Merdril
100+ Head-Fier
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Final Impressions:
As a note, in case you sort of glossed over the title, I'm talking about the 32 Ohm version of the Beyerdynamic DT770.
I'm adding another set of headphones to this Mid-Fi Comparison, the Ultrasone HFI-580.
This impression won't be as detailed as my other impressions, or this post would take up an entire page.
Let me first begin by listing these headphones in order of preference:
Since the A700 is last on the list, I'll talk about it first. In all honesty, I didn't really like it in the end, which is the opposite of what I thought would happen. Contrary to its frequency response, the A700 actually has quite a bit of bass and infrasonic sound (here on after referred to as sub-bass, and 20-35 Hz will be low bass):
It actually rivals the XB700, and is able to deliver, for a lack of better phrasing, the bass explosion in "Inori," by Yoko Kanno with just as much power and depth. In terms of bass quality and quantity, I would have to say its an even tie between the XB700 and A700 (that is not to say that the XB700 can't deliver more on quantity, but it is to say that any added quantity comes at the detriment of quality). In fact, the A700 and XB700 hands-down beat the other two headphones in terms of sub-bass (but only sub-bass) quality and quantity. The HFI580 is rather sub-bass light; while the sound is there, the power isn't. Furthermore, when sub-bass on the HFI580 kicks in, it feels that it starts eating up all other frequencies, like the volume is being instantaneously lowered. I attribute this more to my current amp, as this could be the HFI-580's manifestation of the distortion issue in the DT770. Even then, listen to the bass explosion in "Inori" on the HFI-580 and XB700 clearly shows that the HFI-580 simply can't deliver as much infrasonic power (or for that matter, the DT770). It's also worth noting that the sub-bass on the XB700 is not overpowering, despite its enormous quantity. The XB700 delivers the same sound whether or not sub-bass is present. However, the HFI-580 doesn't have that same property, even at low volume levels. The characteristic of all the bass changes when sub-bass kicks in, which is not something that happened on the XB700 or DT770. The A700, while having an open quality (which I will get to later), didn't really have that impressive instrument separation for the bass frequencies, so it's sub-bass's effect on overall bass quality went unnoticed on these cans.
But even as I listen to the HFI-580 while I write this, I don't find it to have great detail in the bass region; it's certainly less than the DT770, but definitely better than the A700. Regardless of its frequency, the bass seems to have all the same tone. 15 Hz sounds like 10 Hz and 20 Hz, and a bit like 25 Hz and 5 Hz is inaudible with the HFI-580 and PHA-80 combination. On the XB700, each frequency is considerably distinct; don't ask me to tell the difference between 10 Hz and 9 or 11 Hz, but 12 Hz sounds distinctively different than 10 Hz on the XB700, and 15 Hz sounds nothing alike. The same applies to the DT770, even though the volume was so low I could barely hear them. I didn't bother with the A700, as I was pretty satisfied with its sub-bass that I didn't bother investigating its efficiency. Further up the bass spectrum, the instrument separation still doesn't kick in. It's actually quite depressing listening to "Tank!," by the Seatbelts, and hearing no distinction in the low bass notes of the Doubles Bass on the HFI-580. In fact, low tone drum beats and bass strums would actually be indistinguishable were it not for the punchiness of the drums. Or perhaps, it's simply my ears picking up on imperfections of the other two headphones when they play sub-bass. After all, sound (before it reaches the brain) is merely a certain number of compressions and rarefractions; and I can certainly tell a difference between bass notes based on this with the HFI-580. However, when sound is processed by the brain, the duration of the sound as well as its intensity can affect what we truly perceive the frequency of the sound to be. So while I'm not "wrong" to say that 15-20-25 Hz sounds the same, I'm also wrong because the HFI-580 is producing noticeable differences in frequencies, even though it just seems like variations in intensity on a cursory level. At any rate, I sort of digressed there.
When it comes to bass quality north of sub-bass and low bass, the HFI-580 dominates. It's both strong and punchy without being headache inducing, unlike the Sony MDR-XD200 of many years past. In fact, the HFI-580 is my pick for rock; I've never heard rock done this well. It doesn't matter what style of rock, "Through the Fire and the Flames," by Dragonforce, "nO Limit," by Eclipse, or an old favorite, "Chain," by Back-On, the HFI-580 just slams it out, with the exception of "World End, by Flow (oddly enough, the bass isn't as strong in this song as it is on the other 3 headphones. It might have something to do with its weak sub-bass and low bass). The HFI-580 also does other genres well, like techno and electropop. "One More Time," by Daft Punk is hard when it needs to be, but the HFI-580's spaciousness and openness is welcome in the soft moments of Daft Punk's songs. The XB700 is too flat and its mids are too scooped for it to sound well when the bass stops. The DT770 can also give the HFI-580 a run for its money during these soft parts (or maybe its the other way around, considering the DT770 is more expensive), but the DT770's lack of bass puts it behind the HFI-580. Also, there's another old favorite, "Sekai Turbine 2," by Susumu Hirasawa. Impressively, the HFI-580's upper bass presence makes up for its lack of sub-bass by delivering a sound truly worthy of the name "Thunder Turbine." Once again, the soundstage of the HFI-580 aids it in this genre by adding depth to songs; it really makes you feel like you're in a turbine; the XB700 accomplishes this by thundering your ears with sub-bass until you can't think anymore.
Then, there's the A700 that showed so much promise, but ultimately failed to impress. When I listen to the A700, it sounds overly airy. Any attempts to alleviate this resulted in losing the open quality of the A700 as well as its spaciousness; it started becoming like the XB700. In fact, I actually preferred the XB700's sound over the A700 because of how airy they are, and it's no secret on Head-Fi how mid-recessed the XB700 is. However, the DT770 and HFI-580 are anything but mid-recessed. Truthfully, the DT770 beats the HFI-580 in terms of mids, but it's no difference that equalization can't take care of; for the HFI-580 to become more like the DT770, it's mostly a matter of decreasing bass
, and then the mids stand out more. The other way around requires some serious amping (in that you'll have to increase the bass frequencies for the DT770 considerably and then lower the output to prevent clipping, and then amp the output to bring it back up to normal listening levels. This way requires a relatively high voltage and high gain amp, or a preamp and a high power amp). The XB700 is recessed to a degree that is impossible to fix by equalization. "Inori" on the XB700 and HFI-580 is like the difference between FFVII and FFX (for you Final Fantasy lovers) or in a less self-serving analogy, it's like the difference between an image of a 3D object and the actual object. I was actually surprised to listen to Inori on the XB700 after listening to it on the HFI-580 and finding it extremely flat and closed. But then again, I was also surprised when the bass explosion hit and the HFI-580 had no power (relative to the XB700).
Finally, I come to the overall sound quality and quality of highs, vocals, and so on, of these headphones. The XB700 does it's best for $80, but it can't compete against the $148 HFI-580 (which isn't too much more expensive). While the XB700 trounces on the HFI-580 in the region of sub-bass and low-bass, it lacks in quality at pretty much every frequency above that. And like the XB700, the HFI-580 has pretty much no sibilance, despite its aggressive vocals and slightly edgy treble. The highs on the HFI-580 become grating before they become sibilant and bright, unlike on the other three headphones. You could probably kill off your high frequency hearing with the natural frequency response of the DT770 and A700, especially the A700. Burn-in did nothing to alleviate how bright the A700 were; as I wrote in the original post, listening to the A700 is a bight like listening to a star incessantly twinkling in your ear. Conversely, burn-in improved the DT770's sibilance control, making it very tolerable, but sill present. This was probably the only unnatural quality the DT770 posses. Jumping the gun a bit; I find the DT770 to be the most natural sounding of all these headphones. Voices, instruments, and even synthesized instruments simply sounded "right." The only downfall of the DT770 for me was its lack of bass, which could have been rectified by the method shown above (although there's no guarantee that overall sound quality won't be hindered). Even then, I still can't believe how amazing "An Expert Mountain," by Susumu Hirasawa sounded on the DT770. Even though I've got the frequency response (perceived) of the DT770 and HFI-580 pretty equal right now, the mechanical effects of the driver damping and the acoustics of the ear cup attribute to the sound signature of the DT770; and sound signature is something that cannot be equalized (although I wonder if it's possible with convolution). At any rate, I no longer have the DT770 as I returned it due to some rattling in the left ear-cup and I also returned the A700 since I don't like them, so I'll be getting a FiiO E9 soon to push the limits of the HFI-580's sub-bass. Another example of the DT770's prowess is on the song "Reunion," composed by Yoko Kanno and song by Donna Cumberbatch. While the DT770 has the signature advantage, the HFI-580 has its own advantage; it can be equalized to have a cold tone, which I quite liked in the XB700. Coupled with the HFI-580's openness and spaciousness, and the DT770 is given a run for its money in vocal songs like this. And I keep talking a lot about openness, spaciousness, and soundstage, but I never defined what I meant about this with respect to these cans.
The DT770 has the best soundstage and spaciousness among these cans. Simply put; it's like a concert on your head (minus the impressive drums). The HFI-580 comes dangerously close and even has a significantly greater open quality than the DT770, but it's soundstage is not as impressive (which probably has something to do with its lack of detail in bass). The A700 has slightly more spaciousness than the XB700 and is certainly more open, but its airy quality is unwelcome. The XB700 has no open or spacious quality and its soundstage is nonexistent (everything is relative). In terms of overall sound quality, this puts the DT770 at the head of the pack with the HFI-580 as a threatening beta-male. The XB700 trails considerably, but as a confident member of the pack, while the A700 is more of a straggler than anything else. A song that nicely summarizes their differences is "The Real Folk Blues," by the Seatbelts. While the HFI-580 and DT770 sound very similar, with the HFI-580 doing a better job in terms of the base quantity of the guitar, the DT770 achieves a more 3D sound. The XB700 plays a very cold rendition of the song with a solid and defined guitar, but the vocals and sax fail to impress. The A700 delivers on the sax and other brass, but its airy quality make the vocals and guitar unnatural.
So there you have it, my impressions of the Beyerdynamic DT770, Audio-Technica A700, Sony MDR-XB700, and Ultrasone HFI-580. Please, do comment, as it helps me refine my opinion of headphones.
Original Post:
Well, if there's anything to say about these headphones, is that these companies really like the number 7.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post, you'll have to forgive me. Anyway, this is a preliminary impression, just some general comments about these phones. After a week or two, I'll post detailed impressions of what I think about them.
Build Quality and Comfort:
The DT770 is built like a tank. The extensions for the headphone cups may look skinny in the picture, but they're constructed from some really tough metal; I wouldn't worry about them bending under stress, The earcups are backed with plastic, which is good and prevents resonance. The edge of the plastic is rimmed with metal, which serves as a force transfer material should the plastic cup encounter any serious compression forces (perhaps accidentally stepping on them). Even the pads are a bit tough (although, I came from the XB700 pads, so that may be a biased statement), but they're not dreadfully uncomfortable. I suppose the headband is comfortable, but I have a fro, so I can't really tell. I can tell that the DT770 can extend far enough to fit over my rather large head and comfortable encapsulate my also large ears. The edges of my ears are squished a bit, but it's not noticeable or any more uncomfortable than with the XB700.
The A700 is great. I wasn't sure how comfortable the pads would be when I first saw the pictures, but I was pleased to find out that they are nice and soft, not plushy like the XB700 or hard like the DT770. Also, the 3D Wing design keeps these headphones right on my head, although my fro may help with that. What I really liked is that the pads are a strong enough to push the hair on the side of my head down, unlike the the XB700, and soft enough to conform to the shape of my head, unlike the DT770. The end result is a great seal and better sub-bass and subsonic sounds. Also, the driver cage is angle backwards, meaning that your ears fit in comfortable in the A700. I really don't have any complaints... about comfort. As far as build quality goes, it seems like the only thing metal in this headphone are the drivers and cable. I have some serious strength concerns about the headband and the swivel mechanism, but oh well.
The XB700 is the most comfortable of the 3, and its padding is really unnoticeable compared to the other 2 headphones. It's build quality has proven itself, as it's still as strong as when I bought it two years ago. The leather on the headband is a bit tattered, but the pads are almost as good as new. They have slightly conformed to the shape of my head, but it's not significant. The paint on the plastic parts is still there, which is also a good thing.
Preliminary Sound Impressions:
I'll be less ambivalent in a few weeks, when I feel comfortable that I've used all the DSPs at my disposal to get the best, individual sound from these cans. But I hope no one skewers me for these statements, as I still stand behind them.
First things first, it's worth noting that I got the XB700 for $80, the A700 for $120, and the DT770 for $160, used. But, as far as new street price goes, the DT770 is about twice as expensive as the A700 and 3 times as expensive as the XB700. The price difference shows, but that's not to say that the DT770 is the king; the truth is far from it. I'll start with the A700 as it's proving so far to be my favorite. The A700 is like the mix between the SRH440 and the XB700 that I've been looking for. Even when the bass is pouring in, the A700 remains clear in the upper frequencies and retains most of its mids (though not as much as much the DT770, but I have a gripe with the DT770, a serious, basshead sort of gripe). The bass is faster than the XB700, and runs just as deep and distortion free. It's also considerably punchier, but not to the extent of the Sony MDR-XD200, which induced headaches in me. It's just the right amount of punchiness. However, and this is a big however, the A700 is brighter than the Shure SRH440. Those of you who have heard the SRH440 will know that they are bright, so consider how annoying it would be if they were brighter. That's the A700. It took some serious equalization to fix that, and even then, it's still bright. Hopefully, that'll improve with some burn in.
The DT770 on the other hand, wow. Just wow. I had no idea what I was missing. It didn't take long to equalize them, and when I finally got them right, I tried one of my "good" songs, "An Expert Mountain," by Susumu Hirasawa. I nearly cried listening to it. The amount of detail that the XB700 doesn't show (or the A700 for that matter) was amazing. The nuances in the song were so carefully followed, the bass was strong and deep, but not overpowering like the XB700 (read: not as much bass, but this song isn't intended to be bass heavy). I was just completely shocked at how much information was in this song that I had never heard before. Now, shifting gears; the DT770 doesn't have bass. You heard me. The DT770 doesn't have bass. Simply put: XB700>=AT700>>DT770>SRH440. Oh, I probably forgot to mention that I'm a basshead. My main gripe with the DT770 is that when I try to pump some serious bass, 30 Hz and below, it distorts. It turns into this farty sound of sorts that ends up distorting the overall sound. It reminds me if when I tried to pump some sub-bass through my laptop's sound card into the XB700. My current chain is Foobar2000 ASIO Out -> Creative X-Fi USB Surround 5.1 -> Pyle PHA 80. The PHA 80 can dump 400 mW into 32 Ohms, which is not as much as, say, the FiiO E9 (which can dump 1.125 W into 32 Ohms on its high gain setting), but 400 mW is no small amount. It's enough to prevent me from going past the 3/4 mark using the XB700, which is also 32 Ohms (however, the DT770 seems to be significantly less sensitive than the XB700 and A700, which is 64 Ohms), even when the I've set Foobar to output 0.2x of the signal (to accommodate the high dB requirements of subsonic frequency listening). The XB700 doesn't distort when I play at high volume levels, and neither does the A700, which leads me to believe that the DT770 has very low input power handling capabilities, the driver can't handle sub-bass, or my unit is defective. For that reason (except the defective one), and also for the reason that many songs sound anemic using the DT770 (compared to the XB700 and A700, but not to the SRH440), I say that the DT770 doesn't have bass. On a brighter topic, orchestral music sounds absolutely brilliant on the DT770. Music in general sounds amazing on the DT770, it's just that they lack bass. I'll discuss how amazing they sound in my detailed impression. The soundstage is impressive on the DT770, better than the A700, and the soundstage in the XB700 seems to be non existent in comparison. However, that feature was balanced out by how sibilant the DT770 was (and still is). I cut 7 kHz - 20 kHz by 14 dB with respect to 55-156 Hz, and they are still sibilant (and bright, but it's not as bad as the A700. The A700 feels like there's a star incessantly twinkling in my ear).
As far as the XB700 goes, I've already written 2 impressions on it, although I should qualify them now with respect to the DT770 and A700. The XB700 sounds great for its price. Vocals are nice, and highs are present, and the bass is the greatest out of all 3 of these cans, which goes without saying. The mids are severely recessed compared to the A700 and DT770, with the DT770 having the best mids of all of them, and the A700 having the most open sound of all of them. The A700 also has cleaner bass than the XB700, but it's power cannot be compared. The DT770 wishes it could be the XB700, or even the A700, in terms of bass quantity (and to a lesser extent, quality).
As a note, in case you sort of glossed over the title, I'm talking about the 32 Ohm version of the Beyerdynamic DT770.
I'm adding another set of headphones to this Mid-Fi Comparison, the Ultrasone HFI-580.
This impression won't be as detailed as my other impressions, or this post would take up an entire page.
Let me first begin by listing these headphones in order of preference:
- HFI-580 tied with DT770
- XB700
- ATH-A700
Since the A700 is last on the list, I'll talk about it first. In all honesty, I didn't really like it in the end, which is the opposite of what I thought would happen. Contrary to its frequency response, the A700 actually has quite a bit of bass and infrasonic sound (here on after referred to as sub-bass, and 20-35 Hz will be low bass):
It actually rivals the XB700, and is able to deliver, for a lack of better phrasing, the bass explosion in "Inori," by Yoko Kanno with just as much power and depth. In terms of bass quality and quantity, I would have to say its an even tie between the XB700 and A700 (that is not to say that the XB700 can't deliver more on quantity, but it is to say that any added quantity comes at the detriment of quality). In fact, the A700 and XB700 hands-down beat the other two headphones in terms of sub-bass (but only sub-bass) quality and quantity. The HFI580 is rather sub-bass light; while the sound is there, the power isn't. Furthermore, when sub-bass on the HFI580 kicks in, it feels that it starts eating up all other frequencies, like the volume is being instantaneously lowered. I attribute this more to my current amp, as this could be the HFI-580's manifestation of the distortion issue in the DT770. Even then, listen to the bass explosion in "Inori" on the HFI-580 and XB700 clearly shows that the HFI-580 simply can't deliver as much infrasonic power (or for that matter, the DT770). It's also worth noting that the sub-bass on the XB700 is not overpowering, despite its enormous quantity. The XB700 delivers the same sound whether or not sub-bass is present. However, the HFI-580 doesn't have that same property, even at low volume levels. The characteristic of all the bass changes when sub-bass kicks in, which is not something that happened on the XB700 or DT770. The A700, while having an open quality (which I will get to later), didn't really have that impressive instrument separation for the bass frequencies, so it's sub-bass's effect on overall bass quality went unnoticed on these cans.
But even as I listen to the HFI-580 while I write this, I don't find it to have great detail in the bass region; it's certainly less than the DT770, but definitely better than the A700. Regardless of its frequency, the bass seems to have all the same tone. 15 Hz sounds like 10 Hz and 20 Hz, and a bit like 25 Hz and 5 Hz is inaudible with the HFI-580 and PHA-80 combination. On the XB700, each frequency is considerably distinct; don't ask me to tell the difference between 10 Hz and 9 or 11 Hz, but 12 Hz sounds distinctively different than 10 Hz on the XB700, and 15 Hz sounds nothing alike. The same applies to the DT770, even though the volume was so low I could barely hear them. I didn't bother with the A700, as I was pretty satisfied with its sub-bass that I didn't bother investigating its efficiency. Further up the bass spectrum, the instrument separation still doesn't kick in. It's actually quite depressing listening to "Tank!," by the Seatbelts, and hearing no distinction in the low bass notes of the Doubles Bass on the HFI-580. In fact, low tone drum beats and bass strums would actually be indistinguishable were it not for the punchiness of the drums. Or perhaps, it's simply my ears picking up on imperfections of the other two headphones when they play sub-bass. After all, sound (before it reaches the brain) is merely a certain number of compressions and rarefractions; and I can certainly tell a difference between bass notes based on this with the HFI-580. However, when sound is processed by the brain, the duration of the sound as well as its intensity can affect what we truly perceive the frequency of the sound to be. So while I'm not "wrong" to say that 15-20-25 Hz sounds the same, I'm also wrong because the HFI-580 is producing noticeable differences in frequencies, even though it just seems like variations in intensity on a cursory level. At any rate, I sort of digressed there.
When it comes to bass quality north of sub-bass and low bass, the HFI-580 dominates. It's both strong and punchy without being headache inducing, unlike the Sony MDR-XD200 of many years past. In fact, the HFI-580 is my pick for rock; I've never heard rock done this well. It doesn't matter what style of rock, "Through the Fire and the Flames," by Dragonforce, "nO Limit," by Eclipse, or an old favorite, "Chain," by Back-On, the HFI-580 just slams it out, with the exception of "World End, by Flow (oddly enough, the bass isn't as strong in this song as it is on the other 3 headphones. It might have something to do with its weak sub-bass and low bass). The HFI-580 also does other genres well, like techno and electropop. "One More Time," by Daft Punk is hard when it needs to be, but the HFI-580's spaciousness and openness is welcome in the soft moments of Daft Punk's songs. The XB700 is too flat and its mids are too scooped for it to sound well when the bass stops. The DT770 can also give the HFI-580 a run for its money during these soft parts (or maybe its the other way around, considering the DT770 is more expensive), but the DT770's lack of bass puts it behind the HFI-580. Also, there's another old favorite, "Sekai Turbine 2," by Susumu Hirasawa. Impressively, the HFI-580's upper bass presence makes up for its lack of sub-bass by delivering a sound truly worthy of the name "Thunder Turbine." Once again, the soundstage of the HFI-580 aids it in this genre by adding depth to songs; it really makes you feel like you're in a turbine; the XB700 accomplishes this by thundering your ears with sub-bass until you can't think anymore.
Then, there's the A700 that showed so much promise, but ultimately failed to impress. When I listen to the A700, it sounds overly airy. Any attempts to alleviate this resulted in losing the open quality of the A700 as well as its spaciousness; it started becoming like the XB700. In fact, I actually preferred the XB700's sound over the A700 because of how airy they are, and it's no secret on Head-Fi how mid-recessed the XB700 is. However, the DT770 and HFI-580 are anything but mid-recessed. Truthfully, the DT770 beats the HFI-580 in terms of mids, but it's no difference that equalization can't take care of; for the HFI-580 to become more like the DT770, it's mostly a matter of decreasing bass
Finally, I come to the overall sound quality and quality of highs, vocals, and so on, of these headphones. The XB700 does it's best for $80, but it can't compete against the $148 HFI-580 (which isn't too much more expensive). While the XB700 trounces on the HFI-580 in the region of sub-bass and low-bass, it lacks in quality at pretty much every frequency above that. And like the XB700, the HFI-580 has pretty much no sibilance, despite its aggressive vocals and slightly edgy treble. The highs on the HFI-580 become grating before they become sibilant and bright, unlike on the other three headphones. You could probably kill off your high frequency hearing with the natural frequency response of the DT770 and A700, especially the A700. Burn-in did nothing to alleviate how bright the A700 were; as I wrote in the original post, listening to the A700 is a bight like listening to a star incessantly twinkling in your ear. Conversely, burn-in improved the DT770's sibilance control, making it very tolerable, but sill present. This was probably the only unnatural quality the DT770 posses. Jumping the gun a bit; I find the DT770 to be the most natural sounding of all these headphones. Voices, instruments, and even synthesized instruments simply sounded "right." The only downfall of the DT770 for me was its lack of bass, which could have been rectified by the method shown above (although there's no guarantee that overall sound quality won't be hindered). Even then, I still can't believe how amazing "An Expert Mountain," by Susumu Hirasawa sounded on the DT770. Even though I've got the frequency response (perceived) of the DT770 and HFI-580 pretty equal right now, the mechanical effects of the driver damping and the acoustics of the ear cup attribute to the sound signature of the DT770; and sound signature is something that cannot be equalized (although I wonder if it's possible with convolution). At any rate, I no longer have the DT770 as I returned it due to some rattling in the left ear-cup and I also returned the A700 since I don't like them, so I'll be getting a FiiO E9 soon to push the limits of the HFI-580's sub-bass. Another example of the DT770's prowess is on the song "Reunion," composed by Yoko Kanno and song by Donna Cumberbatch. While the DT770 has the signature advantage, the HFI-580 has its own advantage; it can be equalized to have a cold tone, which I quite liked in the XB700. Coupled with the HFI-580's openness and spaciousness, and the DT770 is given a run for its money in vocal songs like this. And I keep talking a lot about openness, spaciousness, and soundstage, but I never defined what I meant about this with respect to these cans.
The DT770 has the best soundstage and spaciousness among these cans. Simply put; it's like a concert on your head (minus the impressive drums). The HFI-580 comes dangerously close and even has a significantly greater open quality than the DT770, but it's soundstage is not as impressive (which probably has something to do with its lack of detail in bass). The A700 has slightly more spaciousness than the XB700 and is certainly more open, but its airy quality is unwelcome. The XB700 has no open or spacious quality and its soundstage is nonexistent (everything is relative). In terms of overall sound quality, this puts the DT770 at the head of the pack with the HFI-580 as a threatening beta-male. The XB700 trails considerably, but as a confident member of the pack, while the A700 is more of a straggler than anything else. A song that nicely summarizes their differences is "The Real Folk Blues," by the Seatbelts. While the HFI-580 and DT770 sound very similar, with the HFI-580 doing a better job in terms of the base quantity of the guitar, the DT770 achieves a more 3D sound. The XB700 plays a very cold rendition of the song with a solid and defined guitar, but the vocals and sax fail to impress. The A700 delivers on the sax and other brass, but its airy quality make the vocals and guitar unnatural.
So there you have it, my impressions of the Beyerdynamic DT770, Audio-Technica A700, Sony MDR-XB700, and Ultrasone HFI-580. Please, do comment, as it helps me refine my opinion of headphones.
Original Post:
Well, if there's anything to say about these headphones, is that these companies really like the number 7.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post, you'll have to forgive me. Anyway, this is a preliminary impression, just some general comments about these phones. After a week or two, I'll post detailed impressions of what I think about them.
Build Quality and Comfort:
The DT770 is built like a tank. The extensions for the headphone cups may look skinny in the picture, but they're constructed from some really tough metal; I wouldn't worry about them bending under stress, The earcups are backed with plastic, which is good and prevents resonance. The edge of the plastic is rimmed with metal, which serves as a force transfer material should the plastic cup encounter any serious compression forces (perhaps accidentally stepping on them). Even the pads are a bit tough (although, I came from the XB700 pads, so that may be a biased statement), but they're not dreadfully uncomfortable. I suppose the headband is comfortable, but I have a fro, so I can't really tell. I can tell that the DT770 can extend far enough to fit over my rather large head and comfortable encapsulate my also large ears. The edges of my ears are squished a bit, but it's not noticeable or any more uncomfortable than with the XB700.
The A700 is great. I wasn't sure how comfortable the pads would be when I first saw the pictures, but I was pleased to find out that they are nice and soft, not plushy like the XB700 or hard like the DT770. Also, the 3D Wing design keeps these headphones right on my head, although my fro may help with that. What I really liked is that the pads are a strong enough to push the hair on the side of my head down, unlike the the XB700, and soft enough to conform to the shape of my head, unlike the DT770. The end result is a great seal and better sub-bass and subsonic sounds. Also, the driver cage is angle backwards, meaning that your ears fit in comfortable in the A700. I really don't have any complaints... about comfort. As far as build quality goes, it seems like the only thing metal in this headphone are the drivers and cable. I have some serious strength concerns about the headband and the swivel mechanism, but oh well.
The XB700 is the most comfortable of the 3, and its padding is really unnoticeable compared to the other 2 headphones. It's build quality has proven itself, as it's still as strong as when I bought it two years ago. The leather on the headband is a bit tattered, but the pads are almost as good as new. They have slightly conformed to the shape of my head, but it's not significant. The paint on the plastic parts is still there, which is also a good thing.
Preliminary Sound Impressions:
I'll be less ambivalent in a few weeks, when I feel comfortable that I've used all the DSPs at my disposal to get the best, individual sound from these cans. But I hope no one skewers me for these statements, as I still stand behind them.
First things first, it's worth noting that I got the XB700 for $80, the A700 for $120, and the DT770 for $160, used. But, as far as new street price goes, the DT770 is about twice as expensive as the A700 and 3 times as expensive as the XB700. The price difference shows, but that's not to say that the DT770 is the king; the truth is far from it. I'll start with the A700 as it's proving so far to be my favorite. The A700 is like the mix between the SRH440 and the XB700 that I've been looking for. Even when the bass is pouring in, the A700 remains clear in the upper frequencies and retains most of its mids (though not as much as much the DT770, but I have a gripe with the DT770, a serious, basshead sort of gripe). The bass is faster than the XB700, and runs just as deep and distortion free. It's also considerably punchier, but not to the extent of the Sony MDR-XD200, which induced headaches in me. It's just the right amount of punchiness. However, and this is a big however, the A700 is brighter than the Shure SRH440. Those of you who have heard the SRH440 will know that they are bright, so consider how annoying it would be if they were brighter. That's the A700. It took some serious equalization to fix that, and even then, it's still bright. Hopefully, that'll improve with some burn in.
The DT770 on the other hand, wow. Just wow. I had no idea what I was missing. It didn't take long to equalize them, and when I finally got them right, I tried one of my "good" songs, "An Expert Mountain," by Susumu Hirasawa. I nearly cried listening to it. The amount of detail that the XB700 doesn't show (or the A700 for that matter) was amazing. The nuances in the song were so carefully followed, the bass was strong and deep, but not overpowering like the XB700 (read: not as much bass, but this song isn't intended to be bass heavy). I was just completely shocked at how much information was in this song that I had never heard before. Now, shifting gears; the DT770 doesn't have bass. You heard me. The DT770 doesn't have bass. Simply put: XB700>=AT700>>DT770>SRH440. Oh, I probably forgot to mention that I'm a basshead. My main gripe with the DT770 is that when I try to pump some serious bass, 30 Hz and below, it distorts. It turns into this farty sound of sorts that ends up distorting the overall sound. It reminds me if when I tried to pump some sub-bass through my laptop's sound card into the XB700. My current chain is Foobar2000 ASIO Out -> Creative X-Fi USB Surround 5.1 -> Pyle PHA 80. The PHA 80 can dump 400 mW into 32 Ohms, which is not as much as, say, the FiiO E9 (which can dump 1.125 W into 32 Ohms on its high gain setting), but 400 mW is no small amount. It's enough to prevent me from going past the 3/4 mark using the XB700, which is also 32 Ohms (however, the DT770 seems to be significantly less sensitive than the XB700 and A700, which is 64 Ohms), even when the I've set Foobar to output 0.2x of the signal (to accommodate the high dB requirements of subsonic frequency listening). The XB700 doesn't distort when I play at high volume levels, and neither does the A700, which leads me to believe that the DT770 has very low input power handling capabilities, the driver can't handle sub-bass, or my unit is defective. For that reason (except the defective one), and also for the reason that many songs sound anemic using the DT770 (compared to the XB700 and A700, but not to the SRH440), I say that the DT770 doesn't have bass. On a brighter topic, orchestral music sounds absolutely brilliant on the DT770. Music in general sounds amazing on the DT770, it's just that they lack bass. I'll discuss how amazing they sound in my detailed impression. The soundstage is impressive on the DT770, better than the A700, and the soundstage in the XB700 seems to be non existent in comparison. However, that feature was balanced out by how sibilant the DT770 was (and still is). I cut 7 kHz - 20 kHz by 14 dB with respect to 55-156 Hz, and they are still sibilant (and bright, but it's not as bad as the A700. The A700 feels like there's a star incessantly twinkling in my ear).
As far as the XB700 goes, I've already written 2 impressions on it, although I should qualify them now with respect to the DT770 and A700. The XB700 sounds great for its price. Vocals are nice, and highs are present, and the bass is the greatest out of all 3 of these cans, which goes without saying. The mids are severely recessed compared to the A700 and DT770, with the DT770 having the best mids of all of them, and the A700 having the most open sound of all of them. The A700 also has cleaner bass than the XB700, but it's power cannot be compared. The DT770 wishes it could be the XB700, or even the A700, in terms of bass quantity (and to a lesser extent, quality).
I just have to ask which DT770 we're talking about, I suppose it isn't Pro 80 ohm because I found that headphone to have even more recessed mids than XB700 and had even more of a V-shaped frequency response curve (slightly less upper bass and brighter upper highs than XB700).
