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Excellent value for money spent
Posted by Chicago OTL from Chicago on 2011-05-07Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Good overall sound quality, balance, comfort
Cons: Not as neutral or resolving as better units
I have a pair of the medium impedance (250 ohm) DT880's, and also own Sennheiser HD800's, HiFiMan HE-6, Audeze LCD-2's, some ESL 'phones, etc.
Of all the medium-priced headphones I've tried, I like these DT880's the best. They offer a decently balanced sonic presentation that has a little high frequency emphasis to bring out some detail, yet do not "screech" the way some of the competing lower-priced models do when they try to be detailed sounding. Bass is good, and mids clean. Not hard to drive, but will sound best with a decent headphone amplifier. Fairly efficient and middle impedance so they work well with some of the OTL tube amps that can't deliver much current into lower impedance phones.
I find them among the most comfortable headphones I own. Build quality is good but are not "audio jewely" the way some high-end headphones are. They seem rugged enough.
If you're looking to upgrade to the "near high end" from some cheapo phones or earbuds, you should definitely consider these. Or, if you're a connoisseur of high-end gear and want something less costly for travel or secondary use, these should also be on your short list of headphones to audition.
16 out of 18 people found this review helpful. Did you?
My favorites hands down
Posted by NoExpert from Roseville, Ca on 2010-12-21Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Great sound, in no way overstated or pumped up
Cons: Not much maybe a little hard to drive
I've been loving these first gen (flatback style) DT 880's since 2004 when I first bought them from Headroom. I took a friends advice and burned these in for 100 hours (just left these cans plugged in for 4 days at moderate volume to my reciever on FM) The more I listen to them the better they sound to me. I have other good and pricey headsets, yet I always migrate back to my first love...these 880's. I remember Headrooms original review and the reason I bought these at 400 smacks, whomever wrote the review for Headroom said... The DT 880's were somewhere near the top or perhaps the best headphones ever...five stars...
I judge these an absolute steal at $299.00...
15 out of 16 people found this review helpful. Did you?
An interesting take
Posted by xiphmont from Somerville, MA on 2010-09-01Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: A midrange like no other headphone I own, durable and comfortable
Cons: build looks a tad cheesy/1970s for $300... might be an issue for the vain
I've owned these cans for about five years now; I have an early generation pair (bought from HeadRoom!) from back when the earcup grills were flat. These are still the primary headphones I use to tune the Vorbis codec. In the midrange, they're champs at exposing flaws I often don't hear on my other sets. It's a weird sort of way to recommend cans to say they make flaws more obvious, but I go to these first when I'm 'listening for trouble'.
I cart them everywhere and two pairs of Sennheisers (580s) gave up the ghost alongside them in that time (both pairs of Senns had drivers fail). I was worried about the headband on the DT880s being durable. I didn't need to. The earcup grills have dented a bit but that's about all. I just bought new ear pads having worn out the originals. They still work and sound like new.
They're light, comfortable, and [another weird recommendation] the easiest cans I have to toss on and off my head in a hurry. They're the closest full-size headphones I own to not feeling like I have headphones on at all. I've worn them for 12 hours at a stretch, no problem.
The bass is not overly deep, but well damped and controlled. Right now, I'm using these alongside a pair of Denon AH-D2000 (for travel, work in public). The Denons extend farther on both ends but the Beyers still reign supreme in-between. And since these arrived in 2005, my pairs of Grados have been in a box in the closet.
22 out of 23 people found this review helpful. Did you?
The best and the worst in one
Posted by NatureSoundLover from Belgium, Ghent on 2010-04-28Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Low roll off realisitcally bellow 15Hz with good amp, comfortable, quick
Cons: Terribly annoying oversharpness of high tones, without equalization tires your ear, timid staging
Having listened to the 6xx up to 990 series in the shop for over an hour i found DT880 to be just what i needed. To better check i had my old Sennheised HD560 ovation with their gloomy but even response to compare. I could listen straight from a cd player headphone output or from additional creek MOSFET headphone amplifier. First surprise... The CD player output sounded better?! On creek the sound was over sharpened and too aggressive. Anyways i blamed the poor small amp not having heard it before. Sennheisers were quickly disqualified sounding nowhere near as edgy and vivid.
After first hours at home i started worrying i threw quite a a bunch of green ones out of the window. The better headphone amp i used the more over sharpened and annoying the sound was. That's where i realized the fault came from my DTs fault. The sharpness was totally overwhelming the sound from good sources. Very sharp , tiring and metallic. Far from nature. Since i had an A class headphone amp of my own making i quickly put up a filter for the frequencies you can well see as dominating on the response chart of this headphone. Was i surprised of the effect!
Having gotten read of the extensive high tones the headphones showed what they could do. First thing- amazingly low sound. You can experience lots of almost sub- audible overwhelming effects when playing concert music. At the same time the low transits very well into midrange and there nothing is either too positively nor negatively surprising. The key thing about these drivers is their quick response to transients. When driven with a proper source these DTs can really make a good attempt at reproducing vivid heavy loud drumming and other steep pressure slopes- generating instruments. HUGE plus for that , an effect that's a rarity in modern flat and overly appropriate sounding equipment.
After cutting out more than 10dB of the response around 10kHz I still have lots and lots of detail. The tones are still slightly metallic , can be heard a lot in female voices. Yet reading other reviews i wonder about the manufacturing consistency since i heard people complaining that there was not enough high tones originally... Well I think that the response delivered by HeadRoom still speaks in favor of my experience.
The way DT880 deliver the stage to the listener could in my opinion be a bit more "open". The sound is just seems a bit to much "on your head" instead creating a realistically big space. My oppinon here may be biassed as I happened to be able to compare my DT880 with AKG701 which do the best job in sound staging I have ever heard. Yet AKG701 do not stand a chance delivering such powerful and low bottom.
In this place I'd like to thank HeadRoom for their hard piece of work they have done to deliver all these types of headphone responses surely having to do all the measuring themselves. It's very helpful and very professional of you.
In my view DT880 have purposely over-boosted high tones just so that they sound "clean" on the standard headphone outputs of CD players which can deliver really poor quality compared to standalone headphone amps and seem to suffer a lot in high tones inefficiency. (also because lots of them wont be perfectly impedance matched with the 250 ohms DTs have.)
DT880 get my recommendation for people who are not afraid of implementing or using additional equalization for high tones. In return they will get a powerful yet vivid sound with very wide and colorful base and lots of tiniest micro dynamics without annoying over sharpening. Yet the high tones will never be sounding hi-end, which could be expected for this price.
10 out of 14 people found this review helpful. Did you?
Good headphones in the price range
Posted by Asr from CO on 2010-02-13Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Very good clarity overall, high level of detail, extremely comfortable
Cons: Very treble-tilted frequency response, slow impulse response, needs good headphone amp
There have been several versions of the DT880 to date, differentiated by both impedance rating and year - the most recent being the late 2005/early 2006 model that's been available since then, in its various different impedance models, the most popular being the 250 Ohm one.
As 250 Ohms might imply, the DT880 highly benefits from a dedicated headphone amp, optimally one that can output high voltage levels. It also tends to sound better with vacuum tube amps (or tube hybrids), which can help take the edge off the treble and add some mid-range (this is a generalization of course as not all tube amps necessarily sound "tubey" and conversely not all solid-state amps sound "solid-statey"). The DT880 is what most people might call a "bright" headphone, as it's very prominently tilted towards the treble, a lot more than the main competitors in its price range - more than the AKG K701/K702 and a lot more than the Sennheiser HD600/HD650. The only other sub-$500 headphone I've heard that's actually "brighter" than the DT880 is the Sony SA5000 to put things in context.
If a lot of treble puts you off, I would probably recommend not buying these headphones - but if you don't mind treble (along with possible sibilance, though this can dullen with driver burn-in and is also recording-dependent), then the DT880 can actually be quite rewarding. Like the Sony SA5000, this is an exceptionally "clear"-sounding headphone - you can hear everything in the treble, mid-range, and bass, and you can also hear the instruments (and vocals) clearly and distinctly. Everything is separated out nicely too which allows for a clean illusion of soundstage. This allows it to achieve a high level of detail that can easily expose things like pages turning (in classical music) or a singer sucking in his or her breath.
The DT880 is what might be called "neutral" in the mid-range and is probably even more "neutral" than the AKG K701/K702 but unlike that headphone, the DT880 does not have a tendency to sound "dead" or "disembodied." It's hard to explain exactly how the K70x and DT880 are different in this aspect, but easy to tell when you hear them against each other. I can't be any more specific than to say that the DT880 achieves a higher level of musical presence and tactility. This also extends to the mid-bass and lower bass which are quite textured and not as rounded-over as the K70x or as indistinct as the Senn HD6x0. The DT880 has the ability to differentiate types of drums so you can hear their acoustic differences - kettle drums, kick drums, snare drums, etc. Drums are further enhanced with the DT880's bass response which is nice and heavy but not overly boomy and it actually works well enough for most electronic music too (a huge genre for sure but most electronica is highly dependent on bass).
This might all make the DT880 seem like a good headphone but it's not perfect and I'd cite its main drawback is probably its impulse response - it's pretty dang slow. As in, it has a hard time separating fast notes (or fast effects otherwise) from each other and noticeably blurs them into each other to the point where you can't tell where one note stops and the next one starts. This has some unfortunate effects for some instruments in the percussion kit (hi-hats, cymbals, triangle, xylophone, blocks, etc) and other instruments as well - harp, violins, and guitars (acoustic and electric).
The DT880 is still overall a pretty good headphone in its price range though and holds up well compared to its competition. It also doesn't hurt that it's supremely comfortable - the velour pads are pillow-soft and very plush. Just make sure you pair these headphones with a good tube or hybrid amp along with a high-quality source component for optimal performance.
17 out of 18 people found this review helpful. Did you?
your search stops here
Posted by anon on 2010-02-01Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: fantastic sounding headphone, beatiful construction
Cons: cable could be detachable/replaceable
I've bought these headphones twice, after I sold the first pair I had to buy them again since I couldn't find anything comparable.
In this price range there simply is no contender, I've tried Sennheiser (HD5x0/HD600) too but I always found them too much polite and dark sounding for my tastes.
YMMV but make sure you hear them before going for another choice.
6 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you?
A too often overlooked excellent choice
Posted by Rocket Richard from San Diego, CA on 2010-01-30Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: comfortable, balanced
Cons:
I would love to own these headphones. I heard them at a headphone meet and was extremely impressed. Somehow they get overlooked as if they didn't deserve as much consideration as the Sennheisers, Denons, and AKGs in this category. Beside being exremely comfortable, they had the most open, spacious sound to me of any headphone in this category. I didn't find them weak in the bass at all, although some will prefer more punch down low. For classical and jazz they would be superb. Once I can afford a better and more poweful amp than what I currently own to drive them, they will be at the top of my shopping list. The only negative I can think of is that the build quality of the Denon 2000 I own is slightly higher, as in more luxurious, but nothing about the 880s suggests any problem with durability.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you?
Great Classical Headphones
Posted by orthodromic on 2010-01-18Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros:
Cons:
This review is for the 250-ohm model, 2003 model. Originally purchased for mostly classical listening, these headphones are largely transparent and detailed, emphasizing the treble range slightly. Can produce some sibilance with poor recordings. I like the bass representation, which is tight, though I can imagine why some who prefer something boomier or more visceral would shy away from these.
Some of the treble accentuation can be attenuated with amp choice. My old Perreaux SXH1, for instance, darkened things up nicely. Alas, it died. Headroom's now sadly discontinued Ultra Micro Amp also pairs well with it, imparting an ethereal quality that I find refreshing.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you?
Probably my favorite of the full-size headphones
Posted by A HeadRoom Fan on 2010-01-17Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Extremely comfortable, neutral, involving
Cons:
I have tried all the biggies of what is now the mid-fi range of full-size open headphones: the AKG K702, the Sennheiser HD650, and the Denon AH-D2000. I love all of them, they are all terrific headphones, and I could be absolutely happy with any of them, but the DT880 beats them all for me. The AH-D2000 and the HD650 can be slightly on the dark side, the K702 slightly dry and analytical, but the DT880 gets it just right. They have close to the detail of the K702 without any of the aridness those headphones can sometimes give. Fantastic soundstage, wonderful clarity, and the comfort! They are by far the most comfortable of any full-size headphone I have tried. In fact, these turned me from being primarily a Sennheiser guy into primarily a beyerdynamic guy. I have since bought several other models from this maker, and I have loved every single one of them. Given that this is the king of their line (at least until the T1 is in wide circulation), I strongly recommend this headphone as the nicest of the $300-500 range.
13 out of 15 people found this review helpful. Did you?
A most buy headphone
Posted by Zochoten from Anaheim,CA on 2010-01-16Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Comfortable,durable,and looks good
Cons: None
In my opinion, the first question you should ask about any pair of full-sized headphones is whether they're comfortable or not. If they aren't, then they fall at the first hurdle. Never mind how nice they sound, or how cheap they are. If you don't expect to have to wear the 'phones for very long each day then comfort is, I suppose, less important. But it's a biggie for me.
To reproduce the complete sound spectrum in stunning detail is amazing. The high frequencies sound crystal clear without ever coming across as unpleasant, the balanced mids sound analytical and strong, and the bass is voluminous without being too obtrusive. In total, the phones produce a rich sound making everything from classical music to hip-hop to big-budget movie soundtracks sound rich and immersive. The DT 880 headphones are also extremely comfortable during extended listening sessions, with a single-sided cable, replaceable soft ear pads, and a padded headband. And as an aesthetic bonus, the phones offer classic grilles made of high-grade steel.I Highly recommended.
10 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Did you?
A flawless headphone
Posted by Jam from Australia on 2010-01-15Posted on Beyerdynamic DT 880
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Comfortable, amazing sound, great value
Cons: Thick stiff cord, hard to drive
I've been through quite a few headphones in the last few years, looking for a decent set of recreational and professional headphones I can use to listen to music at home and to mix and edit audio. I have to say that the DT880 are the greatest headphone experience I have ever heard. I have tried a couple of other sets in the store, such as the AKG 701 and the Audio Technica ad700, but I think that the DT880 are most suited for me.
They present a very wide, flat and dynamic experience, with a feeling of weight, accuracy and transparency behind every note. They are a beautiful headphone for picking out flaws and tonality behind music and sound, an indispensable tool for the studio and a wonderful 'chill out' headphone for relaxing while reading a book.
I cannot fault the sound, the headphones remove themselves and instead you hear exactly what was recorded. I'd love to see more studio orientated features like a bendier more pliable cord, and replaceable would make this a product for life. Comfort is top notch, the headphones remaining firm, while not clamping too hard.
9 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you?
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