Beyerdynamic DT880 (600 ohm) - Why wouldn't most choose this version? - Page 5

Entertainment at its finest, and the onslaught hasn't even begun!

But I’ll just repeat what I said in the other thread. I too was more than skeptical. I was a serious doubter and denier. Then I AxB’d them (several scenario’s, doing everything I could to correct for any variants I could control). There was an audible difference. Not a night-and-day difference, but enough that I sold the 250 Ohm. The differences were subtle, but were improvements.

Don’t know what to tell you other than I’m certainly not alone in this observation. And I know that there are things we experience that are not always quantifiable or measureable… but that’s another discussion. (or is it?)

shane

Quote:

Originally Posted by shane55 

Entertainment at its finest, and the onslaught hasn't even begun!

 

But I’ll just repeat what I said in the other thread. I too was more than skeptical. I was a serious doubter and denier. Then I AxB’d them (several scenario’s, doing everything I could to correct for any variants I could control). There was an audible difference. Not a night-and-day difference, but enough that I sold the 250 Ohm. The differences were subtle, but were improvements.

 

Don’t know what to tell you other than I’m certainly not alone in this observation. And I know that there are things we experience that are not always quantifiable or measureable… but that’s another discussion. (or is it?)

 

shane

Ya, it's because of comments like yours that I really want to try the 600ohm.  I'm still really skeptical, and in any case I'm starting to think that I just don't appreciate the subtle differences as much as other people do.  My experience has taught me that if I take my expectations of what a headphone should sound like based on head-fi comments, that I should divide it by a factor of 10 to get a good idea of what it will sound like. 

I have 5 full-size decent headphones ranging from MSRP $125 to MSRP $699, and I guarantee you that if I placed a bunch of my friends in a chair, let them listen to all 5 headphones with a range of music and then rank the headphones from least expensive to most expensive (PURELY BASED ON SOUND QUALITY - I would prohibit them from looking at the headphones), the rankings would be all over the map.  IMO good headphones are good headphones, with the only difference being a preference or dislike (or anywhere between) of a given sound signature.  I think my SRH440 sound nearly as good as my DT880, and my AD700 sounds nearly as good as my SA5K. 

Call me crazy!  Same reasoning goes for my amps and sources too. 

Hi guys! this is my first post here! very interested in buying a DT880 but my question is: what's the difference between 35-250 and 600 ohms? does anything change in the sound? which is the parameter to choose the right one? just the amp or anything else? Just entering the headphones world and i don't have any knowledge or experience.

Hope to get more info from you,

thanks in advance,

Fausto

I'd be interested in knowing this as well. Is there an updated consensus 4 years after the thread was started?

Ideally you want to impedance match you amp and headphones as closely as possible.  I'm no electronics expert (but I'm learning) but I think that impedance matching helps your amp to perform more optimally.

With the same basic materials and construction the basic signature is not going to change with a rated impedance but like others in this thread have said their will be subtle differences.

Some people say there is a difference some people say there arent. 

According to graphs, there is a very very minor, most likely negligible difference between the 250 and the 600. 

Basically it comes down to.... do you believe there is a difference and do you believe people who say there is? or do you believe the actual numbers and the people who say there isnt a difference (which are backed up by the numbers). 

Either way, different impedences match different amps. There really isn't a perfect quantitative or statistical test to determine whether they are different or not. There are just too many variables to control. As far as the numbers go... its leaning towards minimal if not negligible differences between the two.  Anyone who claims that there absolutely is a difference and that one is better than the other.... you really should be skeptical about. We hear  what we want to hear! 

I believe the most electronically sound rationale with pairing headphones and amps is that lower output impedance amps will provide a more linear FR among headphones with significant impedance variance across different frequencies.  The math is quite simple to do - all you have to know is a touch of Ohm's Law, and how to apply the resulting power changes over frequency to dB.  Higher output impedances DO allow headphones of various impedances to have more consistent volumes relative to the volume pot setting, but present a greater likelihood of colouring the sound. 

I've done these calculations with all of my headphones, and the worst mismatch of my 51ohm Zout amp is a ~1.5dB increase at ~250hz on my 32ohm AD700 (pretty minimal).  My higher resistance headphones are affected MUCH less. 

I have the 250 ohm model and I had the 600 ohm model, and compared back-to-back.  I found that the 600 ohm DT880's had tighter, more impactful bass that I preferred.  However, I also found the 600 ohm model had brighter (and to me) harsher highs.  This seems to also be reflected in the freq plots from headphone.com:

In the end, the smoother, warmer highs of the 250 ohm model won out for me.