Out of curiosity, I hauled myself and my Benchmark DAC1 down to the local (i.e. 35mi drive) Guitar Center, to try out some cans. Lo and behold, I was blown off my butt by the DT770 Pro 80ohm, which took me by quite a suprise, as I had owned the 250ohm version for quite some time. The synergy with the DAC1 was immediately apparent. After a few songs, I was sold, and after chipping the price down, I was hurring home. Now, after some hours of burn-in and seriously fun listening, my impressions have not changed.
Something about the DAC1 or its' headphone amp has a way of grabbing these cans by the nuts, and making them do as they are told. The bass is amazing, not the overblown, tiring bass I was used to from my various days with the 250 ohmers, rather it is still extraordinarily powerful when needed (second only to the PS1), but does not intrude over into the mids, and can actually lie dormant when appropriate. And the mids, my god, the mids, I never though I would hear mids like this from a DT770. It's no OmegaII/BlueHawaii setup (
) but the mids stand out nicely, with great life and clarity. The treble is the other big improvement from the 250-ohmers, it is no longer sharp and strained, but smoother and appropriate, i.e. it is loud enough to get all the details, yet not so loud as to become fatiguing or unrealistic.
Amusingly, out of my Archos, the bass rises to that good ol' DT770 level, to the point at which I can focus on the bass and nothing else (just what I had experienced with the 250-ohmers on the Corda HA1 and Gilmore V1). The treble remains appropriate, however. I am thinking that the true 0-ohm output of the DAC1's headphone jacks is responsible for the uber-tight control of these monster cans. Benchmark's main engineer was explaining to me the other day how that keeps the dampening factor as high as possible, which really makes sense with what I'm hearing.
The real kicker is that I am now wondering how much I'm going to get out of the HD650 whose arrival I am still awaiting. I know those cans have some seriously powerful bass, so if they are as happy running from the Benchmark as the DT770 is, then
And even if they're not, at least I've got something I'm really stoked with.
Something about the DAC1 or its' headphone amp has a way of grabbing these cans by the nuts, and making them do as they are told. The bass is amazing, not the overblown, tiring bass I was used to from my various days with the 250 ohmers, rather it is still extraordinarily powerful when needed (second only to the PS1), but does not intrude over into the mids, and can actually lie dormant when appropriate. And the mids, my god, the mids, I never though I would hear mids like this from a DT770. It's no OmegaII/BlueHawaii setup (
Amusingly, out of my Archos, the bass rises to that good ol' DT770 level, to the point at which I can focus on the bass and nothing else (just what I had experienced with the 250-ohmers on the Corda HA1 and Gilmore V1). The treble remains appropriate, however. I am thinking that the true 0-ohm output of the DAC1's headphone jacks is responsible for the uber-tight control of these monster cans. Benchmark's main engineer was explaining to me the other day how that keeps the dampening factor as high as possible, which really makes sense with what I'm hearing.
The real kicker is that I am now wondering how much I'm going to get out of the HD650 whose arrival I am still awaiting. I know those cans have some seriously powerful bass, so if they are as happy running from the Benchmark as the DT770 is, then