ATH-AD700 or Beyer DT880 for gaming? - Page 4

So, if I wanted a decent set of gaming headphones (for all sorts of gaming) that i could use unamped and with an Ipod (for all sorts of music) would the dt880/32 be a safe bet? Or should I go with some senn 595's, which sound like they are the best 'all-around' headphones. I hear the ad700's aren't that great for music because of their lack of bass (which is subjective), even though I hear they offer the best unamped sound.

Furthermore, I am definitely willing to get a portable amp, such as the mixamp and/or total bithead, but do these match well with the aforementioned headphones? And would these be able to power a dt880/250?

I'm asking all of these questions because I'm trying to avoid the inevitable, "buy everything to try and send back what you don't like" routine which seems like a common theme in these and other forums such as AVS and Overclock.

Any advice, opinions, and superior knowledge would be much appreciated.

I'm on the same boat as MaeAbr.

I'm fed up with the AD700's fit, and want somethging good for gaming to replace it. I have also been looking into the 595 and DT880/32ohm.

I know the DT880 are beloved around here, but I'd like to know if the 32ohm version can stack up to it especially considering I want to pair my next pair of headphones to the mixamp.

How is the fit of the Sen 595s? I want a more of traditional fit, not the 3D wings nonsense.

If the 595s can put up 90% of the AD700's gaming performance, I'd be willing to get those. The DT 880 32ohm is hard to find, and $300 is a hard price to swallow.

I ordered my DT880/32 from headroom at $279 with free shipping and a 30 day money back guarantee. So we'll see how that goes. I need to grab a mixamp too and see if it is much better than my yamaha's silent cinema. My inevitable purchases of the ad700's and the 595's are looming on the horizon, but I will want to be able to return those also, just in case. If I'm completely blown away by the DT880's I may return the 32's and grab a 250 or even the almighty 600ohm and just buy a suitable amp for at home gaming and music listening and get something else for mobile music.

Oh, the options. Sometimes i wish i didn't do any research on this and kept my Tritton AX Pro's in blissful ignorance.

Haven't heard the DT880 but I personally thought the K701 is better than the AD700 for soundstage. With that, using your logic of soundstage and positioning, the K701s would be better.

595 has traditional fit, but personally I felt the AD700's "wings" were a lot more comfy than the 595. I guess you can fix the 595's clamping with a basketball or something.

However, in terms of SQ and soundstage/positioning I think the 595 is quite inferior to the AD700.

I don't understand this "AD700 has no bass" nonsense. Sure they aren't bass monsters but I'm a bass head and I enjoy phones like the DT770, Bose Triport OE, Metro.Fi series, Monster Turbines, IE8, etc. but never once did I feel the AD700s were lacking in bass.

They don't have monster bass but the bass is not lacking by any stretch.

BTW regarding portable amps and 250 ohm Beyers.... not had the chance to try a DT880 yet but the DT770 250 ohm cannot adequately be powered by a portable amp. At least not any of the amps I've tried... GoVibe Petite, D2 Boa, D10 Cobra, P4. They don't have enough juice it seems. What happens is the DT770's low end is lacking. You can turn it up to a decent low listening volume, but if you go higher sound starts to distort. I imagine a similar problem would occur with the DT880s. You probably won't have much soundstage at low levels and if you crank it up, instead of getting that soundstage you will instead just get fuzzy music.

A900s have lots of bass but lack in soundstage compared to the AD700. A900 has similar meaty texture to it as the DT770, but with smoother high end and less power on the low end. Has about same width and depth of soundstage as the DT770. They should not sound hollow by any stretch unless you underpower them. They are pretty easy to drive I believe, but I've only heard them through a Master Amp and a Little Dot 2 which have more than enough power.

Lol Mochan stop trying to get your post count up, reply in one message

Anyway, I have the DT880 600ohm and AD700 now. The AD700 are superior for positional audio, but sound dull and lifeless compared to the DT880. I was playing COD4 and I can hear where my enemy is a lot easier with the AD700, but I tehn put the DT880 back on and WOW! Everything sounded a lot more lifelike. The rain, the grenades exploding, bullets ricocheting off walls etc. For SP games, I would choose the DT880. For serious online gaming, the AD700. But of course, the DT880 is a lot better for music if that matters at all...

Easier to do it this way than quoting, then copying the passage, the quoting, copying into the same reply, etc. I was replying to different posts. Post count doesn't matter to me, and I don't even bother thinking in those terms.

Lol there is a multi quote feature if you didn't know...

Agreed 100%. The DT880 (I have the 600ohm as well) is more lifelike and enjoyable with games, and absolutely stomps the AD700s for music, but if positional cues are paramount, such as in a FPS like MW2, then the AD700 do win out.

I'm sure you can also attest that the AD700 bass is really lacking, especially in comparison. I really don't know how anyone can say that it's alright. The rest of the headphone is fine, and maybe that makes some people overcome the bass (including myself), but I would never go as far as to say that the bass in the AD700s is anything but very light in terms of impact, slam, and even extension. Even the astro A40 headset, which is known for being bass light, has more bass quantity and especially extension. From everything I read, I actually expected the AD700 to have bass that was very similar to the A40, only to find out that the A40 actually has more. The kicker for me with the AD700 bass isn't so much that the kick drums don't sound like kick drums and that they just don't hit hard when they should (both of which I could look past), it's also that instruments with a lot of low tones like a double bass or even a cello or bass guitar, or deep baritone voices, or explosions in a video game, etc don't sound right either. I feel that the lack of bass has a negative impact in the natural presentation of instruments, voices, and sound effects that have any sort of low tones to them. So in this regard, my problem with their bass is more than just whether or not they can thump.

Erm, no, the K701, even with its large soundstage, is NOT suitable for gaming.

Check out the FR graphs, the ad700 has even lesser bass than the well known relatively-low-bass k701..

Btw, I really like the progress of this thread..

Going to try to loan a pair of dt 880/32ohms and ad700 when I get hold of my creative x-fi xtremegamer.

thanks for all the responses !

But this is sad, I really wanted to get a headset, meaning a headphone with attached microphone..
=(

Wonder how am I going to mod a mic onto the dt880..

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-sorry, wrong thread-