The Beyerdynamic DT880 Appreciation / Discussion thread - Page 155

Since my AKG Q701 went faulty I'm listen to my other headphones, the vintage Beyer 880-600ohms 1980 edition these days. I'm feeling guilty I barely gave these any listening time, I even offered to give them to a friend (thankfully he declined!). So wonderfully neutral, and lots of air between things due to the open-back grille. They are less engaging than the Q701's though (but definitely not analytical!). They do really reveal those micro artifacts in badly mastered music but I really appreciate their honesty. These 880's are quite the acquired taste.

Edited by Baten - 12/20/12 at 5:47am

I love being able to pick any track of the song and follow it. The instrument separation is lovely. Music like Infected Mushroom is simply sublime on these because they can actually keep up. I've put myself in a trance more than a few times just dissolving into the music. These are certainly more enjoyable than my HD650s for some music. I've really been enjoying them lately.

Just read through most of the posts on this thread (as all the other appreciation threads I'm on based on my headphone ownership). I can only sum up in two words what I describe my pair of 880 (600ohms) to be:

 

EXCEPTIONALLY LISTENABLE!

 

I've got the 880s at work and HD650s and Shure 1850s at home. Sold a pair of Denon D5000s recently. I think I just prefer a balanced headphone that doesn't accentuate any one area more prominently than the rest. These headphones are all pretty similar in sound signature to me and, funny enough, I enjoy all of these. I should just sell one of them and just have the one at home and one at work.

 

But I love how the 880s are detailed enough yet balanced throughout the midrange so that it drowns out any noise from colleagues sitting near me. Anyway, I'll continue to enjoy the thread now. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. :)

Initial Impression :

 

HEY HEY!!!  Fifth time's a charm.  Amazon managed to actually deliver a 600 ohm pair of DT880 Beyers to me!  Anyway, after a solid 5 minutes of listening, I would say these sound pretty good.  Highs nice and bright but not overpowering.  Bass is a tad light out of the Schiit Asgard and Lyr.  I'm wondering if these are known to open up a bit after some break-in?  Overall, a pleasant surprise worth 4 return trips of 32 ohm phones!
 

No, the Real Initial Impressions:

 

After some more head time with these, I have to say, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?"  These have to be one of the best-sounding, most comfortable phones I've experienced.  Easily the best sound per $.  Very LISTENABLE.  Often, when I get a new pair of phones, I'll be jumping around my collection to see how THIS sounds, or how THAT sounds.  I find myself just letting the tracks play and enjoying the music.  The bass sounds perfectly balanced to me now; don't know whether they were cold from sitting on the truck or if I just needed a little bit of ear-brain burn-in.   Never mind that previous post.  I do believe these are keepers.
 

yea they needed burn in, the 250 ohm got nice after like 30 hours for me, still itching to get the SLIGHTY bassier 600 ohm soon :D

nah - no burn in required. Just a little time for your ears to adjust from whatever lesser cans you'd been using till then. And most all, all lesser. :)

I think the Hifiman HE-500 will give them a run for the money ... errr, rather not considering the difference in money 

:D Heh - probably. Different signatures though - sometimes that adjustment takes time too. Psycho-acoustic processing is a wacky field.

Congrats BobJS, even though mine have not been getting much headtime lately they are still one of my favorites. 

 

Enjoy!!!!!!

Do you guys think a T1 would be the next logical upgrade if I wanted the same sound of these but just better in every way? Has anyone heard both? If I could get a pair for $800 in 8-12 months, I might go for that depending on finances. But I'm done blowing wads of cash on music equipment for a while. lol

 

Yep, the T1 seems the logical upgrade for the 880's, definitely more so than their newer T80/T90 tesla creations.

Would the FiiO E7 be able to drive the 250Ω edition of these? These look like the best in the price range, but I'm worried that I won't be able to drive them with just my FiiO… I don't know what numbers are relevant to check this myself…
Edited by ranunky - 12/21/12 at 1:41am

 

It depends on what music you listen to, at what volume, and whether you intend to use the bass boost feature. In any case, if you do not need portability, you may want to get the E10 instead, which has somewhat higher power output and better sound quality, and is also cheaper.

As I mentioned in another post, I gave up after two tries with amazon warehouse and went with one of their third party sellers.  It worked!