10 year owner of a pair of DT770 80ohm headphones here. They're about at the end of their useful life now sadly. After a decade of daily use I think it's time to retire them. Why? Because frankly, they're beginning to fall apart beyond the point that I can repair them.
The leather headband shed its skin years and years ago revealing the foam, but that wasn't such a big deal. I used some black hockey tape to wrap up the band and have been using it like that for at least 5 years. Then a couple years ago the plastic bracket on the right side which the metal arm slides through to adjust the fit, developed a crack. Not from any particular event, but just through years of fatigue and work hardening of the plastic I suspect. It is a weakpoint in the design imho. I have theorized that the crack developed on the right side first because of the way I put them on and take them off, or because when I want to hear what's going on in the room I'll always lift the right side off my ear, which inevitably puts strain on the bracket on that side. Just the accumulation of doing that over the years may have contributed to it's deterioration. Anywas, I globbed on some JB Weld on the crack to slow down the disintegration, which worked for a little while but eventually the bracket came apart entirely. Even then I did not give up on them though. I removed the remnants of the bracket which were no longer doing anything but being pokey and uncomfortable, and fashioned a replacement from squishy styrofoam
and more hockey tape. Basically I just wanted to make it comfortable to wear again, because once that bracket goes, the metal arm that holds the headphone on that side tends to point inwards, poking your head (very uncomfortable). My fix wasn't perfect, and the can always sat a little cockeyed on that side, but with the occasional re-application of hockey tape I kept it together. Now however the left side bracket is starting to develop
the same crack (
another view from the other side). If you look very closely at your own pair you may see a crack in the same location.
I'm about done trying to keep them useable at this point. They really don't owe me anything. It's a shame though because the sound is still perfect. Despite tripping over the cord and pulling them off my desk dozens of times over the years, despite accidentally rolling over the cable with my chair again and again, they've never developed any buzz or other sound problems that I can detect. They really are quite a durable set of cans in my experience.
I've used them every day for the last 10 years and they've been good to me. I'm not really an audiophile though. I've come to accept that I don't have much of an ear (or perhaps more accurately, I don't have a strong preference) for how a thing sounds, as long as it doesn't sound bad. I've driven them through amps, receivers, phones, laptops... to be honest I've never been able to detect the difference regardless of how or what I've had them hooked up to. They sound good to me in all applications. But more importantly for me, they've been comfortable. I never would have stuck with them this long if they weren't. And they provide good isolation, which I like, as I use them primarily for tv and movie watching, and that isolation helps immerse me in what I'm watching. And the comfort lets me forget I'm wearing them.
I would be happy to own a new pair, but to be honest, after this long the prospect of hearing a different type of sound gets me more excited. So going forward I think I'll be in the market for something different but which checks some of the same boxes (comfort, isolation, $200 ballpark, good build quality...). If anyone wants to throw out some suggestions to that end, I would be happy to hear them and really appreciate your input!
Anyways, I guess you can consider this my very long term review.
) take it with a grain of Indian Ocean sea salt, that if sheepskin with complete seal for 80OHM'ers that one should probably use that Custom Cans damping ,kit or a DIY damping to tighten/clean up that bass a little, then probably a little EQ to regain that Harmony b/w the frequencies. I know i' m not imagining the bass impact increase with sheeps! The new hm5 rounds might be better than ovals. Anyway i'm sticking to velour until maybe alphas + damping, or damping + hm5 , or damping with any sheeps
