RikudouGoku's Database (IEMs/Earbuds/Headphones Ranking list)

Nice, got the Bell-We. Looking forward to that review

The bass-boosted version, didnt want the normal version as that might redundant with the Chaconne lol.

I really recommend 64Audio line up for you,
with their APEX module,
zero pressure, :+1:

I was typing out my weekly check-in for the FD5 earlier today, took a break and saw some posts about burn-in on the FH5s and Aria thread over at head-fi. This can be a weird rant from me but, if these folks are so adamant about burn-in, especially a painfully and ridiculously 200 hours burn-in, why don’t these companies just send reviewers their respective iems at least 2 weeks or a month earlier even prior to the official release of the product. Sign an embargo period and leave to the reviewers to have time to do their burn-in before going through their review notes.

I’m only about 110+ hours on my FD5 and it’s already 3 weeks later and barely above the burn-in requirement from Fiio. I’m not a reviewer or anything like that, but man… I really feel for you guys. Having the time to test and put out reviews early only to have users complaining “They didn’t burn-in enough! We’ll wait for more reviews!” while they were some of the same folks who were the ones being impatient for an impressions in the first place.

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I think some of the companies does that. Dunu did that with the EST112 but they dont mention burn in anywhere. But IMO, if burn in really made a difference, they should do that themselves before they ship it out to a customer…

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Burn-in on IEMs isn’t real. I’ve never heard the sound drastically change after burn-in on anything I’ve owned.

FYI… Burn-in is not required. Just enjoy your IEM and don’t worry about burn-in. Brain burn-in is more of a real thing than IEM burn-in.

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Yeah. Either burn-in themselves or send out their products to reviewers early. Fiio for example was hyping the FH5s so much and when comes the first wave of reviews, they were suddenly told to do a 200 hour burn-in first. Would honestly do some simple marketing hype to have reviews out on a day or two after the official announcement from having embargoes when reviewers was given time to do their review a month earlier in secret.

For me so far, I got used to the FD5 pretty much 5 days after my purchase. Not much has changed sound wise. Yeah, it feels more like brain burn-in for the most part.

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Yeah, their marketing on the FH5S was indeed too much for what it is.

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Burn in BA?..nah…Burning DD then yeah it stands a chance.

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It honestly is. “200 hours burn-in? Sure! But you won’t see my review for another 3 weeks after the official product release so you’ll have to wait while I go through the burn-in process!”. That’s already poor marketing right there when poor potential buyers who are looking forward to the FH5s had to wait for that long while reviewers had to give time to go through their review notes slowly and properly.

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Let me transform my previous comment… 200 hours of burn-in won’t transform your IEM into a completely new IEM. If you sit there and force your brain to listen to an IEM for 200 hours, you’ll get used to it and probably be more forgiving of its weaknesses.

I still am in the camp that even in DD IEMs, burn-in isn’t real. This coming from someone who has religiously burned-in every IEM I’ve ever bought. It’s a good idea to use the IEM if there are moving parts within it, but for altering the sound quality within 100-200 hours, I haven’t heard it.

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I don’t burn in anything…tubes yeah, but moving parts, drivers, baffles etc do change in the way/speed they move given time, this would lead to (depending on build) a slight change in the way they replay…I however agree brain burn in probably gives a more profound explanation of perceived sound changes compared to burn in.

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I think companies that are replying to negative comments concerning their products requiring 200 hours of burn-in before any real judgements can be made of their product is bullshit. Fiio is doing it with the FH5s and they did it with the FD1.

I’m one of the few who actually like the FH5s, but I like it because it fits me perfectly and the venting is fantastic and I get no pressure issues. The sound is OK. It’s not the greatest, but for $250 dollars, I like it. It’s not a giant killer.

What they’re really saying is… live with it for 200 hours and then judge it.

I will listen to an IEM as soon as I receive it, then I will burn it in constantly running for days on my Apollo checking in on it every few days. After hundreds of hours of burn-in, I’ve yet to encounter an IEM to transform into something different than how it started. Probably because I’m not listening to the IEM through burn-in.

I have also desperately hoped some headphones I’ve purchased would change after burn-in. A specific headphone from a manufacturer that even outlines how important the burn-in process is for their product I had very high hopes for. I burned this headphone in for weeks and weeks at loud/soft volume levels, with all different styles of music and dynamics and nothing ever changed unfortunately.

Nothing wrong with breaking-in a product, but I have ZERO expectations for burn-in to ever improve anything. Speaking from years of experience.

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I feel that it’s okay to be lenient to yourself in terms of burn-in. Brain burn-in or iem burn-in. Either of those will do. But I’m not gonna convince someone to do a burn-in for 100 hours or more. Do some casual listen for a few days or a week is good enough to have some input on the iem you are listening to.

On the FD5 that I’m currently using. During my first week, I was told the vocal sibilance will go away over time. 3 weeks later and the sibilance is still there while it felt like it was reduced just a tad. Maybe I happened to be overly sensitive to that upper-midrange but it is what it is from my end. The sibilance is still there and I can’t stay silent on that part.

You get a new iem or headphones for that matter is to have fun and find new sounds that you haven’t heard before. Not wait for 2 - 3 weeks of burn-in while your newly bought product is sitting there begging to be used by you, the listener.

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The only burn-in I’m adamant about and honestly believe in is having the speaker or headphone get acclimatized to the environment. Like if you’ve hauled a speaker on a long trip mid-winter and then put them in a relatively warm room. Just a little bit of something to make them reach ambient temp and at most playing something 24 hours or so to soften them up.

I’ve never in my life come across something that has drastically changed over a long period of time. The Grado GS1000 were harsh as fuck the first day I heard them. But they were absolutely fine the day after.

So yeah, no. Multiples of hundreds of hours I don’t believe in for a minute. Has anyone even measured a unit before / after burn-in to see if there’s a noticeable change? Personally I’d take a gamble at seeing nothing change after a day of use.

I believe there have been a few graphs. But they either didnt change at all OR the changes were so small it could be attributed to just insertion differences.

As I suspected then. If it’s within margin of error, then yeah it probably does nothing outside of getting acclimatized to your listening environment.

Say what you want about RTINGs review style, but their measurements are nice Is Headphones Break-in Real? 120-hour Burn-in Test - RTINGS.com

These are headphones, not earphones of course, but in any of these sort of tests, it seems some drivers do “break in” a bit not significantly to affect perception… if anything, pad break in is more real as well as brain aclimation to the sound. :man_shrugging:

Related rant; this hobby is so irrational sometimes. Pretty tiring lol.

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Headphones have like… 5 times bigger driver sizes as well. So they are definitely more likely to have more changes than iems.

(and as you mentioned, pad burn in is also another big factor.)