[stewgriff]

Ya know, the DT990 Beyer flagship is $264 at BH Photo Video...
And it's probably more rocking than either the K701 or DT880...
Just ignore me, I'm a fanboy for these things.

 

[Nandro]

Thats a great price. I wonder if they would be worth having considering what I already have.... must resist.... Would they really be much different than the hd 600 k 701's?

 

[stewgriff]

Yeah, you know you want to.

 

[Nandro]

I have to agree, the 701's are much more in the way of a reference can, but I though a great deal about upgrading my Grado line to 225's or so. I love the sr-60's so much i figure that may be better than going Beyer and i dont know much about them. Why are the 880's more than the 990?

 

[stewgriff]

The DT990 is usually $100 over the DT880 in most retailers like Headroom, etc., but BH Photo Video offers them for an unusually low price. They used to sell it for $179

.

 

[Nandro]

Wow, i will look into reviews on the difference as not to jack this thread completely. At those low prices I suppose it cant hurt to have a good Beyer in the line up. Lets see if i can find a comparison of the 880 and 990. For me its almost all clasic rock and acoustic, so far my choices have served me well. I really need a good source though, hopefully my Christmas Meir Aria does wonders for my PC as a source as I have about 300G worth of music. I ripped my entire slightly less than 600 CD collection to lossless + downloads. I still cant get over how much difference a DAC/AMP can make. My new SuperFi 5 Pro's i got from my in laws with my iPod are near lifeless until they are hooked up to the bithead, then they are beautiful, and totally blow away the E3C's I used to own, and definitely are clearer and more accurate than the SR-60's...un amp them and they well...stink. SR-60's if I have to use no amp on an iPod dont care how stupid I look. I just never thought IEEM's would be so affected by the amp, and the 701's are just as bad if not worse, except they seem more reliant on the DAC which seems odd.

 

[Gladcow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stewgriff /img/forum/go_quote.gif The DT990 is usually $100 over the DT880 in most retailers like Headroom, etc., but BH Photo Video offers them for an unusually low price. They used to sell it for $179 .

strange, even on amazon the dt990 is priced lower than the dt880. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...571412-3312947

 

[stewgriff]

That's not the same thing. There are 2 versions: the older DT990 Pro w/ black earcups, and the newer DT990 w/ silver and black earcups.

Sorry if I come off as a fanboy, but these are really good cans.

 

[Gladcow]

wow, i knew that too. thats what i get for going on my computer right after i wake up.

 

[Hi-Finthen]

To clear thing up~ With any of these referance quality Headphones, SOURCE becomes paramount as to what their effect at ear will be. Also the Phone and amp MUST be concidered as one fully dependant upon the other for the phones preformance potential to be realized,(here think synergy).
With average sources the 701s will be more forgiving than the 990('05e) when amped with the HeadFive IME, as I own each. Average (or less so) sources and underpowered the 990s bass will be stronger yet somewhat flabby(?) and their high freqs. can be sibilant whereas neither of these traits show up in the presentation of the 701s ...

I wanted to clear that up for you, even though you origanally were comparing the 701s/880s... Which between the two, and although I hadn't auditioned the 880s, I chose the 701s and am pleasently rewarded with each listening session...

These both are great values @ $250 and perhaps the 701s more so to me, as I paid $50 more for mine. The sonic differences between them probably could only be known and decided upon by A/B listening within the same "system" for you to decide your preferance. Those very slim differences is what fuels this hobby and its upgradeitis, coupled to developed personal refined preferances. However, as a first high end instrument, either the 701 or 880s neutrality will provide many thousand hours of peak listening experiences.

Good luck~

 

[Nandro]

Hi-Finthen - thats what I'm thinking myself. At some point you are just limited to what your source is, especially with high end reference cans. People so often take that for granted, Thats why for now i think it has just reminded me that I need to work on a better source or better use of the one I have before I get more cans. I guess what I mean is I should be trying to get the best out of the ones I have before I bother getting more.

 

[Gladcow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nandro /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi-Finthen - thats what I'm thinking myself. At some point you are just limited to what your source is, especially with high end reference cans. People so often take that for granted, Thats why for now i think it has just reminded me that I need to work on a better source or better use of the one I have before I get more cans. I guess what I mean is I should be trying to get the best out of the ones I have before I bother getting more.

should i really be worried that much about my source? im looking for my first step to be getting good headphones without taking into account my source bottlenecking the quality. wouldnt a good DAC in combination with good quality audio rip or even playing straight from cds serve any headphone well?

 

[Nandro]

I depends on the headphone, when I first got cans, I got SR-60's, not just because of the price, but because they are driven easily, and are very very forgiving and lively sounding. When you get to harder to drive and reference cans, the source and DAC/amp become more important as far as sound quality and like Hi-Finthen said earlier, synergy. Unlike the HD 600's SR-60's sound pretty good with just about anything from an old Walkman cassette player to a high end system, the better the cans the more sound you hear and more flaws become evident or if your system is good, the better the music sounds.

 

[Gladcow]

i understand that the higher end reference cans arent nearly as forgiving as the cheaper headphones if at all. but with a designated external DAC and a high quality audio file then that should be sufficient for any headphone right? if anything I imagine i would want a headphone thats least forgiving to allow myself room for upgrade with better components. basically so the upgrade would be more noticable.

 

[HFat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gladcow /img/forum/go_quote.gif but with a designated external DAC and a high quality audio file then that should be sufficient for any headphone right?

Yes, assuming that:
-the DAC can be connected to your computer (or other music repository) in some fashion (which may or may not require a soundcard)
-we're not talking about a DAC that's not designed to drive headphones (you'd need an amp)
-we're not talking about electrostats or other exotic headphones (you'd need a special amp designed to drive those)

Just in case you're confused about what a DAC is, it could mean:
-a component of most soundcards, DAPs, CDPs, and so forth
-a device that's dedicated to D/A conversion
-a product description for USB soundcards marketed to audiophiles
-probably something else too
Oh, and your DAC is your source unless you're using a turntable or some such.

All you need is a soundcard really because most models include a DAC and an headphone amp. Some cheap models such as the TBAAM are often recommended around here although most of us settle for fancier (and hopefully better) equipement.