Cyrilix
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 31, 2005
- Posts
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Alright, so, since I've had a bit of listening time tonight, and I also own both of these headphones, I will do a mini-comparison of the two. The Labtecs were given to me as a gift and have a retail value within the tens of dollars range (CAD$). The DT880s are $210 USD shipped from Meier. From the beginning, I'm not expecting these cans to perform equally, however, I think this is a good experience for me to compare how far I've progressed from the early days where I didn't care much about sound.
Construction:
For what both headphones look like, here's a link to the Labtecs:
http://images.google.ca/images?q=lab...=Search+Images
As for the beyers, anyone should be able to find this at www.headphone.com or many other places.
Well, I have to say the Labtecs are pretty flimsy in terms of build. They are an open design with plastic cups and pretty soft pads, although the pads seem to be filled with less stuff than the Beyer velour. They are also quite small, so even they seem like circumaural cans, to people with big ears, they will be somewhat like a combo between supraaural/circumaural. The pads are somewhat comfortable, but not nearly as comfortable as the Beyer pads. Overall, the cheap design makes it so that when you move the headphones around on your head, it's a bit squeaky and feels like it might break, although, they are quite rugged and don't break that easily -- they just feel that way. The inner headband is pretty thin and only a bit of a cushion against the plastic behind it, but I have enough hair so that it doesn't matter much to me, although, the Beyer headband is still more comfortable.
The Beyers, on the other hand, excel in all aspects of comfort and fit, and are built very sturdily with metallic headband that covered in leather, at the top, that leaves you confident about its construction.
Sound:
This is not a professional review, and I'm running all of my gear unamped out of a Creative Muvo^2 X-Trainer 512MB flash player, which I believe sounds decent, but then again, I haven't heard better in terms of flash players. This means that none of my headphones will be at their best, however, that is the only way I can do a comparison, at the moment.
The Beyers seem to present the music very naturally, giving the right balance in frequencies as compared to the Labtecs, where a heavy midrange boost is quite noticeable. They also give the feeling of a lower noise floor. The feeling that I'm trying to describe can be said the following way: If you were trying to do critical listening, the Beyers would give you a confined environment to pick out details, whereas the Labtecs seem to put you in a room with other people that are whispering to each other and emanating sounds left and right, so it can be more distracting to pick out those details. I have not been using music with particularly deep bass or with particularly high treble, however, I do feel that the Beyers have slightly deeper bass and an even more noticeable treble extension than the Labtecs. Overall, the Beyers have a more polite presentation that feels like a concert hall, whereas the Labtecs are very compressed in terms of soundstage, however, something just doesn't seem right with its presentation. It could simply be that I'm used to my DT880s, but I feel that the Labtecs are putting too much emphasis in certains regions that unbalances its soundstage. The Labtecs indeed have left/right channel separation, but their front/back depth is greatly lacking.
Conclusion:
Umm...well, this is a review from a newbie audiophile standpoint, and I'm trying to be as objective as possible, so I'll say one thing: Although my Beyers are definite keepers and I like them very much, I don't find the differences between these two headphones to be insane, astounding, or just mind-blowing. Throughout this headphone listening hobby, I've learned to appreciate certain aspects of sound that could be better, however, I don't feel that for the non-audiophile, they would be despairing at the sound that comes out of my Labtecs. Everytime I make an upgrade, I like for there to be just one or two details that were better than my last headphones by a noticeable amount, which can be huge to some people, but put into context, really isn't that huge. That's the beauty of the audiophile world, where small defects are exaggerated and where perfection is what everyone seeks (everyone's own sense of perfection, of course).
Construction:
For what both headphones look like, here's a link to the Labtecs:
http://images.google.ca/images?q=lab...=Search+Images
As for the beyers, anyone should be able to find this at www.headphone.com or many other places.
Well, I have to say the Labtecs are pretty flimsy in terms of build. They are an open design with plastic cups and pretty soft pads, although the pads seem to be filled with less stuff than the Beyer velour. They are also quite small, so even they seem like circumaural cans, to people with big ears, they will be somewhat like a combo between supraaural/circumaural. The pads are somewhat comfortable, but not nearly as comfortable as the Beyer pads. Overall, the cheap design makes it so that when you move the headphones around on your head, it's a bit squeaky and feels like it might break, although, they are quite rugged and don't break that easily -- they just feel that way. The inner headband is pretty thin and only a bit of a cushion against the plastic behind it, but I have enough hair so that it doesn't matter much to me, although, the Beyer headband is still more comfortable.
The Beyers, on the other hand, excel in all aspects of comfort and fit, and are built very sturdily with metallic headband that covered in leather, at the top, that leaves you confident about its construction.
Sound:
This is not a professional review, and I'm running all of my gear unamped out of a Creative Muvo^2 X-Trainer 512MB flash player, which I believe sounds decent, but then again, I haven't heard better in terms of flash players. This means that none of my headphones will be at their best, however, that is the only way I can do a comparison, at the moment.
The Beyers seem to present the music very naturally, giving the right balance in frequencies as compared to the Labtecs, where a heavy midrange boost is quite noticeable. They also give the feeling of a lower noise floor. The feeling that I'm trying to describe can be said the following way: If you were trying to do critical listening, the Beyers would give you a confined environment to pick out details, whereas the Labtecs seem to put you in a room with other people that are whispering to each other and emanating sounds left and right, so it can be more distracting to pick out those details. I have not been using music with particularly deep bass or with particularly high treble, however, I do feel that the Beyers have slightly deeper bass and an even more noticeable treble extension than the Labtecs. Overall, the Beyers have a more polite presentation that feels like a concert hall, whereas the Labtecs are very compressed in terms of soundstage, however, something just doesn't seem right with its presentation. It could simply be that I'm used to my DT880s, but I feel that the Labtecs are putting too much emphasis in certains regions that unbalances its soundstage. The Labtecs indeed have left/right channel separation, but their front/back depth is greatly lacking.
Conclusion:
Umm...well, this is a review from a newbie audiophile standpoint, and I'm trying to be as objective as possible, so I'll say one thing: Although my Beyers are definite keepers and I like them very much, I don't find the differences between these two headphones to be insane, astounding, or just mind-blowing. Throughout this headphone listening hobby, I've learned to appreciate certain aspects of sound that could be better, however, I don't feel that for the non-audiophile, they would be despairing at the sound that comes out of my Labtecs. Everytime I make an upgrade, I like for there to be just one or two details that were better than my last headphones by a noticeable amount, which can be huge to some people, but put into context, really isn't that huge. That's the beauty of the audiophile world, where small defects are exaggerated and where perfection is what everyone seeks (everyone's own sense of perfection, of course).
