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Burn in and peer reviewed brain research

Not to broach a religious topic, but I know burn in discussions happen all the time in audio circles. Until today, I had not found any scientific research from the brain side.

This article was interesting:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10898501/

It is a 2024 review in Cureus (Kalchev, PMC10898501) that surveyed the physiological, psychological, and social dimensions of audio burn-in. It found no substantial evidence for mechanical changes producing audible differences, and instead identified several well-documented mechanisms — ear fatigue, confirmation bias, placebo effects, and neural acclimatization — that adequately explain perceived changes without requiring the equipment to have changed at all. 

Has anyone found other literature of this type – physiological, psychoacoustic, rather than engineering/mechanical? I'd be curious to learn about it.

Of course, anyone who wants to put their hand on a bible and swear that burn in is real based on personal experience is welcome to do so, but I'm hoping to find things beyond the anecdotal.

hilde45
gkelly's avatar
gkelly
987 posts
 

Being probably the least educated person on this sub. I can’t keep up with the discussion when it gets into the weeds.  All I know is that when I install a new piece of hardware, or cable sometimes the first couple of days it can be uncomfortable for the ears 👂. Then the magic happens. Have a hard time believing in burn in, but I seem to have experienced it. 

soix
11,230 posts
 

Useless theoretical psychobabble.  When I first got my speakers they sounded terrible and defective to the point that I almost returned them.  They sounded thin, anemic, bright and lacked bass, but after 20 hours or so they started to sound better and eventually sublime and nothing like they sounded outta the box.  If that’s not evidence of burn in I don’t know what is.  Also, almost no designer of high-end audio equipment will tell you their products sound their best right out of the box, and who would know better than them?  Some products may experience more or less burn-in effects than others and maybe some none at all, but burn in certainly exists. This may be fun for some to ruminate over, but to me it’s largely a waste of time/energy.  

shooter41
137 posts
 

Yeah, I gotta believe that speaker burn-in is accepted as fact by most people into audio. Even if you don't believe in it for electronics, cables, etc., it seems really obvious with speakers. There are moving parts that need to settle in and loosen up.

wsrrsw's avatar
wsrrsw
1,475 posts
 

Somethings Do need to burn in. Period. I keep burning out so there’s a symbiotic correlation in my space. Exclamation point. 

78sman
46 posts
 

It's not really possible to make blinded comparison of a component before and after burn-in because it's a comparison of sound now vs. sound at some earlier period.  Blinded comparison of two components, two cables, or whatever is more effective because one hears them one after another.  Significant differences will be obvious for two items head in the same time period, but not for the same item heard in two time periods.

That caveat aside, burn-in seems to have an effect, but it's only a 2nd order effect.  If I like a piece of equipment, I've often noticed that it seems to sound better after using it a few months.  However, burn-in is not going to turn a poor sounding piece of equipment into a good sounding one, unless someone is being very picky.  When I purchase new equipment, I do so looking for a significant increase in sound quality.  If the increase is only the type of increase that one would hear from burn-in, then I would be disappointed in my purchase.

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