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Headphone burn in?

T

Tyler-Durden

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
2,302
Alabama's latest national championship won a bet that got me a new pair of AKG Q701 headphones. I've read that these phones perform best after 100 hours of "burn in." Is there any specific kind of sound I should pipe through them? I plan to connect them to my receiver overnight and tune into a radio station while I sleep. I would tune into different kinds of music each night, like rock, classical, jazz, even news/talk. Would that work? Any other ideas? I'll use the phones for 95% gaming.
 
Some may have a different opinion, but I don't believe in headphone burn in. Can the FR of a speaker change slightly, sure but not enough that it would be a night and day difference. Your brain can however adjust to change the way you perceive the sound after repeated use. My Senneheiser HD 25's sound just like they did 4-5 years ago, and that's a lot of hours. If you really want to try "burn in" either a continuous loop of pink noise or just music at slightly louder than you'd normally listen to would serve just as well. I say just enjoy your headphones form day one. I do.
 
Same thought. Been a can fan for years and I don't buy into the burn in bs. I know its all over the audiophile type forums, but I personally have never experienced it.
 
jojo69 said:
Load of hookum if you ask me

just enjoy your cans
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This, basically. Innerfidelity did a repeated measurement test of a fresh K701's up to and including 90hrs of burn in:

I measured the cans fresh out of the box; immediately after the first test (so it had about 5 minutes on them); then after 25; then 1 hour; 2 hours; 5 hours; 10 hours; 20 hours; 40 hours; 65 hours; and finally after 90 hours of break-in.
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The differences are small. So small that even having a slightly different placement on your head could probably have an equal or larger difference.

Personally I believe what a lot of folks attribute to burn-in is really just their ears/minds getting used to the sound of a headphone.
 
Utter and complete MYTH.

Anyone who says otherwise is speaking bullshit.

The only thing that happens is that your brain adjusts to the individual sound signature of each headphone. So when you buy a new one , if you notice it begins to sound more pleasant over time .. you can thank your brain for convincing you that it does.

Its entirely psychological
 
Fwiw.. I was pissed how my dt770's sounded when I first pulled them out of the box. I do remember the bass improved quite a bit. Same thing happened when I first built my adire tempest sub. Not imagined.. I was truly pissed after building the sub.. all that work, time, and $$$. It took about 30min before I noticed a big change in the bass response. Once again not imagined.. i've also owned a ton of speakers and cans where there was no difference..
 
Godmachine said:
Utter and complete MYTH.

Anyone who says otherwise is speaking bullshit.

The only thing that happens is that your brain adjusts to the individual sound signature of each headphone. So when you buy a new one , if you notice it begins to sound more pleasant over time .. you can thank your brain for convincing you that it does.

Its entirely psychological
Click to expand...

I used to think it was myth, but recently I bought 2 pairs of the same headphone. I started using one immediately and kept the other one wrapped up as a gift for a couple months.

After they opened them I wanted to compare and the difference is quite noticeable. They can hand me random pair and I can immediately tell which is which even though they physically look and feel identical.

The pair with a couple hundred hours of use has a much more detailed and crisp highs compared to the brand new pair. Mids and lows sound the same.

I'm really curious now if the newer pair will eventually sound like mine after a good bit of use. The other explanation of course is that one of the headphones is just somehow different than the other even though they are the exact same headphone and were purchased at the same time so right now I'm not sure what to think.
 
SirMaster said:
I'm really curious now if the newer pair will eventually sound like mine after a good bit of use. The other explanation of course is that one of the headphones is just somehow different than the other even though they are the exact same headphone and were purchased at the same time so right now I'm not sure what to think.
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Did you ever compare them before you started the burn-in process? If not then you really have no way of knowing if the headphones sounded the same in the beginning. Some headphones have quite a bit of difference within the same model, while others don't.
 
Speaker, headphone and cable "burn-in" after the first 10 seconds, will not improve or degrade audio at all without failure. From a factory new state, the drivers are going to have a little more rigidity or glue applied, but after a simple 10 second burst of average listening volume playback levels at room temperature they're going to be exactly where the manufacturer intended for them to be. Anything further than that is a physical defect/failure that provides additional distortion above the manufacturers test samples measured in an anechoic chamber and should be replaced under warranty. Claims by a manufacturer stating that you need to burn-in their product with pink noise or the latest Diana Krall album for x hours to "open up the sound" should be met with scrutiny and serious introspection about where your money is going. If they aren't just pulling a marketing fast one on you, they're basically saying that their products have a predictable failure rate with different end results on every product. Yikes, in any other market this would be a quality control issue. Perhaps they should adopt a new industry standard -- "mean time before sounding audiophile"

There is no magic to this phenomenon, as others have said -- it's psychoacoustic without manufacturing differences in the product line. It's been well studied, as well as measured by academia and various audio engineers (aka mainstream science.) The only hold-outs left are the snake-oil audiophile community that refuse to believe in double blind testing, or sophisticated measuring equipment for that matter.

And the explanation to magnetik's experience, what's more likely, the amp finally operating at desirable temperatures for that 750 watt woofer (we can rule out damping material shift, since there isn't enough of it density-wise to filter that spectrum) and getting used to the sound signature or the speaker "burning in"? Whatever helps you enjoy your product more people.

I keep waiting for a thread about "What headphones should I use at x elevation above sea level for the best frequency response?" on one of these forums. That'll be fun!
 
More likely is that your brain needs time to get used to the particular sound signature. Takes a bit for the mind to be able to translate the way the drivers deliver the sound.
 
Yeah the only thing that could be true, Probably not for headphones, is that in larger speakers mostly subwoofers there needs to be time to properly stretch the spider and surround to achieve Xmax with out damaging the soft parts of the subwoofer.
 
Farkle said:
And the explanation to magnetik's experience, what's more likely, the amp finally operating at desirable temperatures for that 750 watt woofer (we can rule out damping material shift, since there isn't enough of it density-wise to filter that spectrum) and getting used to the sound signature or the speaker "burning in"? Whatever helps you enjoy your product more people.
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I would have to disagree with amp warmup. I have no issue after the initial bass response issue.. to this day.. cold amp or not. I have to attribute it to "loosening" of the woofer. Now that I think about it, I noticed a good increase in bass response with my Image Dynamics 12's (in the car) after my first listening session. The 1100 watt amp was already installed previously. Bass is not something you get "used to" if it sucks. You know it right away.

I personally don't buy into esoteric cables, etc.. but I do believe some subs and headphones do have a breakin period.
 
short answer.

Headphone and speaker burn-in exists. However depending on the gear, there can be virtually imperceptible to dramatic difference.

When you get new gear, just use it. Put away the timer and pink noise sweeps, lol. You'll have much more fun that way.
 
magnetik said:
I would have to disagree with amp warmup. I have no issue after the initial bass response issue.. to this day.. cold amp or not. I have to attribute it to "loosening" of the woofer. Now that I think about it, I noticed a good increase in bass response with my Image Dynamics 12's (in the car) after my first listening session. The 1100 watt amp was already installed previously. Bass is not something you get "used to" if it sucks. You know it right away.

I personally don't buy into esoteric cables, etc.. but I do believe some subs and headphones do have a breakin period.
Click to expand...

Larger speakers and subs do break in to a point, but as you mentioned earlier the time frame is more on the order of 30min, not the ridiculous 100+ hours that folks like to toss around. On the flip side I'm much less inclined to believe that headphones have a break in period, especially one requiring multitudes of hours in order to properly break them in.
 
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Neb said:
Larger speakers and subs do break in to a point, but as you mentioned earlier the time frame is more on the order of 30min, not the ridiculous 100+ hours that folks like to toss around. On the flip side I'm much less inclined to believe that headphones have a break in period, especially one requiring multitudes of hours in order to properly break them in.
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yeah that I do not believe in. At the most an hour. However subsonics is the only freq where I noticed a substantial change from first turn on.
 
SirMaster said:
I used to think it was myth, but recently I bought 2 pairs of the same headphone. I started using one immediately and kept the other one wrapped up as a gift for a couple months.

After they opened them I wanted to compare and the difference is quite noticeable. They can hand me random pair and I can immediately tell which is which even though they physically look and feel identical.

The pair with a couple hundred hours of use has a much more detailed and crisp highs compared to the brand new pair. Mids and lows sound the same.

I'm really curious now if the newer pair will eventually sound like mine after a good bit of use. The other explanation of course is that one of the headphones is just somehow different than the other even though they are the exact same headphone and were purchased at the same time so right now I'm not sure what to think.
Click to expand...

Its in your head man. There is science to back this up , the reality is that your brain is a master at curving reality to your liking and what you experienced was purely that effect. There just isn't any scientific proof showing any difference of sound in terms of the actual speaker from day 1 use to day 2,000 or that if there is any difference its so minor that you as a human being do not have sensitive ears to actually hear it. The actual headset however , the frame or skeleton of the headphone can influence sound. If your headphones are not fitted tightly on your head it can cause sound to leak and change the wave front of the sound coming from the speaker. But other than that no , its complete bullshit.

Even if its there in some minor form then I don't care if you are someone with Daredevil like hearing , you will not hear it.
 
Godmachine said:
Its in your head man. There is science to back this up , the reality is that your brain is a master at curving reality to your liking and what you experienced was purely that effect. There just isn't any scientific proof showing any difference of sound in terms of the actual speaker from day 1 use to day 2,000 or that if there is any difference its so minor that you as a human being do not have sensitive ears to actually hear it. The actual headset however , the frame or skeleton of the headphone can influence sound. If your headphones are not fitted tightly on your head it can cause sound to leak and change the wave front of the sound coming from the speaker. But other than that no , its complete bullshit.

Even if its there in some minor form then I don't care if you are someone with Daredevil like hearing , you will not hear it.
Click to expand...

There's also the possibility of manufacturing variability. Some headphones can vary a fair bit even within the same model
 
Okay, the consensus is that a 100 hour burn in is more style than substance. Thanks for the comments!
 
Neb said:
There's also the possibility of manufacturing variability. Some headphones can vary a fair bit even within the same model
Click to expand...

That's true but as the price of the headphone goes on up , the standards get so tight with manufacturing that you probably don't actually get much variation due to testing processes during Q/C.

So yea there is that to consider , small .. very small differences but they are there.
 
I could almost swear that HD 595s improved after using them quite some time. However, it could be that ear cups just adjusted to my head better over time and thus the improvement but still.
 
I've never noticed it, but it's not like it will hurt the headphone as long as you give it a break occasionally.
 
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