Burn-In: Real or Imagined

Burn-in is a hotly debated topic, and reputable voices exist on both sides, each citing “facts” to back their claims. As an electronics manufacturer, we—and most of our peers—will tell you it’s real. Audio manufacturers almost always burn in gear before trade shows and before sending it to key reviewers. That should tell you enough right there.

But the real question is whether the effect is significant. In most cases, it’s subtle—so subtle that many wouldn’t notice. The smaller the transducer is, like in a headphone, the less apparent it becomes—the primary changes are in the bass response, so the size factor makes sense. These shifts are measurable in a Klippel analysis but often too minor to register on standard test rigs. That’s where the skeptics “disprove” burn-in using charts that miss what Klippel can detect.

What Burn-In Charts Can’t Show

Then there’s the part no measurement can capture: psychoacoustic adaptation. Your brain adjusts to a new sound signature over time. Timbre, staging, and tonal balance start to feel more natural as you acclimate. This is especially pronounced with écoute, which often sounds dramatically different from what people are used to—partly due to the tuning, partly the abundance of even-order harmonics from the tube stage, and partly the soundstage itself.

We’ve had customers contact us on day one saying their headset must be defective and want to return them. On day two, they say they’re still unsure about whether they want to keep the headphones but are starting to “get it.” By day three, we receive an excited email about how they’re hearing detail they never knew was in their music and écoute is their new favorite headphones. It almost always ends with: “I guess they just needed to burn in.”

More likely, it was their ears and expectations that needed time to adjust. When you’ve been trained by mainstream tuning to expect overpowering bass and exaggerated highs, a natural, linear sound can feel underwhelming—until you stop focusing on what’s missing and start noticing what’s finally revealed. The way that sounded “wrong” or “boring” becomes “right” and “exciting.”

Musicians, engineers, and experienced audiophiles tend to appreciate the TH1 immediately—they listen differently. Less experienced listeners often need a little more time and guidance to shift focus to the midrange, where the real detail lives. écoute excels there, and once people settle into it, they often describe hearing things they’ve never noticed in familiar tracks. The detail was always there—it just wasn't easy for them to hear through the distractions.

So is Burn-In Real?

Yes—but not always or exclusively in the hardware. It’s often happening to the listener.

That said, I can compare my daily-worn headset (eight months of use) to a new one off the line and feel a difference. The older one feels more relaxed, richer. The new one is tighter, maybe a little sterile by comparison. Still good—just not as broken-in. I say feels because the difference isn’t easily defined. But it’s there.