm pumping music through them. BTW Joe rocks too. Listening to a blistering solo as I type this.
 
Anyway I love the amped sound of the Udac. So maybe I should upgrade my clip to something with a LOD so I can amp my portable source too. Doesnt sound like doing recon on another set of cans is going to yield significant benefits.