beyerdynamic DT 1350 first impressions

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Baiton 

Normally I would have burned these in for 50 plus hours but with all the hype regarding these I tore into them right away...my first impressions are extremely flat, and a little underwhelming. Any thoughts?

that's the hype machine at work, the dt1350's received a especially heavy dosage of that stuff

They're actually really good IMHO.

I've tried them side by side versus the T50p, ATH ESW9, HD25-1-ii and the B&W P5. They're the best of the lot in terms of sound.

Maybe you're looking for something more 'fun' and easy going listen instead of accuracy and neutrality.

I don't own them though. I own the B&W p5

And edition 8

Had my DT1350s for a couple of weeks now and they have been a very interesting pair of headphones to test.

I previously had Audio Technica ATH-ES7s for my portable pair and have Sennheiser HD650s for home use. At first I thought the ES7s were actually better but as time went on I spotted more and more holes appearing throughout their presentation vs the DT1350s. There is a very strange signature to the DT1350s. I saw a frequency response graph that showed a couple of low points up the spectrum. It is almost like someone has put a filter over a part of the presentation. I am not sure if this is something that will bother me with time. There is no doubt the detailing, timing and warmth to the sound is fantastic but the recessed upper mid is something a little unnatural to my ears. The HD650s crush them in all areas as you might expect and maybe I am too used to the flat response with no real noticeable dips across the spectrum. Conversely there are also no real 'forward' parts of the spectrum either. The DT1350s have great sub bass but maybe a little too much which is making the recessed upper mids all the more noticeable? The one good thing about a non sparkly sound is that you can wear these for a long time with no fatigue. Unlike the ES7s.

I will see how it goes with the DT1350s. I might be tempted to go up to the Audio Technica ATH-ES10s or the new Focal cloased back headphones coming out.

The build quality is absolutely rock solid and I have never really come across anything at this price point with the detail of construction of the 1350s.

Also I read a few people talking about non/amping of the DT1350s, my two cents is that these really doo benefit a great deal. The high impedence cable really means you have to drive these hard to get the most out of them. This takes its tole on the battery life of an iPod etc. Give them a good headphone amp and they really open up.

All in all I am very impressed with the DT1350s. I thought they would be my last stop on finding some portable closed back headphones but alas they are not. I will be trying out some other headphones in this price bracket and seeing how they stack up. :)