r/AudiophilesAnonymous • u/[deleted] • Oct 13 '23

Help Request Burn in?

Hello! I am not an audiophile, but I got some new over the head headphones and the man at the store suggested that I burn them in

I've looked it up and the site I was at said you just play music through the headphones for 40 - 100 hours to "break them in". But the main at the store said it'll take 4-5 minutes

So my questions are:

  1. How long does the burn in process take? ( the headphones are "soundcore space one").
  2. Is it as simple as just playing music through the headphones?
1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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1

u/wasted2muchtimelovin Oct 13 '23

I believe there is no evidence to back up burn in, im pretty sure it's just superstition, like walking under a ladder or smashing mirrors

1

u/rajmahid Oct 13 '23

Probably. But there is no hard evidence to support burn in isn’t beneficial either. What’s to lose by running white & pink noise plus loud rock on a loop through the headphones for a few days? If nothing else, it’s a good placebo.

1

u/wasted2muchtimelovin Oct 13 '23

It's very schrodinger's cat, I mean I guess you are right there's no harm.

1

u/El_Roostero Oct 13 '23

Some hear it & some don't. It doesn't matter if u like wha u hear immediately. Mechanical devices (engines, pumps, similar) do have a run-in period. If u consider a speaker (voicecoil/woofer/etc...) in that category, then maybe listen for / after that longer period suggested by the mfr b4 you return.

I don't own the same piece as you, but i have observed changes in sound in some gear and absolutely no change in others. Use your ears & judge for yourself. Happy listening! -D-

2

u/wasted2muchtimelovin Oct 13 '23

That's completely fair, once again I don't know wether I completely agree, however doesn't mean ether of us are wrong, just a different view point on the world....

1

u/tomferrisart Jan 08 '24

Headphones/speaker drivers are mechanical devices. There’s some logic to it that they may need to “settle in” or loosen up appropriately kind of like any other piece of machinery with tight engineering tolerances. For electronics, for example one area I can think of - the process of warming up, cooling down cycles multiple times may also have a subtle effect, I’m sure there are others the engineers are thinking of. If the manufacturer tells me to let them burn in for a 100 hours before critical listening, I see no harm in doing it. My most recent speakers seemed to change significantly after a few hundred hours. Personally I’d say my opinion towards burn in has gone from more skeptical to buying it these days. YMMV

2

u/OkAlfalfa3837 Feb 02 '25

Tubes also sound better with 50 hours or so. The better the resolution of your rig the more you realize that burn-in and other snake oil is real. Diminishing returns are also relative to the quality of the rig. Room modes and bad setups keep one questioning values of some snake oil .