Beyerdynamic DT880 600ohm review - The 5 Star General
May 9, 2011 at 5:57 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 13

GN3RAL KARL

100+ Head-Fier
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Posts
263
Likes
19
I had purchased this over a year ago.  Even though I no longer own it I want to chime in on perhaps one of the best headphones you can get.  I've craved more bass, so my journey for the headphone that strikes me solid continues.  Nevertheless, the DT880 600ohm has grand comfort, grand sound, and it REQUIRES a grand amp. Strap it to one, and brace yourself for some ultra-serious reference listening. Ridiculously refined and Aquafina pure, this can will take you to a whole new universe through your tunes.

Highs - They are crafted so beautifully, you would think they were hand-made. Smooth like Dove soap and detailed are words to describe here. No grainy textures or harsh notes period. Zilch trace of excessive brightness either. Highs blend in with the rest of the ranges and yet you can still easily focus on it if you wanted to. Without a doubt, this model easily bests the 250 ohm version and only slightly surpasses the 32 ohm. It is literally the best highs I've ever heard.

Mids - The mids here are just as forward the 32 ohm version. This range is so buttery, even Orville Redenbacher will be jealous. Not a single detail is missed. In other headphones, the mid-range is treated like a step-child; forced to sit down, and shut up (no offense to any step-children). Not here. Every last voice and note make a direct connection to your eardrum. The transmission goes straight to the head, and your brain tells your body to dance. Trance, Hip-Hop, Rock, Paper, Scissors, whatever, sounds delightful and engaging. The midrange is very full, and very much alive.

Lows - Incredible. The bass goes so deep, I might have just struck some oil in there. Awesome slam and impact gives your tunes the necessary low-end grunt it needs. Even for Hip-Hop fans, there's plenty of fish in this boat. The bass is excruciatingly tight and has so much texture to it, you can almost feel it. In addition, it never bleeds into the other ranges, always giving attention into the entire spectrum. Can you imitate the grin on a 12 year-old kid who just received a new toy? If you can't, you're only kidding yourself. Put one of these on, and these will do it for you.

Soundstage - It's as wide as Aunt Betty, and about as deep as Microsoft's pockets. Fantastic imaging will bring that holographic effect to your tunes. Notes and their relative positions are easy to locate like a good GPS system. Well, you might as well get lost in here, because the music just surrounds you with utter precision and crystal-clear timbre. There is also a great sense of "air" between the notes that is naturally pleasing.

Detail Retrieval - The ultra-low noise floor of this model squeezes out even more sounds/nuances than the lower impedance counterparts. Such as the human hand gliding over a piano. The crystal clear pluck of a guitar string. Or hearing a couple of fleas playing poker backstage. This headphone will surprise you, wondering if your ears are playing tricks on you. Nope. You DID just hear that. Fanstastic.

Value - I have mine connected to a Sony NWZ-A729 (16gb) mp3 player with a "Bioscience Geek (BSG)" DIY Cmoy amp (eBay) in between. I have to give credit to "Bioscience Geek" for making such an incredible amp. It, as well as the Beyers, is the best amp I've heard to date. The amp has an extremely low distortion rating, huge soundstage and superb separation of instruments in addition to a very non-fatiguing, crisp sound signature. All for a mere fifty bucks and impedance matched for the 600 ohm load to boot. This combination has me in constant break-yur-neck mode because the sound just cannot be faulted. This leads me to give this phone my highest remarks ever for value and sound.

If you don't have a brute amp that can drive this titan, get the 32 ohm version instead. Skip the 250 ohm version. That one sounds great, but honestly does not offer (as much) the same extremely well-rounded ranges as the 32 or 600 ohm version.

Beyerdynamic DT880 600 ohm = The Omega of audio.

Max Sound Level before distorting - 109db

*Burn in just increases (by a small amount) the already extraordinary clarity of this headphone. This is mainly because this model has such a refined sound, that right out of the box it sounds virtually perfect.

*I've just purchased another top-notch quality DIY Cmoy from a seller called "JDS Labs". His amp, as well as Bioscience Geek's, are made with extremely high quality parts. Even though some parts may be slightly different in both, the sound is virtually the same to my ears from both amps. Which of course means crystal-clear, engaging tunes either way (you can't go wrong here, your choice). Once again, these are the best solid states I've heard.

However the JDS Labs has a bass boost toggle switch. When switched off, it sounds like BioScience Geek's as mentioned earlier. But when switched on, the DT880 600 ohm absolutely sings!!! EVERYTHING remains the same when speaking sound quality, but the bass actually matches my Audio Technica M50's! This was the EXACT end result I was looking for. The bass texture and even the impact still deserves the top rating that I've given it without the bass boost, yet the "JDS Labs Bass Boost Cmoy" takes it to stage 2 of euphoria!

If you're considering the same setup, be sure to mention to the incredibly knowledgeable, and top-rated seller, to have the amp impedance matched for the 600 ohm load. I also have another one from this seller matched to my Etymotic MC5's (16 ohm), and for experimentation, tried the 880's with the MC5 matched version. Undesirable effects in sound (distortion, popping, etc.) was prevalent, only because it wasn't matched for 600 ohm. So be sure to send a note through the buying process what headphones you will have connected to it, for it would make a world's difference.

Happy Head-Fiyin'!
 
May 9, 2011 at 6:35 PM Post #2 of 13
Wow, that was an interesting review. What about some pictures of your rig? 
wink.gif

 
May 9, 2011 at 7:30 PM Post #3 of 13
Thanks!  I am deeply sorry though I can't post pics of the 880.  I love photos myself :).  I had recently got a decent camera; on my G2 phone.  I had sold the 880's before I got the phone.
 
May 22, 2011 at 10:41 PM Post #4 of 13


Quote:
Thanks!  I am deeply sorry though I can't post pics of the 880.  I love photos myself :).  I had recently got a decent camera; on my G2 phone.  I had sold the 880's before I got the phone.


If the DT880s are so amazing, what made you sell them? 
confused.gif

 
 
May 22, 2011 at 10:50 PM Post #5 of 13


Quote:
If the DT880s are so amazing, what made you sell them? 
confused.gif

 


I had found that the DT990 32ohm were more versatile for me and my situation.  I couldn't connect the 880's to everything without having it properly amped, plus it didn't do that well for me in movies and games.  That alone irritated me, but the sound was awesome with pure music.  Plus I had just recently acquired the Pro700MK2's.  Those are my favs right now.
 
 
May 22, 2011 at 10:51 PM Post #6 of 13


Quote:
I had found that the DT990 32ohm were more versatile for me and my situation.  I couldn't connect the 880's to everything without having it properly amped, plus it didn't do that well for me in movies and games.  That alone irritated me, but the sound was awesome with pure music.  Plus I had just recently acquired the Pro700MK2's.  Those are my favs right now.
 


Understood. Thanks for clarifying 
dt880smile.png

 
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 1:37 PM Post #8 of 13
Great review. Ordered today from headroom's B-stock.  Price was too good to let go. 
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 2:02 PM Post #9 of 13


Quote:
If you don't have a brute amp that can drive this titan, get the 32 ohm version instead. Skip the 250 ohm version. That one sounds great, but honestly does not offer (as much) the same extremely well-rounded ranges as the 32 or 600 ohm version.
....
Happy Head-Fiyin'!

 
Enjoyed your post on the whole OP!  I just wanted to put it out there though that there are some divergent opinions as to whether the 32 ohm version really stands up to the 250 ohm and 600 ohm.  I think the more common conclusion, at least based on the posts I've read, is that the 32 ohm 880's may be the weakest of the three due to under damping.  See for starters, Tyll's excellent post on the differences: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/comparison-beyerdynamic-dt-880-32-ohm-dt-880-250-ohm-and-dt-880-600-ohm-headphones

There's also a very interesting thread in sound science discussing the 250 vs 600 ohm versions: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/506963/dt880-600ohm-bs
 
 
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 2:10 PM Post #10 of 13
switching to the 990, is there anything you miss about the 880's? I am curious because i was on the fence and ended up springing for the 990's (best purchase EVAR!!!
dt880smile.png
)
 
Aug 3, 2011 at 1:37 PM Post #11 of 13


Quote:
 
Enjoyed your post on the whole OP!  I just wanted to put it out there though that there are some divergent opinions as to whether the 32 ohm version really stands up to the 250 ohm and 600 ohm.  I think the more common conclusion, at least based on the posts I've read, is that the 32 ohm 880's may be the weakest of the three due to under damping.  See for starters, Tyll's excellent post on the differences: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/comparison-beyerdynamic-dt-880-32-ohm-dt-880-250-ohm-and-dt-880-600-ohm-headphones
 
There's also a very interesting thread in sound science discussing the 250 vs 600 ohm versions: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/506963/dt880-600ohm-bs
 
 

 
Thank you!  I did take a look at Tyll's articles, and I must concur that he's on to something.  At the time that I had the 32ohm, it was using the Airhead to power it.  I'm quite sure that if I had it now connected to my Fiio E9, that it would take it to a new level - and that also includes the 250ohm.  I've also realized that even the 600ohm wasn't getting enough juice, and now, I wish I had it and saved up for a Schiit Lyr to give it the power it needs.
 
Tyll is technically correct.  However, I've quickly learned that what powers your phones can lead to drastically different results as well.  Now I must conclude that no matter what version you get, feed that puppy the right kibbles and that phone will fetch detail for you all day long in your jams!
 
 
 
Aug 3, 2011 at 1:42 PM Post #12 of 13


Quote:
switching to the 990, is there anything you miss about the 880's? I am curious because i was on the fence and ended up springing for the 990's (best purchase EVAR!!!
dt880smile.png
)


I thought I missed the slightly smoother highs, but that changed when I bought the E9 and used a 50ohm adapter to the 990 32 ohm.  The adapter completely took off the slight edge off the highs, added more depth and smoothness to the sound, and tightened up as well as adding a smidge more quantity to the bass.  I don't miss the 880 600 ohm at all.
 
In fact, I'm looking forward to see if Beyer would launch Tesla drivers in a revised 990 like they did with the DT770 - called the T70 if you haven't heard.  I will be all over it - It might be called the T90 for the DT990 version and the T80 for the DT880.
 
 
Aug 3, 2011 at 1:51 PM Post #13 of 13

 
Quote:
I thought I missed the slightly smoother highs, but that changed when I bought the E9 and used a 50ohm adapter to the 990 32 ohm.  The adapter completely took off the slight edge off the highs, added more depth and smoothness to the sound, and tightened up as well as adding a smidge more quantity to the bass.  I don't miss the 880 600 ohm at all.
 
In fact, I'm looking forward to see if Beyer would launch Tesla drivers in a revised 990 like they did with the DT770 - called the T70 if you haven't heard.  I will be all over it - It might be called the T90 for the DT990 version and the T80 for the DT880.
 

 
ah cool, im running the 600ohm beyers, i opted for them as i heard many people had similar experiences as you did with the higher impedance 990's (also, for peace of mind haha)
yeah i'm really excited to see if they do a revised t90 style thing, i have yet to hear tesla drivers but if they are able to make improvements to what is a perfect headphone (for these ears) then i'll have to jump on it
 
 
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top