[oldshoe99]

Quote:

 
Think of these two phones as aural compliments or even polar opposites, both with high detail. The HD250 provides full frequency range enjoyment from reasonable highs to subterranean lows, while the DT48A serves as an upper bass to lower treble aural microscope. 

 
 

The problem I have with the HD250 being a complement or anything else is that it's not available.  Occupying such a large part of the DT-48 thread, it might make sense if it were available for purchase.  There are many legacy items that could go here, but I can't imagine how that would help persons who are considering a new DT-48 purchase. There's nothing to compare to, which is why I asked what the poster has heard that is available is comparable.

 

[maniacal71]

I just upgraded to a Vintage Sansui R70 and all my DT48s' sound great out of the headphone jack. I found this Vintage Sansui R70 amp and the DT48s' all sound great on it, nothing fancy just directly jacked in after a Musiland DAC, in fact all the DT48 even the E has the same flatline now, bass department is flatter and meatier, more transparency and crisp highs. 

 Oh yeah there is a loudness switch, but that really bloats it up, nice though on lean bass tracks.
 
Now this is what i call an Upgrade!!. Even my Wharfedale DD-1 shines on this amp.

 

[judy1992]

I got my pair. 2011, 25ohm, used. They are heavy for my petite head. I need to listening lying down. They sound odd & different then anything I heard, like the music has been stripped naked. They are ultra clear & very polite & articulate. The only other 'good' headphone I auditioned was the 701's. They sound more musical to me, but the DT48 is intriguing. Not sure what to make of them.
Quote:

My feeling is that the current DT-48A with current oval pads (for music listening) is on a par with headphones in the $1200 or higher range, so if the HD250 is as good as the new DT-48A with new oval pads, then it would be the greatest stereo bargain since the Shure SRH-940.
​
BTW, I don't recall the DT-48A rolling off below 70 hz.  The bass below 70 is weaker than for example the Senn 800 by perhaps 5 db, but it stays that way all the way down, which is not a rolloff.
 
Why am I having disbelief that the HD250 has sound as good as a $1200 headphone?  Oh, I get it.  It's because you believe that the DT-48A sounds like a $200 headphone, or maybe just a $400 headphone.  I'll have to try to convince myself of that, but it's difficult when I have so many headphones from $500 to $1100 that sound so awful compared to the DT-48A.
 
EDIT: Oopsie!  Apparently the HD-250 II is discontinued?  How can such a great headphone at such an incredible price be discontinued?  How did I miss this thing?

 

 

[oldshoe99]

 
Quote:

I got my pair. 2011, 25ohm, used. They are heavy for my petite head. I need to listening lying down. They sound odd & different then anything I heard, like the music has been stripped naked. They are ultra clear & very polite & articulate. The only other 'good' headphone I auditioned was the 701's. They sound more musical to me, but the DT48 is intriguing. Not sure what to make of them.


 

This is pretty good.  I admire your courage to go ahead with such an unusual item as the DT-48E.  If you haven't seen Audiophath's review at B&H you should.  It   He tells of the struggle(!) getting used to it, and how rewarding it was in the end.  It does sound really different, but once you start getting a good bass seal, it will become more musical sounding.
 
 

 

[oldshoe99]

 
Quote:

I just upgraded to a Vintage Sansui R70 and all my DT48s' sound great out of the headphone jack. I found this Vintage Sansui R70 amp and the DT48s' all sound great on it, nothing fancy just directly jacked in after a Musiland DAC, intact all the DT48 even the E has the same flatline now, bass department is flatter and meatier, more transparency and crisp highs. 

 Oh yeah there is a loudness switch, but that really bloats it up, nice though on lean bass tracks.
Now this is what i call an Upgrade!!. Even my Wharfedale DD-1 shines on this amp.
 

 
I remember Don having similar success with a vintage amp or two - don't remember the particulars, but it seemed like those integrated amps deliver a better current to the DT-48's than what a lot of headphone amps do.

 

[Deep Funk]

Combine the power of a vintage preamp with a clean headphone out and adjustable gain and you are done. If you can adjust the gain while still having plenty of current on tap you can drive pretty much any headphone. There is a reason why I still haven't replaced the SRC2496...

 

[Jap]

Quote:

The problem I have with the HD250 being a complement or anything else is that it's not available.  Occupying such a large part of the DT-48 thread, it might make sense if it were available for purchase.  There are many legacy items that could go here, but I can't imagine how that would help persons who are considering a new DT-48 purchase. There's nothing to compare to, which is why I asked what the poster has heard that is available is comparable.

My apologies if you feel I am contributing to a hijack of this thread, and I understand your frustration with reviews of discontinued products. I felt the same about the long extinct Joe Grado HP1/2, which I heard and fully appreciated at meets but are now way too overpriced to be worth the effort of finding & buying for this user. At least the HD250 can be had for much more reasonable money---I secured mine for less than $200.
 
However, I DO intend to add a brand new 48A to my gear. I didn't even realize the 48A was available brand new just like the 48E until I received a PM from Shamu. 

 

[shamu144]

No need to apologize Jap. After all, the Sennheiser HD250 Linear II is not as rare as the Sennheiser Orpheus ! It is easily available still if you are patient enough, and apparently, more than a few DT48 owner also have an HD250 II in their stable. The K501 comes to mind as a similar discontinued product and yet extensively discussed on those boards.
 
And being over 70 years old, I believe the DT48A can be legitimally compared to any headphone produced untill today, be it legacy headphones (I would love a comparative review with the Grado HP1/2) or current production headphones.

 
Quote:

My apologies if you feel I am contributing to a hijack of this thread, and I understand your frustration with reviews of discontinued products. I felt the same about the long extinct Joe Grado HP1/2, which I heard and fully appreciated at meets but are now way too overpriced to be worth the effort of finding & buying for this user. At least the HD250 can be had for much more reasonable money---I secured mine for less than $200.
 
However, I DO intend to add a brand new 48A to my gear. I didn't even realize the 48A was available brand new just like the 48E until I received a PM from Shamu. 

 

 

[MDR30]

Rockgrotto has an expansive thread on the merits of the HD250.

 

[Deep Funk]

You have finally found it?
 
That thread was the reason for trying one...

 

[holylucifer]

Well i have to agree with statements regarding the dt 48s basic strengths.
 
It strengths are high end comparable crystal clear sound resolution detail neutral accurate, extremely fast sounding plus it is future proof if you can't get the hd 250 you can get the dt 48.
 
Best can for under $500/£500 for what it is designed to do.
 
 

 

[webspider]

I'd rather call the TripleFi 10 the polar opposite to the DT48. Unfortunately I can't compare them directly right now, but these IEMs definitely rival them in terms of speed, detail and preciseness.
 
People who know a little bit more about BA based in-ears, should know their further characteristics like slightly recessed and cool mids, slightly emphasized kick bass, heavily emphasized deep bass and upper highs. They remind me of a very clean subwoofer that can't be felt, only heard. The remaining characteristics are similiar, small, but credible soundstage, fast and clean sounding. The problems with the source also remain, for instance anything with an higher output impedance than 5 ohm bends the frequency graph. Quite a few portable audio players and amps don't only do that, but also make the bass disappear and add noise. Listening via my MBPs analog audio out is unbearable, but a Sansa Clip+ is more than enough to solve this.
 
I've also got the feeling that the DT48 is more of an inversed bathtub than neutral, because truly neutral headphones don't have roll-offs at the ends of the frequency graphs. Also the signature makes them sound more laid back than the TripleFi 10, but until I get mine back, I can't compare them directly.
 
This is just to add a more controverse headphone for listening to electronic music on the go and to correct the suggestion of an opposite sounding headphone.

 

[Syliano]

Quote:

 
 
People who know a little bit more about BA based in-ears, should know their further characteristics like slightly recessed and cool mids, slightly emphasized kick bass, heavily emphasized deep bass and upper highs.

Sounds like your naming charateristics for dynamic driver based in-ears to me. I've had the UE700 dual BA, no emphasized kick bass nor deep bass heard. Most of the time people say that BA's are bass light compared to dynamic drivers.

 

[webspider]

Well, the TripleFi 10 is one of the few exceptions of reosanably priced BA bases IEMs with heavy bass emphasis due to the three drivers used. The Fischer DBA-02 (or Brainwavz B2) tries to accomplish the same with two drivers, but doesn't really succeed.
 
So I wouldn't put them in the same class as the UE700. But anyways, this thread should be dedicated to the DT48

 

[SanjiWatsuki]

Hey DT48 fans, I have question. I've been thinking about buying high-end headphones and the DT48E is one of those on my list of cans to check out, but I've been really bothered by the correlations between the published frequency response curves. I see the DT48A's Beyer hand-drawn frequency response picture tossed around a lot, but it doesn't jive with the the reviews I see or these graphs.
 
 

 
It seems like the actual-ear response from these measurements are very similar to the above Russian measurements with the significant drop-off of bass at 300hz.  Furthermore, the dummy-head response looks almost exactly like the Inner Fidelity Tyll graphs that you all seem to blame on coming from an improper source, like a Macbook Air. With these correlations, though, I just can't imagine that a source like a Macbook would color the response so much from neutrality. 
 

 
At this point, I find it really hard to believe that the DT48s have anything but a significantly colored frequency response, both at the dummy head and at the actual ear with iffy treble extension and rolled off bass. That doesn't even look like accurate bass in any of these graphs, they look significantly colored by lack of bass and a heavy emphasis on mids, which would definitely make sense in a field recording situation like with Nagios. I'm not sure if it is necessarily because they are neutral that Nagios likes them, it seems to me like it might be the clarity and speed in the mids, rather then neutrality. 
 
While googling for information about the DT48e, I found your Facebook page but hecking out your DT48 Facebook page didn't help much either, because it all just seemed like you were attacking Inner Fidelity and Head-Fi and playing the victim card, rather than giving out any helpful information about the DT48... I was able to get a lot of good information from the B&H Photo reviews and Dalethorn's site, though, but they seemed to really contradict a lot of the other evidence I had. I was just wondering if you guys had any personal experiences to refute these, because I'm really skeptical about buying a DT48e right now.
 
I hope I don't sound attacking or anything, I'm just somewhat frustrated by the lack of coherency in the information I'm finding.