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Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:34 am
by jrisreal
My friend just got his shure srh440's today and he told me that if I wanted me headphones to be the best they can be, I gotta play loud music through them for a few hours to 'burn them in'

I want to know your thoughts on this and whether it works or not and if it makes much of a difference on Sennheiser HD280 Pro's
He says that its made an amazing difference on his Shure's after 2 hours and made the bass much stronger

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:55 am
by jrisreal
ignore this thread. i tried it for myself and it made the sound more clear...I love mah sennheisers

Edit: I was already in the process of trying the whole "burn-in" thing when I posted this and the results Im talking about are very subtle for the small time put in it. Don't judge by post time guys. Dang I gotta explain every small detail on here to not get made fun of, dont I :u:

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:00 am
by Basic A
jrisreal wrote:ignore this thread. i tried it for myself and it made the sound more clear...
No it didnt :lol:

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:29 am
by JFK
Burnin' in me headphones on the corner, it make it clearer, it make me smarter!

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:46 am
by oprs
placebo effect for the win

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:52 am
by DZA
jrisreal wrote:I gotta play loud music through them for a few hours to 'burn them in'
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:34 am

jrisreal wrote:ignore this thread. i tried it for myself and it made the sound more clear...I love mah sennheisers
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:55 am

-q-

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:53 am
by Electric_Head
I think it`s the other way round though innit?
Supposed to stretch them out slowly before womping them.
Always the approach taken when dealing with car sound.

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 8:42 am
by benjam
DZA wrote:
jrisreal wrote:I gotta play loud music through them for a few hours to 'burn them in'
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:34 am

jrisreal wrote:ignore this thread. i tried it for myself and it made the sound more clear...I love mah sennheisers
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:55 am

-q-
Quality

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:50 am
by erratech
You are meant to spend time burning in some cans. I know with mine you are recommended a few hundred hours burn-in. Search k701 burnin if you dont believe me.

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 11:42 am
by Basic A
erratech wrote:You are meant to spend time burning in some cans. I know with mine you are recommended a few hundred hours burn-in. Search k701 burnin if you dont believe me.
Show me it in the manual or gtfo, this is the most lunadcris stuff in the world, i swear this is just an old Gearslutz meme that has taken on a life of its own, this is roughly equatable to those anti-comb-filtering magic rocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN6wjcvQ > He covers this topic in here, somewhere around when he's talking about the 500 dollar alligator clip, some of the people around here would do good to watch this, good example of the goofy shit that gets said on forums, and how people believe it when they shouldnt and yeah...

Also so nice info about psychoacoustics and what phase is.

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:06 pm
by macc
It depends on the manufacturer and the specific cans, but some cans are packed/shipped differently in order to improve their 'shelf life' so to speak, to prevent mechanical 'damage' (however light) from being slung around in a ship/plane/forklift or whatever. The manufacturers don't give them any run in prior to being boxed. The suspension/surround can be somewhat stiff fresh off the production line and they benefit from loosening up. It depends on their design, the implementation and all the usual gubbins.

FWIW I've done the same thing three times - new phones, try them, back to 'current' phones while the new ones sit in a drawer playing to themselves, wait a week, try them again. Having a direct comparison against 'control' cans has shown me that there's a difference.

The only actual measurements of it I can find are here;

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/500 ... -headphone

Pretty clear tbh. Whether you can be arsed and would rather just adapt to/along with your cans, well that's up to you :)

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:37 pm
by Lectric
DZA wrote:
jrisreal wrote:I gotta play loud music through them for a few hours to 'burn them in'
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:34 am

jrisreal wrote:ignore this thread. i tried it for myself and it made the sound more clear...I love mah sennheisers
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:55 am

-q-
You know when people make really bad first impressions? jrisreal does it over and over and over.

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:43 pm
by DZA
Lectric wrote:You know when people make really bad first impressions? jrisreal does it over and over and over.
Lectric wrote:you guys are all shit. clearly this is the best


oooooh i went there ;)
no but in all seriousness i love eevry thing so i cant rly choose a BESt one. Mala to Skrillex, all fantastic to me.
:w:

-q-

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:54 pm
by Electric_Head
you cut deep Monsieur putti tat

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:15 pm
by drokkr
Lectric wrote:
DZA wrote:
jrisreal wrote:I gotta play loud music through them for a few hours to 'burn them in'
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:34 am

jrisreal wrote:ignore this thread. i tried it for myself and it made the sound more clear...I love mah sennheisers
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:55 am

-q-
You know when people make really bad first impressions? jrisreal does it over and over and over.
He's a numpty and likes to prove it.

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:50 pm
by Lectric
DZA wrote:
Lectric wrote:You know when people make really bad first impressions? jrisreal does it over and over and over.
Lectric wrote:you guys are all shit. clearly this is the best


oooooh i went there ;)
no but in all seriousness i love eevry thing so i cant rly choose a BESt one. Mala to Skrillex, all fantastic to me.
:w:

-q-
clearly didnt see the text at the bottom :4:
im fluent in sarcasm

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:59 pm
by legend4ry
^ its not sarcasm if you have to explain it.

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:00 pm
by Mad_EP
macc wrote:It depends on the manufacturer and the specific cans, but some cans are packed/shipped differently in order to improve their 'shelf life' so to speak, to prevent mechanical 'damage' (however light) from being slung around in a ship/plane/forklift or whatever. The manufacturers don't give them any run in prior to being boxed. The suspension/surround can be somewhat stiff fresh off the production line and they benefit from loosening up. It depends on their design, the implementation and all the usual gubbins.

FWIW I've done the same thing three times - new phones, try them, back to 'current' phones while the new ones sit in a drawer playing to themselves, wait a week, try them again. Having a direct comparison against 'control' cans has shown me that there's a difference.

The only actual measurements of it I can find are here;

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/500 ... -headphone

Pretty clear tbh. Whether you can be arsed and would rather just adapt to/along with your cans, well that's up to you :)

Yeah - I have always been a supporter of the burn-in. I didn't even know about the practice at first, I just noticed that my new sets always sounded stiff (so to speak). Then I read up on it, but this is the first time I have seen someone actually do measurements. I just always trusted my ears.

For my burns I would set up sine sweeps to just run indefinitely while I was at work, asleep etc... did it for a few days, then would start using the headphones.

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:12 pm
by Medik
I do remember getting just some sennheiser in-ear phones and being really disappointed with the sound of them, when now they seem fine.
I thought it was just that I'd got used to the sound of them but it may be this.
And this thread is funny. :lol:

Re: Burning in headphones?

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 3:22 am
by abZ
I don't believe in burn in. Got mad respect for Macc and EP and normally they have great advice but this time I disagree but it's not worth arguing about either. Doesn't bother me a bit if you want to burn your cans in. I have seen these crazy guys talk about burning in rca cables and TV's too lol. Oh well.