[xkonfuzed]

  what kind of music do you guys listen to on one of these things? I'd like a description of a HQ sound or sound with no equalization. Describe the details of the audio that's being listened to.

 
 
 

I listen to everything on these. Literally everything. Right now I'm listening to this and it sound fantastic.. 
 

 

[r010159]

Every day, millions of plants are killed by vegetarians. Help stop the violence. Eat a steak.​

 
Classic!

 

[devhen]

  I had dt770 250 ohms before and sold them due to sibilant it made my ear bleed you can EQ it but not to my liking.

 
Not every DT770 is sibilant, they just have more standard driver variance than the DT880 and DT990 (Beyer appears to be using the least consistent drivers in the DT770 which is the cheapest of the three models). If you have a problem with sibilance you can put some felt over the drivers like the DT880 has.

 

[PapaSmurf6768]

 
I had dt770 250 ohms before and sold them due to sibilant it made my ear bleed you can EQ it but not to my liking.

 
I was a little worried about that, hoping my Schiit Vali will clear that up though.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

I never like the 770 it have this annoying ear piercing trebel IMO.

 

[xkonfuzed]

[COLOR=6A6A6A]Every day, millions of plants are killed by vegetarians. Help stop the violence. Eat a steak.[/COLOR]​

Classic!

Haha thanks

no offense to any vegetarians here, I'm just a lover of meat

you are missing out on bacon though

 

[i luvmusic 2]

   
I was a little worried about that, hoping my Schiit Vali will clear that up though.

No need to worry,what is good to my ear might not be good to others go with what ever you think it's good you will never know until you try.

 

[MrEleventy]

Not every DT770 is sibilant, they just have more standard driver variance than the DT880 and DT990 (Beyer appears to be using the least consistent drivers in the DT770 which is the cheapest of the three models). If you have a problem with sibilance you can put some felt over the drivers like the DT880 has.

+1, I have 2 pairs that's not siblilant. A pair of Pro 80s and some Prem 250s. They Prems are an old set, the plug doesn't list the ohm-age. I think those are the orignal ones back around or before 2005. I got them for a great price.

 

[pp312]

 

   
 
That's not hard to believe. I prefered my DT880 Pro over the HE-500 after long A/B auditioning. That's on classical. Sold the HE-500 and the after a few months had an opportunity for cheap pair again. Did another comparison with the 880 and still prefered the latter. Some people probably think I'm crazy, but the 880 just sounded more like a live orchestra to me.

 
The HE-400 just sounded darker and distant to me, plus the DT880 is MUCH more comfortable and doesn't has that treble peak the HE-400 has.

 
Has anyone checked out this site yet:
 
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wi8M-HSeK0JF33P-5ypydQjQ4OshRQhvWM0IX2h0NQ8/edit?pli=1#slide=id.g25f83b2cd_3815
 
It's ostensibly a look at current flagships (and mixes no metaphors in condemning some of them), but it also looks at mid-price former flagships. Not to be taken as gospel as it uses a rather arcane formula for grading, but it interestingly gives equal scores to the DT880-600, HD650 and HE-400. Definitely worth a look.

 

[rodweb]

   
Has anyone checked out this site yet:
 
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wi8M-HSeK0JF33P-5ypydQjQ4OshRQhvWM0IX2h0NQ8/edit?pli=1#slide=id.g25f83b2cd_3815
 
It's ostensibly a look at current flagships (and mixes no metaphors in condemning some of them), but it also looks at mid-price former flagships. Not to be taken as gospel as it uses a rather arcane formula for grading, but it interestingly gives equal scores to the DT880-600, HD650 and HE-400. Definitely worth a look.

It was an interesting reading! Thanks for the link.
 
Technically I don't think the DT880 and HE-400 are too distant, it's just a matter of sound signature.

 

[Argyris]

I read it a while back, when Tyll linked it on IF. One of the grading criteria I disagree with is the thing about treble air. While air is very important, the level he prescribes is IMO too high, resulting in tizziness, grainy noise on strings, and a faintly artificial overall sound. I know this all too well since my SRH440, which incidentally would get a big fat FAIL on this metric based on the grading scale in that paper, has too much upper treble energy (especially in a peak centered around 15.5 kHz). It's amazing how much more natural they sound with a bit of precision EQ.
 
As sound travels through space, treble is attenuated. The very highest frequencies are lost first. Taking this as the model, there should actually be quite a bit of rolloff in the upper treble to produce a natural sound on headphones, since the transducers are right next to the eardrum and thus the sound doesn't travel far enough for natural treble rolloff to occur. The guy who wrote this paper might have come up with his air criterion based on at least one of the following two conditions:
 
1) An assumption that a perfectly flat measurement on Tyll's graph is an ideal result, and/or
2) He might suffer from high frequency hearing loss (either naturally from age or as a result of illness or hearing abuse)
 
I don't suggest #2 to be crass. Since the highest frequencies are usually the first to go, he might find a higher than average level of treble air to sound correct, as it compensates for any natural lacking in sensitivity he might have in this range. I apparently have an above average level of hearing range retention for my age, according to a test I took on HF a while ago (I can still hear up to 18 kHz), I certainly don't need any extra air, and I feel like the author's "ideal" would sound grossly out of balance to me.
 
I think these kinds of "ideal finding" discussions are at least as revealing of the perspective of the author as they are of the subject matter. To that end, I suppose we cannot exclude a third possibility, and that's the matter of personal preference. Some people really enjoy air, since it can add a sense of presence and space around sonic elements. It's one of the secrets to the DT880's magic, except that I don't feel the Beyers are excessive in their upper treble level.

 

[pp312]

  I don't suggest #2 to be crass. Since the highest frequencies are usually the first to go, he might find a higher than average level of treble air to sound correct, as it compensates for any natural lacking in sensitivity he might have in this range. I apparently have an above average level of hearing range retention for my age, according to a test I took on HF a while ago (I can still hear up to 18 kHz), I certainly don't need any extra air, and I feel like the author's "ideal" would sound grossly out of balance to me.
 
 

 
I'm sure you could never be crass, Argyris.

 
Actually I found the author's criteria incomprehensible (which may not mean much, since I find a lot of things incomprehensible). This pass/fail thing...it all seemed very arbitrary and would probably only line up with real-life experience by a fluke. Nevertheless it did concur rather remarkably with Head-Fi received wisdom in the sense of the most admired (and best measuring) mid-price ex-flagships lining up about equal, and some of the more controversial flagships getting savaged for obviously not even trying (Ultrasone probably crawled away bleeding to quietly die somewhere). Anyway, good to see someone calling it as he sees it without fear or favour; it's what I admire most about the Effing Pirates.

 

[rodweb]

I'm looking for some "portable DT880“, what would you guys recommend?

 

[VXAce]

I'm looking for some "portable DT880“, what would you guys recommend?

Like the 32 ohm version of it?

 

[rodweb]

  Like the 32 ohm version of it?

No, like a resistant small portable with good isolation for outside use that sounds like them.