Overview of burn-in
It means that the sound quality of newly purchased audio equipment will improve after it is powered on for a period of time.
Burning in the machine is a measure to quickly stabilize the aging of the equipment. The electrical parameters of some components such as transistors, integrated circuits, and capacitors are unstable when they are new, and will gradually become stable after a period of use. For headphones, the burn-in process is actually the process of burning the diaphragm ring. The mechanical compliance of the diaphragm ring of new headphones is poor, resulting in relatively large distortion. After a period of use, the compliance gradually improves and the distortion will gradually decrease to normal. level.
[Edit this paragraph] Example of burn-in
Burn-in is a process of artificially accelerating the maturity of equipment through abnormal use. Generally, the equipment is allowed to work continuously for a certain period of time. For headphone amps, as long as they are not turned off, they are turned off. For headphones, a certain power signal must be fed to make the diaphragm vibrate continuously.
Taking the HP100 as an example, the component that most needs to be cooked is the internal electronic tube, which will gradually stabilize after about 100 hours of cumulative operation. The burn-in time of other components is shorter than that of electronic tubes.
The burn-in time of the headset depends on the type and power of the input signal. The best way is to use a special burn-in signal (noise signal with a wide spectrum) and run it at 2/3 of the nominal power for 40 to 50 hours, which is equivalent to 2 to 3 months of normal listening. If you can't find a dedicated burn-in signal, you can use heavy metal or rock music with a rich spectrum instead. The volume should be just enough that your ears can't bear it. If you use a music burn-in, the continuous burn-in time should not be too long, no more than 12 hours a day, and the cumulative time should be longer, about 60 to 70 hours.
For equipment with electronic tubes, you should pay attention to the continuous time not being too long when burning the machine, and stop it for 5 or 6 hours every 30 hours.
After the burn-in, the performance of the equipment gradually stabilizes, and various indicators basically reach the best. At this time, it is called "burn-in" in fever terms.
[Edit this paragraph] The origin of burn-in
The running-in period between speakers and headphones is called "burn-in" by insiders, and the English name is "Run in". The process of drying is like opening up the seven meridians and eight meridians. It is a means and method to quickly make equipment age and stabilize. Some components such as transistors, integrated circuits, capacitors, etc. have unstable electrical properties when they are new and need to be used for a period of time before they become stable. For speakers, burning the speakers is also an important part of the burn-in process; for headphones, the actual burn-in process is to cook the diaphragm folds. The mechanical compliance of the new headphone diaphragm folds is poor, resulting in relatively large distortion. After a period of use, the compliance will gradually improve and the distortion will gradually drop to normal levels.
Do I have to burn in the machine?
Burn-in is a process of artificially accelerating the maturity of equipment in an abnormal way. It usually allows the equipment to work continuously for a certain period of time. The sound characteristics of speakers and headphones that have not been "cooked" or not "cooked" enough can be described as "tight, cold, hard, and rough", while the products after "cooking" are mellow and smooth. It is much smoother and more delicate, just like a new wine with incomplete fermentation compared with an old wine. Their "taste" is still very different. The word "煲" is used very vividly, which means that it should be carefully handled. It is not suitable to "fry", "fried", and even less "burned". Instead, it should be simmered slowly and work slowly to produce fine work.
Although hardcore audiophiles have specialized "burn-in" processes and related methods that can shorten the time, ordinary audio equipment users or low-end users can also imitate the "burn-in" method without deliberately imitating it. , listen to it for a few hours every day, and use it naturally. After a few months, the "burn-in" process has been completed and it has entered the stage of beautiful sound. Friends and picky users who use mid-to-high-end audio equipment can deliberately cook their favorite products, and when the flowers bloom, they can laugh among the flowers.
Does a machine only cook once?
If you have used a speaker or headphone product that has been used for a year or two and has completed the burn-in period, every time you listen to the sound, the time for good sound will be at least a quarter of an hour after you turn it on. This period of time is also It can be said to be the warm-up time required by the product. In other words, the speakers that have been run-in also need to be tempered before they can enter a better state and produce good sound. This is a bit like the warm-up exercise of athletes before a game.
This change in low-end audio equipment is not obvious, while audiophile-level and mid-to-high-end equipment can be heard by professionals. Moreover, the more heavy-weight and high-power products, the longer they need to be warmed up. Be mature.
[Edit this paragraph] How to burn-in
If you just use normal listening methods, of course you can achieve the burn-in effect over time. However, there is a step-by-step and efficient burn-in. On the one hand, it can greatly shorten the run-in time so that the equipment can enter the optimal state faster. On the other hand, it can also warm up the equipment or speakers in the full frequency range in a more comprehensive and balanced manner. Regarding this, it can explain why it has been used for a period of time. On the surface, the audio equipment that has been used for a long time seems to have been burned in enough, but after a special burn-in process, the sound is still significantly improved. This is because most of the most commonly listened music frequencies do not cover the range from high to high. For each low frequency range, even if it is covered, the playback frequency and time are difficult to average, so from the perspective of burn-in, it is not fully functional. Another situation is that it has not been used for a long time or has been rarely used recently. The equipment can be restored to its normal state as quickly as possible by burning it in. To use a human metaphor, after a certain amount of physical exercise, if you exercise regularly to keep your body in the best condition, your work efficiency will naturally be greatly improved!
To burn in the phone, you must first choose the appropriate software and music records. This can be divided into two categories. The first stage of burning in the phone should be done with a type of audio CD signal disc. This audio CD records Pink Noise, also known as pink noise, mainly has a wide frequency range, from the lower 20Hz to the upper 20KHz, and plays continuously from the highest to the lowest. This type of sound disc is not difficult to find, and is sold in many audio and video stores. Similar to audition CD records or burn-in CD. For example, the 8th segment of the old XLO test disc released by Sheffield Lab can be called a classic in the burn-in sound. One of the signals contains various frequencies interleaved. Although it is quite noisy and unpleasant to play, the burn-in sound is The effect is very ideal.
In the second stage of burning in the machine, the second type of disc is used to burn in the machine - a music disc with both bandwidth and comprehensive effects. The first stage can be said to be like a martial arts practitioner opening up the "Benevolence" and "Connection". "The second pulse is general, the purpose is to open the full frequency, and the focus of the second stage is to create a sense of music and taste. The selected CD tracks can consider classical music, symphony, opera, jazz, traditional folk music, pop music, etc. Speakers or headphones cannot be limited to playing a single piece of music for a long time, but must be mixed, and each kind of music is different. Try again and again.
Finally, we have entered the final third stage of the burn-in. This stage is carried out based on our favorite music type. This can make the equipment more efficient when playing this type of music. Give your best. There is also knowledge about the burn-in time at this stage. The more high-end the product, the lower the sensitivity of the equipment, the longer the burn-in time of each stage. For ordinary equipment, generally speaking, the burn-in time of each stage is The machine time should be no less than 40 working hours.
[Edit this paragraph] Start the burn-in process
First of all, you need to download the sound-producing software and prepare the relevant CDs we mentioned earlier, so that the burn-in process can begin. . It would be great if you can find a pink noise full-range scan CD track. If you really can’t find it, you can go to some audio websites to download a frequency generator and use it on your PC. This kind of frequency sounding software is very small and can be manually Set the frequency range, scan time, and select the type of sound waveform, whether it is a square wave, sine wave, triangle wave, etc. In short, the frequency range of the sound should naturally be between 20Hz and 20KHz, and a full-frequency scan cycle should be as much as possible The setting time should be longer than 30 seconds. It is best if you use a full-frequency scan CD. After inserting the CD, select the track and play the track repeatedly. If there is no repeat play function, you need to press Repeat repeatedly to repeat the play. Generally, it is always The volume adjustment knob should be adjusted to a normal listening position. It should not be too high or too low, as this is detrimental. For the safety of speakers or headphones, you can listen to the highest and lowest frequency points before playing to see if the speakers or headphones are overloaded to avoid causing damage to the equipment. Once confirmed, you can proceed.
The sound signal we use for full-frequency scanning is not for listening purposes. Listening to it for a long time will make people feel upset and headache. Therefore, it is best to leave the room where the machine is turned on in the first stage, or do not have it at home. It can be done in human time. It would be good if you use working hours during the day. In this way, you will have nearly ten hours of burn-in time a day, so this stage does not take long to end. If you find the noise from the burn-in to be unacceptable, you can place the left and right speakers facing each other, so that the phases of the two speakers are opposite, which can offset part of the sound. Another method is to cover the speaker with sound-absorbing items such as quilts to cover up the noise, but you must pay attention to the air circulation, especially the main speaker with power supply and amplifier inside, which will not be breathable after long-term work. , will increase the operating temperature of the power amplifier and damage the speaker product, so leaving a gap to allow air to circulate is also an issue that must be paid attention to. In the second stage, we can choose various types of music records and play each record once. Playing the same record repeatedly is also detrimental to the generating equipment. Therefore, this part of the work is a little more cumbersome and needs to be carried out under supervision. During the burn-in period, even when you are resting, you can turn on the speaker switch to put the speaker in standby mode. Although there is no sound signal input at this time, the power supply part, operational amplifier and power amplifier parts are all in a powered standby state. state, therefore, although the speaker is not working, the entire circuit is still in a powered-on working state. Putting the speaker in a standby state is also conducive to the early cooking of vacuum tubes, capacitors and various semiconductor chips.
[Edit this paragraph] Comments on burn-in
In fact, burn-in and running-in after buying a car are exactly the same thing. How come there are no car fans who study how to "burn in a car", but there are so many HI-FI enthusiasts who study how to burn in equipment? As for the good sound that only comes out after a year or two of burning in the machine, that is even more nonsense - even the designer himself has no chance to hear the sound of the new machine after being burned in for a year! The sound one year after the equipment is turned on is not what the designer can hear in advance. How can it reflect the designer's intention? What a joke. My experience is that the sound of ordinary earphones will become normal after one or two days of being turned on. It is indeed difficult for advanced earphones to enter the state, but 2 to 3 months is enough for them to pass the running-in period and enter a stable state. If it does take a year or two or more to sound good, it only means that its design was originally biased, and it will have to wait until its performance declines slightly as it ages before the sound becomes good again.
We don’t encourage you to “burn in” the phone. It’s best to let the headphones become familiar naturally. If the sound of a new pair of headphones is really unpleasant, you can connect it to an FM radio and let it sing. Generally, singing for a few days is enough. Don't make the volume too loud, and don't exceed the limit that the human ear can tolerate.
[Edit this paragraph] Music suitable for burn-in music
As a suitable burn-in CD, you need to work hard on the burn-in tracks. Specifically, the following types of tracks should be included:
Containing rich highs and lows
Containing sudden large dynamics and sustained weak information
Contains vocals, orchestral music, heavy metal, percussion, etc.
Contains sounds from nature and daily life
Individual and continuous standard sine wave audio signals
Special burn-in discs:
1. "Burn in CD" (Bin-in King)
2. "Black.Magic" (Black Poison)
3. "Huiwei Audition Disc"
Recommended burn-in disc:
Among all the units in the speaker, the bass unit is generally the most difficult to burn in, so it is recommended to use a slightly larger one. Play music with heavier low frequencies at a higher volume. Here we recommend a few CDs suitable for burners.
"Modern Talking - Back For Good": Each frequency band is rich and typical of Disco style. This CD is considered the best in the studio, and it can take care of everything from 20-20khz. The recording level of this CD is very high, so be sure to adjust the volume carefully when putting it in to avoid burning the unit.
"Aqua - Aquarium" and "Aqua - Aquarius": each frequency band is full, the frequency characteristics are similar to "Modern Talking - Back For Good", the recording level is also very high, please turn down the volume appropriately .
"City of Sadness": A nice-sounding album suitable for the studio, with strong bass.