I have owned a pair of Nothing Ear 2024 for a little over a month and a half.
I previously had a pair of Bose Sport Free Buds, and these have a very different sound profile compared to the Nothing Ear.
And it took some time to adjust. I started by equalizing to make the sound more similar to the Bose, but in the end, I preferred the factory settings with ANC activated and the bass boost set to 2.
I don’t use the audio adapted to my hearing loss since I always listen to my music in LDAC, and this is not possible due to bandwidth limitations.
What I can say, and this is my personal opinion, is that the Nothing Ear sound better each day, becoming clearer over time. They have good bass, well-separated mids, and very good highs, though they could be slightly improved in some ranges.
Moreover, at first, I used the volume at 80%, but now I rarely go above 60%.
Similarly, at first, I occasionally noticed some muddiness in certain midrange sounds, but now I no longer hear it—unless the track I’m listening to was recorded with that intention (like Nirvana, etc.) or if the production quality is simply terrible
I must say that after 100 or 150 hours of listening, I’ve noticed a quite noticeable improvement in sound quality.
That’s why I wonder if this old burn-in issue is real or just a placebo.
Just two more things to comment on.
I always use Qobuz as my streaming music source,
and I always use Ldac. My Android device, although compatible with the Lhdc 5.0 codec, doesn’t allow me to activate this codec. It’s a shame because it’s slightly superior to Ldac and would allow me to stream in 24/196.
And you? What do you think about the myth, or not so myth, of burn-in?