[GNR4EVER]

Does anyone have 1, 2, or all 3 of these--tryin to find out what is the best of the 3.

 

[catachreis]

I've owned Beyerdynamic (Beyer Dynamic) DT-100s: they were very old, hard-used, and the quality of the security-screwed DIN cable had degraded. I didn't buy them again (but I'd bought the rotten pair for cheap). I bought the DT-250 80Ohm headphones direct from Thomann.de in the 90s when I was still a grad student in Dublin. They were my first new, serious headphone purchase. I thought they sounded 'Amazing' but never astonishing. They were beautiful, studio-quality phones. I can't imagine anyone regretting their purchase unless he/she has already got a clutch of terrific vintage and contemporary headphones. 80 Ohms is higher than 5 Ohms and 50 Ohms, don'tcha know. And it's lower than 200 Ohms and 400 Ohms and 600 Ohms, and those higher impedences do affect how well low bass is handled by the drivers (and, maybe, some other things).

If it wasn't for the fact that I'm responding on Head-fi, which was my go-to forum daily for long periods in the 2000s, I'd boast that I've owned more old Beyer Dynamic/Beyerdynamic headphones than anybody around, which, of course, on Head-fi is almost guaranteed to be laughably untrue. I would not hesitate to say that I've purchased and re-purchased many old Beyerdynamic models more than sensible kopfhorer-philes have.

I'll wager nobody has bought so many pairs of DT-480s since the early 2000s and, of so many, sold so few. I acknowledge that I have none of the bleeding edge planar headphones, nor, really any of the Flagship class headphones that I recall beginning with the Sennheiser HD 800 and the Beyerdynamic T1. I've owned T90s twice (still have 2nd pair). I've had, I think all the Tesla derived portable headphones, and none of those on-ear models really impressed me. I've had three pairs of DT-48s of various impedences (one pair's still somewhere in storage). They were brutally honest, as I recall, and so neutral as to be disaffecting. And, I remember doing the band-widening exercises and various adjustments to the erector-set arm-length adjustments to diminish clamping. Sennheiser fanboi boasts offended my Beyerdynamic fanboi enthusiasms, but after over a decade, I found I really like the sound signature of the HD-600s.

But I come back to the DT-480s. I know, they don't measure particularly well. They don't image precisely. There's both high and low roll-off. Depending on the condtion of the model you're listening to, they can sound like anything from Deguello-period ZZ-Top Sludge-puppies to uncanny End-stage set-for-life windows on a paradigm of what most music with fewer than thirty instruments playing at once sounds like (my experience is that even good symphonic recordings don't present with much separation through DT-480s). I have some really wonderful headphones, mostly capitulating to the classics of my Head-fi period in the 2000s. I've got storage off-site, so it can be an embarrassment of riches.

But with so many good cans to hand, I have 200 Ohm DT480s as my daily drivers. It remains so whether I'm messing with the Beyerdynamic A1 amp, the Rudistor SS amp that still works and shines, or the Eufonika H20 tube amp that is the other current daily-driver. I''ve never warmed to planar drivers. But the DT-480s (with their anachronistic DT-480 aluminum drivers) always sound "sorted" to my ears. I'm late-50s now, so I don't have the hearing capacity, much less the esoteric audio experiences, required to say my tastes are 'fine'. But I would swear that the DT-480s are still revelatory for a lot of kopfhorer-philes who recognize---with their slam and fluid dynamics---how coherent a good pair can sound.

 

[CheekerBreeker]

I've owned Beyerdynamic (Beyer Dynamic) DT-100s: they were very old, hard-used, and the quality of the security-screwed DIN cable had degraded. I didn't buy them again (but I'd bought the rotten pair for cheap). I bought the DT-250 80Ohm headphones direct from Thomann.de in the 90s when I was still a grad student in Dublin. They were my first new, serious headphone purchase. I thought they sounded 'Amazing' but never astonishing. They were beautiful, studio-quality phones. I can't imagine anyone regretting their purchase unless he/she has already got a clutch of terrific vintage and contemporary headphones. 80 Ohms is higher than 5 Ohms and 50 Ohms, don'tcha know. And it's lower than 200 Ohms and 400 Ohms and 600 Ohms, and those higher impedences do affect how well low bass is handled by the drivers (and, maybe, some other things).

If it wasn't for the fact that I'm responding on Head-fi, which was my go-to forum daily for long periods in the 2000s, I'd boast that I've owned more old Beyer Dynamic/Beyerdynamic headphones than anybody around, which, of course, on Head-fi is almost guaranteed to be laughably untrue. I would not hesitate to say that I've purchased and re-purchased many old Beyerdynamic models more than sensible kopfhorer-philes have.

I'll wager nobody has bought so many pairs of DT-480s since the early 2000s and, of so many, sold so few. I acknowledge that I have none of the bleeding edge planar headphones, nor, really any of the Flagship class headphones that I recall beginning with the Sennheiser HD 800 and the Beyerdynamic T1. I've owned T90s twice (still have 2nd pair). I've had, I think all the Tesla derived portable headphones, and none of those on-ear models really impressed me. I've had three pairs of DT-48s of various impedences (one pair's still somewhere in storage). They were brutally honest, as I recall, and so neutral as to be disaffecting. And, I remember doing the band-widening exercises and various adjustments to the erector-set arm-length adjustments to diminish clamping. Sennheiser fanboi boasts offended my Beyerdynamic fanboi enthusiasms, but after over a decade, I found I really like the sound signature of the HD-600s.

But I come back to the DT-480s. I know, they don't measure particularly well. They don't image precisely. There's both high and low roll-off. Depending on the condtion of the model you're listening to, they can sound like anything from Deguello-period ZZ-Top Sludge-puppies to uncanny End-stage set-for-life windows on a paradigm of what most music with fewer than thirty instruments playing at once sounds like (my experience is that even good symphonic recordings don't present with much separation through DT-480s). I have some really wonderful headphones, mostly capitulating to the classics of my Head-fi period in the 2000s. I've got storage off-site, so it can be an embarrassment of riches.

But with so many good cans to hand, I have 200 Ohm DT480s as my daily drivers. It remains so whether I'm messing with the Beyerdynamic A1 amp, the Rudistor SS amp that still works and shines, or the Eufonika H20 tube amp that is the other current daily-driver. I''ve never warmed to planar drivers. But the DT-480s (with their anachronistic DT-480 aluminum drivers) always sound "sorted" to my ears. I'm late-50s now, so I don't have the hearing capacity, much less the esoteric audio experiences, required to say my tastes are 'fine'. But I would swear that the DT-480s are still revelatory for a lot of kopfhorer-philes who recognize---with their slam and fluid dynamics---how coherent a good pair can sound.

Your necroing a post from a banned user, that has been created in 2018
Nice writeup tho

 

[catachreis]

Well, an old dude's gotta get his teenage kicks where he can. And even if the banned zombie-querent is long gone, how often does a DT-480 enthusiast (of all things) get a minute to talk about his passion?

---Besides, you cain't never tell. I 'raved' for five years on Head-fi about getting an *amazing* DAC from this German company---their first 24/96 model---branded Lake People, and got nothing but crickets. And there was a number of extremely knowledgable European headphonius supremi back then. I have to imagine that the ones who knew just nodded their heads that another semi-clueless North-American was talking up a good local manufacturer nobody else was gonna hear about. And now I see that Lake-People/Violectric components are hot property---'long time after most kopfhorer-philes would bother about why 24-bits with a 96 kHz sampling rate might matter.

 

[kman1211]

I'm probably one of the more prevalent DT 480 fans on this website, though I have modded my pair extensively and they take really well to modding and you can actually get proper sub-bass out of them with effort. I am using a 25 ohm pair, my 200 Ohm pair sadly had a bad rattle on one driver that was unfixable. But getting vintage headphones comes with risks and sometimes you get some stinkers. Most honestly have no clue how good the DT 480 drivers are nor their potential.

 

[catachreis]

I'm probably one of the more prevalent DT 480 fans on this website, though I have modded my pair extensively and they take really well to modding and you can actually get proper sub-bass out of them with effort. I am using a 25 ohm pair, my 200 Ohm pair sadly had a bad rattle on one driver that was unfixable. But getting vintage headphones comes with risks and sometimes you get some stinkers. Most honestly have no clue how good the DT 480 drivers are nor their potential.

Kman, I've read *all* the posts in the DT 480 mod thread, so I've no doubt that I've wondered at your innovations for bass extension and getting more focused imaging. When I first started playing with the DT 480s in the late-2000s, my modding never got more complicated than stuffing some insulation (I can't recall what I used) around the drivers and then using double-sided tape to adhese a suede cutout to the plastic baffles around the exposed drivers (to cut down on glare). I could never be bothered with putting a styrofoam screen over the drivers. And, as the pairs that had my tiny mods are not to hand, I'm not even convinced that they made much of a difference.

The best 'mod' (if 'mod' really describes it) I found was getting new cables of good quality soldered onto the DIN connectors. There was a guy, Pavel whose Supremus user name was 'FallenAngel', who did some superb fixing and upgrading for me and others mostly for the joy of the hobby (I'm sure there was a small surcharge for the wild talent). Now that I'm back here, I don't know any of the excellent DIY vintage headphone servicers anymore.

You know, I've got a 5 OHM pair of 480s that either has messed up wiring to the left cup or just a bad driver. Maybe we should start up an impromptu database of who has which parts for folks who want to repair their half-working cans? I'm not utterly convinced that spare DT-48 drivers will simply replace a non-functioning DT 480 Juwell driver---more out of a sense of the different periods when many of the drivers were manufactured---but it couldn't hurt. Kind regards!