New "Comfortable" Headphones
Nov 20, 2011 at 3:23 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 21
juantendo8

juantendo8

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Hello everyone. I recently purchased some dt880 600 ohms to use as my permanent home music headphone. I think they sound great and have a sound signature that I could easily live with for the music that I listen to which is mostly classical and older rock. However, the problem I have with them is a problem that no one else here seems to share...their comfort. Now I don't find them unbearable, but my very sensitive ears do not like the claustrophobic discomfort of the shallow ear pads at all. It causes my ears to get much hotter than they ever should in an open headphone and even makes them itchy. I also find the clamp to be awkward on my head. Its not that the pressure is excessive, it just feels like the headphones do not shape to my head correctly and it sometimes can give me a small headache eventually. I find this even stranger considering that I don't have large ears and my head is relatively small.
 
As much as I hate to do it, I realize that I must part ways with this headphone if I am to keep one main music headphone as I consider comfort to be very important. I have an hd595 and I consider its comfort to be perfect. It just seems to clamp my head correctly, has deep enough ear pads, and allows my ears to breath MUCH better than with the dt880s. It also has a pleasant sound, but it just is completely inferior to the dt880s and sounds flat and thin in comparison to my ears. Would you recommend the hd600 to be the headphone to fill this gap?
 
I think my ears just naturally like the oval cups of the Sennheisers, but do the 600s live up to the comfort standards of  the 595's? Clamp strength probably is not a problem as I can iron out excessive clamp anyway. Do they let your ears breathe much better than the Beyers (more open)? Do they live up to the high SQ standards of the Beyers? Please let me know if this would be a good choice as I do not want to end up with another pair of headphones that I cannot wear for more than an hour, even if they sound terrific. 
 
Edit: I should add that while comfort is the main trait that I want to find, a relatively neutral (compared to dt880) sound signature and broad genre bandwidth are traits that I also find to be important.
 
  
 
Nov 20, 2011 at 3:30 AM Post #3 of 21
Sir you may be the only person in the world to ever complain about comfort issues with the Dt880 
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. Supposedly the DT990 have "deeper" cups which may be better for you and they are supposed to sound similar but bassier.
 
Nov 20, 2011 at 3:44 AM Post #4 of 21
Thank you for the replies. I actually stretched out the Beyers on several books overnight, so I don't think it is the clamp force that my ears are rebelling against. I've had them for about a month, so I don't think my head is going to get much more "used" to them. As good as the dt990 may be, it is not near neutral enough for my tastes and I would venture to say that anymore treble than the dt880 would really be excess for me. The only other headphone in this price range that I've tried was the k701 and I really didn't like the sound nearly as much as with the dt880. It seemed too unfocused and spread out for my liking.
 
I really wish that my Beyers were as comfortable on me as they seem to be on most people, but everytime I slip my hd595s back on, I wish the Beyer sound had the Sennheiser comfort. 
 
Nov 20, 2011 at 9:30 AM Post #7 of 21
Quote:
nikp said:
Heya, I have a query. Is this the DT880 Pro or Premium version?
Click to expand...


Probably Premium, because only that is available in 600 Ohm version. The Pro is currently always 250 Ohm.
 
 
Nov 20, 2011 at 10:00 AM Post #11 of 21
Quote:
nikp said:
 
I got it just a few weeks ago brand new. 
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Click to expand...


That is odd, I could not find anything other than 250 Ohm
confused.gif
Where are the 600 Ohm Pros available at (perhaps not in all countries) ?
 
 
Nov 20, 2011 at 10:15 AM Post #12 of 21


Quote:
stv014 said:
That is odd, I could not find anything other than 250 Ohm
confused.gif
Where are the 600 Ohm Pros available at (perhaps not in all countries) ?
 
Click to expand...


Okaay, that is creepy. I checked the box, manuals, grills and the print on the plug. It's a DT 880 Pro 600 Ohms. The website doesn't say anything about a 600 Ohm version of the Pro. 
 
 
Nov 20, 2011 at 2:03 PM Post #14 of 21
One might guess your having an allergic reaction to the DT 880s?
What source(s) are you plugging your headphones into?
Have every thought about just getting the HD-598?
 
Nov 20, 2011 at 2:33 PM Post #15 of 21
Quote:
Originally Posted by juantendo8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
I think my ears just naturally like the oval cups of the Sennheisers, but do the 600s live up to the comfort standards of  the 595's? Clamp strength probably is not a problem as I can iron out excessive clamp anyway. Do they let your ears breathe much better than the Beyers (more open)? Do they live up to the high SQ standards of the Beyers?
Click to expand...


The HD600 ear pads are of similar size and shape to the HD5x5 ones, but are slightly smaller (by a few mm only); I have no information on the depth, though, but it is probably similar, too. The headphone itself is very slightly lighter than the HD595. Compared to the DT880, the sound is somewhat darker, and there is no treble peak around 10 kHz; the bass is less extended. Overall, it should be an improvement over the HD595. You may also consider the HD650, although it has a less neutral (darker) sound than the HD600.
 
You could also experiment with replacing the ear pads on the DT880, but that would change the sound, and probably not improve it.
 
 
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