I do like this headphone quite a bit although I'll be the first to say that I have a soft spot for Beyer phones being my first taste of the audiophile world.
This is a review of a self-purchased unit; they've gone on sale here and there but like any European made phone, it seems to sustain it's MSRP longer. Of course there are an incredible amount of accessories inclded such as a hard case, extra ear pads, and extra cable which is over $100 easily when purchasing individually.
My Head-fi graph ratings goes:
Value 7/10 (at $600 as a headphone - not counting extras incld)
Audio Quality 8/10
Design 10/10
Comfort 10/10
35 out of 40 or 8.75/10 rating
Unboxing: Box looks great on the shelf, straight forward no frills box and inside is the hard case that comes with with headphone/accessories. How was the unboxing experience? It was good, I nothing to complain about and straight forward stuff as it should be.
Build, Misc, Notings:
These are one of the best looking full sized closed backs I've set my eyes on. The cups have a leather like detail (although is hard plastic), the stitching on the headband reminds me of the same stitching as some of my heavy leather watch bands, the paint scheme with the reflective lettering is super classy, and the velour pads are downright comfy. It's the quintessential Beyerdynamic build with added class. It comes with a hard case that'll hold the extra set of pads as well as extra cable. The two cables are decent, one coiled for shorter use or desktop/table use and the other is a 9' cable for home theater listening, both cables are your typical Beyer cable no frills quality with a rubber outer - very flexible.
Despite being a 250ohm phone these are actually easy to drive. A cell phone that puts out decent power can get these to 80-85% of it's capability. Something like the ALO INTL+ portable dac/amp can drive these 90% of their potential. I've yet to try them with a tube amp but I believe pairing them with a tube amp or hybrid amp would get these to side more into the fun side of the sound and would make an excellent pleasure-listener choice.
An added note, just for fun I allowed the lady next to me on the train to Portland weeks ago to try these for several songs. I was using my ALO Intl+ to my Lenovo Android tablet and feeding it some London Grammar. I just wanted to get an impression from an average consumer and she said it was a great sounding headphone unlike she's heard before. When asked if she'd pay $500 for it, she said no way. She also owns a set of noise canceling Bose for travel to put into perspective how much she's willing to spend on phones. Those are $250-$300 right?
The bad:
I understand that this is sold a studio headphone but with the styling done on it, I'm sure Beyer are also selling these to audiophiles looking for an excellent closed back. With the studio headphone I suppose there's no use for a balanced cable, hence going with a 3-pin mini XLR input -- but for people like myself who utilize the 4-pin balanced cable for my amp and other testing purposes, this is a bit of a bummer. No fear, with some modifications you can either directly wire 4 wires into the one side or modify the connector to a 4-pin mini xlr input. Not bad but for those looking to go balanced will be disappointed here as is.
Another gripe of mine is the large cup design, again I realize this as a studio headphone but the sound signature is so good and the fact that it's a closed back, I kinda wish they went with a Sennheiser/Shure shape in a closed back format for a more subtle look in public. Anything for sound quality? Yea if you don't mind wearing a full sized headphone in public.
The sound: (all sound impressions are with velour pads)
Ok so onto the goods immediately. First let's address the soundstage and imaging; with the closed back you're not going to get a speaker imaging/soundstage like sound although for a closed back the DT1770 is above average in the category (moreso on the soundstage than imaging/depth). With the said the instrument separation, placement is fantastic, the level of clarity allows you to pinpoint and monitor one particular instrument at a time (if that's your thing) and stick with it for the entirety of the track. Full symphony tracks are presented very well with placement of instruments where they should be; a front row listener but listening to wide stage where the instruments don't sound like one is on top of another. Imaging and depth is above average at best but considering these are closed back, I'm not complaining one bit -- it doesn't take away from the experience and is easily overlooked with the positives of the phone.
BASS:
The bass is tilted to control and tightness but when the track has bass boost, these actually give excellent impact and are capable of great sub-bass extension and even theater-like rumble. One of the highlights for me is it tip-toes the fine line of controlled and enough fun to satisfy an audiophile - there is a slight boost in the bass so these aren't perfectly flat here. Bass-heads look elsewhere, this does not hit as hard or as loose as say the THX00 and has more control than say the Oppo PM3 by a good margin. Overall the bass is stays true to form of a controlled Beyer low frequency but they also allowed a little more to come through than previous models. 0 encroachment of the low-mids and mids with these phones unless the recording has super bass boost.
To put into listening context, these headphones would shine in a test with say tracks from Overwerk. Excellent recording and production but plenty of bass fun -- a must try!
MIDS:
The mids are your typical dry-tilt Beyer but they're neither pushed back nor forward. They're relatively linear to the bass and the highs -- more so on the highs as the bass has an ever slight boost. Vocals both male and female, instruments, background noise, they're all there in full reproduction. No grain, but far from liquid - it is a Beyer after all. Some tubes can remedy this dryness, better to be able to add as subtracting isn't as easy. There is a bit of an odd dip in the mids that may be related to the phone being a closed back but this dip somewhere in the mids does not take away from the sound, still sounding linear throughout.
Highs:
The highs are well done in this phone as it provides decent extension and air for a studio phone, as well as clarity yet it keeps the peaks at bay even on lesser recordings. They've managed to balance this region out to not sound too forward where it's driving treble detail into your brain (*cough T70) yet still provide details and clarity that people expect from a reference sound. If the tracks suffer from poor production along with heavy compression, the headphone will definitely put it through and there's no forgiveness where there not deserving - save those tracks for warm phones. But for tracks that are borderline bad sounding because of production in other reference phones, the DT1770 seem to have enough forgiveness to allow you to enjoy the listen. Since it rides a fine line, I would presume that with a bright dac and amp this can sound sibilant. With a neutral/bright or neutral setup, these phones hits it on the money which is why I enjoy their tuning.
When the entire sound comes together, you have a close back phone that is capable of producing a balanced sound which resembles your reference/audiophile tuned headphones. There always seem to be some trade-off with closed backs and in this case it seems to be some reverb/cavern effect along with a sharp dip in the mids but this is easily overlooked when you consider the level of tuning and sound that is offered in a closed phone. I can easily enjoy symphonies to pop to rock to jazz on the DT1770 and allow me to listen like I would with my open backs but with isolation. For this I'm willing to overlook some of the shortcomings and say outright that Beyer has made a fantastic offering - not perfect - but enough to put a smile on my face as I shut the noise out and get lost in the music.
This is a review of a self-purchased unit; they've gone on sale here and there but like any European made phone, it seems to sustain it's MSRP longer. Of course there are an incredible amount of accessories inclded such as a hard case, extra ear pads, and extra cable which is over $100 easily when purchasing individually.
My Head-fi graph ratings goes:
Value 7/10 (at $600 as a headphone - not counting extras incld)
Audio Quality 8/10
Design 10/10
Comfort 10/10
35 out of 40 or 8.75/10 rating
Unboxing: Box looks great on the shelf, straight forward no frills box and inside is the hard case that comes with with headphone/accessories. How was the unboxing experience? It was good, I nothing to complain about and straight forward stuff as it should be.
Build, Misc, Notings:
These are one of the best looking full sized closed backs I've set my eyes on. The cups have a leather like detail (although is hard plastic), the stitching on the headband reminds me of the same stitching as some of my heavy leather watch bands, the paint scheme with the reflective lettering is super classy, and the velour pads are downright comfy. It's the quintessential Beyerdynamic build with added class. It comes with a hard case that'll hold the extra set of pads as well as extra cable. The two cables are decent, one coiled for shorter use or desktop/table use and the other is a 9' cable for home theater listening, both cables are your typical Beyer cable no frills quality with a rubber outer - very flexible.
Despite being a 250ohm phone these are actually easy to drive. A cell phone that puts out decent power can get these to 80-85% of it's capability. Something like the ALO INTL+ portable dac/amp can drive these 90% of their potential. I've yet to try them with a tube amp but I believe pairing them with a tube amp or hybrid amp would get these to side more into the fun side of the sound and would make an excellent pleasure-listener choice.
An added note, just for fun I allowed the lady next to me on the train to Portland weeks ago to try these for several songs. I was using my ALO Intl+ to my Lenovo Android tablet and feeding it some London Grammar. I just wanted to get an impression from an average consumer and she said it was a great sounding headphone unlike she's heard before. When asked if she'd pay $500 for it, she said no way. She also owns a set of noise canceling Bose for travel to put into perspective how much she's willing to spend on phones. Those are $250-$300 right?
The bad:
I understand that this is sold a studio headphone but with the styling done on it, I'm sure Beyer are also selling these to audiophiles looking for an excellent closed back. With the studio headphone I suppose there's no use for a balanced cable, hence going with a 3-pin mini XLR input -- but for people like myself who utilize the 4-pin balanced cable for my amp and other testing purposes, this is a bit of a bummer. No fear, with some modifications you can either directly wire 4 wires into the one side or modify the connector to a 4-pin mini xlr input. Not bad but for those looking to go balanced will be disappointed here as is.
Another gripe of mine is the large cup design, again I realize this as a studio headphone but the sound signature is so good and the fact that it's a closed back, I kinda wish they went with a Sennheiser/Shure shape in a closed back format for a more subtle look in public. Anything for sound quality? Yea if you don't mind wearing a full sized headphone in public.
The sound: (all sound impressions are with velour pads)
Ok so onto the goods immediately. First let's address the soundstage and imaging; with the closed back you're not going to get a speaker imaging/soundstage like sound although for a closed back the DT1770 is above average in the category (moreso on the soundstage than imaging/depth). With the said the instrument separation, placement is fantastic, the level of clarity allows you to pinpoint and monitor one particular instrument at a time (if that's your thing) and stick with it for the entirety of the track. Full symphony tracks are presented very well with placement of instruments where they should be; a front row listener but listening to wide stage where the instruments don't sound like one is on top of another. Imaging and depth is above average at best but considering these are closed back, I'm not complaining one bit -- it doesn't take away from the experience and is easily overlooked with the positives of the phone.
BASS:
The bass is tilted to control and tightness but when the track has bass boost, these actually give excellent impact and are capable of great sub-bass extension and even theater-like rumble. One of the highlights for me is it tip-toes the fine line of controlled and enough fun to satisfy an audiophile - there is a slight boost in the bass so these aren't perfectly flat here. Bass-heads look elsewhere, this does not hit as hard or as loose as say the THX00 and has more control than say the Oppo PM3 by a good margin. Overall the bass is stays true to form of a controlled Beyer low frequency but they also allowed a little more to come through than previous models. 0 encroachment of the low-mids and mids with these phones unless the recording has super bass boost.
To put into listening context, these headphones would shine in a test with say tracks from Overwerk. Excellent recording and production but plenty of bass fun -- a must try!
MIDS:
The mids are your typical dry-tilt Beyer but they're neither pushed back nor forward. They're relatively linear to the bass and the highs -- more so on the highs as the bass has an ever slight boost. Vocals both male and female, instruments, background noise, they're all there in full reproduction. No grain, but far from liquid - it is a Beyer after all. Some tubes can remedy this dryness, better to be able to add as subtracting isn't as easy. There is a bit of an odd dip in the mids that may be related to the phone being a closed back but this dip somewhere in the mids does not take away from the sound, still sounding linear throughout.
Highs:
The highs are well done in this phone as it provides decent extension and air for a studio phone, as well as clarity yet it keeps the peaks at bay even on lesser recordings. They've managed to balance this region out to not sound too forward where it's driving treble detail into your brain (*cough T70) yet still provide details and clarity that people expect from a reference sound. If the tracks suffer from poor production along with heavy compression, the headphone will definitely put it through and there's no forgiveness where there not deserving - save those tracks for warm phones. But for tracks that are borderline bad sounding because of production in other reference phones, the DT1770 seem to have enough forgiveness to allow you to enjoy the listen. Since it rides a fine line, I would presume that with a bright dac and amp this can sound sibilant. With a neutral/bright or neutral setup, these phones hits it on the money which is why I enjoy their tuning.
When the entire sound comes together, you have a close back phone that is capable of producing a balanced sound which resembles your reference/audiophile tuned headphones. There always seem to be some trade-off with closed backs and in this case it seems to be some reverb/cavern effect along with a sharp dip in the mids but this is easily overlooked when you consider the level of tuning and sound that is offered in a closed phone. I can easily enjoy symphonies to pop to rock to jazz on the DT1770 and allow me to listen like I would with my open backs but with isolation. For this I'm willing to overlook some of the shortcomings and say outright that Beyer has made a fantastic offering - not perfect - but enough to put a smile on my face as I shut the noise out and get lost in the music.