Review: K701 vs 2006 DT880 - Page 6

Great review, ASR -- throwing in the 2003 DT880s for comparison would be very nice as well, but seeing how well the DT880s fare in your review makes me want to go and get one.

My DT880s are still my favorite phones for the airy, open, wider sound of electronica (my opinion of how electronica should sound like) so any improvement in that area would be totally awesome.

excellent insights, asr! i just checked the ups tracking for my new dt880 and it has arrived!! i can't wait till i get home from work!!

so out of all the amps, you said that the supermini 3 gave the dt880 the best sound? i wonder how it'll sound out of the new supermini or supermacro 4... also, it seems like you know a thing or two about those chips (AD/OP) whereas i have no clue whatsoever... care to advise which chip to pick if i were to purchase an amp from dr. xin?

Wow, after reading this thread, I was expecting something very different than what I found when I tried the 2006 DT880 last weekend. In just about every way, I found I preferred the K701 to the DT880 (clarity, detail, speed, balance, depth, soundstage, imaging, instrument separation) with a more a natural and involving sound as well. The DT880's sound was more like listening to a sort of small-speakers-on-my-head sort of presentation compared to the 701, and I really didn't feel it was in the same class as a headphone. It still sounded very good on its own, but I found the K701 eclipsed in a significant fashion. I also couldn't get over this feeling with the DT880 where, when listening to music, it sounded like I was in a noisy room. I'm not sure what it was picking up, but it did this on all the amps and sources I tried as well as source material, so I guess it was just something about its presentation.

The DT880 still remains in my top 10, but the K701 has probably managed to boot it out of the top 5 while making space for others in that section.

I must thank kitaoji (an awesome head-fier with impressive headphone analysation skills ) for helping me out so much in letting me hear both her DT880s and her K701s. My K701s are defective, so it was good to hear the real-deal, as it were, with the 701s versus the 880s. There was another pair of 701s there, as well, with 500+ hours of use. I'm definitely going to stick with the 701, although I could see having the 880s for those few occasions where I leaned towards the 880s a bit. Although, the GS-1000 did a better job for those occasions, so maybe I just have to save save save

This is first impressions, though, so maybe on repeated testing I'd find somewhat differently, though I doubt the general impression will change much. One thing I absolutely feel I must say is the DT880 comes in far superior packaging, IMHO, to the K701. I love that Beyer case + foam and wish AKG had ponied up for it as well as it's definitely an asset and the 701's package is almost disgraceful by comparison :P.

Heh heh. I did manage to try a 'fully' burned in K701 and it seemed maybe slightly different than kitaoji's 150-200 hours burned in K701 (I think that's what she said it was). Maybe I should have listened more closely. Both pairs sounded fabulous to me.

If she still has the DT880s next time we have a mini-meet, I'll try them again. I'm not expecting big changes in opinion, though. The K701's sound felt much more like a high end headphone to me than the DT880 _or_ the HD600 (we had one of those at the mini meet too!). It isn't the best headphone ever I suppose, but I can only think of a few headphones I'd rate better than it, and I'm someone who likes a rather wide variety of headphones. The DT880 just absolutely couldn't compare to the K701 on Joshua Tree (U2) , Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd), Awake (Dream Theater), or Friday Night in San Francisco (Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia). It was like the difference between listening to something in a car (maybe a good car stereo, but still) and listening to something on a nice home audio setup. I say that both because of the less involving nature of the car setup as well as the background noise...the 880 had this distinct feeling of noise in the background that wasn't in the recording...it was just its presentation gave that feeling.

I wish the 701 came in as nice a case as the DT880...

i finally got the dt 880 and these are my first 'premium' headphones. i noticed that the highs were a little too strong to the point where it got annoying. it sometimes felt like fingernails scratching a black board. however, after a slight burn-in (around 30 hours), that scratchiness is gone. now i'm left with a very detailed set of cans revealing nothing be the actual recording. comparing to my e3c's, the 880 are definitely more pleasant. the bass, however, is still missing. based on asr, it should come in after 300 hours. so far i'd have to say that i'm quite satisfied with it and the $200 i paid was worth every penny.

those that have the UE-10pro and the dt880, do they have a similar sound signature?

I'm surprised by how indecisive this thread is!

It sounds like the K701 is very well developed, while the DT880 has great potential but takes some kneeding, some real working to get it at its peak.

I really want to like the DT880, because it sounds like in the end you can have a more detailed and extended headphone with it rather than just "settling" with the K701.

If all goes according to plan I might try for the DT880, because it just seems like it would fit the bill for my needs if I gave it a chance. Coupled with a warm sounding amp (like those from HeadRoom) and maybe a little bass boost with the equalizer (or sound card drivers, whichever works better), and plenty of burn in and I could have an excellent headphone.

I wonder what 70-80% bass boost and overly high volumes would do for it overnight?

does anybody else besides asr experience the significant change in the DT880 after 300+ hours of burn in??

I was away from Head-Fi for most of the spring-summer, and happened upon Asr's comparison just today. I have the pre-2006 DT880, but I was listening to Intertia Creeps a few minutes ago and my mind was blown with how good it sounds. I've always felt a little disconnected to Mezzanine with headphone listening (my headphones and my setup, of course), but Inertia Creeps sounds impossibly good with the DT880. That belly drum is like a third coming. Just wanted to say right on.

Very nice review.

I wonder how you are able to tell the exact number of hours to the hour of burn-in.

Asr, Filburt, et al:

It's been very interesting reading about your journey/adventure with the 880s and 701s.

I haven't read every page of this thread, but if you haven't had the chance to try this -- and it's at all possible for you to do so -- hear both the DT880-250 2005 and the K701 with the Audiovalve RKV-MkII + Eddie Current EC/DC. I've been listening via X-Ray transport > MUSE DAC (with various ICs, and Volex Power Cords). I love my 880s, but I find that the K701s with this system simply gorgeous. Imaging is superb, instruments have well-described volume and space around them and are solidly placed in space. It has beautifully extended and nuanced highs and very satisfying lows. It does have a seductively lush midrange, but I don't find it unnatural. It's a captivating and immersive musical experience and I find it hard to take the 701s off my head and have to pull myself away.

I'd be very interested to read your impressions of the 2 phones with the RKV-EC/DC combo -- or anyone else's thoughts, for that matter.

(If such comments are somewhere in this thread and I've missed them, sorry.)

Hi people, am new here at head-fi, an audiophile noobie haha. Nice review, but I was a bit confused because in the sub-sections of the review you seemed to be leaning towards the K701 and giving it the plus points but ending up with a contradicting choice - DT880. Nevertheless, its a great review and a very interesting topic as this is the first article I have seen to place the DT880 above the K701. Anyways, bought the K701 and love it! Looking for a good headphone amp.

You dug up an old thread here XD. I've been pretty happy with my Gilmore Lite as an amp for the K701s. If you can spare the extra cash though, the Heed CanAmp has been known to have an incredible synergy with the K701s and it eliminates a lot of the K701s weaknesses.

Search Heed CanAmp, and have a read.

I've been listening to my K701's and dt880 250 ohm for a week now and I came to basically the same conclusion as you have. At first listen, I was amazed at how "clear" the sound came out of the dt880. But at the same time, I found them quite sibilant. After a few days, the sibilance was gone, but the emphasis on the upper mid and treble were overwelming after using getting used to my k701's.

The dt880's are also more intimate, which I did enjoy with some music more than my k701's. I still find myself grabbing my k701's more often, but I'm definitely going to spend more time exclusively on the dt880's. 1 week isn't enough to fully guage a headphone. =T