Beyerdynamic DT-1770: Product Info, Discussion and Impressions

[shuto77]

Consider any one of the following three:

1. Only an Amp: FiiO E12
(powerful and excellent damping, portable)
$110

or

2. DAC/Amp: FiiO E17 Alpen
$120 or used Oppo HA-2


or


3. Any sound card with good Headphone Out:

Roland QUAD-CAPTURE - USB 2.0 Audio Interface

or

Native Instruments KOMPLETE AUDIO 6 -

or

Steinberg UR22mkII - USB 2.0 Audio Interface

or the cheap but very good:

Behringer U-PHORIA UMC404HD / $99
(Excellent DAC chip, very decent amp, terrific build AND 24bit/192kHz!!)

 
I've used the DT1770 with the Oppo HA-2. It was a great pairing, especially if you can snag a deal on a used one. I actually have a Fiio E12 on the way, and I'll be using it with the Dt1770 as well. 

 

[Subhakar]

I've used the DT1770 with the Oppo HA-2. It was a great pairing, especially if you can snag a deal on a used one. I actually have a Fiio E12 on the way, and I'll be using it with the Dt1770 as well. 

E12 is indeed special - $110 portable one with desktop grade chip. Can drive 600ohm DT 990 Premiums quite well.

 

[pietcux]

E12 is indeed special - $110 portable one with desktop grade chip. Can drive 600ohm DT 990 Premiums quite well.

Even though weaker un power output, I like the E12a more. It's still more than loud enough for the DT1770, but sounds less harsh and overall more pleasing than the original E12.

 

[Subhakar]

Even though weaker un power output, I like the E12a more. It's still more than loud enough for the DT1770, but sounds less harsh and overall more pleasing than the original E12.

Indeed! E12A, the IEM version is a lot more satisfying than E12 and powerful enough for the sensitive DT 1770. But,if he were to connect the amp to his external monitors too, as he is moving away from Xonar, E12 might be more useful with its higher power.

 

[Rado2]

Strange, nobody mentioned O2+DAC. I think it is cheap and quality solution. I'm using that. It has enough to drive 1770 very, very loud with clean transparent power. The DAC bundled is sound card running on variety of systems and enough to satisfy people hearing above 24 KHz with high 24 bit resolution. For me it's really optimal. Anyway, there is enough said and written about it.

 

[headwhacker]

Strange, nobody mentioned O2+DAC. I think it is cheap and quality solution. I'm using that. It has enough to drive 1770 very, very loud with clean transparent power. The DAC bundled is sound card running on variety of systems and enough to satisfy people hearing above 24 KHz with high 24 bit resolution. For me it's really optimal. Anyway, there is enough said and written about it.

 
DT-1770 is easy enough to drive. O2 even is overkill. DT-1770 can be driven well from a DAP. Nowadays it's easy to find a DAPs with >2Vrms output.

 

[shuto77]

DT-1770 is easy enough to drive. O2 even is overkill. DT-1770 can be driven well from a DAP. Nowadays it's easy to find a DAPs with >2Vrms output.

Is it safe to say the DT1770 doesn't scale up very well then?

 

[headwhacker]

Is it safe to say the DT1770 doesn't scale up very well then?

 
To be honest I don't know how a headphone scales up as the headphone amp power output goes higher. The headphone will always pull the same amount of power regardless of the power output of an amp.
 
If you are referring to amps sounding different. It could probably just due to flavor added by the amp. An underpowered amp in case of a high impedance load like DT-1770 will have noticeably softer volume. than an adequately powered amp. 

 

[DasKobold]

But is it a good idea to get a amp when my soundcard itself is not good? Wouldn't it just end up making the crappy sound louder?
 
Also, is there a way to tell if my headphones are broken? Because I don't know if I am getting paranoid or if my headphones are broken, I think I am hearing **** that I am not supposed to hear. Can you guys listen to these audio tests here http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php ? The bass shacker test sounds weird to me, the left side is clearly louder than the the right side. What should I do? The beyerdynamic store is far away from me and if I send those in to them it will take weeks for them to repair them and I don't even know if they are broken or not.

 

[headwhacker]

  But is it a good idea to get a amp when my soundcard itself is not good? Wouldn't it just end up making the crappy sound louder?
 
Also, is there a way to tell if my headphones are broken? Because I don't know if I am getting paranoid or if my headphones are broken, I think I am hearing **** that I am not supposed to hear. Can you guys listen to these audio tests here http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php ? The bass shacker test sounds weird to me, the left side is clearly louder than the the right side. What should I do? The beyerdynamic store is far away from me and if I send those in to them it will take weeks for them to repair them and I don't even know if they are broken or not.

 
Anything other than a soundcard is an upgrade not only for DT-1770

 

[Dephezz]

  But is it a good idea to get a amp when my soundcard itself is not good? Wouldn't it just end up making the crappy sound louder?
 
Also, is there a way to tell if my headphones are broken? Because I don't know if I am getting paranoid or if my headphones are broken, I think I am hearing **** that I am not supposed to hear. Can you guys listen to these audio tests here http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php ? The bass shacker test sounds weird to me, the left side is clearly louder than the the right side. What should I do? The beyerdynamic store is far away from me and if I send those in to them it will take weeks for them to repair them and I don't even know if they are broken or not.

1) It depends on your soundcard. If it has ****ty DAC with ****ty 'binding' it will deffinitely provide a worse quality analog signal than a better DAC. Good amp will smooth over your bad SC, so IMO first you need to start with DAC. 100$ is enough for a good quality DAC. Like Schiit Modi2. Amp? Like Fiio e12. 200$ and you have a decent home/portable system.
 
2) YEAH! I thought i'm the only one with this "louder than another" schiit! And i know why your LEFT side is CLEARLY louder than your right side. Its because of crappy Beyers ingineering: different clamp force of left/right sides because sliders are SEPARATED in the headband. They have 3-4mm gaps inside their sliders. I disassembled them. Installed 2 thin strips of carton from each side. Now they have NO GAPs, perfect clamp force from both sides, no difference in sound (because now they isolate !equally! and bass doesnt leak more from one side) and have perfect 'german' quality and NOW they are sturdy, like all reviewers say Man, i thought i could get a nice quality HPs for 500$ nowadays. But...
 
BTW: 10to200Hz test is perfectly fine ITO sound quality. If you hear something strange in your music records - its because dt-1770 are one of the most revealing HPs on the market. They are perfect for critical listneling. So or you have bad records or your music was badly recorded in the studio or your driver died and makes distorted sounds.
 
 

 

 

 

 

[pietcux]

Sorry, but I think you misunderstand the clamp force thing and the purpose of the headband assembly.

 

[Soundizer]

Anyone also own any of the popular Fostex Closed Headphones as a comparison to the DT1770Pro?

 

[Dephezz]

Sorry, but I think you misunderstand the clamp force thing and the purpose of the headband assembly.

The point is that the right cup was much tighter. If you press on the cup from the back of the head side it will rotate a little and you will hear more bass impact. Thats exactly what i had. One side had more clamp force on back of the head side. Plus right side had much less rotation in slider in x axis than left one. Now they have equal x asis rotation and no gap/movement in sliders AT ALL, no 'crack' sound when you move them apart.
BTW, its my second pair and it has exactly the same issue. I think people who made reviews on dt1770 never had something "high quality made and really sturdy" in their hands

 

[pietcux]

  The point is that the right cup was much tighter. If you press on the cup from the back of the head side it will rotate a little and you will hear more bass impact. Thats exactly what i had. One side had more clamp force on back of the head side. Plus right side had much less rotation in slider in x axis than left one. Now they have equal x asis rotation and no gap/movement in sliders AT ALL, no 'crack' sound when you move them apart.
BTW, its my second pair and it has exactly the same issue. I think people who made reviews on dt1770 never had something "high quality made and really sturdy" in their hands

The slider mechanism is around since the 1975 I think. They sold millions of headphones with it. My DT1770 has perfect equal X axis movement on both sides. So no, it is not bad engineering, you just have a unit with a slight failure. Not nice, but things like this can happen. Here is a DT 440 from the late 70th with exactly the same headband mechanism: