Beyerdynamic T70p

The almighty T70p

Oh, the T70 series - it is a love-hate relationship. I adored its quick response and beautifully detailed treble, but the lack of sub-bass punch and shrilling sibilance that creeps up ever so often is not enjoyable, at all.

It's probably the recording studio's fault: so many songs are tuned to exacerbate mid-bass and lower treble to give it a "distinctive" signature and perceived clarity, to "suit most playback devices". Beyer doesn't give a toss to any of that. It makes every one of those songs, including some of my favourites, sound like it's tuned by a toddler. It is therefore quite flawed in terms of providing musical enjoyment.

Well produced, well mastered high quality classical or instrumental music, this is where the T70p (and T90 for that matter) shines, I've heard $2000 something headphones (Radiance, HD800 and some others) do worse than these. T70p just as that kind of naturalness in the upper-mids and the treble that I could not find anywhere else of something like a Focal Utopia or a Hifiman Shangri La Jr. In this sense then, it is extremely good value.

Everything falls flat on the bass, with no deep-reaching goodness, no fine textures, and only partially remedied by a custom-made thin-ish earpad, which also reduces the awful sibilance. Mids too sound a bit distant on the stock pads, probably due to the dominant treble, this is not fixed by the earpads, for some bizarre reason.

Instrument separation is quite good for a closed back, but will be worse with thinner ear pads - it's a trade-off between balance-ness and soundstage. I found the balance of both to be the Dekoni perforated sheepskin pads, or something similar to that.

Think of owning this then, as owning an old Alfa Romeo, not an enjoyable experience whatsoever: fixing it, driving it in traffic, breaking down... That is until a perfect curvy road emerges, which means that you will enjoy something truly special.


I didn't mind buying this headphone as I bought it from a lad selling it for 175 Singaporean dollars, which is around 125 USD, as opposed to the close-to 600 USD when new. I'd imagine myself to be quite upset if I paid 600 USD to have all my favourite songs turned into sibilance.


The pretty driver inside - it's blue!

Great headphones with well recorded music.
 
With modern recordings mixed with plenty of high frequencies it just pierce your eardrum, but perfect with Chesky and similar well made recordings.
 
My trick to make them sound wonderful is reversing the pads, it is a bit uncomfortable (the hard part of the pad is on your skull) but the gain is so big that I am happy like this. (I couldn't find any suitable pads that gives the same mid/spaciousness effect.
 
UPDATE: I found the AKG k240 pads + some foam on the frontal part of the pads to be perfect with these headphones, now with some burn in and the new pads I found the bass amazingly tight and bottomless, the mids are not recessed anymore, also with the new pads more punch was obtained. The spaciouness is now far beyond any closed cans I ever tried (even more than the AKG K550) and many other open headphones. I can't believe that a closed can could deliver such a spaciouness and soundstage and still preserving the good aspects of a closed can. At beyer they must have used some hybrid technology (see the lateral port on the caps) even though because the isolation is not perfect.
 
I have to say that the new pads didn't fix the highs which are still a tiny bit too pronounced on some recordings for my taste, this can be tiring especially listening to female singers for a long time, however I also found that with some well recorded acoustic music (jazz and baroque without tons of post processing) the high frequencies are amazingly pleasant and revealing, adding that "real" sensation to my ear.
 
I think these headphones with this configuration (AKG pads) are perfect for professional studio recording, they are an extremely revealing and balanced, crystal clear, high resolution machine, well done Beyerdynamic.
 
Please notice that I am also firmly convinced that talking about things like the amplitude of the different frequency sections is a very personal evaluation, since this aspect is strictly associated to a large extent to the shape of the ear canal of a specific subject and to a less extent to the shape of the pinna, without mention the psychoacoustic response of the brain. However it does exist something like the "average" listener which has an "average" frequency response perception, but statistically there will always be many people outside this average range that will hear things differently, especially in terms of frequency amplitude perception in the high frequency range. A more "scientific" evaluation should be done between parametrically equalised headphones using open ear canal probes and good linear near field loudspeakers.
 
P.S. These cans are also by far the most easy to drive headphones I ever tried, altough they still benefit of a good amplicifation in terms of clarity, resolution and vividness of the bass section.
 
 

Great headphones, definitely the best closed headphones I have worn. It's great that it's needs so little power to run, they sound great off anything. Highly recommended for quality. The headphones may be a little too bright for some though.

Since there isn't any review on this can (T70-250ohm), I would like to share some user experience over here.

 

 

Audio rig: Laptop Foobar 2000-Wasapi output -> Centrance Dacport LX -> Govibe Peak Amp -> T70.
Mostly listen to: Vocals (Female over 70%), Tracks from 70s, 80s, 90s, A few rocks (Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Queen, etc.), minor pop.
Self-rating audiophile level: 3/10 in terms of experience.
Past experience: Shure SRH840, Futuresonic Atrios M5 (MG7), Radius TWF11r, 
 
Build: 4/5 Tough, German-trademark build. It looks fragile to me (ironically, LOL), but when I hold it, I can feel that it could withstand daily use (not abuse). One sided cable input is unfortunately a ban for some audiophiles.
Accessories: 3/5 A leather headphone bag, 6.3 inch adapter, and... no replacement pad, which I highly appreciate in Shure SRH840 for durability.
Isolation: 2/5 Mediocre at best, can mildly hear the sound of the wind hitting on the exterior of the headphone driver.
Comfort: 4/5 Comfortable padding, but will get hot after around 1 hour of use. The headband has soft cushion too. Clamping force isn't as strong as SRH840, just right for me.
Aesthetic: 4/5 Looks nice to me, minimalism design. 
 
Sound:
Low: 8/10 Frankly speaking, what is lack for me is the more powerful midbass punch of beats. That's all. Other than that, everything is just perfectly in place. Tight, accurate bass reproduction is what I like. And normally, this headphone doesn't unleash its bass potential unless the music asks for it. I can go through several songs without feeling anything until a nicely tuned bassy songs will suddenly crack my head. It comes by surprise, as I didn't expect the punch to be so sudden. One thing I like on T70 is that the lows do not overshadow the mids and highs, which I highly appreciate as I render bass as a supplementary rather than the main dish of a song. Drums feel rather real, as the vibration can be clearly "seen" and not just felt.
 
Mid: 9/10 Overall neutral, but I cannot guarantee it sounds neutral to you. LOL. I'm just owning only a few audio rigs, therefore I cannot confirm that it is entirely neutral on the mids because it sounds smooth to me! Me and my friends used to call it, poisoning. I felt at home when listening to the vocals, as I can clearly hear the singers breathe, clear their throats, or even cough.
 
High: 9/10 Treble may be piercing before burn in, as some notes are quite offensive to my ears. Unlike Shure's rolling off-ed highs, T70 just let the frequency goes as far as it can extend. Therefore, it feels more "real", in a sense that I would not miss a sound due to suppression of the highs. 
 
Presentation: 8/10 The soundstage may not be as wide as the open cans, but it is definitely wider than most closed cans I have tried in the store. Depth is also present, as I can distinguish the singer standing in front of the drums. Instruments can go very far apart if the track requires, which isn't found on my SRH840. The overall sound sig is more forward, and not entirely closed as I can feel a sense of spacing between all the instruments. Thanks to the "HD" Tesla driver, I can feel that I "see" music, like where all the instruments are placed. There are abundant micro details which i never thought existed when I re-listen my past tracks. When I close my eyes, I can "see" the sound coming in and out from all direction, like the plane flying in a distance from left to right, cars zooming past in front of me and quickly drift far away, and etc. It is a wonderful experience!
 
Thanks for reading. I hope that I can have some comments on this review as I am still a learning rookie in this audiophile world.
 
Edit 11.23.12:
It's been months since I've last spent on this headphones. I'll re-rate it here:
Bass: I understand that the lack of punch is due to the use of micro-velour padding, which absorbs much of the bass impact in exchange for more comfort. It's still clear, well, I've never experienced a bloated bass on T70, maybe... poor recording perhaps, or my songs are yet to be demanding.
Treble: This can might grow treble hot sometimes. The piercing (especially on pianos) is unbearable. I'm not sure if this is how Beyer's sound engineers perceive "realistic" as, but that's one too sharp to my ears.