[NewWaveAudio]

I've heard people and companies recommending burning in headphones. I was wondering what other peoples take on this is.

 

[Sundown]

It's useful, I just let them burn in themselves as I listen to them overtime.

 

[NewWaveAudio]

My problem is that I have a pare of Sony headphones don't sound as good in the morning as they do after I've used them all day. Sundown

 

[SomeGuyDude]

It exists, but it's not as severe as some make it out to be.
 
Out of the box, the drivers in your headphones are going to be a little stiff. It's a product that relies on smooth motion, so it's going to take a little for the spider and cones of the speakers to loosen up properly, and that's something that can take a couple days. For giant subwoofers it can be longer because, well, they're giant subwoofers so they have a lot more to loosen. For headphones, if you listen for a couple hours a day, I'd say within a week they should be up to full strength.
 
No idea how this applies to planar magnetic phones, it might not at all. Just dynamic drivers in this case.

 

[NewWaveAudio]

I've had these headphones for about 6 months SomeGuyDude

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I've had these headphones for about 6 months @SomeGuyDude

 
Then they are WELL burned in. By about five and a half months. 

 

[NewWaveAudio]

I'm having problems with inconsistent audio quality SomeGuyDude

 

[Claritas]

They should be burned in already. I like to use pink noise from http://simplynoise.com/. I doubt it would make a difference now, but it can't hurt.
 
I don't know what would account for the inconsistency. (There are many factors, psychological and environmental.)

 

[jarrett]

Are they that bad sounding before burn-in?

 

[BrownBear]

I think it exists, like SomeGuyDude says, but it's not as severe as some make it out to be. I've tried burn in on a few of my new sets of headphones, and not once did I hear an audible difference. That's just me though. In fact, I've been reading about the HD280 needing tons of burn in, and I remember years back when I tried burning them in. I put them in a drawer and let them play for about two weeks straight, and I never noticed a difference. Obviously this is just my personal experience though, others are quite different.
 
Another thing to remember is our ears getting accustomed to the sound. When I first put a headphone on for the day, it will take me awhile to 'fall into' the sound of that particular unit. I think it's a combination of the earpads forming to our ears and our ears and heads getting used to having a headphone in place. There might be other variables too, though.

 

[NewWaveAudio]

They sound great it's probably the environment. During the morning I'm at home and during the day I'm at school

 

[Claritas]

  Are they that bad sounding before burn-in?

 
No, they shouldn't sound bad out of the box. I've heard considerable differences in bass; did less than I hoped for treble.
 
I don't believe that it's a matter of becoming accustomed to the sound, at least not in my case, as I tend to listen fairly little till after burn in: I listen immediately for half an hour to an hour--who can resist and why not--then start burning in, listening a little here and there till I figure they're probably done.

 

[Stuff Jones]

I have no idea how people are able to differentiate headphone burn in from brain burn in.

 

[jarrett]

Just making a silly observation on the unimportance of burn-in prior to listening 

 

[BrownBear]

They sound great it's probably the environment. During the morning I'm at home and during the day I'm at school

 
Yeah, that might have something to do with it. I mean school is probably much noisier than home, that might affect your perception of the sound.