zschwartz
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2016
- Posts
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Hey all,
So I ended up holding off on sending back the HD598's because I just couldn't give up on them so fast with so many good reviews about them.
It's been a few weeks of testing the 598s vs DT880's and I have to take back some of my strong opinions above. I went to the philharmonic last night and really tried to pay attention to the natural sound so that I can compare this morning to the headphones. Overall my conclusion is that the HD598's win in terms of depth of sound, as well as their natural sounding bass. Nonetheless, the sound is too recessed to sound live. I suspect it's their mid range that lacks luster for me - is it the dip at 1000hz? As I mentioned before, its like listening behind a curtain.
However, the DT88s, despite the delightful clarity of its treble, is tilted too far towards the higher frequencies. They have a wonderful exciting bright detailed sound, but it's missing an equally exciting lower range to sound like a true orchestra.
Bottom line: DT880's sounds like your there in the hall, but someone has filtered out the lower range. It takes away the depth of the sound. Meanwhile, the HD598's have great depth and are well balanced on both sides of the spectrum - but the sound is recessed. You do lose significant volume on the DT880s 250ohm without an amp. Overall, I must concede that HD598 might be the winner on average. They just aren't what I hoped they would be.
So I ended up holding off on sending back the HD598's because I just couldn't give up on them so fast with so many good reviews about them.
It's been a few weeks of testing the 598s vs DT880's and I have to take back some of my strong opinions above. I went to the philharmonic last night and really tried to pay attention to the natural sound so that I can compare this morning to the headphones. Overall my conclusion is that the HD598's win in terms of depth of sound, as well as their natural sounding bass. Nonetheless, the sound is too recessed to sound live. I suspect it's their mid range that lacks luster for me - is it the dip at 1000hz? As I mentioned before, its like listening behind a curtain.
However, the DT88s, despite the delightful clarity of its treble, is tilted too far towards the higher frequencies. They have a wonderful exciting bright detailed sound, but it's missing an equally exciting lower range to sound like a true orchestra.
Bottom line: DT880's sounds like your there in the hall, but someone has filtered out the lower range. It takes away the depth of the sound. Meanwhile, the HD598's have great depth and are well balanced on both sides of the spectrum - but the sound is recessed. You do lose significant volume on the DT880s 250ohm without an amp. Overall, I must concede that HD598 might be the winner on average. They just aren't what I hoped they would be.