Focal Elear and Utopia

Now that is what I call burn in.

 

Found a picture from the KZ ZS3 iem product page which has a special burn-in guide:

 

Or burn out

 

This reminds me of someone who said that playing hi-res files reduces burn-in time than just playing 16/44.1.

 

The whole burn-in thing does get a bad rep because of all the nutters out there (like many things in audio) but I wouldn't be surprised if there were tangible differences. Focals are the real deal with traditional moving coil motors and all the mechanical and electrical pieces that that technology necessitates.

 

Infected Mushroom: Vicious Delicious played at a loud clip with the headphones in a carry case does the trick for me. I usually let them go for a solid week and sometimes even two.

 

I've not had as much experience with Headphones as I've had with speakers but in the case of speakers there is no question that every set (full sized bookshelf & up) I've owned benefited from 50+ hours of burn in, nothing fancy, just adult alternative (no HEAVY bass) played at a moderate/low volume for a day or so followed by another day at slightly higher volume. I'm a big tragically hip fan (God Speed Gordie!!) and a couple tracks from Day for Night (Thugs & Grace Too) tell me all I need to know, the difference before and after is not small.

Anyhow, I understand it would be costly/time consuming to burn in speakers at the factory. But in the case of $1000+ headphones (with a much smaller footprint than comparable $1000 speakers) you would think there would be enough margin to burn in the headphones prior to shipping. Heck, if burn-in has real benefits with the Elear & Utopia you would think Focal would be wise to absorb the costs to make sure that the first impressions being posted in forums such as this one are as positive as possible.

 

The Audeze Sine comes with a little card that says "your headphones have been burned it at the factory and are ready to enjoy."

 

Why is it that burn in has no negative effects. That puzzles the heck out of me

 

I've heard people say that drivers tend to sound worse over time after the initial burn in phase. This takes much longer than burn in.

 

What I've heard with my speakers (subjective I know) is that the lower bass (bass guitar line especially) on the two tracks mentioned above (especially on Thugs) will sound less "one note" and more distinct such that the melody of that note is more prominent and not overshadowed by the drums and other tracks.

What I've read is that the spider and to a lesser extent the surround will become more compliant over the first 50 hours or so of work, at some point the rate of additional "settling/increased compliance" of the material with time decreases dramatically. Our company manufactures plastics manufacturing equipment and an engineer I spoke with agreed with this last concept. He used the analogy of a baseball glove... a little time, glove oil, and some work makes the glove much more supple but it can still be used for years and years thereafter.

I guess a proponent of speaker burn-in will believe that speaker spiders and surrounds are designed with materials such that they will sound their best for hours 50 to 10,000+ VS sounding their best out of the box and then being worse after 50 hours. This would explain why burn in is not a bad thing.

 

Well that settles it, if Audeze is a proponent of "burn-in" there is no point.. its just snake-oil audiophoolery BS.

 

Ymmv area:
Once in a few weeks, I would playback this on my system. Somehow it does makes things sound clearer for awhile.

 

I have little to no doubt that what you've said here is true when it comes to headphones.

My experience with speakers is that there is a difference with a couple days of burn-in. Maybe its a matter of the materials acclimatizing to room temperature after shipping or something else entirely but my opinion is that what I've heard is more than just my brain getting more comfortable.

Given the Elear and Utopia's drivers are different (more speaker like?) than conventional dynamic headphones I think it would be fair to think that the Focals could possibly benefit from some burn-in time. Nevertheless, its evident to me that those who dislike the Elear out of the box won't feel any better in the long run. I really can't wait to hear a pair for myself.

 

Pretty much. Comment on my review of the T1.2 on Amazon: