"Burning in" headphones...

[RPSharman]

So in my search for the ultimate sounding, inexpensive earbuds, I discovered something called "burning in" for new headphones.

I feel foolish for never having heard of this practice.

Anyone here do this?

[ccsnd]

I've never heard of it either... I know in my band days we used to break in our cabs, but I have never done it with headphones.

[Angelo Waldron]

Yea, there are the rockers on taperssection.com that talk about this, and also some reviews on heaphone sites talking about this....

I cry "bullshit" on this.

You need to burn in your mics and recorder too to get the best sonic performance.

I charge a nominal fee for this.....

[soundslikejustin]

I've heard of it, normally it entails playing pink noise or tone sweeps through the 'phones for a certain number of hours. I've never done it, but I know people that swear by it. I guess it's akin to breaking in the transmission and suspension on a car.

[Mirror]

+ it makes you feel smarter than everyone else!

[Eric Toline]

Not bullshit. A proven method of getting transducers to seat themselves to the voice coils and have the diaphragms get flexed & set in their mountings. Best way is to turn on your tv connect the HP's to the tv hp jack and leave it there for a day or so. Think of it like letting the wine breathe for a while before you drink it.

Eric

[Angelo Waldron]

So, point us to a link of the proof Eric.

My wine doesn't get a chance to breath.

Robert, I'll burn in your Headphones for $150

[RPSharman]

There appear to be a lot of opinions on the webernet, but no actual evidence.

[seth]

I've read alot about breaking in studio monitors as well.

A few engineers I know, that make their living off thier monitors, advised me to do the pink noise/loud music break in when I recently replaced mine. Couldn't tell the difference after, but I don't necciscairly have golden ears.

[Ray Collins]

Allied to this thread, a quick speaker fix. Sometimes it's not the voice coil that is fried, it's the copper wire from the speaker cone to the spade lug mount. The constant flexing breaks the wire. I've used solder wick and it seems OK.

[Jeremy Childers]

True!!! Well known and practiced with studio monitors, why not do it with your headphones??

Just my 2€

[Eric Toline]

There appear to be a lot of opinions on the webernet, but no actual evidence.

The evidence is in the results. Granted it's more difficult to hear the difference with a 2" HP driver than a 10", 12" or 15" driver. A life time of listening has shown me that it does work. OTOH it can't hurt either.

Eric

[old school]

I have never heard of this practice but it makes sense I suppose. I know when I get new headphones they don't sound as good as the old ones I'm replacing which I do at least once a year.

CrewC

[OmahaAudio]

And people will spend thousands of dollars to get Fender to build them a brand new Telecaster that looks like it's been used for 40 years.

www.fendercustomshop.com/

[Mark Orusa]

I wouldn't automatically assume that headphones or speakers will sound better after breaking in. I have a 12 year old pair of Sony 7506's that definitely sound different than my 2 year old pair. Different, but not better.

And the thing about voicecoils... the voice coil floats in a slot in the magnet, so there is nothing to break-in. If it starts touching anything I'd say you've got a toasted coil.

Mark

[JDirckze]

It sounds like audiophile rubbish to me.

While your breaking in your cans, why not go out and buy some cryogenically frozen cables. They'll cost thousands, but they'll sound 1% better...

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[James Lopez]

The web is filled with discussions over this, one could read much in sites like head-fi.org. One can even find mini apps for pc's that generate a mix of pink/white noise and sine sweeps with 'rest time' intervals etc. The fact remains that, even if it is true that headphones require burn-in, there's practically no difference between 'forcing' this result using the aforementioned solutions and simply using the headphones on different applications (monitoring, music), apart from the time consumed.

[studiomprd]

Robert, I'll burn in your Headphones for $150

$125, and I'll include a "Burn Notice" certification.

Edited March 15, 2012 by studiomprd

[taylormadeaudio]

When I bought my HD1's, I was told I need to break them in before I did any real critical mixing on them... so I took them up on my roof and dropped them down onto my lawn (only about 12 feet or so...) I took them back in and plugged them in -- there was this sort of whooshy sound... I called the guy who sold them to me -- left several messages... he's never returned any of my calls... so I sent them to Meyers -- they sent them back and said something about the warranty being voided because of some kind of "shock sensor" being compromised... they're just sitting on a shelf in my garage now.

~tt

[Angelo Waldron]

$125, and I'll include a "Burn Notice" certification.

LOW-BALLER

[RPSharman]

LOW-BALLER

Don't worry, Angelo. I paid someone $100 to come and teach me how to do it, so I am now an expert and can do it myself from now on.

[studiomprd]

I paid someone $100 to come and teach me how to do it,

low-baller!

[Angelo Waldron]

Don't worry, Angelo. I paid someone $100 to come and teach me how to do it, so I am now an expert and can do it myself from now on.

[taylormadeaudio]

priceless! thanks Angelo!

~tt

[benr]

I do it with most of my heardphones. Usually about 200-300 hours. I just let em play when Im not using them in a drawer or something hooked to a cd player or ipod or whatever for day on end. I think its something more thats be done with music audiophile headphones. Location recording is not as audiophile as high end headphone setup are when it comes to headphone monitoring. If youre more interested in how deep the headphone audiophile rabbit hole goes, check out www.head-fi.org and learn. Suufice it to say its another expensive hobby to get into. I have around $1k invested in my entire headphone audio chain so far and believe me Im not alone in this hobby. The sky really is the limit.