New Beyerdynamic Pro X line: DT 700 Pro X and DT 900 Pro X

[bibbs]

i understand that equipment can go below 20hz and above 20khz but red book cd and as far as i know any digital consumer recording is 20hz to 20khz cut. 20hz is seriously low and if you can hear it you have super hearing. vinyl replay cant do it due to mechanical limiting factors, it can be in the grooves but the arm and cart dance and jump out the groove.
...............
back on track with the DT900 Pro X.
i must admit that i'm a Beyer fan and to date have/had the DT770 80r (2005), 2x Custom one Pro 32r (2012)(2017) , DT880 Premium 600r (2017), 2x DT990 Premium 32r (2019). i gave the DT990 to my eldest and bought another pair to give to my youngest. the first Custom One Pro blew a driver so got shelved then i dropped the DT770 on a hard floor that cracked one of the cups so they got shelved. i have also had the Beyer knockoff Superlux HD330 and for the price they sound good.

i got bored one day so built a set of mongrel headphones out of the Custom One Pro and the drivers from the DT770 a few months ago and to date this has been my daily drivers. at the moment i have the DT880/990 velour ear pads with the Beyer driver foams (see below). to me this sounds pretty good and better than any other headphones i have. the Custom One "slider" is second from fully open and i find this the best compromise in sound. just a little heads up about the Custom One Pro, the cups edge has a cut out that makes changing pads a lot easier and faster.

i have tried every iteration of ear pads on all headphones. Custom One Pro/770 softskin (hated. its like cannons going off on the 880/990 and a bit full on, on the 770/Custom), 880/990 velour (analytical on the 880/990 and anaemic on the 770 but surprisingly good on the Custom's), 770 velour (well balanced on the 770, basshead on the 880/990 a bit muddy on the Custom's), T1 MK2 velour (my favourite. sort of a cross between 880/770 but leaning toward the bass end of things with the 770 and warmer than balanced on the 880/990), Cheep Chinese velour (actually pretty good and like the T1 but not as open). the T1 ear pads wore out and i'm getting a bit tight to start messing about again.

i have tried two driver foams, the Beyer and the Chinese and there is a big difference. the beyer smooth everything but take away a bit of bite and the Chinese open things up but the sound gets bit rough.

being a tight Scottish person i refuse to spend over £300 on a set of headphones. i'm not interested in buying any more gear (maybe a ifi dac) either and my smartphone is enough as i only really listen when i'm in my bed.

now the low down, every single set of Beyer headphones to date have had bad sibilance e.g. pronounced S in vocals except my mongrel Custom/770. the other thing is a gap in "stage/openness", the way to describe it is if you put your hands in front of your ears flat on your head then open them away like doors from your eyes to around 45deg this represents the "gap" in the soundstage where there is a pronounced jump from head to ear. also the soundstage is a bit over the head and cup to cup instead of being projected forward "out of head".

has anyone tried the swapping the 900/700 foams about to see if they are tuned different?

i'm thinking of the DT900 as my end game so if there is anyone here that can shed some light as to how these are voiced using my mix of pads/phones from above i would be most appreciated. i'm not the kind of guy that buys thing and sends them back and would rather give them away to kids/family.

 

[bibbs]

little update. just found out that the 900 and 700 ear pads have different part numbers so might actually be different in terms of sound signature.

 

[SkyZippr]

i understand that equipment can go below 20hz and above 20khz but red book cd and as far as i know any digital consumer recording is 20hz to 20khz cut. 20hz is seriously low and if you can hear it you have super hearing. vinyl replay cant do it due to mechanical limiting factors, it can be in the grooves but the arm and cart dance and jump out the groove.

Sorry I misunderstood what you meant. English is not my first language, and sometimes I tend to mess up the meaning more often than I should.
Yes, sub-20Hz is super rare. Although, I never realized there was a 20Hz low-cut on CDs. I do know there's a high-cut since the 44.1kHz sampling rate means everything is cut off at 22.05kHz, but I didn't know there's a low-cut as well. But then again, I agree that there's not much sense putting such low and inaudible frequency on CDs.
The Yosi Horikawa track that I posted, on the other hand, has never been released on CDs (or so I believe), so he probably took some extra artistic freedom. Also that sub-bass rumbling is bleeding into the audible frequency range (~30Hz-ish), and it could very well be that bleeding part that sounds different on 1770pro and 700proX. (Again, just pure speculation.)

 

[ST33L]

Good to know… While it might be a while, I can’t wait to see what they come up with when updating the DT1770 Pro and DT1990 Pro, although I don’t know how they could improved upon the sound quality of the latter, which sounds amazing IMO. As far as build quality, hard to beat that too… perhaps shed a few oz, but otherwise they are a solid set of cans.

 

[bibbs]

just ordered the DT900 X Pro along with the DT700 X Pro Ear Pads.

should have ordered them earlier as price has just gone up £6 on the headphones.. ohh well..

i'm going to order 2 sets of 4 pin mini xlr socket and plug, cable and a 4.4 plug along with a standard plug make balanced and unbalanced cables.

 

[rawrj]

just ordered the DT900 X Pro along with the DT700 X Pro Ear Pads.

should have ordered them earlier as price has just gone up £6 on the headphones.. ohh well..

i'm going to order 2 sets of 4 pin mini xlr socket and plug, cable and a 4.4 plug along with a standard plug make balanced and unbalanced cables.

oooh, do tell us how the pads work out. I've been extremely tempted to try that.

 

[beyerlove2]

Just tried 700/900 earpads swap. Yes, it does change the sound signature.
The 700PRO X with 900 pads sounds pretty brighter with a decline of isolation.
I kinda feel this swap works to counteract the strengths of each headphone, but it might be good for a person who feels the 700PRO X too warm.

 

[Stevko]

I have tried to describe my amateur impressions of the DT 900 Pro X and posted them here:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/beyerdynamic-dt-900-pro-x.25690/reviews

The "executive summary":

Compared to DT1770, The DT900 has a little bit bigger soundstage and are more open sounding. DT1770 has a naturalness and adds some body to vocals where DT900 can’t fully compete but they are close. Definitely more treble energy in DT900 than DT1770. Can you compare a closed design with an open design in terms of sound? I a not sure it is fair but if DT700 Pro X sounds anything like DT900 Pro X then they are VERY much worth trying.

I have enjoyed the DT1770 for years but there is some extra fun (I didn't expect that from a "studio" headphone) with DT900. They are really dynamic and punchy and crispy with a nice open treble presence.

The best thing is that they are so versatile in terms of source. With their new 48 Ohm driver, they play well directly from my laptop and even with the lightning to minijack LOD from my iPhone, DT900 sounds open, transparent and punchy. If I use one of my amplifiers for instance the EarMen TR-Amp the bass tightens up and the layering and instrument placement in the soundstage becomes even more clear so, they also scale to some extend with better chain.

All in all, the DT900 Pro X has been a super positive surprise. I think they are cheap for what you get here. This could be one of the best sound/price ratio headphones currently on the market.

Is it Ok to swap between 900x, 225e and 1770?

 

[rasmushorn]

Is it Ok to swap between 900x, 225e and 1770?

Yes, I think so. They are all not that different. Close enough, so that I do not need to adjust much between those three. I can easily switch between them without problems. 225e is the brightest, DT900 in-between and DT1770 slightly darker sounding than the other two.

 

[Stevko]

Yes, I think so. They are all not that different. Close enough, so that I do not need to adjust much between those three. I can easily switch between them without problems. 225e is the brightest, DT900 in-between and DT1770 slightly darker sounding than the other two.

Thanks! Considering to try the new 900x

But think I have enough cans

 

[bibbs]

i think i have lost the plot... was doing a bit of a clear out and found a pair of Custom One Pro 16r with a bonus of a FIIO X3 still connected... i must have chucked them in the drawer when i got my OPPO smartphone and my brain completely wiped them from my memory.

so i now have these to put up against the DT900 when they come.

unlike my smartphone the X3 has a line out and a DAC. still a bit confused about the DAC part.. i have never tried the X3 line out with the Asgard 3..

 

[plakat]

i think i have lost the plot... was doing a bit of a clear out and found a pair of Custom One Pro 16r with a bonus of a FIIO X3 still connected... i must have chucked them in the drawer when i got my OPPO smartphone and my brain completely wiped them from my memory.

so i now have these to put up against the DT900 when they come.

unlike my smartphone the X3 has a line out and a DAC. still a bit confused about the DAC part.. i have never tried the X3 line out with the Asgard 3..

Sounds like a nice surprise -- I don't remember when I last found a forgotten headphone

 

[bibbs]

its more the X3 i was surprised at. i just tried the X3 line out with the Asgard 3 and i wont be buying an Ifi Dac

 

[Kwsizer]

So, I got my DT 770 X, finally.
Can't say I'm really as expert as most of you guys here, but I placed them head-to head A/B with my other closed backs, the AKG K275 and tested them on my benchmark tracks, two of them being from Lee Ritenour "Wes Bound" album (has got great drums, bass and horns, besides a Hammond 3B). Tracks are no.1, title track, and no. 3 "4 on 6".
Yes, that is a jazz album, but these headphones really do shine with every genre I've thrown at them: try for instance the not-so-easy vocals on Alanis Morissette's beautiful "Pedestal", or the wall of sound in Toto's "Georgy Porgy/Lion" medley from Live in Amsterdam (with Phillips's powerful drumming).

The first thing to say is that, having bought the AKGs at a quarter of the DT 700's Price (60 euros on the Amazon Warehouse), the AKG are just great, stunning and only lose in the comparison because they are simply a 83 euro (standard price, now) pair of headphones put against to a 250 euro pair ones (yes, in this case price range does matter).
So, if you do find them at 60 euros, they are a best buy even just to have a pair of backup closed backs.

As for the DT 700, they do sound like a pair of 250 euro headphones should, all things considered. And most of the things the various YTubers say about them are BS, except for Sean Divine, Z Reviews and Badseed. I think DMS has them very wrong, for instance. Same goes for the Brit guy, david Lewis. And if not wrong, they've got it very very erratic and superficial.

There's really a lot of bass and sub-bass, there's clarity, precision, details and a pleasant bightness towards the highs. They are very easy to drive, soundstage is great and imaging is very satisfying. I do understand now why more than a couple of those guys say that, between these and the 900s, they prefer these (although Badseed says to go for the 900s, if you must decide between the two). If I wanted to really find a lesser note with them, I could argue that Ritenour's Gibson guitar sounds perhaps a little bit more warm and pleasing with the AKGs, but all other instruments sound better on the Beyers.
Going from memory, I'd say that the 700s put together all the positive qualities of the HD560S and the DT770s (and they make them actually better) while having none of the defects. Yes they do cost a lot more than both those headphones, but they lack nothing of what I found lacking in those two.
I'd say that when the price drops to, say, 200 euro, they'll really be a steal.
And no, it's not the new toy syndrome: I've approached them with all the possible skepticism. I do like clear, bright-but-not-fatiguing headphones with very solid bass and there's all that in these DT 700 X.
Yes, the clamp is rather fierce, but not a send-them-back clamp.
But boy, they are good.

 

[lazarian]

So, I got my DT 770 X, finally.
Can't say I'm really as expert as most of you guys here, but I placed them head-to head A/B with my other closed backs, the AKG K275 and tested them on my benchmark tracks, two of them being from Lee Ritenour "Wes Bound" album (has got great drums, bass and horns, besides a Hammond 3B). Tracks are no.1, title track, and no. 3 "4 on 6".
Yes, that is a jazz album, but these headphones really do shine with every genre I've thrown at them: try for instance the not-so-easy vocals on Alanis Morissette's beautiful "Pedestal", or the wall of sound in Toto's "Georgy Porgy/Lion" medley from Live in Amsterdam (with Phillips's powerful drumming).

The first thing to say is that, having bought the AKGs at a quarter of the DT 700's Price (60 euros on the Amazon Warehouse), the AKG are just great, stunning and only lose in the comparison because they are simply a 83 euro (standard price, now) pair of headphones put against to a 250 euro pair ones (yes, in this case price range does matter).
So, if you do find them at 60 euros, they are a best buy even just to have a pair of backup closed backs.

As for the DT 700, they do sound like a pair of 250 euro headphones should, all things considered. And most of the things the various YTubers say about them are BS, except for Sean Divine, Z Reviews and Badseed. I think DMS has them very wrong, for instance. Same goes for the Brit guy, david Lewis. And if not wrong, they've got it very very erratic and superficial.

There's really a lot of bass and sub-bass, there's clarity, precision, details and a pleasant bightness towards the highs. They are very easy to drive, soundstage is great and imaging is very satisfying. I do understand now why more than a couple of those guys say that, between these and the 900s, they prefer these (although Badseed says to go for the 900s, if you must decide between the two). If I wanted to really find a lesser note with them, I could argue that Ritenour's Gibson guitar sounds perhaps a little bit more warm and pleasing with the AKGs, but all other instruments sound better on the Beyers.
Going from memory, I'd say that the 700s put together all the positive qualities of the HD560S and the DT770s (and they make them actually better) while having none of the defects. Yes they do cost a lot more than both those headphones, but they lack nothing of what I found lacking in those two.
I'd say that when the price drops to, say, 200 euro, they'll really be a steal.
And no, it's not the new toy syndrome: I've approached them with all the possible skepticism. I do like clear, bright-but-not-fatiguing headphones with very solid bass and there's all that in these DT 700 X.
Yes, the clamp is rather fierce, but not a send-them-back clamp.
But boy, they are good.

After having the DT700ProX for a while now, and recently managing to acquire a set of Stax SR-202's... yes in comparison to those the damping and less detail is evident. But it's really only evident if I swap straight between them. If I start the day with the DT700 Pro X and don't touch the Stax, it isn't obvious that's for sure.