[inasafeplace]

  Before suggesting not to buy headphones from amazon.co.uk and recommend other dealers you should consider the location of the buyers and that amazon.co.uk offers the shipping costs for most products.
None of the sellers you recommended ships from the EU which means extra shipping time, and extra, unpredictable, customs fees.
 
K550 for 130£ 
DT880 for 299£
Both shipping included from amazon.co.uk
 
Please let me know where you can find them cheaper in Europe.
 
PS: Also interested in Sennheiser HD600

Shipping fees are included from Razordogaudio normally... and no custum fees either. I don't see the problem there...

 

[GirgleMirt]

 
Shipping fees are included from Razordogaudio normally... and no custum fees either. I don't see the problem there...

Domestically maybe, as soon as you go international shipping free shipping goes away and is replaced by expensive shipping options.  In the case or Razordogaudio, for a headphone it's 30$ via USPS priority or 44$ via USPS air.  And we're talking Canada here, same continent, northern neighbor.  If you're shipping halfway around the world you can rest assure shipping will be more expensive.  Also, you're likely to be hit with brokerage fees & other costs/fees you don't have to pay if you purchase locally.  If you've ever had anything shipped crossborder with fedex or UPS, you're likely to know very well of how those clowns are the kings of bs fees. 
 
"oh yeah brokerage was only 49.99$ for an item costing more than 180$.  Also we paid those 6.75$ of taxes for you and only charged you 12.99$ for this service, and since we loaned you that money, that'll cost you 3.99$, and since you have no choice now but to paid us with a credit card because you didn't prepay our ridiculous brokerage fees, that's an extra 4.99$, oh, and of course you have the taxes for all those services we so graciously offered you, it comes down to 13.45$, ain't that sumthin derp derp  funny eh how your 150$ item turned into 270$?  Well we have to make a profit no?  Couldn't make a living only with the 30$ of shipping costs!  Thanks for using UPS/FedEx!  Have a nice day!"

 

[inasafeplace]

Well I've bought regularly from the USa and rarely have to pay anything else. Ironically, when I buy 100 dollars worth of stuff I usually get to pay around 15 dollars of fee if it is shipped EXPRESS or with Signature Required. Otherwise, I've purchased stuff over 1000 dollars and never had to pay a dollar more.

 

[GirgleMirt]

You were lucky then!  If you ship via USPS, it's now a 10$ fee from Douanes Canada no matter the price of the item, so if you go USPS route, you're golden.  If you ship UPS/FedEx, for 1000$ value UPS charges $74.25 for brokerage, for a 200$ headphone it would fall in the 200-350$ price range, it's $47.00 brokerage fees...   http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html   Plus all the other extra bogus fees of course...  Anyhow, prices have been getting better in Canada the last few years it seems.  The Q701 I bought from amazon.com for 230 I think, ncix had it a 2-3 weeks later for 250, factor in that you save the Qc PST by buying from ncix, brokeage, etc., actually comes down cheaper than amazon.com!  Canadacomputers had the 550 for 180$ + 6$ shipping, amazon.com sells it for 235$ + 20 or so shipping...

 

[GirgleMirt]

  Thx!  Yeah already have a T1.   For their FR being similar to 990, indeed, not exactly the same, the 550 does have a more neutral bass and it seems that extend lower, but they do seem to have similarly recessed mids and a spiky treble...  That's what's worrying me.  The V6 in comparison seems quite a bit more neutral, and its treble is by far less sticking out.  I mean, both 990 and 550 seem to have about 15dB difference between 3kHz and 10kHz...  That's huge!
 
Compared to the Q701, again, seems to be more recessed mids, a more bassy sound, with a spiky treble, which again, I don't know... Guess could be problematic   One one hand, it's not that much worse than the Q701, but it's that much closer (even maybe a tad bit worse for mids) to the 990s... 
 
 

Spoiler: graph 550 vs q701

 
If I just had to guess/judge by graphs, I'd have to say that the 550s maybe aren't good headphones for me.  I don't know it's hard to tell, maybe they'd be fine...  

They're here!  Few random thoughts after having listened to them a good part of the day. So far, they're pretty good!  The bass is quite impressive.  Definitely more of a warm sounding headphone rather than a bright one.  No significant sibilance or harshness on the high end as I was worried.  A bit warmer (more low end) than the Q701s but not to the point where the bass is overwhelming, sounds quite well balanced, and the bass does extend quite a bit lower.  Powerful bass!  Overall, quite a balanced and very good sounding phone!
 
Definitely a decent step up from the V6.  Also they're quite comfortable, no top ridge like the 701 and the pads are quite soft, they seem to get a bit warm around the pads after a while, and the material feels a bit 'rubbery' compared to Q701 or Beyers, but quite comfortable!  Isolation is pretty good too.  So far I'm definitely not disappointed.  It definitely has the AKG in house sound, and doesn't sound that dissimilar to the Q701, so in that I'm quite pleased!    Imaging/soundstage so far I'd also say very good, detail is there, really no complaints, great closed cans for 200$!
 
Oh, and no adjustment trouble for me!  I barely tightened up a bit the headband when I first got it since I don't have a big head (normal size I guess..), and they fit just right    I was a bit confused though as to how lower and raise the earpads, until I realized they don't adjust this way which was a bit weird at first...  But like I said, fit just fine   I think it's because the earpads are so large, lot of room up/down for different heads!
 
So thanks for the advice, definitely happy so far! 

 

[GirgleMirt]

oh silly me they are adjustable height-wise lol well I'm at 1-2 anyhow guess I do have a small head

Inasafeplace: in mtl btw? Also I saw you ranked your 550s relatively low in the rank your phones thread, care to elaborateon the why?

Btw, tried mine without the T1, significant difference... Highs seem a lot more.. Unrefined.. bass is reduced a lot, not sure now how much the T1 played in my above description, i'll have to compare to magni eventually!

 

[inasafeplace]

oh silly me they are adjustable height-wise lol well I'm at 1-2 anyhow guess I do have a small head

Inasafeplace: in mtl btw? Also I saw you ranked your 550s relatively low in the rank your phones thread, care to elaborateon the why?

Btw, tried mine without the T1, significant difference... Highs seem a lot more.. Unrefined.. bass is reduced a lot, not sure now how much the T1 played in my above description, i'll have to compare to magni eventually!

I'm in Saint-Jean-Chrysostome (Lévis).
 
I think the K550 sound good overall, just too harsh on treble (painful). I might try the felt mod to see if it does anything. Without it, I'd like them a lot more.

 

[GirgleMirt]

Hmmm!  Really?  I guess I heard the same thing without the Aune T1, I guess the T1 is a really good match then because it really helps tame those highs, "tried mine without the T1, significant difference... Highs seem a lot more.. Unrefined", I thought it was maybe due to the poor quality of my Dell laptop output; that the highs just felt...  Somewhat, 'cheap'... Like I don't know, I wouldn't say like 'bright' sounding as in hash/fatiguing, but definitely brighter sounding and yeah harsher, quite less smooth than with the T1.  The bass also is a lot less solid and less pronounced without it.  I'd almost qualify the 550s as bass monsters with the T1, not to the extent of beyer 990, but actually, they probably extend lower but are a bit less emphasized.  Anyhow, really impressive bass.
 
I guess the same thing happened with the V6 but it seemed less apparent; or lesser improvements you might say.  Maybe it's not just the tube part but the impedance of the Aune T1 vs laptop output which affects the FR of the 550.  Definitely better sounding imho with the T1 vs laptop output, though maybe vs the Magni/Modi stack it might sound a bit more like the laptop output in terms of FR (treble & bass), but not as 'bad' as the laptop... 
 
Pretty crazy/interesting how amps make a difference!  I guess in the end it's definitely not night and day, but I think that most 200$+ headphones are at least quite good, especially with the big famous brands (AKG, Beyer, Senn, Sony, etc.), so they won't sound that dissimilar to begin with, and the differences amps make are significant in proportion...  Guess now I'm more curious, I really might have to do an A/B comparison with the Aune and Magni/Modi, I was under the impression that the Aune didn't color the sound that much, just from the impression I had with the V6s which didn't seem to change that much with/without the T1, with the 550, it looks like the T1 make quite a bit more difference than I thought.  Maybe the better headphones makes the T1 improvements more noticeable.

 

[zackzack]

 
I'm in Saint-Jean-Chrysostome (Lévis).
 
I think the K550 sound good overall, just too harsh on treble (painful). I might try the felt mod to see if it does anything. Without it, I'd like them a lot more.

 
Hook it up straight to your laptop or desktop un-amped, they will sound more neutral. 
But soundstage & transient details would suffer.  Also, these don't sound so great hooked up to 
portables like iPhone and such.

 

[inasafeplace]

I've tried the K550 with different sources.... My computer (M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard) and a Matrix M-Stage Amp. That is my setup. Also been using them a lot on my TV (straight in the TV jack). The treble is still there.... fatiguing, unrefined, harsh... I prefer it more laid back like on my T1 and K702. Might be a preference, might be a health condition I have...
 
Anyway, it doesn't seem like I'm the only one experiencing this from the posts on head-fi.

 

[GirgleMirt]

  I've tried the K550 with different sources.... My computer (M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard) and a Matrix M-Stage Amp. That is my setup. Also been using them a lot on my TV (straight in the TV jack). The treble is still there.... fatiguing, unrefined, harsh... I prefer it more laid back like on my T1 and K702. Might be a preference, might be a health condition I have...
 
Anyway, it doesn't seem like I'm the only one experiencing this from the posts on head-fi.

Oh so you did try them on your T1?  What did you think?  You still find the highs harsh/unrefined?!  I guess it always depends on what you compare them to and what your tresholds are...  So far I've listened to them on about maybe a dozen or so albums and have really no complaints, in comparison the Beyer 990 somewhat drive me nuts on many albums.  Never had a problem with the V6s or Q701s, but some have described the V6s as somewhat piercing highs though...
 
[edit]Oh Beyerdynamics T1 and not Aune T1 amplifier... Nevermind!

 

[Wicked world]

I'm kind of surprised to read so many comments about the K550's having piercing treble. I use them for every genre imaginable and have never experienced any spikiness in their treble. But that just shows how different our ears and personal preferences are. I do experience somewhat spikey treble with my DT-990's with some music though!

 

[GirgleMirt]

Yeah exactly, same here, but the graphs at headphone.com do show a spike in the treble, and you also see it a bit on the http://en.goldenears.net/ measurements:

Spoiler: graphs

 
 

 
 
http://en.goldenears.net/
 

 
 
 

But to me they sound a lot more like AKGs Q701 rather than the 990s, much more of the AKG in-house sound (which like I said for me is a plus!), so I don't know, if you don't have any issue with say the Q701, I wouldn't think the K550s would be any different, but maybe it also depends on amplification, ears, etc.!

 

[cel4145]

Hook it up straight to your laptop or desktop un-amped, they will sound more neutral. 
But soundstage & transient details would suffer.  Also, these don't sound so great hooked up to 
portables like iPhone and such.

Not discounting your individual preferences, but I don't understand the logic behind this as a generalization. I use the K550s with my Sansa Clip+ and Galaxy Note 2, and they do very well. In fact, their low impedance makes them very suitable for portable devices.

Anyway, it doesn't seem like I'm the only one experiencing this from the posts on head-fi.

No. You are just the one going on, and on, and on about it. I found the DT880s particular treble emphasis fatiguing to me. But I don't hang out in the DT880 thread repeatedly posting about it :rolleyes:

 

[GirgleMirt]

No. You are just the one going on, and on, and on about it. I found the DT880s particular treble emphasis fatiguing to me. But I don't hang out in the DT880 thread repeatedly posting about it

Hmmm... Not to take any sides in this argument but I did ask him specifically why he ranked his 550s a bit low... 

   From my experience, they're not that different to the Q701s, so for instance, why the Senn Momentums would be ranked between them was a bit confusing (seen the Momentums mentioned in the most disappointing headphone thread...)