[maestrochin29]

Any opinions or conclusions on whether the Dt880 unamped still does better than the new sr80e , or are they at par ? Price considerations aside , which set of cans are more suited for rock and heavy metal songs ?

 

[pp312]

Impossible question to answer. What do you mean by unamped? Are you talking about the 32, 250 or 600 ohm 880? What do you mean "still does better"? Better at what?
 
Generally speaking the 880 is in a different class to the 80. That said, for rock and metal the 80 may suit you better. However, you need to be more specific.  

 

[Rem0o]

DT880.

Even the 600 ohm version out of a laptop sounds better than the SR80 in every way and you should get decent volume at max. It ain't that hard to drive as people claim (but get the 250 if you can). I don't really like Grado in general, its signature treble and uneven response will give you a serious headache with heavy metal. YMMV

 

[maestrochin29]

Impossible question to answer. What do you mean by unamped? Are you talking about the 32, 250 or 600 ohm 880? What do you mean "still does better"? Better at what?

Generally speaking the 880 is in a different class to the 80. That said, for rock and metal the 80 may suit you better. However, you need to be more specific.  

I actually asked from a more general perspective , but speaking more specifically , which I appreciate you asking for , I am referring to the 250 ohm version. Unamped since I'm more or less certain that if powered well they may well trounce the sr80e's , and at present I don't want to spend extra on an amp.
That said I read in the Grado website that those HP's don't require amps. Also to be clearer I meant better as in producing a clearer and more effective response overall suited for rock and heavy metal , since that's what I listen.

 

[maestrochin29]

DT880.


Even the 600 ohm version out of a laptop sounds better than the SR80 in every way and you should get decent volume at max. It ain't that hard to drive as people claim (but get the 250 if you can). I don't really like Grado in general, its signature treble and uneven response will give you a serious headache with heavy metal. YMMV

Thanks . So what do you feel about the newer sr80e version , since they "mellowed" the sound a bit , maybe cutting the harshness. I heard they added more bass and smoothened the nids , while maintaining the same sparkly highs.

 

[maestrochin29]

Any further replies please ? Would be greatfull

 

[rollingsheet]

I have the beyerdynamic dt880 pro and the grado sr80i. The dt880 are much more comfortable and they are made from much better materials.
For rock and metal, in my opinion, the sr80i sound a little better, it is more fun to listen to them but after 45 minutes it just becomes impossible because then my ears hurt. Its not that the dt880 are bad for this genres, they just reveal bad recordings but other then that they sound much better the the grado. 
You don't need an amp to make the dt880 go loud but if you want to drive them to their full potential you need one.
I am really enjoying the dt880 for all genres, they are very natural sounding and comfortable headphones and in my opinion they are a real upgrade from the sr80i. My samsung note 2 drives them just fine when i use almost full volume and of course my computer also does. 
When the dt880 are unamped they are still a higher level then the sr80i. 
I hope this helps you.

 

[maestrochin29]

Thanks for the reply , So maybe i would go on and get a sr80e , the newer version when its available , currently its not in stock. I already have the ue6000 and it performs quite well overall

 

[rollingsheet]

The grado sr80 are great as long as you don't have comfort problems.
Good luck!

 

[maestrochin29]

The grado sr80 are great as long as you don't have comfort problems.

Good luck!

Thanks , though I have time till I order them. Any comments on why is there a massive price difference between the two , when the grados do rock and other genres pretty well too

 

[Aizura]

Totally different cans.
DT880 is neutral-ish and analytical, with slightly tilted treble.
Grado is very mid centric (yes, mid centric). It will be warmer sounding (less treble) than the DT880. They let you hear the emotion in the music. They have good impact to their sound, even at lower volumes. They make all music sound exciting, even if it's not. They aren't particularly detailed and transparant, though.  
 
If you want to hear a fairly faithful reproduction of the recording and hear all the tiny details in your music, get DT880.
DT880 is probably more comfortable to most people, but Grados are far from uncomfortable really. I wouldn't let comfort be a deal breaker.

 

[maestrochin29]

Totally different cans.
DT880 is neutral-ish and analytical, with slightly tilted treble.
Grado is very mid centric (yes, mid centric). It will be warmer sounding (less treble) than the DT880. They let you hear the emotion in the music. They have good impact to their sound, even at lower volumes. They make all music sound exciting, even if it's not. They aren't particularly detailed and transparant, though.  

If you want to hear a fairly faithful reproduction of the recording and hear all the tiny details in your music, get DT880.
DT880 is probably more comfortable to most people, but Grados are far from uncomfortable really. I wouldn't let comfort be a deal breaker.

Thanks for your reply

 

[SunshineReggae]

DT880 is excellent all rounder. It doesn't really matter what I play with them, anything will work well from electronic music to vocals to classic. They do tend to have a slightly warm tilt but I think it's more because many good recordings tend to be that way. They are very clean sounding, smooth mids, and nice bass. It is very controlled and has nice body exactly on the frequencies where most open dynamic headphones are rather weak. Also no midbass hump, so if you are used to Sennheiser, it will take some time to adjust. When I first got them I thought they were light on the bass, but now that I own them for about two months, I don't think so at all anymore. In fact, I was planning on keeping the DT770 for bassy music, but I am looking to sell them actually, because they kinda sound meh after getting used to the 880. The treble is big and adds something to the music that a HD650 doesn't even know, but sometimes it just has too much presence. It depends on the recording a lot.
 
I think they work best with an integrated receiver so you can use tone controls to add a bit of bass or tone down the treble a bit. They work really well with that. There is also good DSP stuff like izotope ozone with with you can use tube saturation or bass compression, and they respond very well to experiments like that too. I think these DT series were also built with 120 ohm impedance amps in mind. I theorize that maybe Beyer kept the treble at the strong side, so that EQ'ing it down with an amp like that is an obvious and accessible solution with little problems in terms of distortion. All in all there is no doubt they are very enjoyable and versatile headphones.

 

[pp312]

 
I think they work best with an integrated receiver so you can use tone controls to add a bit of bass or tone down the treble a bit. They work really well with that. There is also good DSP stuff like izotope ozone with with you can use tube saturation or bass compression, and they respond very well to experiments like that too. I think these DT series were also built with 120 ohm impedance amps in mind. I theorize that maybe Beyer kept the treble at the strong side, so that EQ'ing it down with an amp like that is an obvious and accessible solution with little problems in terms of distortion. All in all there is no doubt they are very enjoyable and versatile headphones.

 
 
I think you've been peeking in my bedroom.

 
I often wonder why people make such a thing of the treble peak when it is, as  you suggest, quite effectively addressed by tone controls. Answer of course is that most people use dedicated HP amps, which is another mystery I've been unable to solve, In my view a good integrated or receiver (I use a Marantz SR4023 stereo receiver) can give results as good as any mid-tier dedicated amp. plus giving the convenience of remote volume (in 1db increments yet!) and switchable tone controls. I use -2db treble and +2db bass, which just takes the sting off the treble without losing bite or detail and gives a slightly fuller sound without muddying the bass. Simple Solution No. 463.  
 
Oh, I apologise to the OP if I sounded a bit cranky in my answer. Must've been a bad day or something.

 

[maestrochin29]

I think you've been peeking in my bedroom.

I often wonder why people make such a thing of the treble peak when it is, as  you suggest, quite effectively addressed by tone controls. Answer of course is that most people use dedicated HP amps, which is another mystery I've been unable to solve, In my view a good integrated or receiver (I use a Marantz SR4023 stereo receiver) can give results as good as any mid-tier dedicated amp. plus giving the convenience of remote volume (in 1db increments yet!) and switchable tone controls. I use -2db treble and +2db bass, which just takes the sting off the treble without losing bite or detail and gives a slightly fuller sound without muddying the bass. Simple Solution No. 463.  

Oh, I apologise to the OP if I sounded a bit cranky in my answer. Must've been a bad day or something.

Oh it ok , actually thanks for asking me to be clearer , helped in getting further answers perhaps