[Skarecrow77]

Just got my new Beyers in. First new headphones in about 5 years. I selected them because they were supposed to have the refinement and comfort of my (old style) Sennheiser HD650s, with some of the excitement of my Alessandro MS1s.
 
Rig is a Emu 1212m soundcard acting as DAC, Perreaux SXH-1 amp, headphile silver interconnects (I seriously may wish I had copper soon). It's taking about 90% of the juice the Perreaux can put out to drive these things, but it can handle it.
 
Comfort is there. I guess I've got big ears, because they're touching at the top and the bottom of the circular cups, but it doesn't bother me any. It clamps harder than the 650s, but not as hard as my wife's 580s. It's going to take a bit of getting used to, but it's not bothersome. The Beyers are worlds more comfortable than the MS1s, but that's a given. They're grados.
 
I've listened to the following songs so far with no burn-in:
metallica - fade to black
pink floyd - the thin ice, another brick in the wall pt 1, the happiest days of our lives, another brick in the wall pt 2.
lacuna coil - enjoy the silence
goo goo dolls - name
Evanesence - lies, Imaginary (origin version)
Eminem - Soldier, My 1st single
Kalmah - The Blind Leader, Burbot's Revenge
In Flames - The Jester's Dance, The Jester Race
Guns N' Roses - November Rain
 
This isn't the best cross section of my interests, but it's a good example of some of my favorite "listening" songs.
 
The guitars on fade to black were more aggressive than the 650s, which I like.  This is not the best mastered song in the world, but it's ALWAYS been my traditional "first listen" on new audio gear. Nothing much to report really.
 
Resolution on Floyd was nothing short of fantastic. I've always found the original Wall recordings to be amazing to listen to as well as to analyze if I feel like it. I can wrap my ears around each and every instrument with ease on the Beyers, and they produced very musical playback on that album (as you can see I let that album play for a good while). The cymbals on Floyd were a little sharp, some of the Beyer upper midrange/lower treble spike I've read about? I'm hoping that burn-in tames that a bit.
 
Nothing to note on lacuna coil. I was looking for some sibilance in female vocals and didn't hear it, but then that song isn't the best representation of Christina's voice I guess. I just wanted the the Beyer version of the "ghost voices" in the song, which run shivers down my spine on my MS1s. Not quite as ethereal on the DT880s, but still quite nice.
 
The acoustic guitar strumming on Name is very sharp. Not horribly so, but quite noticable.
 
The sound layering on Lies is quite good. Not as good as the 650 at it's best, but I can pick everything out with ease.I went looking for sibilance again on Imaginary. The version off of origin starts with a TON of "s" and "sh" sounds in the first few verses. They are sharp, no doubt about that, but not as bad as the guitar strums on Name or the cymbals on Floyd. They're not drawing me out of the music.
 
The bass on soldier is completely under control and textured. For all the supposed skill of the HD650s at bass reproduction, I've got to say that I'm more impressed with the Beyers. The quantity is about the same, but the quality is actually a bit higher on the DT880s. Neither of them are basshead cans, but I've never been impressed with the bass on my HD650s and the DT880s are easily a step up. I know others with both sets of cans will disagree with me, but I'm just telling you what I hear. I'm kind of embarassed to say that the gunshots at around 1:58 on Soldier actually made my head snap up and look around. I hadn't heard the tune in awhile and I forgot they were there, and for someone who has spent time on a range with ear protection off by accident (oops), I can't say anything more elaborate than they sounded... right. Real gunshots (as opposed to movie gunshots) have the snap and attack to them that the Beyers reproduced. I'd thought that the "recessed mids" reputation of the Beyers was undeserved, but they're totally there on My 1st single. The "click" sound effects are totally dominating Em's voice.
 
I queued up Kalmah just to see if the Beyers can ROCK. The 600ohm versions are supposed to be quicker than the other versions, I wanted to see how quick they are. The early guitars in Blind leader were a bit recessed, but they showed up with a vengence towards the end. I think it must be the recording. I'd plug the 650s back in to check, but I'm having too much fun with the DT880s. The DT880s bit hold of Burbot's Revenge and didn't let go. I am going to have to queue up more Kalmah later.
 
The Jester's Race as a whole wasn't mastered that well, but I put up with it because it sounds awesome. I was ready for the DT880s to tell me that The Jester's dance was horrible based on SugarKang's impression of them as revealing flaws... but they didn't. I heard the cymbals more prominently than I was used to (not surprising given my impressions from the Wall earlier), but the guitars were all engaging and musical. I can't say much more about The Jester Race other than I've never heard it sound this good. Neither the 650s nor the MS1s could drag this much awesome out of the mediocre recording. The DT880s produced more instrument seperation, detail retrevial, and general headbanging than even the 650s could. I can still hear that treble spike (I'm shying away from EQing it out for now), but it's not as bothersome as it was on a few other songs.
 
The piano opening of November rain doesn't sound right. I can't put my finger on it, but the piano doesn't sound "alive". Maybe I'm just used to the presentation of the 650s. I'll certainly give the DT880s time on this one. The instrument seperation and detail is still very very good. Given the amount of stuff going on in this song (Axl's "artistic" phase), I can put my ears anywhere I want and focus on anything, which is to me a hallmark of quality cans. The DT880s do invite you in to enjoy the song, as well as listen to the presentation. Any time I want, I can analyze the tune, but as soon as I stop trying to I'm just drawn into a listening experience which is all I want out of cans.
 
Conclusion (for now):
 
Sans burn-in, this setup reminds me a lot of the detail resolution I had on my 650s with a silver dragon cable. It's not quite as refined overall, but it is a bit warmer than that setup. Not as analytical (for both the good and bad connotations of that statement) as that setup either, but also not as much of an overall performer as the 650s with stock cable (which I think is highly underrated). There is nothing the stock HD-650s are really bad at (except maybe tracks that are intended to be extremely bass heavy), but there are some things the DT880s are clearly better at than others. They plain and simple rock when asked to so. These are great metal cans in my opinion. Their hard rock performance isn't too shabby either. Their alternative/progressive/artistic performance depends entirely on the tune in question I think.
 
I'll come back with a second round once these things have 100 hours on them or so.

 

[Bojamijams]

Thanks for those.  I'm actually going to be taking posession of my own pair of DT880 600's tomorrow so I'm quite excited (though mine will be used primarily for gaming)
 
As far as silver vs copper, I've heard that silver makes the can brighter so you definitely want to get away from that on the Beyer's and use copper.
 
Definitely post your impressions after the 100hr burn-in.

 

[Skarecrow77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bojamijams /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
As far as silver vs copper, I've heard that silver makes the can brighter so you definitely want to get away from that on the Beyer's and use copper.
 
 

My thoughts exactly. I originally got the silver cables to combat the double "warmness" of the perreaux and the HD650, and it's a pain to replace it with copper now because it's standard RCA on one end and double mono 1/4" plugs on the other end to go to the seperate channel outputs on the 1212m.
 
I'll be doing plenty of gaming on these things, as my gaming rig's sound output is direct digital out to the line-in on the 1212m, so the 1212m does all DAC work for both computers. I'll add in gaming thoughts as well in here at some point.

 

[Syan25]

Thanks for the awesome review and for bringing it to my attention. I am going to be picking up these cans in about two weeks and I have been waiting for a long time. I will also be buying the Ray Samuels HR-2 head amp to power these beasts. 
 
The HD600 are also possible future buys but something tells me the DT-880 (600 ohms) will be enough for me...still I haven't got them yet. 
 
Anyway - would love to hear more from you when you add your second review...
 
BTW - what are the specs on the amp you are using? Do you have any plans to upgrade your head amp now that you have these?
 
Hervie

 

[Skarecrow77]

Quote:

Thanks for the awesome review and for bringing it to my attention. I am going to be picking up these cans in about two weeks and I have been waiting for a long time. I will also be buying the Ray Samuels HR-2 head amp to power these beasts. 
 
The HD600 are also possible future buys but something tells me the DT-880 (600 ohms) will be enough for me...still I haven't got them yet. 
 
Anyway - would love to hear more from you when you add your second review...
 
BTW - what are the specs on the amp you are using? Do you have any plans to upgrade your head amp now that you have these?
 
Hervie

 
Second review is coming when I think I've given them some fair burn-in time, and when I think I've given my ears enough time to drop 6 years worth of built-up preference for the Sennheiser sound (Really 10 years if you count my time with HD-590s and HD-570s). I haven't had nearly as much time to burn these things in as I wanted. My wife works from home in the computer room all day a few feet away so I don't want to leave them on during the workday. "Semi-Closed" or not, these thing still leak enough sound to be heard from across the room.
 
I want to comment about the bass reproduction for a moment.
 
With about 15-20 hours on it now, the bass, which I already through to be superior to the HD-650s, is opening up in punch and impact, while retaining the clarity I already noticed. Still not basshead cans, and I don't ever expect them to be, I am just surprised that most reviews of these things don't mention it because it's definately something I've noticed. I'm wondering if my combo accentuates the bass on these things in the way that other combos don't? I doubt it, because then why were my HD-650s so bass anemic on the same setup? I was thinking maybe it's the age of the HD-650s and their lack of clamping force, but then I don't notice the bass go up on those when I push them against my skull, nor do I ever remember them having the kind of bass the DT880s do.
 
Just for the hell of it, I actually plugged the DT880s into my 5th gen ipod running rockbox firmware last night. Yeah, 600ohm cans on an ipod, crazy I know. I was able to get decent listening volume at "0db" in rockbox with an +8.5db compensation in replaygain settings (not a generic +8.5db boost). It was actually pretty good listening, all things considered. The bass in there wasn't anemic either. It was certainly better than my Alessandro MS1s, which is what I normally use with my ipod. Grados aren't exactly known for their bass either, but I'd say that the DT880s certainly hold their own in the bass department. At least mine do. Perhaps it's just that they're usually compared with the DT770s and DT990s which both are supposed to be more bass-heavy than the DT880s.
 
The mids are beautiful -as long as the treble in the recording isn't overpowering-. The "sharpness" I mentioned about cymbals and "s" / "sh" sounds in female voices is still there. I can't really tell if it's softening or not yet. Thats why I want to give them more time. The "recessed mids" reputation of the DT880 is undeserved in my opinion. It isn't really that they're recessed. It's just that that treble is so sharp. I think I really may end up doing a bit of EQing when all is said and done, although I am still hesitant to do that because every time I've ever EQ'd headphones, when I turn the EQ off days or weeks later, no matter what changes I originally made I end up preferring the headphone's natural signature better.
 
Quick gaming update: I've played World of warcraft, Starcraft 2, and unreal tournament 2004 on these. I've also watched a blu-ray of Iron man 2. None of them struck me as any different than the HD-650s, for better or worse. Soundstaging, coloration (or lack thereof), clarity, and sound placement seems to be about equal between the two cans, at least as far as I can determine in this short time so far.
 
I will add one more note. It seems like I can detect a very slight metallic "closed in" note to the sound sometimes, but I admit that could be placebo effect given that my brain knows that the cans are aluminum and semi-closed.
 
Edit: oh I forgot the amp question. No I don't plan to upgrade the amp any time soon. It does a great job. I have to push the dial to about 90% to get the maximum comfortable volume out of the DT880s (about 85% for my wife's "that's too loud turn it down" comfort), but that doesn't bother me any.
 
I would like one day to get something like a Woo Audio WA3, but that's years down the line. Trying to buy a house right now and I'm lucky I was able to scrape together enough spare cash to get the DT880s.

 

[Bojamijams]

I got mine as well though mine are going to be used purely for gaming (though they're burning in with my Hifiman 801 right now) and listening to them, I have to say that I like the bass they put out.  Apparently it'll open up more as I've only used them for about 7 hours so far but I very much like the sound and the soundstage they paint. 
 
Using them last night with my Essence STX and Battlefield Bad Company 2, I had to have the volume at 30% on 300-600ohm gain setting.  So for those who've said before that the STX can't drive the 600ohm Beyer's.. man.. you couldn't be MORE wrong. 
 
As far as how they did in the game.. well I never had the 'great' gamer headphones before (DT 880, AD700, HD555) but I LOVED the sound I got last night.  It was also the first time I've ever gotten a gold star in game.  So.. they definitely do improve your gameplay even if you can't notice it (I'm too busy trying to kill and not get killed to analyze the sound right now)
 
All in all, completely happy with my purchase.  Will post updates later.  Currently I'm trying to get the Jmoney leather pads for these as they supposedly bump up the bass a bit but it seems very hard to get ahold of Jeremy.
 

 

[shane55]

You are correct... the STX on high gain has no problem powering the 600 ohm DT880, and does so beautifully. It's a great combo as the STX seems to add just a touch of needed warmth to the can.

 

[animemaniac]

Quote:

You are correct... the STX on high gain has no problem powering the 600 ohm DT880, and does so beautifully. It's a great combo as the STX seems to add just a touch of needed warmth to the can.

Same here, I have done some testing with my amp and the STX and as far as my ears can tell I can't tell the two setup apart. Now kinda regret getting the amp plus headphone deal, should have just went with just th non-pro version of the DT880 600 ohm.

 

[Syan25]

Awesome! Can't wait to get hold of my own soon. Good thread mate!
 
Quote:

Just got my new Beyers in. First new headphones in about 5 years. I selected them because they were supposed to have the refinement and comfort of my (old style) Sennheiser HD650s, with some of the excitement of my Alessandro MS1s.
 
Rig is a Emu 1212m soundcard acting as DAC, Perreaux SXH-1 amp, headphile silver interconnects (I seriously may wish I had copper soon). It's taking about 90% of the juice the Perreaux can put out to drive these things, but it can handle it.
 
Comfort is there. I guess I've got big ears, because they're touching at the top and the bottom of the circular cups, but it doesn't bother me any. It clamps harder than the 650s, but not as hard as my wife's 580s. It's going to take a bit of getting used to, but it's not bothersome. The Beyers are worlds more comfortable than the MS1s, but that's a given. They're grados.
 
I've listened to the following songs so far with no burn-in:
metallica - fade to black
pink floyd - the thin ice, another brick in the wall pt 1, the happiest days of our lives, another brick in the wall pt 2.
lacuna coil - enjoy the silence
goo goo dolls - name
Evanesence - lies, Imaginary (origin version)
Eminem - Soldier, My 1st single
Kalmah - The Blind Leader, Burbot's Revenge
In Flames - The Jester's Dance, The Jester Race
Guns N' Roses - November Rain
 
This isn't the best cross section of my interests, but it's a good example of some of my favorite "listening" songs.
 
The guitars on fade to black were more aggressive than the 650s, which I like.  This is not the best mastered song in the world, but it's ALWAYS been my traditional "first listen" on new audio gear. Nothing much to report really.
 
Resolution on Floyd was nothing short of fantastic. I've always found the original Wall recordings to be amazing to listen to as well as to analyze if I feel like it. I can wrap my ears around each and every instrument with ease on the Beyers, and they produced very musical playback on that album (as you can see I let that album play for a good while). The cymbals on Floyd were a little sharp, some of the Beyer upper midrange/lower treble spike I've read about? I'm hoping that burn-in tames that a bit.
 
Nothing to note on lacuna coil. I was looking for some sibilance in female vocals and didn't hear it, but then that song isn't the best representation of Christina's voice I guess. I just wanted the the Beyer version of the "ghost voices" in the song, which run shivers down my spine on my MS1s. Not quite as ethereal on the DT880s, but still quite nice.
 
The acoustic guitar strumming on Name is very sharp. Not horribly so, but quite noticable.
 
The sound layering on Lies is quite good. Not as good as the 650 at it's best, but I can pick everything out with ease.I went looking for sibilance again on Imaginary. The version off of origin starts with a TON of "s" and "sh" sounds in the first few verses. They are sharp, no doubt about that, but not as bad as the guitar strums on Name or the cymbals on Floyd. They're not drawing me out of the music.
 
The bass on soldier is completely under control and textured. For all the supposed skill of the HD650s at bass reproduction, I've got to say that I'm more impressed with the Beyers. The quantity is about the same, but the quality is actually a bit higher on the DT880s. Neither of them are basshead cans, but I've never been impressed with the bass on my HD650s and the DT880s are easily a step up. I know others with both sets of cans will disagree with me, but I'm just telling you what I hear. I'm kind of embarassed to say that the gunshots at around 1:58 on Soldier actually made my head snap up and look around. I hadn't heard the tune in awhile and I forgot they were there, and for someone who has spent time on a range with ear protection off by accident (oops), I can't say anything more elaborate than they sounded... right. Real gunshots (as opposed to movie gunshots) have the snap and attack to them that the Beyers reproduced. I'd thought that the "recessed mids" reputation of the Beyers was undeserved, but they're totally there on My 1st single. The "click" sound effects are totally dominating Em's voice.
 
I queued up Kalmah just to see if the Beyers can ROCK. The 600ohm versions are supposed to be quicker than the other versions, I wanted to see how quick they are. The early guitars in Blind leader were a bit recessed, but they showed up with a vengence towards the end. I think it must be the recording. I'd plug the 650s back in to check, but I'm having too much fun with the DT880s. The DT880s bit hold of Burbot's Revenge and didn't let go. I am going to have to queue up more Kalmah later.
 
The Jester's Race as a whole wasn't mastered that well, but I put up with it because it sounds awesome. I was ready for the DT880s to tell me that The Jester's dance was horrible based on SugarKang's impression of them as revealing flaws... but they didn't. I heard the cymbals more prominently than I was used to (not surprising given my impressions from the Wall earlier), but the guitars were all engaging and musical. I can't say much more about The Jester Race other than I've never heard it sound this good. Neither the 650s nor the MS1s could drag this much awesome out of the mediocre recording. The DT880s produced more instrument seperation, detail retrevial, and general headbanging than even the 650s could. I can still hear that treble spike (I'm shying away from EQing it out for now), but it's not as bothersome as it was on a few other songs.
 
The piano opening of November rain doesn't sound right. I can't put my finger on it, but the piano doesn't sound "alive". Maybe I'm just used to the presentation of the 650s. I'll certainly give the DT880s time on this one. The instrument seperation and detail is still very very good. Given the amount of stuff going on in this song (Axl's "artistic" phase), I can put my ears anywhere I want and focus on anything, which is to me a hallmark of quality cans. The DT880s do invite you in to enjoy the song, as well as listen to the presentation. Any time I want, I can analyze the tune, but as soon as I stop trying to I'm just drawn into a listening experience which is all I want out of cans.
 
Conclusion (for now):
 
Sans burn-in, this setup reminds me a lot of the detail resolution I had on my 650s with a silver dragon cable. It's not quite as refined overall, but it is a bit warmer than that setup. Not as analytical (for both the good and bad connotations of that statement) as that setup either, but also not as much of an overall performer as the 650s with stock cable (which I think is highly underrated). There is nothing the stock HD-650s are really bad at (except maybe tracks that are intended to be extremely bass heavy), but there are some things the DT880s are clearly better at than others. They plain and simple rock when asked to so. These are great metal cans in my opinion. Their hard rock performance isn't too shabby either. Their alternative/progressive/artistic performance depends entirely on the tune in question I think.
 
I'll come back with a second round once these things have 100 hours on them or so.

Quote:

Thanks for those.  I'm actually going to be taking posession of my own pair of DT880 600's tomorrow so I'm quite excited (though mine will be used primarily for gaming)
 
As far as silver vs copper, I've heard that silver makes the can brighter so you definitely want to get away from that on the Beyer's and use copper.
 
Definitely post your impressions after the 100hr burn-in.

Quote:

 
Second review is coming when I think I've given them some fair burn-in time, and when I think I've given my ears enough time to drop 6 years worth of built-up preference for the Sennheiser sound (Really 10 years if you count my time with HD-590s and HD-570s). I haven't had nearly as much time to burn these things in as I wanted. My wife works from home in the computer room all day a few feet away so I don't want to leave them on during the workday. "Semi-Closed" or not, these thing still leak enough sound to be heard from across the room.
 
I want to comment about the bass reproduction for a moment.
 
With about 15-20 hours on it now, the bass, which I already through to be superior to the HD-650s, is opening up in punch and impact, while retaining the clarity I already noticed. Still not basshead cans, and I don't ever expect them to be, I am just surprised that most reviews of these things don't mention it because it's definately something I've noticed. I'm wondering if my combo accentuates the bass on these things in the way that other combos don't? I doubt it, because then why were my HD-650s so bass anemic on the same setup? I was thinking maybe it's the age of the HD-650s and their lack of clamping force, but then I don't notice the bass go up on those when I push them against my skull, nor do I ever remember them having the kind of bass the DT880s do.
 
Just for the hell of it, I actually plugged the DT880s into my 5th gen ipod running rockbox firmware last night. Yeah, 600ohm cans on an ipod, crazy I know. I was able to get decent listening volume at "0db" in rockbox with an +8.5db compensation in replaygain settings (not a generic +8.5db boost). It was actually pretty good listening, all things considered. The bass in there wasn't anemic either. It was certainly better than my Alessandro MS1s, which is what I normally use with my ipod. Grados aren't exactly known for their bass either, but I'd say that the DT880s certainly hold their own in the bass department. At least mine do. Perhaps it's just that they're usually compared with the DT770s and DT990s which both are supposed to be more bass-heavy than the DT880s.
 
The mids are beautiful -as long as the treble in the recording isn't overpowering-. The "sharpness" I mentioned about cymbals and "s" / "sh" sounds in female voices is still there. I can't really tell if it's softening or not yet. Thats why I want to give them more time. The "recessed mids" reputation of the DT880 is undeserved in my opinion. It isn't really that they're recessed. It's just that that treble is so sharp. I think I really may end up doing a bit of EQing when all is said and done, although I am still hesitant to do that because every time I've ever EQ'd headphones, when I turn the EQ off days or weeks later, no matter what changes I originally made I end up preferring the headphone's natural signature better.
 
Quick gaming update: I've played World of warcraft, Starcraft 2, and unreal tournament 2004 on these. I've also watched a blu-ray of Iron man 2. None of them struck me as any different than the HD-650s, for better or worse. Soundstaging, coloration (or lack thereof), clarity, and sound placement seems to be about equal between the two cans, at least as far as I can determine in this short time so far.
 
I will add one more note. It seems like I can detect a very slight metallic "closed in" note to the sound sometimes, but I admit that could be placebo effect given that my brain knows that the cans are aluminum and semi-closed.
 
Edit: oh I forgot the amp question. No I don't plan to upgrade the amp any time soon. It does a great job. I have to push the dial to about 90% to get the maximum comfortable volume out of the DT880s (about 85% for my wife's "that's too loud turn it down" comfort), but that doesn't bother me any.
 
I would like one day to get something like a Woo Audio WA3, but that's years down the line. Trying to buy a house right now and I'm lucky I was able to scrape together enough spare cash to get the DT880s.

 

[Syan25]

I do think it pays to have a strong amp driving these - to get the best results from them. From that point of view - one would be shopping for an amp to match an headphone....
 
I had never thought of using them with ipod but I am glad you had success there. 

 

[Skarecrow77]

Quote:

I do think it pays to have a strong amp driving these - to get the best results from them. From that point of view - one would be shopping for an amp to match an headphone....
 
I had never thought of using them with ipod but I am glad you had success there. 

Things feel generally "cleanlier" on the amp compared to straight out of the ipod. Things are more focused. That's about it. The ipod's quality really surprised me, because I expected to hear whispering at best. I doubt I'll use them with the ipod on any regular basis, that's what the MS1s are for. much more portable.