Slaughter
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2006
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This isn't an in-depth review because I don't have time to write one. Okay, so I've had my 880/600 for two days. I did some listening when I got them and then they spent last night and a lot of today with pink noise, just in case it needed to settle in. I didn't hear any noticeable change before and after, but that's just me.
Gear - FLAC --> X-Fi ExtremeMusic (coax out) --> Entec 203.2 --> SOHA Hybrid w/ a 2107 opamp and GE 5963 tube
Music - Adult Alternative, Folk, Acoustic, Country, Rock, and a dash of Hip-Hop. No classical for me.
First impression, holy s**t! Detailed, smooth, solid low end. This can totally exceeded my expectations. No harsh notes to be found. Just smooth as butter from top to bottom and it seemed that every frequency was well represented. Soundstage to die for. I was totally immersed in the music. I use to have a 770 and 990 and hated them, except for the fit, and of course the 880 still retains this best in class comfort. I couldn't believe the detail I was hearing. The decay on instruments goes on forever and ever and ever. You can totally feel the room the song was recorded in.
Quick story, I asked my wife to sit down and listen to Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (She loves old Willie songs) and she said she needed to pack for trip and didn't want to. I forced her to and 1 hour later I got my computer chair back. She was giving me the thumbs up every time she was impressed. I got a lot of thumbs up during that hour.
Back to my impressions. Now I started comparing to my HD580 with 600 grills and 650 cable. I love these cans. Call it synergy or whatever, but these cans in my setup can rock out with the best of them. Awesome mids. Not a recession in sight. More on that in a minute.
Soundstage - The 880 definitely has a larger sounding soundstage. It wasn't that the soundstage was larger, it was the decay I was talking about earlier. Vocals and instruments just hung out there longer giving the impression of a larger soundstage. It was awesome. The 580 has a tendency to have the three blobs effect, but this is greatly reduced with the 600 grills.
Highs/Detail - The 580 had the same detail as the 880, I just had to focus a little more to hear it which got annoying if I was analyzing a song. I don't do that often, but I did find myself switching to the 880 to hear little nuances of a song and then back to the 580 and I was like, oh, there it is. It was there, just not immediately apparent. I can't imagine another headphone doing much better than the 880.
Mids - These are very important to me. Sorry Beyer fans, this was hit or miss depending on the music. When it was good, it was great, when it was bad, it was bad. I shouldn't say bad, but a little disappointing. I do have a bone to pick with 880 owners. I keep reading about slightly recessed mids. The 880 never showed any recessed mids, at least not in my setup, but they were compressed with more complex music, like Rock. Recessed mids, to me, is when other parts of the song overpower the mids, pushing them to the back. This never happened. The 880 is so smooth that it would be near impossible to have any recession. If the 880's mids are tenth row, the 580 is in the third row. This does cause an issue at times. With less resolution and more forward mids, vocals can dominate the music on the 580 adding to the perception of a smaller soundstage.
Lows - This was a toss up for me. They were not completely the same, but not different enough to make me like one over the other. The 580 has more impact, but less resolution. They were both pretty tight when they needed to be, but the 580 was fuzzy at times. I used Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow to test for quantity, impact and tightness. It wasn't even close here. The 580 easily handled it, only slightly lacking, but the 880 was no where to be found. In instrumental music this was never an issue.
Conclusion - I guess I had more time than I thought to write this review. The 880 is going back to Amazon, not for anything it did wrong, but for showing me everything my, already paid for, 580 was capable of. I never had a good basis of comparison. I will miss the perceived larger soundstage and easily recognizable nuances of the music, but the 580 is a more versatile all-arounder. If I only listened to slower or vocal dominated songs, then it would be a winner, but I listen to everything from Willie to Etta to Stevie Ray to Snoop. I am a bit of a minimalist, so I don't want three or four phones for different music. I just sold my SR225 this week for the same reason. I will take the $300 and upgrade my DAC and try a DIY cable upgrade to see if I can get more resolution out of my 580. Maybe a new DIY amp as well. The 880 will go down as one of my favorites though, along with the K501.
Thanks for reading.
Gear - FLAC --> X-Fi ExtremeMusic (coax out) --> Entec 203.2 --> SOHA Hybrid w/ a 2107 opamp and GE 5963 tube
Music - Adult Alternative, Folk, Acoustic, Country, Rock, and a dash of Hip-Hop. No classical for me.
First impression, holy s**t! Detailed, smooth, solid low end. This can totally exceeded my expectations. No harsh notes to be found. Just smooth as butter from top to bottom and it seemed that every frequency was well represented. Soundstage to die for. I was totally immersed in the music. I use to have a 770 and 990 and hated them, except for the fit, and of course the 880 still retains this best in class comfort. I couldn't believe the detail I was hearing. The decay on instruments goes on forever and ever and ever. You can totally feel the room the song was recorded in.
Quick story, I asked my wife to sit down and listen to Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (She loves old Willie songs) and she said she needed to pack for trip and didn't want to. I forced her to and 1 hour later I got my computer chair back. She was giving me the thumbs up every time she was impressed. I got a lot of thumbs up during that hour.
Back to my impressions. Now I started comparing to my HD580 with 600 grills and 650 cable. I love these cans. Call it synergy or whatever, but these cans in my setup can rock out with the best of them. Awesome mids. Not a recession in sight. More on that in a minute.
Soundstage - The 880 definitely has a larger sounding soundstage. It wasn't that the soundstage was larger, it was the decay I was talking about earlier. Vocals and instruments just hung out there longer giving the impression of a larger soundstage. It was awesome. The 580 has a tendency to have the three blobs effect, but this is greatly reduced with the 600 grills.
Highs/Detail - The 580 had the same detail as the 880, I just had to focus a little more to hear it which got annoying if I was analyzing a song. I don't do that often, but I did find myself switching to the 880 to hear little nuances of a song and then back to the 580 and I was like, oh, there it is. It was there, just not immediately apparent. I can't imagine another headphone doing much better than the 880.
Mids - These are very important to me. Sorry Beyer fans, this was hit or miss depending on the music. When it was good, it was great, when it was bad, it was bad. I shouldn't say bad, but a little disappointing. I do have a bone to pick with 880 owners. I keep reading about slightly recessed mids. The 880 never showed any recessed mids, at least not in my setup, but they were compressed with more complex music, like Rock. Recessed mids, to me, is when other parts of the song overpower the mids, pushing them to the back. This never happened. The 880 is so smooth that it would be near impossible to have any recession. If the 880's mids are tenth row, the 580 is in the third row. This does cause an issue at times. With less resolution and more forward mids, vocals can dominate the music on the 580 adding to the perception of a smaller soundstage.
Lows - This was a toss up for me. They were not completely the same, but not different enough to make me like one over the other. The 580 has more impact, but less resolution. They were both pretty tight when they needed to be, but the 580 was fuzzy at times. I used Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow to test for quantity, impact and tightness. It wasn't even close here. The 580 easily handled it, only slightly lacking, but the 880 was no where to be found. In instrumental music this was never an issue.
Conclusion - I guess I had more time than I thought to write this review. The 880 is going back to Amazon, not for anything it did wrong, but for showing me everything my, already paid for, 580 was capable of. I never had a good basis of comparison. I will miss the perceived larger soundstage and easily recognizable nuances of the music, but the 580 is a more versatile all-arounder. If I only listened to slower or vocal dominated songs, then it would be a winner, but I listen to everything from Willie to Etta to Stevie Ray to Snoop. I am a bit of a minimalist, so I don't want three or four phones for different music. I just sold my SR225 this week for the same reason. I will take the $300 and upgrade my DAC and try a DIY cable upgrade to see if I can get more resolution out of my 580. Maybe a new DIY amp as well. The 880 will go down as one of my favorites though, along with the K501.
Thanks for reading.
