Yes. I replaced 990 Pro pads yesterday, can confirm that sound change is real and very noticeable. You can find my post in my history I think. There is an useful link in the comments to the measurements of 770 and 990 before and after pad change.

Found it, yeah these measurements I was referring too. And as you mentioned when using the new pads the sound is subjectivity worse, I agree this is my experience also.

I actually squshed and wrapped my new Focal Clear earpads in cling wrap before storing them for a month to artificially 'season' them.

To me, the difference in sound quality seemed pretty significant, in addition to them being much more comfortable.

No. Burn-in is just a coping mechanism for bad purchase.

Pads are one of the reasons yes.

That is not burn in but pad wear... They're two significantly different things with the burn in being totally a myth whilst pad wear is a verifiable phenomenon

Perceived burn-in is the keyword. In other words, pad wear is perceived as burn-in.

No pad wear isn't perceived burn in... It's just pad wear

Damn AKG for not selling replacement pads. Waiting for the Dekoni 371 pads to restock..

I see, I want to hear your opinion on this then, how did "burn-in" ideology came to be?

It's not a "theory" why do you think third parties sell different types of pads? It's well known and measurable.

I think OP is suggesting pad wear is possibly the main factor in sound changes that some people attribute to burn in, which I think is probably correct. People often severely underestimate how much of an impact pads have.

Oh I agree pad wear can contribute to FR alteration

I wasn't referring to sound changing with pad wear as a theory, instead I was referring to the link between pad wear and burn-in. To rephrase and make what I meant clearer, I was trying to find why burn-in exist and presented my opinion as a "theory".

Pad burn in is too slow and you would not notice it happening on your head over thousands of hours.

It's very different from what some people and manufacturers claim, that running white noise on your headphones for a hundred hours will change the sound.

Brain "burn-in".

That's what they're saying, that pad wear could be mistaken for brain burn in

edit: Nvm no idea what theyre actually saying.

They are saying that over time, compression of the foam in the pads slowly changes the sound. Which is true, however it's incredibly slow, incremental and undetectable while it's occuring. Almost certainly, a well worn 5 year old pad is going to sound different from a new pad to the trained ear. But that's just pad wear, not burn in. Of course, brain burn in is simply the brain getting accustomed to the dynamic profile of a set of cans. OP is simply trying to rename pad wear and is suggesting that this is what people experience when they experience headphone "burn in" of the drivers.

There is circumstances where it is noticeable, say for example when the treble is too harsh it hurts. I was able to notice the pain fading as the treble got smoothed with time. Or in a non-gradual A B testing old/new pads. But for headphones with balanced RF I didn't notice the change.

Hahaha you got it! but I didn't want to rename pad wear, I wanted to make it as a causative factor.

Correct thats the point, pad wear could be mistaken for burn-in, this is exactly what I'm trying to say.

It is a factor.

Thank you for reading my post/comment correctly, or guess I need to improve my delivery.

Either way, I'm starting to regret discussing on reddit. I think I'll stick with Quora, its more suitable for me.

If they fit, the Brainwavz pads are great too, just gotta get the variant that matches the stock pads.

Or probably just our ears adjusting to the sound after daily-driving them.

I got the oval pleather pads from Brainwavz for the 371 and honestly they sounded pretty poor. I mean, the headphones still sounded *fine* but it coloured the sound far too much, and I need them for mixing purposes. I think Dekoni's 371 pads are specifically engineered to sound as close to 371 stock pads as possible so hopefully I can get those before my current stock pads wear out

I see, perhaps the Sheepskin one would have been a better choice.

I think "burn-in" is mostly brain burn-in, where our ears/brain are adjusting to the headphones.

I would agree with this but there are people that don't even wear the headphones until they've burned in for hours upon hours.

I agree, this is a main reason also. A sound signature can grow on someone making them believe it got burned in.