[Bleeding Spark]

I have the older model of the Beyer DT 880 and it's a solid headphone. I easily have 300 hours on these cans, but on most recordings the sibilance can be really harsh.

Would a cable upgrade help at all? I've been thinking about sending my cans to Larry at Headphile for an upgrade, would that help tame the sibilance in my phones?

For those of you who had Larry upgrade your Beyers, which type of cable did you get and why?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Your profile says you're using a Total Bithead. Have you considered a different amp or source? For the price of re-cabling, which may or may not help, you could buy something that really would make a difference.

 

[lostbobby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bleeding Spark I have the older model of the Beyer DT 880 and it's a solid headphone. I easily have 300 hours on these cans, but on most recordings the sibilance can be really harsh. Would a cable upgrade help at all? I've been thinking about sending my cans to Larry at Headphile for an upgrade, would that help tame the sibilance in my phones? For those of you who had Larry upgrade your Beyers, which type of cable did you get and why?

Well, I could answer that by bringing a couple pairs of 880s to your island. The silver-plated copper cable sounds subtly different from stock. A nice upgrade.

 

[Capt. Z]

I have two Beyer cans and have changed the cables on both. I do feel, that the original cables on the Beyers are rubish.

They choke the mids and some bass, while overemphezising the highs.

I have used a 21ga solid core copper wire for one of my Beyers, while the other one is a quadlink Microphone cable from Cananre.

Both cable add more mids and some bass, while they balance out the highs.

I would defenetly re-cable with a "warm" sounding cable.

 

[TheSloth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt. Z I have two Beyer cans and have changed the cables on both. I do feel, that the original cables on the Beyers are rubish. They choke the mids and some bass, while overemphezising the highs. I have used a 21ga solid core copper wire for one of my Beyers, while the other one is a quadlink Microphone cable from Cananre. Both cable add more mids and some bass, while they balance out the highs. I would defenetly re-cable with a "warm" sounding cable.

There's always the new Equinox cable - not sure why Stefan went with a 3 conductor design using the original headband cable, but sonically my experience tells me he knows what he's doing.

 

[cantsleep]

i recabled mine with mini starquad and for the amount of money that i spent, the result is pretty okay

 

[Bleeding Spark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik Your profile says you're using a Total Bithead. Have you considered a different amp or source? For the price of re-cabling, which may or may not help, you could buy something that really would make a difference.

The bithead is used exclusively in my portable rig (ipod, Grado SR 80)
At home I plug my Beyers directly into my Denon AVR 3805 receiver, which has plenty of power to drive those cans.

The Beyers are too hard to drive using the bithead, not nearly enough power.

 

[Lad27]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt. Z "warm" sounding cable

How can a cable sound warm? Perhaps rubbing it in a quart of snake oil?

*** putting flak jacket on right now, ***** is gonna hit the fan ***

 

[nickchen]

Quote:

How can a cable sound warm? Perhaps rubbing it in a quart of snake oil?

Of course it can. Didn't you know? BTW, the earth is a plate - a silver plate for headfi-sponsors and dupers...

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bleeding Spark I have the older model of the Beyer DT 880 and it's a solid headphone. I easily have 300 hours on these cans, but on most recordings the sibilance can be really harsh. Would a cable upgrade help at all?

It might, but IMO you could need a comprehensive plan to tame it... including a source, amp, ICs that are all somewhat warm sounding and/or mellow in the highs. IME it's not that hard to get the DT880 sounding much better, albeit it won't ever sound like an HD650 up top (not that I'd want it to

).

 

[Vul Kuolun]

I love the stock-cable on my 880.

It makes them sound realy airy, and gives them a nice sparkle in the upper regions while keeping the bass deep and tight.
Maybe someone should try it with a 650

BTW, the Linkwitz-CF, which i use solved the sibiliance problem. Tames highs a tad.

 

[Bleeding Spark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch It might, but IMO you could need a comprehensive plan to tame it... including a source, amp, ICs that are all somewhat warm sounding and/or mellow in the highs. IME it's not that hard to get the DT880 sounding much better, albeit it won't ever sound like an HD650 up top (not that I'd want it to ).

My source is a Denon DV 3910 with audio art analog interconnects, and Denon Link III for digital connections. A dedicated home amp will be purchased eventually, but for now the headphone jack in my Denon receiver is just fine.

Has anyone here replaced the stock cable with headphile's Black Gold cable?

 

[Borat]

Here is another option you may want to consider:

Zynsonix Headphone Rewiring Service

He offers two different rewiring choices for the DT880's. Zynsonix is Head-Fi member HighFlyin9.

 

[Julz]

The best way I found to lessen the slight sibilance of the DT's is to pair them with a tube amp. Not to poo-poo the idea of cable upgrades, I'm sure many people think they do hear a night-and-day difference, but going from Solid State to a tube amp really helped in spades.

 

[fjf]

Another way of lowering sibilance is using a 120 Ohm amplifier output. BTW, it is the recording what it is sibilant usually, not the cans.