Many of them do, it just depends on what tier of headphone it is lol
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many do especially for higher end headphones. like the hd 800s
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Okay, that makes a little more sense then haha.
Yet, you will see people on forums talking about HD 800 burn in…so does that imply that Sennheiser burnt in the HD 800 incorrectly at their factory? No, what it actually is is somebody’s brain housing group and ears getting acclimated to the sound. LOL.
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As of now, I’m in the “it’s mostly, if not all, in your head” camp, but who knows, opinions change.
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I may be superstitious but burn in being required to make a set of cans not sound like crap is about as plausible as the Easter bunny.
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I would say for some headphones that is def the case, but others are more noticeably the driver breaking in. Of course getting used to the sound signature and mental burn in and adjustment to the sound are always going to play a role, but with some headphones that diaphragm needs to move a bit before it sounds right lol (have done comparisons with a fully broken in 400i and a new one and there are apparent differences)
Hmm, I think that sort of comparison is probably the most useful, as opposed to listening to one headphone over time and comparing based on memory. Yea, I’m gonna step back and defer to the more experienced haha.
Well I mean it really does depend on the headphone lol, mental burn in is more important in my mind lol (not a pun)
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how much of that was new ear pads versus old ear pads? also, the 400I went through a silent revision in 2016…
Both focuspads and after the revision so the same headphone purchased at similar times from amazon. We didn’t buy it to compare this, it just happened to be a coincidence and we were curious lol
interesting. manufacturer variance could be at play as well.
Of course. The new unit sounded super dang close after lots of time on them to the sufficiently burned in unit, so if that isn’t burn in idk what is lol
I will say also that in my experience, the HE-400i in particular sounded completely different on every amp I tested it on. Like more so than any other pair of headphones I have ever owned, besides the DT 1990.
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Pretty sure we tested on an iha6? Can’t quite member but it was the same amp
gotcha. I really think the HE-400i, DT1990 and ZMF Eikon sounded the most different on different amps out of any headphones I’ve ever heard. It’s beyond just scalability, but like just sounded completely different.
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I’ve posted on this before I think, but I’ll give my thoughts here too. When it comes to the mental acclimation to something new, I’m 100% convinced this is a thing because I’ve experienced IEMS & headphones sounding different after maybe a week between listens. Best example for me would be the Shuoer Tapes. When I first got them I listened to them for a couple hours and I fucking hated them. They were highly shouty and gave me a horrible headache. Didn’t listen to them again for another week, but when I did, they were no longer headache inducing and were now listenable, though it was a sound sig that I still didn’t really enjoy.
Now, since everyone agrees mental acclimation is a thing, how do you prove that something is mechanically burning in vs it being mental acclimation. Because as I’ve experienced, you can go a week from listening to something and it sounds different. That’s purely mental. But what about someone who has music playing through a headphone without listening to it until later. How can you rule out the possibility that it’s purely mental acclimation, and the pink noise/whatever is irrelevant?
My point of view is that mental acclimation exists, but whether machanical burn in exists seems impossible to eliminate the possibility of completely. And honestly, it’s a rather harmless belief for someone to hold. It still makes people keep using something they might dislike at first but eventually acclimate to.
Another thing to think about is why is it that burn-in is almost exclusively talked about as a good thing? If it isn’t mental acclimation, then how can it be explained that everything burned in seems to sound better? Why do things not burn in to sound worse? Mental acclimation explains this, because you are getting used to the sound. Burn in doesn’t.
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You have to train your ears and optimize your situation to allow you accurately compare differences in order to get some somewhat accurate and repeatable results. I mean a driver burning in does make sense from a science perspective and it makes sense (not always tho)
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It might be more noticeable for speakers. My big ass Fluance SX6s sounded like robots when I got em. Crisp, clear, tight, mechanical, punchy, etc. They still can sound like that with electronic music (and I love it), but there’s a smoothness/naturalness to them that definitely was not there during the first hours.
Moving parts move better after they’re used to move.
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For speakers for sure, it’s def there
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