Pianist
Headphoneus Supremus
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- Jan 3, 2007
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I didn't say the K612 was brighter sounding, but if you volume match the bass and the treble to similar levels to the K701/Q701, you'll notice that there's a upper mid hump that's abrasive, and it scratches against your eardrums. I compared directly between the two, and I don't think mine was defective as I've also owned the K601 and they sounded pretty much identical.
Fair enough. However, measurements do indicate the opposite - the Q701 is clearly the brighter of the two headphones. K701 is also brighter than the K601. Let's compare the three using the comparison tool on Headroom: =3591&graphID[]=703&graphID[]=2931&scale=30]http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=3591&graphID[]=703&graphID[]=2931&scale=30
The measurements indicate that K601 is flatter and less peaky than both the K701 and Q701... Where's the upper mid hump? It's not there on the graphs...
@whitedragon551: I haven't heard the AD900X, but I am actually pretty sure that it is inferior to the K612 in technical capabilities. Why? Because the AD900X is supposedly an update to the AD900 and I read that the differences between the two are minor in sound quality. Here's the measurement of the original AD900. Frequency response looks pretty nice, but there's more bass roll off than on the K612, quite a bit more distortion in the low frequencies and significantly more noise in the impulse response and 300Hz square wave measurements. I think this translates to well balanced sound, but with looser, less controlled low end and perhaps a grainier, less refined sound in the rest of the spectrum vs the K612. Also, check out the measurements of the more expensive AD2000. What a nice mountain range above 2kHz...
DT880? Certianly a good sounding headphone. Clean, clear, quite resolving and refined. Well balanced, except for some rather annoying emphasis around 8 kHz. Soundstage is nice and wide and there's a good sense of space and air. However, imaging/instrument placement is not particularly sharp and noticeably less defined compared to that of the K612, HD600 or Fidelio X2 IMO. Let's just say that DT880 doesn't sound as transparent as the aforementioned three headphones. I can't say it lacks resolution or clarity, but I do feel that the mids are kinda lacking in timbre richness I suppose. The mids on the DT880 sound a tad... bland. Maybe too neutral? Maybe, but my HD800 has very neutral mids as well and yet sounds far more lively and involving. Nah, I think DT880 just lacks the quality of the mids of an HD600, X2, K612, HD800... and many other headphones. I think that this may be partially the result of its inferior driver and/or housing design or perhaps excessive/non optimal damping. Dt990 has less damping than DT880 and I think the mids on teh DT990 are richer and overall sound is more refined and clearer than that of the DT880 because of this. However, DT990 suffers from excessively V-shaped response with the mids simply lacking sufficient presence relative to bass and treble to sound natural. If you want great mids, I would avoid most Beyerdynamic headphones. Their T1 has pretty nice mids though, but it better have it considering that it's a $1k+ flagship headphone. T1 has other issues though... I read that the DT250 250Ohm and DT150 have great mids though, but they are closed back and won't sound as nice overall as the open headphones like K612 I think.