[astroid]

Got the D1100 yesterday, burnt them in for around 10hrs during the day and gave them a few hours last night. 
Music was mainly Diana Krall , Christian Scott , Beck, Animal Collective.
This is my first impressions , i may do a full comparison with my SRH440 , M50 and Beats Solo HD at a later date if anyone is interested.
 
Packaging is nice , looks posh, really nice to get the 12 foot extension cable, that will come in very handy!
I had read that they felt cheap , i dont agree, they are very light but the cups feel very cold so i am guessing they are some sort of aluminium.
The arms are plastic but look fine.
 
They are about a third of the weight of my M50/SRH440 and are MUCH more comfy, i have big ears and these cover them without contact.
 
On to the sound, first thing i noticed listening to Diana Krall was how much detail in the mids these have, her breathy vocal was amazing, separation is very good but the soundstage is much smaller than the SRH440.
The bass is present from the off , it is a little boomy still after 10hrs but i feel it will calm a little, its nice bass though , comfy and warm like hot chocolate.
The treble is a little recessed in comparison to the Shures, it proved itself to be accurate whilst listening to 'bluish' by Animal collection with no splashyness or harshness apparent.
 
I paid £69 for these, at that price these are an absolute steal, they seem to offer a significant insight into the higher end 2000/5000 range at a fraction of the price. 
At £110 there is more competition , the M50 is one but in this case i would take the Denons , the M50 whilst a very good value can has very little of the D1100 finesse, the M50 is more of an instantly gratifying can but in the long run it is a little more coloured IMO.
 
Anyway glad i bought these, i may have to save for some higher end Denons , the drivers are very very good.

 

[ilovetaylors]

Quote:

Got the D1100 yesterday, burnt them in for around 10hrs during the day and gave them a few hours last night. 
Music was mainly Diana Krall , Christian Scott , Beck, Animal Collective.
This is my first impressions , i may do a full comparison with my SRH440 , M50 and Beats Solo HD at a later date if anyone is interested.
 
Packaging is nice , looks posh, really nice to get the 12 foot extension cable, that will come in very handy!
I had read that they felt cheap , i dont agree, they are very light but the cups feel very cold so i am guessing they are some sort of aluminium.
The arms are plastic but look fine.
 
They are about a third of the weight of my M50/SRH440 and are MUCH more comfy, i have big ears and these cover them without contact.
 
On to the sound, first thing i noticed listening to Diana Krall was how much detail in the mids these have, her breathy vocal was amazing, separation is very good but the soundstage is much smaller than the SRH440.
The bass is present from the off , it is a little boomy still after 10hrs but i feel it will calm a little, its nice bass though , comfy and warm like hot chocolate.
The treble is a little recessed in comparison to the Shures, it proved itself to be accurate whilst listening to 'bluish' by Animal collection with no splashyness or harshness apparent.
 
I paid £69 for these, at that price these are an absolute steal, they seem to offer a significant insight into the higher end 2000/5000 range at a fraction of the price. 
At £110 there is more competition , the M50 is one but in this case i would take the Denons , the M50 whilst a very good value can has very little of the D1100 finesse, the M50 is more of an instantly gratifying can but in the long run it is a little more coloured IMO.
 
Anyway glad i bought these, i may have to save for some higher end Denons , the drivers are very very good.

agree on all points the d1100 are really amazing value~

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I wasn't quite that impressed by the D1100, the plastic part connecting to the headband from end of the "claws"-holding cup felt a bit flimsy and it also sometimes made some quirky noise (same as when you stretch them while putting it on your head) if you like tried shaking or headbanging your head back and forth pretty fast (sideways was ok). Mids & vocals are very recessed (prolly slightly worse than DT770 Pro/80 even) and quality is so-so, they are very distant by default. Highs are quite held back which is fine if you don't like any kind of sibilance to be present and gives smoother overall sound but since the mids are so recessed it won't really give the clearest, most detailed possible sound exactly and when you boost the highs in an EQ you'll notice what comes out is pretty ear-piercing, edgy/sharp and quite "thin" highs which negates the benefit, needs to be held back a bit but still slightly boosted from non-EQd state. Bass is very punchy with big impact but it rolls off a bit too soon, it's far from boomy if you like that sort of bass but I wish it was boomier (ie more deep bass present) switching between HD 212 Pros which are the only headphones I'm able to compare with currently it becomes very obvious how the deep bass is missing. The big upper bass will overpower mids at times unEQd. There's also something weird about the position of the sound, the sound isn't quite surrounding you, it sounds like there's a slight distance to it. It's not extremely warm sounding either like I thought they'd be, it's a bit on the warmer side but when amped by E5 with bass boost on even the Sennheiser HD212 Pro was sounding warmer.
 
You can fix the imbalance in the sound quite well by EQing and it will benefit from a colored amp that adds some warmth and deep bass like FiiO amps (even E5 worked well for me with this headphone) but you can't quite fix the somewhat lacking sound quality in the headphone anyway. In fact I have a hard time deciding which of the HD212 Pro or D1100 I like more. Ampless I'd go for D1100 as it seems to be very easy driven but with amp I might even pick the HD 212 Pro and I've always concidered HD 212 Pro to be quite bad in sound quality so can't wait until I'll be able to compare them to XB500 which I concider a lot better than HD 212 Pro so I think XB500 will trump over the D1100 in almost all possible ways. One benefit would be that it doesn't leak though so that's good and earcup is very nicely suitable oval-shaped for the ear which should fit anyone's ears inside no prob and the driver sits very deep inside the cup so your ears won't be anywhere close to touch it.
 
Are your drivers really sitting as deep as on mine, I don't know exactly why you'd place it like about 2.5 cm inside the cups (the protective shielding reaches to 2cm but the driver sits beneath that), that's quite some space between the ear and no wonder it sounds a bit "distant"...
 
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/8849/img0444x.jpg
http://img573.imageshack.us/img573/7749/img0443zn.jpg
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6897/img0442k.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9804/img0445ck.jpg
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/5180/img0446ft.jpg
 
EDIT: After some more comparision I think I like the HD 212 Pro more in both cases despite the 212 Pro's thin/metallic sounding highs, the mids are less recessed (and I thought it couldn't get much more recessed than what HD212 Pro or DT770 Pro/80 have!) and the deep bass is also present with those and I prefer a warmer sound which is found in the HD212 Pro but yea due to the distant vocals on D1100 and somewhat distant overall sound signature with bass taking the front seat I couldn't get them very enjoyable, perhaps I've got some fakes LOL.

 

[astroid]

Strange how people like different signatures , I bought the xb500 about six months ago and hated it , to me it had very little dynamic range , seperation was lacking. To be fair I gave them 24 hrs and gave up, I remember they were comfy as hell.
I know what you mean about the d1100 though , I am listening to 'girls' new ep right now and what I do notice is that the sound is very much outside your head, usually you have the vocals centre some percussion and strings to the left / right but with these I don't hear much in the middle at all.
However I do love the tone of these cans , little fatigue and I find the mids to be ok , joy division just came on and Ians vocals are recessed a little but they are anyway, I will keep an ear out.
I bougt the 510lp sonys and like them , cheap and reminded me of the xb500 without the mega bass!

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

You got a point there about better instrument separation on D1100 but for me it was TOO obvious. XB500 are a lot warmer sounding and usually warmer sound have this more "melted together"/smeared sound with less clear separation from instruments but in this case I felt it was like it was TOO separated, in comparision D1100 is like possibly on slightly on the warm side from neutral (and the opposite side being laid-back such as HD650, K70x, DT880 etc).
 
Guess you don't like warm sound signatures as much as I do. But the vocals no matter how much I boosted on the EQ couldn't get nowhere as much up-front as on XB500, actually XB500 has the most forward mids on a headphone I've tried so far and this is something very important for me personally, I don't mind if the vocals overpowers the rest of the frequencies a bit and with XB500 I could have VERY strong bass and VERY up-front vocals at the same time, when I boosted the deep bass which is lacking for me it feels like the vocals would start running further away on D1100... only when leaving bass alone and boosting mids a lot and highs a little the mids sounds quite acceptable to me but then I still lack the deep bass and the sound is lacking warmth for me. At least I'm glad I know what kind of sound signature I like without having to trying out blindly and hoping for the best. I like very warm/forward/aggressive headphones with strong but balanced deep vs upper bass with a bit smoother highs like what's found on XB500 & D1100 and very important for the mids to not be recessed and so far XB500 looks like the best fit to that description so for me the XB500 is worth more like 200 EUR than the 43 EUR I paid for it, if the Beyer DT770 Pro/80 for example was around 145 EUR and D1100 118 EUR).
 
Note I am comparing D1100 out of an Audigy 1 soundcard (with and without FiiO E5 amp) vs XB500 on a different comp with Audigy 2 ZS soundcard with both having kX Audio 3rd party drivers installed and not able to do side-by-side comparisions as I'm spending the xmas holiday at my parents place currently but I doubt plugging the D1100 into the Audigy 2 ZS will provide the drastic improvement (read change as for you it's good the way it sounds like ) I'd need to really start appriciating them. 

 

[astroid]

I was surprised at the difference my headphone amp (aune mk2 se dac) made to the d1100 , increased stage width and dynamics, in comparison my iPod touch whilst able to drive them loud , lost loads of energy.
My beats solo HD are more suitable for portable use.

Merry Christmas all can fans!

 

[astroid]

Hi again,
 
Just to let you know the cups on the D1100 are Metal, some sort of aluminium shell over plastic.
Some people were saying they were plastic.
 
Still enjoying these cans, very portable.

 

[sanakaku]

Grats that you liked your first Denon, and enjoyed the lush female vocals but dont be urged to upgrade again. Denon has one of the most best setups when it comes to female vocals my D7k still give me the shills.

 

[Duncandun]

whats the diff. between the 1100 and the 1001k? because these are the questions I needed answered (thanks?) if I can apply your findings on the 1100 to the 1001.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

whats the diff. between the 1100 and the 1001k? because these are the questions I needed answered (thanks?) if I can apply your findings on the 1100 to the 1001.

I haven't tried 1001 but based on feedback and my experience with D1100 I wouldn't be suprised if D1100 has even stronger/punchier upper bass with more impact compared to 1001 as it's roughly as strong as the upper bass of Sony XB500 even but 1001's bass goes deeper (frequency response graph @ headphone.com suggest 1001K goes quite strongly down to even 30Hz). IMO D1100's bass cuts out far too soon, it's like very quick roll off starting somewhere around 90Hz or so and output of very deep bass like around 50Hz is very weak. Mids could possibly be also be a bit more recessed or possibly about the same compared to 1001K cuz on D1100 they are quite severely recessed from my experience with them (I have a hard time believing any other headphone would have more recessed mids at similar or higher price) but I also hear 1001K's mids are quite recessed already so. D1100's sound signature reminds me very much of the AKG K 518 DJ which I also have but the AKGs have a bit more up-front mids though, especially female voice.
 
EDIT: out of interest here's how 1001K looks like compared to K 81 DJs (which is the same as K 518 DJs) http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=2601&graphID[]=1603

 

[astroid]

Your impression of the bass on the D1100 is wrong, it does not cut off or roll off abruptly at 90hz, i tested it using a sweep tone and it is very  strong down to 40hz and audible at 20hz. See below graph.
 

 

[Duncandun]

Quote:

Quote:

whats the diff. between the 1100 and the 1001k? because these are the questions I needed answered (thanks?) if I can apply your findings on the 1100 to the 1001.

I haven't tried 1001 but based on feedback and my experience with D1100 I wouldn't be suprised if D1100 has even stronger/punchier upper bass with more impact compared to 1001 as it's roughly as strong as the upper bass of Sony XB500 even but 1001's bass goes deeper (frequency response graph @ headphone.com suggest 1001K goes quite strongly down to even 30Hz). IMO D1100's bass cuts out far too soon, it's like very quick roll off starting somewhere around 90Hz or so and output of very deep bass like around 50Hz is very weak. Mids could possibly be also be a bit more recessed or possibly about the same compared to 1001K cuz on D1100 they are quite severely recessed from my experience with them (I have a hard time believing any other headphone would have more recessed mids at similar or higher price) but I also hear 1001K's mids are quite recessed already so. D1100's sound signature reminds me very much of the AKG K 518 DJ which I also have but the AKGs have a bit more up-front mids though, especially female voice.
 
EDIT: out of interest here's how 1001K looks like compared to K 81 DJs (which is the same as K 518 DJs) http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=2601&graphID[]=1603

I find it interesting that the 1001's have a better bass response than the DJ headphones, It's opposite day!

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well I'm not hearing the deep bass well (I hear it but it's weak) and I've tried 6 other bassy headhpones and all except AKG K 518 DJs output stronger deep bass. What software should I use to test mine with to see if this sample would be different? Also frequency response graphs doesn't tell the whole story. Sennheiser HD 212 Pro for example is possibly slightly bassier than D1100 at least far stronger in subbass and take a look at how that frequency response graph looks like: http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=503
 
I trust my ears more than frequency response graphs.

 

[astroid]

Try this one mate , just hover over the bit that says 10hz-200hz sweep
 
 

http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencychecklow.php

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Yea but what software can I use to get it like a graph.