[redogfizbal]

Any other impressions? I can’t imagine they are that much different from the standard dt 770s

 

[crazywipe]

The 32 ohm sounds amazing. Never tried the 16...

 

[ikamusume]

Here are my impressions and comparisons between the Sony MDR-A44 and the Beyerdynamic 770 i and Audio Technica ATH-M50 (so it's the Sony vs the other two unless stated otherwise, which I realize isn't 100% helpful as most people have never heard these Sony's). Disclaimer: I'm not an audiophile and I don't have much experience with different headphones. I tend to favor the sound of efficient speakers, and I listen to classic rock (especially orchestral rock), movie soundtracks, trance, and dubstep. I can just barely detect (not hear) the whine of my analog TV, where I used to be able to hear it clearly, so I've lost some of my high frequency hearing.

My day-to-day headphones are the ancient (late 90's) vertical in-ear Sony MDR-A44 (16 ohm, 108dB), which sound absolutely amazing to me, are extremely light and comfortable, and are great exercise headphones. They have very little leakage, but provide no isolation at all, which is annoying in an office (again, great for exercise). Compared to the old pack-in iPod earbuds the bass is a lot less boomy. The bass is there, and they go amazingly deep but it's not loud (Is the proper word "tight"? Not sure). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't like it when the bass is taking over the music. To me those iPod earbuds sound like if someone grabbed the bass knob and twisted it all the way up, for me I'd rather it be twisted a bit down and the treble knob a bit up, if that makes any sense. I love listening to electronic music on these Sony's, because it cuts out a lot of the excessive bass. This is obviously not what the musician intended, so I suppose I am not after a perfectly flat frequency response.

I went to Guitar Center to pick up the Beyerdynamic 770 Pro 32 ohm, but they didn't have them in stock. However they had these 770 i's, so I picked these up cheap as a return on clearance (so many red flags, in retrospect, but thank goodness they put in a special return allowance on the receipt for me). I was expecting these to be relatively efficient (16 ohm, 96 dB), but I kept having to turn up my phone volume (I'll come back to this in a second). They have too much bass so that means dubstep isn't as enjoyable for me on these (again, I don't like as much bass, so this might be fine for others). The bass doesn't seem to extend to the mids, unlike those iPod earbuds, so the bass isn't all bad, and I bet some people would really like it, but it is still too much for me. Mids and vocals are quieter than I want. I'm convinced that the quiet vocals are why I am turning up the volume, and is to me this is the main weakness of these headphones. Maybe they're supposed to be this way? Anyhow, to me it sounds bad. As far as comfort, I'd never really worn over the ear headphones before, so it took me about a day and a half to finally get used to my head feeling like it was clamped in a vise and my ears being too warm, but I got over it and I can wear them for hours now, no problem. They isolate decently (less than I'd like, but not terrible), so a lot of times I'll just be wearing them with no music. However, with music playing, all outside sounds are basically gone (I didn't even hear that test presidential emergency alert on my phone the other day and I'm missing lots of telemarketer calls, no loss!).

A co-worker let me try out his Audio Technica ATH-M50 (non-x, 2 years old) headphones to compare with my 770 i's. Now this is more like it! Bass was good, a bit more than the Sony's but definitely in a reasonable range and nothing close to the 770 i's, so for me dubstep was great on the M50's. Mids and highs sounded good too, basically just like the Sony's, although I think I detect just a tad more harshness at the highest frequencies on the M50s, but nothing to complain about. The sound seems richer or fuller to me than the Sony's, I'm sure that's a terrible description, sorry, but actually I like the way these sound better than the Sony's. The M50s were just instantly natural and enjoyable to listen to, I didn't feel like I was trying to get used to the sound, unlike on the 770 i's. Comfort was not as good as the 770 i's, partly because his pads are flat from use, but also because they couldn't be adjusted to be short enough so it was flopping around on my head a bit. They are lighter than the 770 i's which is a plus. Isolation wasn't as good as the 770 i's, but maybe that's just because of the flat pads, but still way better than the Sony's.

Hopefully all that made sense. If there's anyone out there that was able to decipher all that and likes the same sound I do and would be willing to recommend something more comfortable for me, that'd be much appreciated! In summary I'm looking for: closed over-the-ear, with high efficiency so a phone can drive them without an amp, with solid but somewhat weaker bass that definitely doesn't color the mids, mids that are solid and not quiet, and comfortable highs (is that a good description of the M50's besides the comfort?)

Thanks for reading!