General Headphone Question

Don't worry long time posters, this is not the monthly 'what headphones should I buy post' but I would like to know A) Whether you need to 'burn in' new headphones, I have the classic Sennheiser HD595's and someone once told me it would be wise to leave them running for 24 hours, and B) Whether a headphone amp works, how does it work and can I use it with these particular headphones.

In my own personal experience with my AKG701s, you really don't need to run phones in. They'll just slowly get better naturally over time so just listen to them when you get them. And regarding headphone amps - If your sound source is pretty decent quality and you don't listen to stuff at stupid loud volumes (which'll break your ears anyway) then an amp really isn't that necessary.

But hell, that's just my opinion.

A) i have owned a few of the same model of headphones and definitely notice a difference after burn-in (sony mdr-7506). YMMV.

B) they're supposed to be great, i have no idea

a)I have the sony 7509s (posher brother of the aforementioned 7506s) and yes they did seem to need some burn in time.

b) I've never used an 'audiophile' head phone amp, but you can certainly tell the difference between different amps with a decent set of headphones. More so than different amps driving the same set of speakers.