[extrabigmehdi]

I  think what the guy from headfonia said, is that the dt880 600 ohms, is overall "closer to truth", and that not everyone is happy with the "brutal truth". The hd650 , introduce quite some change (dark, recessed highs, slow according to some), and despite this , it is much more popular. The point is that "audiophiles" , aren't always looking for the most accurate headphones, this can be quite the contrary.

Well, here's the conclusion, I  could get looking at the graph:

Let's compare some frequency response:


In dark , I've added what I  "believe" to be the most neutral response   (it's just a curve I've established by comparing headphones, and reading the explanation from headroom website, about  how to interpret curve).
 
Anyways between the  k701 & dt880 600 ohms, you are trading a lack of bass / sub bass (k701), against better balanced bass, but with a more painful or at least "peaky" treble near 10khz . As I  said it's hard to achieve a  good freq balance across the full range, even the hd800 fail to some extent.
Between the dt880 600 ohms & regular (I  guess 250 ohms) , the treble for 600 ohms, is very slightly more painful, but also the curve is more regular which is a good sign. I  find it even more regular than hd800.
Note: there's nothing wrong in using an eq, imho.
 
Now if you compare square response at 50 hz:
 

 
You see that k701 has the worst impact, because for each "semi square" part of curve, it's crossing the zero line, before it reach the end.
The dt880 600 oms seems to have more impact than regular version, because the end of each "semi square" curve, is not as close to zero.
And about same to hd800. Off course, all curves are far from ideal, this might just be moot considerations. The se530, or audeze lcd2,
have more serious bass impact, that will trump by far all these headphones.

Based on curves only, my guess, is that the main reason to get 600 ohm version of dt800, than regular, is bass impact. But I'm not sure you need bass impact for ambient, AFAIK you are not listening to techno.
 
Now regarding which headphone is most detailed  that's hard to establish this from curves, but I  think the impulse response from innerfidelity can give an idea. The more you have a unique  and well defined peak, and it's flat around it , the more likely  you will have a headphone  fast and detailed.
Anyway hd800, k701, dt880, are all well known champion of details.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Let's compare the DT800 600  ohms with headphone you already own. It would be more obvious to you.
 
Frequency response:


The black curve is again, my guess , for a neutral response.

XB500 ->  way too much bass
HD201 ->  where is the bass ?
hd280 -> relatively balanced, but the curve is irregular. Some people would be unhappy with the mid bass hump.
DT880 -> closer to ideal, much smoother curver than hd280
 
Let's look to square response. There's an obvious problem of offset on some curve, they are not "well centered" around the 0 line (especially xb500). Nevertheless the square response of XB500, is the one that have a response that looks the closer to something square. So it has the best bass impact, better than the dt880 too.
 

 
It's much harder to interpret impulse responses.
 

Off all the headphone, I'd say it's the hd201 that sucks the most in term of details/ speed. Because the main peak is not well defined, and there's lot of irregularities surrounding it.
The dt880 have irregularities around the main peak, but the main peak clearly stand out.
 

 

[TMRaven]

Why the arbitrary rolloff below 100hz?
 
LCD-2

 
HD800

 
DT880

 
SR-009

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Quote:

Why the arbitrary rolloff below 100hz?

Acording to headroom :
A "natural sounding" headphone should be slightly higher in the bass (about 3 or 4 dB) between 40Hz and 500Hz. This compensates for the fact that headphones don't give you the physical punch or 'impact' that the sound waves from a room speaker have; so a slight compensation for increased bass response is needed for natural sound.
http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/about-headphone-measurements.php
 
I  assume below 40hz the curve should be flat  (especially if I  compare lcd2 & hd600). The roll off is probably because of drivers physical limitations.

 

[TMRaven]

I guess headroom believes bass below 40hz is less easily absorbed by the body than bass from 40-500hz.  

 

[extrabigmehdi]

There's no roll off , for the audeze lcd2,  so I contest the hypothesis of bass absorption by body.

 

[TMRaven]

I know, LCD-2 has picture perfect frequency response out to about 3khz, but its treble is dark.  Stax SR-009 has near perfect treble out to 20khz.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Yeah the lcd2 it is well known for being dark.

 

[TMRaven]

Just thought it'd be interesting to splice LCD-2's bass and mids together with SR-009's treble.  Perfect!  

 

 
 
Back on topic.  
 
Although I've not heard the DT880, I have heard what many people consider to be very neutral: the HD600, and I don't consider its bass to extend that much.  If what people say is true that DT880's bass extends just as much as DT990, I don't think you'll find its bass that much lacking for ambient music.  

 

[extrabigmehdi]

The hd600 doesn't have the treble peak near 10k,  that dt880 have. I think it's the main reason some prefer hd600.

 

[goldoon]

Hi,
 
I want to use this thread and ask a question here. Yesterday I did an Audiometry test and the results shows that I have 30% loss of hearing in 2000-8000 range. Does it mean that I should use a treblish headphone to compensate this loss?
 
Thanks

 

[catscratch]

No. If you use a treble-happy headphone you're only going to damage your hearing more. Use a linear headphone and keep the volume in check. You will compensate for high-frequency hearing loss psychoacoustically, in fact you've probably already done so.

Listening to something with spikes in the highs just means that your ears will be receiving a higher peak volume than average perceived volume, and you'll do even more hearing damage in the future.

 

[goldoon]

You're the best!
 
and are some headphones like DT880 & K701 linear or they are treble-happy?

 

[our martin]

You could use cotton buds that might help!

 

[goldoon]

sorry dear martin, but how should I use them?