Alright boys and girls. As promised, I'm reviewing my first haul of truly nice audio gear. As a comparison, I'm upgrading from the Beats Tour in-ear headphones.
Beyerdynamic DT990 Premium 32 Ohm
Upon receiving the box of joy from Amazon, the headphones come out. The first thing that strikes me is that the box is rather large. I know they can't be that big. Come to find out, they come with a small case, filled with formed soft foam to protect the cans. Very nice. I like protection. I bounce around the planet and things generally get abused when they're in my posession, so this is a plus.
The first thing is that the highs and mids are amazingly clear compared to the Beats. No surprise there. What is surprising is that the bass sounds like someone threw a handfull of gravel into the cans. After freaking out for a second, I realize that I still have my EQ settings set to "Rock" on both my iTunes and the iPod. After turning both of them off, we're in business.
Let me tell you, these things are audio goodness piped directly into my brain. Everything is smooth and clean, completely free of distortion, pops, clicks and bass-fade that I was hearing in the Beats. One thing that irks me is that I have to max out the volume on the iPod to get past the mild hearing loss I've got, but even then, its loud enough to listen to and enjoy. The bass will actually vibrate the cups on my head, giving that tactile feedback that makes me go all squishy inside.
On top of the joy that is currently piping into my brain, they are unbelievably comfortable. The velour pads combined with just enough squeeze make them really easy to keep on for far too long. The headstrap is softly padded, but firm enough that the phones don't sag too much. They're light enough that you can almost forget they're there, but heavy enough to feel quality.
So, quick version. Amazingly clear. Everything pops out at you, sounding good and smooth. Highs are well-bodied without being warm or overly analytical, mids are smooth and bass is sufficiently thumpy with vibration of the cups at high volume. Keep the EQ off from direct sources until you can get it fine tuned to volume, and then make sure that you don't add too much to the bass or you will over drive them.
Hooked up to either of the amps, you can put out more volume than your ears, or the cans, can handle, but more on that later.
On to the scoring. Everything is out of ten.
Comfort: 10/10 - Most comfortable phones I've ever had
Bass: 8/10 - VERY easy to over-drive at higher volumes
Mids: 9/10 - Can be over driven in the same manner as the Bass, but not as readily
Highs: 10/10 - Smooth and clear
Build Quality: 8/10 - A little much plastic on the earphones for my taste, but feel very solid
Overall Value: 9/10 - Didn't expect the bass to be overdriven so easily for close to 200 dollars, but they are 32 ohm phones.
FiiO E11
This thing is about as straight forward as it gets. Charge it, hook up the LOD cable to the iPod, plug in the phones and twist the knob. With the DT990's hooked up to the iPod, the first thing that hits me is VOLUME. This little bugger can drive these headphones to face shattering levels, and I'm half-deaf. With these headphones on bass-heavy songs, the highest I can drive the headphones is at volume level around 4.5 before bass-distortion starts rearing its head. Its no fault of the amp. Everything comes across very clear from the highest freqs all the way down to the bone thumping bass. Turning the volume down to try out the bass boost, it works as advertised, providing more body to lower frequencies in songs with less of a bass line. Lets face it though, if you're using the bass boost, you're probably listening to some version of techno, electronica, or dubstep. These tracks shine with the bass boost. Level 1 gives a bit more body and thump to the music, and generally sounds more like I imagine it should sound, without losing anyting else in the music. Level 2 takes that and just goes nuts. Bass will over power some of the mid frequencies, but good lord. If you're a bass-head, make sure you have something a little higher on the Ohm levels. I can't drive these headphones to where I can hear much BUT bass at level 2.
Now for the puzzling part of this little gadget. The Gain switch. I started to write this review with it set to "L" or low. Everything was coming across a little, well, weak, requiring me to turn up the volume more than I was really comfortable with. Upon switching to "H" though, everything starts coming through. The music is, I don't know how to put this, "fuller". Details come out in the music. I don't know if it is the sensitivity of these cans, but the High gain setting really sounds better.
As far as build quality, I don't have any complaints. It is very light, so its easily portable strapped to the back of my iPod with some good battery life for as small as the battery is. No word yet on actual life time of the battery, as I forgot to time it. I was in audio nirvana and I forgot. The cover for the battery does feel a bit thin, and you really have to press on it to get it to snap back in to place if you ever have to take it off. You shouldn't really need to though, so that's just a nitpick.
My biggest issue is the volume control knob. In and of itself, it is great. Volume is smooth to pick up, the knob has a good feel to it. My problem with it comes from the fact that input and output are right next to the thing. This is an issue because when its all hooked up, the volume knob is right next to the jumble of connectors, making it a slight challenge to adjust while walking. Had the knob been on the side or opposite end of the unit, I'd have no issue. As it is though, it is the most glaring fault of the unit.
On to the scores:
Amplification: 10/10 - For 32 ohm phones, it can put out WAY more power than you can deal with.
Clarity: 10/10 - No hissing, distortion or any other modification of the sound besides amplitude.
Ease of Use: 8/10 - Can't charge and listen at the same time. Knob is hard to use when hooked up to source and cans.
Build Quality: 9/10 - Feels solid, wish the battery panel was a bit thicker, wish it was a bit heavier.
Overall Value: 9/10 - Cheap, easy, good amplification. As good as it gets for the price.
FiiO E7
This unit is velro'd to the back of my netbook as my soundcard. I couldn't be happier. The sound that comes out is clean and crisp, sounding nearly identical to the E11. Upon hooking it up with the supplied USB cable, I scrolled through the various options and found that its just as simple as the E11, just with a screen and buttons rather than analog switches and volume knob. With the volume set at 45, the sound is clean, bass is full bodied with enough thump to satisfy, highs and mids are as clear as they get. Again, this unit has bass boost, this time with three levels of boost and off as opposed to the E11's two boost levels. Level 1 gives a slight nudge, level 2 brings bass slightly to the front of everything else, but three feels like its way too much. It could be the cans, but I have to turn down the volume to keep the bass from distorting at anything higher than around 35 on level 3. Dropping it down to 1 is where I'm going to keep it. Gunfire in movies like Gamer and Saving Private Ryan is full and satisfying with everything else coming through without any issue at all. Music is absolutely wonderful compared to the onboard sound, without distortion or clipping of any frequency. I though that it was my sound files that were killing my sound. Turns out it was the phones and onboard card.
Oddly enough, there is no gain adjustment as there is on the E11. I haven't run into any issues with that, but with different cans it may be. One nitpick I have is that there is no EQ adjustment for anything but Bass. Being a digital unit, I would have expected there to be at least a three band, if not a five band EQ of some sort, even a very basic 3 level like it does for the Bass. For the price though, I can't really be too picky.
Anyway, moving on. The unit is very easy to use. Buttons are stiff enough that you could carry it in a pocket without worrying about it too much without being hard to use, the screen is bright and clear and the entire unit is well built. Thankfully, all of the inputs are on the opposite end of the device from the outputs, of which there are two so any hook ups you have don't interfere with your cables.
On to the Scores:
Amplification: 10/10 - Just like the E11, more power than I can ever use with 32 Ohm phones
Clarity: 10/10 - No distortion or hissing of any kind, sound comes through clear whether from Video or Audio
Ease of Use: 10/10 - Plug in, set volume level, done.
Build Quality: 9/10 - Sleek and sexy, no issues. Included screen protector is smaller than the shiny side, which irks me.
Overall Value: 9/10 - For the price, it is an awesome external sound card. Wish there were more EQ options.
So, here we are at the end of the review. All things considered, I'm happy with the choices of equipment. The E11 is a great addition to the iPod, the E7 makes my Netbook finally sound good and the DT990's sound amazing. I am mildly upset that the Bass on the 990's is so easy to over-drive, but that irritation is soothed by the fact that they really do sound wonderful up to that point. If I could do it all again, I'd probably get 80 Ohm cans to use with the two amps. They have so much power that I can't possibly use, and with the cans distorting bass at high volume, it almost seems a waste.
That being said though, the whole setup gets a 9/10. For all my nitpicks, I would recommend this setup to people just getting into the audiophile life.
Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps anyone thinking about getting into this.
Feel free to ask questions, make suggestions, comment, criticize. I'm open to anything.
Cheers,
Subservient.
IMPORTANT EDIT:
Turns out the E7 can only handle up to a certain amount of voltage through the USB. I noticed that the Bass distortion was slightly present, even at low volumes. I was running full volume on my iTunes and using the E7 for volume control. Upon turning down iTunes by just a little bit, maybe 10%, the bass distortion is gone, even with the volume set to face splitting levels. I can't really recommend these headphones enough. With the bass boost at level 1 on both amps, EQ off, they are absolutely the best headphones I have ever heard and I look forward to further Beyerdynamic gear in the future.
Edited by Subservient - 12/7/11 at 11:39am
