Headphone/Speaker Burn-in....discuss

[arun1uk]

Just got a new pair of B&W C5 Series 2's, as my Series 1's were replaced under warranty.
Was speaking with a friend who mentioned I should "burn them in". Whilst I appreciate the rationale, has anyone actually noticed a difference, either way?

Is it worthwhile or a waste of time?

Discuss, show your working.

[belleair302]

Quite simply when the speakers are manufactured and shipped everything is very solid, the cones have no movement in the surrounds and for the most enjoyable sound you do need to use your speakers and pump through them a wide variety of music, from bass heavy through to spoken word, higher tones and everything in between.

10-12 hours will easily be enough, no need to go unto 11 on your volume but just play everything and anything. You will then begin to enjoy the full range of sound and the benefits of paying good money for some good speakers.

[arun1uk]

But what about headphones - will it make a difference? How will it be different from me just listening to them on a daily basis?

[Some Gump]

Just listen to them normally from new.

If you concentrate / have a time machine, they'll sound much better when they're a week old vs brand new. There is no benefit of using special cd's, veriety of genres or anything like that - it's purely a function of getting the suspension comonents moving.

[Finlandia]

arun1uk said:

But what about headphones - will it make a difference? How will it be different from me just listening to them on a daily basis?

Some headphones change drastically with burn in, others hardly at all. Just listen to them normally, or then put some music on and plug them in and let them burn in.

[722Adam]

When I bought my Grados I didn't do anything special with them in terms of 'burning in', but after a couple of weeks use they were producing a noticeably warmer, richer sound than they were first time I plugged them in.

[Crackie]

When a speaker or headphone designer is developing their product they will have been using transducers / drivers that have been 'run in'. To achieve this, some engineers use single tones at or near the driver's resonance frequency, others use pink noise or similar multiband noise. The purpose of the run in is to extend the compliant parts of the driver close to their mechanical limits; particularly the 'spider' which is typically made of cotton, polycotton or Nomex. The result of the run in is that the resonance frequency of the driver changes and consequently the bass tuning of the finished speaker design changes too.

The drivers used in commercial Hi-Fi speakers are not, in my experience, run in by the driver maker or during the speaker assembly process at the factory; run in subsequently takes place in the users home.

The run in is reliant upon tracks with low frequency information being played at high volume. Arguably, any speaker that hasn't been subjected to decent period of loud low frequencies, hasn't been fully run in and isn't yet performing as the designer intended.

[jjlynn27]

Crackie said:

When a speaker or headphone designer is developing their product they will have been using transducers / drivers that have been 'run in'. To achieve this, some engineers use single tones at or near the driver's resonance frequency, others use pink noise or similar multiband noise. The purpose of the run in is to extend the compliant parts of the driver close to their mechanical limits; particularly the 'spider' which is typically made of cotton, polycotton or Nomex. The result of the run in is that the resonance frequency of the driver changes and consequently the bass tuning of the finished speaker design changes too.

The drivers used in commercial Hi-Fi speakers are not, in my experience, run in by the driver maker or during the speaker assembly process at the factory; run in subsequently takes place in the users home.

The run in is reliant upon tracks with low frequency information being played at high volume. Arguably, any speaker that hasn't been subjected to decent period of loud low frequencies, hasn't been fully run in and isn't yet performing as the designer intended.

LOL. I especially love the part 'as the designer intended'.

[Crackie]

jjlynn27 said:

LOL. I especially love the part 'as the designer intended'.

Delighted to hear that you're so amused.....what did you particularly enjoy about "as the designer intended". Please share...........

Arun1uk started a thread to discuss speaker / headphone burn and posted "show your working". I took that to mean anecdotal evidence or some kind of first hand experience. My comments were based upon 20+ years developing commercial speakers and OEM QC testing in the industry.

Until they are run in, new speakers don't measure or sound the same their development prototypes' i.e as the designer intended.

Edited by Crackie on Monday 23 March 14:06

[red997]

the sound from speakers does change with time - sometimes quite significantly - remember they are mechnaical devices that are just electrically operated.
easiest way to 'break them in ' is to listen to some music.
One thing that we used to do to push a speaker into a quick breakin is to feed an LF sweep to both untis, one out of phase, and face them in to each other, about an inch apart. Then run them like this for 24 hrs. Not much sound but gives them some healthy exercise.

Mind you, it can all go horribly wrong.
I was breaking in a guitar amp speaker a couple of months ago.
Hooked up to a pretty beefy amplifier, using LF to induce some cone movement - however for some bloody daft reason I forgot it was a guitar speaker (12", paper cone, fairly small magnet, about 30WRMS in band capability), so I would it up with a 20-100Hz sweep, at around 100WRMS - it lasted all of about 30 seconds before popping it's little coil with a puff of smoke....and then silence.
oops !

[Crackie]

red997 said:

easiest way to 'break them in ' is to listen to some music.

Music is the easiest way . This PH thread contains loads of links to tracks that are perfect for speaker burn in. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Burning a test disc isn't difficult http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtestsaudiotesttones...
Pink noise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise is likely to break speakers in faster than music.

[outnumbered]

Not all manufacturers believe in the concept of "burn in" for speakers. ATC, for example, say that there is no burn in required, their drivers measure identically after a number of hours of use compared with when first used. I think people often forget how you get used to a particular sound.

For example, I moved house 4 months ago, and it was very clear when I moved in, comparing with the old house, that the HiFi sounded really awful (as it should, it's currently in a room with a wooden floor and almost no furniture so the room is excessively "live" sounding). But today, it doesn't sound anything like as bad - although nothing's changed, I've just got used to it in the intervening period.

[Crackie]

The first link has several hi-fi drive unit manufacturers' comments regarding burn in. The next two links relate to users thoughts regarding ATC run in.

http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_rodajealtavoc...

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/73758-bre...

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/high-end/136327-at...

[outnumbered]

Crackie said:

The first link has several hi-fi drive unit manufacturers' comments regarding burn in. The next two links relate to users thoughts regarding ATC run in.

http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_rodajealtavoc...

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/73758-bre...

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/high-end/136327-at...

Sure - I know opinions vary. Personally I'm with ATC themselves on this, I didn't detect any change in my (ATC) speakers over the first 1/10/50/100/200 hours.

[IforB]

I'm firmly convinced that speaker burn in occurs. After a junior member of the household put their fingers through the cone on my PMC OB1's, then I called up PMC and they sent me a new driver for a very reasonable price. I put it in and it sounded remarkably different and changed the whole set up. It just sounded tight.

After a week or so of "running it in" with music playing through it all the time, the sound changed and was much closer to it's original tone.

[Crackie]

outnumbered said:

Crackie said:

The first link has several hi-fi drive unit manufacturers' comments regarding burn in. The next two links relate to users thoughts regarding ATC run in.

http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_rodajealtavoc...

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/73758-bre...

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/high-end/136327-at...

Sure - I know opinions vary. Personally I'm with ATC themselves on this, I didn't detect any change in my (ATC) speakers over the first 1/10/50/100/200 hours.

I have huge respect for ATC and don't doubt their claim about no burn in being needed on their speakers. ATC's driver test methods subject every bass and bass/mid driver to a high voltage free air sine wave sweep; this pushes each unit close to maximum excursion and stretches the spider to its mechanical limit. The reason ATC are able to say their finished their speakers don't need running in is because their raw drive units are subjected to the equivalent of 'burn in' before they are assembled into the finished speakers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEBICv7QPDM

[arun1uk]

Thanks fellas, appreciate the advice.
So far have changed the tips for Comply Foam and have left running for a few days with pink noise track playing.
Sounding nice and warm now but still some way to go.

[rich83]

arun1uk said:

Thanks fellas, appreciate the advice.
So far have changed the tips for Comply Foam and have left running for a few days with pink noise track playing.
Sounding nice and warm now but still some way to go.

I would say that is placebo. Cant say I have ever noticed headphones changing sound.

[Finlandia]

rich83 said:

arun1uk said:

Thanks fellas, appreciate the advice.
So far have changed the tips for Comply Foam and have left running for a few days with pink noise track playing.
Sounding nice and warm now but still some way to go.

I would say that is placebo. Cant say I have ever noticed headphones changing sound.

It depends on the earphone/IEM, dynamic driver earphones can and do change, balanced armature ones generally do not change, although some insist they do.

[arun1uk]

Finlandia said:

It depends on the earphone/IEM, dynamic driver earphones can and do change, balanced armature ones generally do not change, although some insist they do.

They've definitely changed. Bass is deeper and highs are brighter. The reason I know this is because comply tips are constant, I've been listening to the same track (regularly) and can identify the lows that I'm used in my old pair of C5s.

Appreciate your opinion, though.