Whats the best burn-in for headphones?

[poppachubby]

Let me begin by saying that I believe in and rely on burn in of all the devices in my system. I believe in and hear IC and speaker cable differences. I have heard for myself that IC's can be constructed to be directional. However, to suggest that a device should be burned in with the type of music it will be used to primarily reproduce is utter and absolute nonsense.
As an EE I am aware of and understand that some signal types and or combination's of waveforms may do a better job than others. However, to suggest that the 1812 should be used on a system that is primarily used for listening to classical music while Ray Charles should be used if the system is for an R&B lover makes the term snake oil seem like a compliment. C'mon guys I would lighten up on this if there was just "anecdotal proof" from widely separated sources.
In response to your opening sentence. I expect my speakers to encounter any and every frequency between 20Hz and 20KHz. What do you do if your listening is rather eclectic? Do you survey your listening patterns? Do you determine what percentage is devoted to each kind of music? Do you then burn in your devices with the same percentages of burn in material? The mind boggles at such a thought.

Whoa...interesting points Joe. However, all I was trying to say was, if you enjoy your music bass heavy for example, than perhaps some sort of bass heavy music to condition the speakers would seem reasonable. You're totally correct in saying that it would be an excercise in stupidity to try and "match up" burn in frequencies to listening frequencies. I for one, would not have the time and quite possibly the brain power either to attempt such a feat...

[poppachubby]

I really like "storm". I bought a Mobile Sound Fidelity LP ages ago of a thunderstorm. If you're interested in sonic fireworks (quite literally!), then go here and download Tom Danley's fireworks recording. Be vewwy, vewwy careful on playback as it has super wide dynamics and will quickly chew up all the head room you've got.

rw

Car starting was my fave until fireworks, nice link E! I will use it on a pair of AKG K66 and the music on AKG K240M.......mad scientist, Chubbs

[EYEdROP]

I like to think of speaker burn-in like you would breaking in a new or rebuilt car engine, stretching a rubber band or other any other mechanical device really. Out of the box, things are stiff with tight tollerances and slight imperfections from the factory. The last thing you wanna do to a brand new car is floor it out of the dealership while the engine is still cold and metals are still soft from the factory.

Different headphones take different amounts of burn in. As a general rule, for the first 24 hours I suggest playing background music very faintly with only a notch or two on the volume, just enough to make sound. After that start playing the frequency sweeps at a slightly higher volume than the background music. Again take it nice and easy on the volume, frequency sweeps are stressful. Pink noise is introduced last because it is the most stressful on a speaker. Make sure you check the volume level with normal music because its hard to tell how loud pink noise is. A really good thing to do is put 2 minutes of silence in between every 20 minutes of burn in. You can easily find an MP3 of silence on the internet. Put on which ever burn in track your using , use that silence track and put the player on "repeat". This helps the voice coil cool down.

The whole idea of my burn in method is to slowly introduce dynamic peaks and excursions to the drivers. If you stretch a rubber band to the max when its brand new, it will eventually break pretty soon. But If you slowly stretch it over time, the rubber band will retain its elasticity for much longer and will be able to stretch even further than brand new..

[poppachubby]

I like to think of speaker burn-in like you would breaking in a new or rebuilt car engine, stretching a rubber band or other any other mechanical device really. Out of the box, things are stiff with tight tollerances and slight imperfections from the factory. The last thing you wanna do to a brand new car is floor it out of the dealership while the engine is still cold and metals are still soft from the factory.

Different headphones take different amounts of burn in. As a general rule, for the first 24 hours I suggest playing background music very faintly with only a notch or two on the volume, just enough to make sound. After that start playing the frequency sweeps at a slightly higher volume than the background music. Again take it nice and easy on the volume, frequency sweeps are stressful. Pink noise is introduced last because it is the most stressful on a speaker. Make sure you check the volume level with normal music because its hard to tell how loud pink noise is. A really good thing to do is put 2 minutes of silence in between every 20 minutes of burn in. You can easily find an MP3 of silence on the internet. Put on which ever burn in track your using , use that silence track and put the player on "repeat". This helps the voice coil cool down.

The whole idea of my burn in method is to slowly introduce dynamic peaks and excursions to the drivers. If you stretch a rubber band to the max when its brand new, it will eventually break pretty soon. But If you slowly stretch it over time, the rubber band will retain its elasticity for much longer and will be able to stretch even further than brand new..

Thanks for contributing to what is becoming an interesting and varied thread dROP! I think your process sounds great. I have set a pair of lightly used AKG K240M to the lull of a thunderstorm. Your thoughts on silence interest me, I have a generator that allows me to program silent breaks at whichever interval I choose, for however long. Typically, I do 2 hour stretches with 5 minute breaks. Check out this link and listen to "storm", there are some quiet points in the file. Do you think this will be enough to supplement silence?

BTW EStat if you are reading this I decided to not run the fireworks. I looped the finale which is about 20 seconds but found the frequencies a little heavy in the low dept. "Storm" seems really well balanced.


http://www.burninwave.com/#testsound

[EYEdROP]

It really does take alot to fry a voicecoil, so I dont think the silence is completely necessary. Some suggest no breaks durning burn in. I just like to play it safe in case the volume gets tured up on accident or something.