[braveburger]

Hey guys, I have a beyer A20 amp, shall I get a DT880 250 ohm or 600 ohm?

 

[devhen]

  Hey guys, I have a beyer A20 amp, shall I get a DT880 250 ohm or 600 ohm?

 
I would recommend the 600 ohm, personally. The A20 is a good amp but its 100 ohm output impedance plays best with really high impedance headphones. I've tried mine with my 600 ohm DT770 Premium and it gets it plenty loud.

 

[SHAMuuu]

   
I would recommend the 600 ohm, personally. The A20 is a good amp but its 100 ohm output impedance plays best with really high impedance headphones. I've tried mine with my 600 ohm DT770 Premium and it gets it plenty loud.

Why does that SS have such a high output impedance? Doesn't that only give damping factor of 6 for t1? I remember watching Tyll saying the minimum should usually be 10. Usually tubes with high output impedance is to deliberately cause some distortion right? Can you explain or someone.

 

[devhen]

Why does that SS have such a high output impedance? Doesn't that only give damping factor of 6 for t1? I remember watching Tyll saying the minimum should usually be 10. Usually tubes with high output impedance is to deliberately cause some distortion right? Can you explain or someone.

 
Others can do a way better job of explaining the technicalities (paging @Hifihedgehog) but I know I've read that there has been a longstanding standard in the pro audio world for 100 ohm output impedance but only Beyer a few other companies seem to care about it. All I can say for sure is that in my own experience with my newly acquired A20, it seems to be ever so slightly muddier than my G109 with my 250 & 300 ohm headphones but the effect is less noticeable, and essentially non-existant, with my 600 ohm DT770s.
 
It would be nice if the A20 had the ability to switch between 100 ohm and near-zero ohm output impedance but only the A2 has that feature.

 

[Argyris]

 
Why does that SS have such a high output impedance? Doesn't that only give damping factor of 6 for t1? I remember watching Tyll saying the minimum should usually be 10. Usually tubes with high output impedance is to deliberately cause some distortion right? Can you explain or someone.

 
It's most likely to purposely add a bit of midbass bloom around the resonant frequency of the driver. The DT880, unlike the Sennheiser HD 5xx and HD 6x0 lines, has a fairly flat impedance curve, but it does still have a bit of a broad bump centering around 80 Hz. When run from a higher impedance source output (i.e. the system is not properly damped), a headphone with non-linear impedance will produce more output around the peak frequency of its impedance curve, the magnitude of the amplitude increase varying directly with the magnitude of the impedance swing. I would expect the effect to be subtle with the DT880, but on a headphone with a reputation for leanness, this might be just enough to please listeners looking for a bit of extra body.

 

[SHAMuuu]

   
It's most likely to purposely add a bit of midbass bloom around the resonant frequency of the driver. The DT880, unlike the Sennheiser HD 5xx and HD 6x0 lines, has a fairly flat impedance curve, but it does still have a bit of a broad bump centering around 80 Hz. When run from a higher impedance source output (i.e. the system is not properly damped), a headphone with non-linear impedance will produce more output around the peak frequency of its impedance curve, the magnitude of the amplitude increase varying directly with the magnitude of the impedance swing. I would expect the effect to be subtle with the DT880, but on a headphone with a reputation for leanness, this might be just enough to please listeners looking for a bit of extra body.

I was wondering about that mid bass bloom as something like those SS trying to mimic the tube sound. But at what cost? I would imagine vs, an output impedence of near 0, that the control would be more problematic in the lower frequencies? This is what I understood anyway from Tyll's reviews on the 880 and why he doesn't recommend the 32 ohm. This is why i', confused, but then again who am I to argue with the people that make the amp for the beyers.

 

[Polycentric]

So I've had my DT880/600s for just under a year now and just a few days ago they seem to have really changed in the bass register. In general there seems to be more bass impact. When I first got the 880s they did feel a little bass light, but I got used to that. Now they're just right I think. It might be my ears adjusting, but it seems like I would be much past that stage as it's been a while. I know that burn in is somewhat a controversial topic, but has anybody else experienced a change after about a year in usage?

 

[gefski]

So I've had my DT880/600s for just under a year now and just a few days ago they seem to have really changed in the bass register. In general there seems to be more bass impact. When I first got the 880s they did feel a little bass light, but I got used to that. Now they're just right I think. It might be my ears adjusting, but it seems like I would be much past that stage as it's been a while. I know that burn in is somewhat a controversial topic, but has anybody else experienced a change after about a year in usage?

A combination of headphone burn-in and "listener burn-in". Don't mind admitting it's happened to me with a few products.

IMO
YMWV

 

[Argyris]

So I've had my DT880/600s for just under a year now and just a few days ago they seem to have really changed in the bass register. In general there seems to be more bass impact. When I first got the 880s they did feel a little bass light, but I got used to that. Now they're just right I think. It might be my ears adjusting, but it seems like I would be much past that stage as it's been a while. I know that burn in is somewhat a controversial topic, but has anybody else experienced a change after about a year in usage?

Pads. It's almost certainly pad wear-in. As the driver moves closer to the ear, more bass is perceived. It happened to me (though over a slightly longer period) and has been described by others here.

 

[Polycentric]

I completely forgot about the pads when I posted earlier. It doesn't look like my pads have worn much, but I guess minuscule changes can cause changes in the sound.
 
Now I'm curious about pads. Are there any pads that you all prefer to the stock velours? 

 

[richie60]

Well I just received a nice new pair of dt880 premium 600 Ohm headphones today. I built a Bottlehead Crack originally for my hd650 phones but never got on with the dull sound of them, no matter what music I played, I hated them.

Gotta say these new phones sound absolutely fabulous with the Crack and they're not even run in yet, really comfy as well.

These are a Keeper!

 

[i luvmusic 2]

CRACK and DT880 600R is a good pairing.....

 

[SHAMuuu]

  CRACK and DT880 600R is a good pairing.....

I wonder how much better than my 250 and ocean ... wah wah wah
 
i'm green with envy, that does sound pretty good! Wonder how it sounds/

 

[i luvmusic 2]

 I don't know if you are refering to the Bravo audio ocean which i have for my DT880 600R compared this amp to my CRACK in my opinion the CRACK is way ahead.don't know about DT880 250R with Bravo cause i don't have that pair.

 

[SHAMuuu]

   I don't know if you are refering to the Bravo audio ocean which i have for my DT880 600R compared this amp to my CRACK in my opinion the CRACK is way ahead.don't know about DT880 250R with Bravo cause i don't have that pair.

Yeah Bravo Audio Ocean. Its not the best straight from PC to Ocean to 880, but i put a xtrempro x1 in the line , which is like the dragonfly 1.0 i think. It has sabre 9023 chip, and cleans the signal tremendously before it goes into the ocean. The ocean just dirties it up a bit with bass and thicker mids (to my ears) and tames treble a bit. Perhaps you can try a dragonfly in the chain as pre-amp and see one time to see how that works out. It makes a big diff as preamp from source with ocean as main amp.
 
I have heard great things about the CRACK, as well as the 600ohm so i have no doubt that is one deadly mix