I can understand everyone’s reaction but saying you haven’t experienced it, is a far cry from ever taking the stance it doesn’t exist. If you are a person with an open mind this is necessary to maintain your open mind. As we all age we all too frequently close our minds due to attitudes we adopt. It is a shame.
My Focal Clear’s were without a doubt one of the most obvious examples. Go and buy a pair of these and then come back to this thread. I am 100% certain that your attitude would change.
Different products have different requirements and it turns out that Focal’s Clears are one set of cans that require breakin. My Magnepan speakers also required breakin. Out of the box they were no where as impressive as after breakin.
My phono cartridge required about 65 hours of play before the suspension finally settled in and everything was static. It wasn’t terrible out of the box (Ortofon Windfeld Ti) but it improved after 10 hours and the optimum SRA changed slowly until the suspension got to 65 hours.
This is the nature of mechanical structures where the stiffness or compliance effects the performance. In the case of electro-magnetic transducers, like headphones, speakers and phono cartridges there are points in their construction where the materials used can have some degree of breakin required before final performance is achieved.
Its not hard to envision because we have all suffered from mechanical structures that failed to perform. An engine that required rebuild, a bike that requires periodic lubrication or a turntable where annual lubrication is frequently necessary to keep it running properly.
Electro-magnetic transducers also have those parts that need to freely move to perform. Sometimes the transducer is engineered with materials that require little breakin and the transducer performs well initially. Sometimes the transducer is engineered with materials that do require breakin and the people who engineer these things are the ones who choose the materials and setup the amount of breakin due to their efforts.
I have heard the Focal Elear and the Focal Utopia but I do not own them. I imagine that these two fine headphones are also examples of headphones that require some degree of breakin time. I do own the Focal Clears and these cans definitely need a breakin time.
I hooked up my headphone amp to my system and plugged in my Clears and let then play constantly for a week before they started to sound like a $1500 set of headphones. I heard them in the background all the while this was happening.
They required 100 hours of breakin before I heard the sound they were capable of. There was no imaginary anything at work here because I heard them when they came out of the box. They were beautiful and looked like a $1500 headphone but they didn’t sound that way.
Following a week of constant play they sound wonderful. I didn’t listen to them during this interim breakin period. They just hung on their headphone hanger and played while I did other things. They sounded like crap and that was bad enough after spending $1500. I was assured buy a trusted salesman they they required a long breakin.
It is over and the Clear’s are some of the finest dynamic headphones I have ever heard. I am glad the breakin is over but I can’t understand people who cannot believe this exists. Oh well.
Life is too short to worry about such things and I have much better things to do with my time.
Everyone, have a good day,
Ed