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

... we seem to be referencing two different studies ...

Ahhh, yes, @jastralfu. You are correct. Mea culpa. The study you've mentioned I haven't yet reviewed. 

I personally believe in burn in. My cables did sound better after about 100 hrs. or so. Tubes, (defiantly) sound better with age. Carts, ect. I know what my system sounds like & when I introduce a new item to my system, I do hear a change. Whether for the good or bad.

Just my $.02 Enjoy the music!  

Interesting comments and thanks for the additional reference. That's what I was hoping for. Glad to see some here have turned to just calling this a study without the quotation marks. It may be a bad study with spurious conclusions, but it is a study.

As for people "personally" attesting to burn-in or calling it "real real," that's special pleading but it's definitely something the OP study acknowledges. The study definitely believes that you believe in burn in. No doubt about that.

As for people "personally" attesting to burn-in or calling it "real real," that's special pleading but it's definitely something the OP study acknowledges. The study definitely believes that you believe in burn in. No doubt about that.

And some of us actually hear it by using our ears.  No doubt about that either.