[shane55]

Quote:

Shane,
To me, the DT880/600 are not bass heavy on par with the D5000 or certainly not the 750/2500Pro.  Bass is reasonably extended and has decent weight and impact, though.  I'd say the DT880/600's bass is well balanced with their treble and mids.
PAB

 

We are in complete agreement. 

 

[daltonlanny]

Just ordered a new pair of Beyerdynamic DT880/600's from B&H Photo today.
They should arrive Tuesday.
After I test the impedance, and after they break-in, I will be comparing them to my Beyerdynamic DT880 2003 units, and others. Can't wait to get them!

 

[coryloew]

I just got these in the mail yesterday.  I just plugged them into the little dot mkiii for the first time.  Compared to the Grado SR60 phones I have, I really have to turn the volume knob way up.  Almost to the top.  So I switched the jumpers on the bottom of the headphone amp to be more suitable for high impedance cans.  Now I just needed to put the volume at about the 12 o'clock position.  First impressions...wow that is a lot of detail in the mids and highs.  But right away I was like "where is the bass?"  Really...where is it?  It's almost non-existent.  My Grado SR60 cans have more bass impact than this.  I wasn't expecting this.  From all my research and my own personal listening, Grado SR60's are not known for bass.  I took the DT880's off right away and I'll burn them in for an hour or two and then see what happens. 

 

[shane55]

Congrats on your new DT880's.
I had similar first impressions. An hour or so will not be enough to effect the sound to the extent necessary to improve the bass. I found that the biggest improvement sweep occurred between 25 and 50 hours. At that point it appears to plateau.
 
Adequate break-in seemed to do two things. It improved the bass response. It decreased the somewhat strident highs.
 
These cans will never be warm, rich, lush or full (like the D5000 or HD600 ?). But that's not what they're about.
 
Enjoy your DT880's.
 
shane

 

[Crowe09]

Quote:

??
Sorry for the derailment, but I'm very curious. Of all the things I've read about the DT880/600 'bass heavy' is not one of them.
Good bass... yes. Bass extension... oh my yesssss. But to me bass heavy applies to the D5k (and the like) or maybe even my M50. Somehow I can't go there with these. But then again, I haven't listened to them under the LD & Mullards...
 
shane
 

 
I had the chances of using it with desktop amps, such as the HA-160, and with little Eq tweaking...and i can get a good amount of bass from these babies. 
 

 

[shane55]

Quote:

 
I had the chances of using it with desktop amps, such as the HA-160, and with little Eq tweaking...and i can get a good amount of bass from these babies. 
 

Yes, with "EQ tweaking". You bet. The DT880 has great bass extension and can certainly produce the lows. But my point was that without that, I've never heard anyone call these 'bass heavy' before.

 

[cfcubed]

Quote:

Just ordered a new pair of Beyerdynamic DT880/600's from B&H Photo today.
After I test the impedance, and after they break-in, I will be comparing them to my Beyerdynamic DT880 2003 units, and others. Can't wait to get them!

I'm not done assessing mine (see sig for combo), but my initial impressions are along the lines of pataburd's.  But as you've those 2003s looking forward to your impressions/comparisons.  Not to temper your excitement, but there few if any "clear wins", and here's a couple of my thoughts WRT the new DT880/600s:

1. Comfort -  Out of the box, while comfortable, I've not found them to be as comfortable as those older 2003s (my benchmark for headphone comfort).  Perhaps some flexing of top spring-metal band & time will change this. 
2. Amping -  Think one's impression of them will be highly influenced, perhaps more so than many cans, by what amp they are paired with.  E.g. I've found DT880/600s excellent w/my high-end ß22 SS amp and not as excellent with the Compact Tube Hybrid (CTH) - an amp found to drive a huge variety of headphones quite well and to most everyone's satisfaction.
   So whatever impressions you have of your new cans they will be made within the context of how you are feeding them.

 
BTW my drivers only differ by 11 ohms, no biggie at all, a likely inaudible difference.

 

[daltonlanny]

Hey cfcubed,
Thanks for the impressions.
I have a fear now that B&H Photo may be sending me the wrong impedance version of the DT880.
I clearly ordered the 600 ohm version, but according to their website, the 600 ohm version is, and still is ' Temporarily out of stock '.
The 32 ohm versions were also out of stock as well, and it said ' Usually ships in 7 to 14 days. '
Well, much to my surprise, the DT880/600's shipped out the same day I ordered them!
I went back to their website, and the DT880 250 ohm version is in stock.
I may be wrong, and I hope I am, but I can just about be sure they sent me the 250 ohm version.
If it is indeed the 250 ohm version, that means I also paid $55.00 too much as well, cause the 250 ohm version is right at $250.00, and the 600 ohm is right at $305.00!
I guess I will find out tomorrow...

 

[coryloew]

Ok, so my DT880/600's have burned in for about 16 hours.  What I heard as "artificial highs" initially seem to be gone.  That is nice because at first it was too much.  The bass hasn't really improved or increased much.  I never thought that my Grado's would end up being my bass cans.  I think I'll use the Grados for metal, and the DT880's for most everything else. 
 
I am primarily using an Apple Airport Express feeding my Little Dot MKIII tube headphone amp with Mullard driver tubes.  I usually hate using EQ's.  But, just for kicks, I increased the bass using Itunes EQ.  If I increase any of the EQ parameters above the baseline, I seem to get some distortion.  Instead, I just subtracted some of the mids and highs, which effectively boosts the bass parameter relatively speaking.  I think I found a setting that is fairly good for my ears.  These cans are capable of reproducing some great bass, I just need to boost that part of the frequency.  Bummer, I really don't like this method.  By the way, I find the sound quality of the Airport Express is much better than my Ipod Touch 3G.  I've tried the headphone out and the line-out of my Ipod, and the Airport Express is really better (according to my ears) in every way. 
 
Enough of the negative...these cans are excellent in every other way.  Did I mention these things reveal detail to an incredible level?  My gosh!  Instrument separation is excellent.  It is so nice to pick out the various instruments in music and not have everything muddied together.  Wow, are these revealing!!  And I thought my Grados were revealing. 
 
I'm somewhat hesitant to get a dedicated DAC as I think I will lose the EQ ability through my Airport Express. Does a dedicated DAC (say the VDAC) typically improve bass response over something like an Ipod or Airport Express?  Guess I'll have to research that one.  Anyway, I am having fun with these new cans!!

 

[shane55]

coryloew.
 
Congrats on your DT880/600's.
Yes, the slightly rough highs do settle down with time.
 
A good DAC really shouldn't have much effect on the overall sound. It should faithfully convert the digital to analog without imparting any sonic signature of it's own. Of course that's the ideal, not the real.
Some DAC's will make the sound overall warmer, sterile, thin, whatever... but increase a particular band (like 200 - 600hz), not too likely.
 
I and others have found that with more break-in hours (up to about 50) the bass will increase slightly, so hang in there. I'm not one for EQ, but I think you were correct to decrease (subtract) instead of increase.
 
 
shane

 

[daltonlanny]

Update:
I posted it in another thread, but I will also post it in this one.
My Beyerdynamic DT880/600's arrived from B&H Photo yesterday.
I also received a pleasant surprise from Bill Me Later, in an email yesterday, that said B&H was deducting $20.00 from the original charge! So instead of paying almost $305.00, I am only going to have to pay about $285.00.
I tested them, and they are indeed the 600 ohm version. I tested them with a multimeter, and one channel measured 597 ohms, and the other one measured 605 ohms.
I haven't really listened to them, as I have them breaking in with pink noise right now.
I can say that my older version Headroom Micro Amp can drive them to very high levels, actually uncomfortable levels when set on high gain. I do have to turn the volume control about 1/4 higher on them to get the same levels as my Beyerdynamic DT880/2003/250 ohm.  I tried 12:00 or 12:30 on the volume knob on the 880/600, and it takes about 10:00 on the 880/2003 to get the same levels, all this is with the high gain setting on the Headroom Micro.
From brief impressions, the 2003's sound more extended in the top end, and on very bottom compared to the DT880/600.
The 2003's also sound slightly more open and alive to my ears than the 880/600's.
The mids are more recessed on the 2003, and more forward and filled-in on the 880/600.
The 880/600's do sound better balanced overall, but...
Right now, I slightly prefer the sound of my 2003's, believe it or not, but that may change after the 880/600's break-in.
I will post more after they fully break-in.