[Myrthin]

It has been an interesting journey for me to get to the Beyerdynamic DT 880 premiums. I've been trying to update my headphone/portables setups. On the move, I've been using the Etymotics HF3s. They sound great. I've ruined them a few times with sweat, so I picked up a pair of sennheiser in-ears designed for sports to solve that problem. That worked out well. I then contemplated additional quality in-ears for office and non-arduous activity. I thought I might replace the etys instead of sending them back in for warranty repair/replacement. I picked up the Martin Logan Mikros, but they were muddy in the mids to bass (a bit one note) and had very rolled off treble. So, I thought perhaps for home use I might go back to full-size cans. I haven't had to use headphones at home except in a studio types setting in which I use Sennheiser HD280 pros or a very old pair of Sony V6s. For music listening I use my Bowers and Wilkins 603/SVS-sub setup (home theater includes the larger 600 center and 685 surrounds). But, alas, a young child has pushed me to contemplate a nice set of headphones once more. I tried Bowers and Wilkins P5 and I like those, might even buy them for office use. But, they didn't quite do it for me as a replacement for my regular speaker music listening experience. After reading through countless threads here and without access to a high end hometheater/audio store to try things out, I ordered the DT880 Premiums (250 Ohm) along with an E7 amp. . In a word, beautiful. I think the headphones are great. The amp is weak. And, I'm not sure why I bought it in retrospect. Since I have the studio equipment, I have a presonus firepod and the headphones sound excellent through that as they do through my Denon receiver. I do like that with the Etymotics that the E7 can amp the bass a little (the Etys sound much better to me with the E7 bass 1 setting). In any case, I very much appreciate the sound signature of the 880s. The treble is excellent with lots of clarity and spaciousness through a surprisingly wide range of genres. So, thanks head-fi, I am glad I found this website.

 

[irishsammy]

Glad you're liking them.  I have a pair of 880-600's and I don't think I'll ever let them go.  Just wanted to mention that if you haven't tried them with a tube amp, that's something you might want to look into.  They sound even better through a good OTL design. 

 

[MattTCG]

I had the whole Beyer line. I loved the 770 and 990 but could never warm up to the 800...pun intended. Glad that you like them though!!

 

[Myrthin]

I don't have the 770 or 990 for comparison. The 880s are my first open headphone. My dad has Stax electrostatics, but those are out of my price range and I've played around with some of the open Sennheiser's. I like having a relatively neutral headphone because I listen to a large range of styles. And, also, I figure that the studio engineer/composer has already mixed their music with the emphases they wanted, so anything that adds to that is coloring the sound in a way not intended by the artist. Thus, I generally favor neutral headphones/speakers. The 880s seem to fit the bill quite well. I've listened to rock, classical, jazz (very nice), prog metal, and blues thus far and all have been enjoyable.