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Re: [ARSCLIST] headphones "break-in"?



Hi Marcos:

Good points all. Alas, ran it all day both channels so no opportunity for your test. Cans seem to sound about like they sounded out of the box last night, good. If there's a difference, it's subtle. These are Audio-Technica ATH-M50's by the way. Like them very much so far. Totally blow out of the water, sound-wise, the Sony closed-ears they replace.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcos Sueiro Bal" <mls2137@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] headphones "break-in"?



I don't understand --I thought you wanted your speaker cones as stiff as possible, and the gasket as flexible as possible; this is precisely why today they use cone materials such as Kevlar or (gasp!) aluminium.

I often hear of improvements to audio equipment after break-in periods and, I must say, I need to see hard science on this. It would be interesting to test frequency and transient response of a new speaker or headphone driver versus one that has been "broken-in".

An even easier experiment would be to "exercise" only one side of the headphones for a few hours, and then play a mono recording (such as an early-recording Living Presence CD ;-)), and see if you can tell the difference when you flip the drivers (or even before) (assuming "symmetrical" headphones).

Tom, would you volunteer for such an experiment and report to the list?

Marcos

Tom Fine wrote:
Hi Bob:

I tend to agree with you except that some newer speakers have drivers made of such stiff material that they actually do SOUND better after they get flexed a little bit. I doubt many if any speakers made today have the old paper cone material on woofers, for instance. Some high-end audiophoolishly-priced speakers claimed to come "broken in" from hours of loud playing at the factory. Remember that some of these modern woofers have cones made of metal films, certainly a long way from "egg carton" paper.

The same is true in some respects of modern headphones -- the drivers are made of relatively stiff materials that may not flex optimally right out of the box. In any case, I figure it can't hurt to run the cans with the junkola super-compressed FM rock station all day and see if I hear a difference with better music at lower levels tonight. I'm not running them anywhere their rated break-up point right now, just louder than I like to listen.

As for the foam thing, I remember watching the foam surround on a friend's older Infinity speakers literally blow apart from loud music at a party. Some of the older types of foam get brittle and flakey from exposure to either air or moisture or heat or all and then they disintegrate from the flexing of the woofer. Without the foam to damp the woofer edges, it sounds awful and I think some speakers can then over-drive the piston to where the speaker is broken.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert J Hodge" <rjhodge@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] headphones "break-in"?


Sounds like audiophoolery. Do speakers need a break in period? I don't believe so. Unless you're addressing a foamed surround in which case the break in period ends when the foam breaks down and they need to be re-edged.

Partially kidding..

BH

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:14 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ARSCLIST] headphones "break-in"?

Hi All:

Do professional headphones work optimally if one allows a "break-in"
period or is this
audiophoolery? I don't know enough about headphone driver design to know
if a new pair benefits from
playing relatively loud radio content or pink noise for a few hours to
loosen up the mechanics.
Based on the fact that I listen to headphones at ear-healthy low levels,
this "break-in" would
probably be as much "exercise" as the drivers would get, but if they are
indeed "stiff" when new, it
might be beneficial, too, for low-level listening (ie potential better
dynamics response, better
sensitivity for low-level bass, etc)??

-- Tom Fine



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