My brief impression of some Beyers

[hentai]

I got to listen three beyers namely dt770 dt880 and dt990 through a denon cd player with a unknown headphone amp. Here are the brief impressions in brief statement-

DT770- has BASS , quite musical sounding actually , very good for its current shop promotion price of $125. Its less detailed but more forgiving than dt880 ( its very apparent upon hearing the vocal)

DT990-somehow more detailed than dt770 but not much. It sounds like somewhere in btn dt770 and dt880

Dt880- ahh most detailed among the three with a wide soundstage , a bit harsh but refined vocal , overall it sounds boring. I compared this to akg k501 and expected them to be similar sounding but they are different , not polar opposite but just different. I suspect it will sound nice with tubes. The promotion price for dt880 is so attractive that i almost buy it at impulse but held back coz of three reasons , compared to my current phones dt880 seems just a small improvement in detail and overall refinement ( i may be wrong) , other than that its too much of the similar thing, rather have huge upgrade than very small upgrade in this case and lastly i prefer grados and senns' sound signiture.


If you force me to buy any of the three beyers based on the brief listening , i would get either dt770 or dt880 and skip dt990. Dt770 is very musical to me and i can't explain why . Any dt770 user can explain this? Though the setup is not very ideal to drive the power hungry dt880 , i do believe my observation isn't far off.

All the beyers have a similar beyer house sound just like any other brands.

Disclaimer ( these opinions are based on 40 mins of brief listening so if i make any comment that seems absurd to you, please correct me nicely. Just want to share some impression with you folks)

 

[augustwest]

I owned the 880's for a while, and sold them. Like you I found them detailed, a bit dry and strident on the top end, and over-all boring. They would likely be fine if your prime objective is neutral analytical listening instead of pure pleasure.

I disagree on your conclusions about the 770 vs. the 990, however. Here I prefer the 990's by a substantial margin.

- augustwest

 

[warpdriver]

The 880's shouldn't really sound harsh or strident with the right source and clean source material. They are a tad bit bright, but nothing that should be objectionable. The overall presentation is "crisp" and "clean", and is great headphone for resolving detail without exaggerating it (short of the electrostatics or SA5K). Compared to my SR225's, they are nearly as bright, but far smoother in the treble.

They are quite opposite to the Senn 6xx sound, so if one is coming from those, the 880's will sound too clinical and a bit lean.

 

[hentai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver The 880's shouldn't really sound harsh or strident with the right source and clean source material. They are a tad bit bright, but nothing that should be objectionable. The overall presentation is "crisp" and "clean", and is great headphone for resolving detail without exaggerating it (short of the electrostatics or SA5K). Compared to my SR225's, they are nearly as bright, but far smoother in the treble. They are quite opposite to the Senn 6xx sound, so if one is coming from those, the 880's will sound too clinical and a bit lean.

Yes they are smoother than my grado if i can remember

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hentai Dt880- ahh most detailed among the three with a wide soundstage , a bit harsh but refined vocal , overall it sounds boring. I compared this to akg k501 and expected them to be similar sounding but they are different , not polar opposite but just different. I suspect it will sound nice with tubes. The promotion price for dt880 is so attractive that i almost buy it at impulse but held back coz of three reasons , compared to my current phones dt880 seems just a small improvement in detail and overall refinement ( i may be wrong) , other than that its too much of the similar thing, rather have huge upgrade than very small upgrade in this case and lastly i prefer grados and senns' sound signiture.

My first impression of the DT-880 was similar. I thought "dang, this is very close to the sound of my HD580s" and was disappointed. Oh how wrong I was... it takes a longer audition to pick up on the differences, but it is drastically different sounding than the HD580.

I also found a bit of harshness/sibilance with the DT880 that has disappeared on burn-in. They are amazing cans, of the type that "grows on you" as you listen and there's every possibility of falling in love with their sound.

P.S. to me, a good sign of a headphone that will become my mainstay long-term is an initial impression of being boring. Something that jumps out at me at first is great for awhile, but starts to get more and more annoying as time goes by. I now base all my audio purchases on whether or not a piece of gear seems "nothing special" because that is a reliable indicator to me that it is probably very special. Paradoxical, but true.

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch P.S. to me, a good sign of a headphone that will become my mainstay long-term is an initial impression of being boring. Something that jumps out at me at first is great for awhile, but starts to get more and more annoying as time goes by.

Ah, there is definitely some truth to that. I auditioned the Grado SR225 at the store, and WOW, it really jumped out at me, the bass, the treble, the impact, so I bought it. But 225 is the most forgotten headphone in my pile. What worked well for 10 minutes of listening does not work as well for long term ownership.

 

[hentai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch My first impression of the DT-880 was similar. I thought "dang, this is very close to the sound of my HD580s" and was disappointed. Oh how wrong I was... it takes a longer audition to pick up on the differences, but it is drastically different sounding than the HD580. I also found a bit of harshness/sibilance with the DT880 that has disappeared on burn-in. They are amazing cans, of the type that "grows on you" as you listen and there's every possibility of falling in love with their sound. P.S. to me, a good sign of a headphone that will become my mainstay long-term is an initial impression of being boring. Something that jumps out at me at first is great for awhile, but starts to get more and more annoying as time goes by. I now base all my audio purchases on whether or not a piece of gear seems "nothing special" because that is a reliable indicator to me that it is probably very special. Paradoxical, but true.

The 'boring' is some kind of double edge sword , like the hd595 which i listen to it more often than sr225. Sometimes i get bored with hd595 that when i switch to sr225 , its a ' this thing rocks' kind of feeling.

dt880 already sounds different compared to hd580 ( in fact i find dt880 sounds more similar to hd595 ). Does hd580 have more bass?

 

[KZEE]

A boring sounding headphone could also be accurate and it's revealing that the upstream gear - amp and/or source and/or cabling - are the boring links in the chain.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hentai dt880 already sounds different compared to hd580 ( in fact i find dt880 sounds more similar to hd595 ). Does hd580 have more bass?

Nope, DT880 has more bass, and goes deeper as well.