"ear fatigue, confirmation bias, placebo effects, and neural acclimatization — that adequately explain perceived changes without requiring the equipment to have changed at all."
Burn-in schmern-in!
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.
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Has anyone found other literature of this type as far as burn in is concerned, I look at as there has never been any experience in my life whether it be on the quantum level, or the macro, has the first experience been anywhere near as close to the hundredth. |
I assumed @hilde45 was talking about gear with no moving parts because speakers absolutely have a break in /burn in period. All of my system was brand new from day one and the massive change in sound over a 4 month or so period I attributed to the speakers breaking in. Although some of the change could of come from burn in on everything else |
- 74 posts total