Any mods/products that can make the headband more comfortable? Itās cutting into my head and becoming distracting in long listening sessions.
Specifically for Beyer, you can find some in Amazon like these: https://www.amazon.com/Headband-Replacement-Beyerdynamic-DT880PRO-Sennheiser/dp/B01LZEDQXJ
But you could go to other types, like ZMF pilot: https://shop.zmfheadphones.com/collections/pads/products/pilot-pad
Or even some cloth ones, although these will probably have less padding (I bought one for my Focal): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L61YYXQ/
I had some issues the first few days but itās less noticeable now. I tried looking for articles since there is a lot of balance modding and earpad swaps going on for the DT880, but I came up short.
As Fabiokelm says, itās an option but Iām curious myself what options there are here and if there is any clear advantage.
Welp I went ahead and tried my own mod in the meantime, just took a soft sock and cut it in half so I just had a tube of cloth. Then, I cut it lengthwise so I could wrap it around the headband. It actually mostly stays in place by tucking it under the āhornsā on either side. Feels better. Maybe could use some extra cushioning stuffed insideā¦
Canāt believe Iām wearing a sock on my headā¦
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Pic?? 
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Here are my thoughts on this headphone. I wrote this as a review for my own website, so I am posting it here and itās written that way, so forgive some of the stuff most people here already know.
I bought the Beyerdynamic DT880 600Ī© and the Emotiva BasX A-100 speaker amp a few months ago to find out for myself what all the fuss was about from ZeosPantera, an audio reviewer I enjoy following on YouTube.
I have two pair of DT880ās, a 250Ī© and a 600Ī© version. Iām going to be talking about the 600Ī© only here and I did some testing with the Emotiva amp, and two other amps to see the differences first-hand.
The deal was that you could buy this Emotiva speaker amp for just over $200 and with it, run some high impedance headphones on them by doing what is known as a āpage 11 mod.ā On page 11 of the owners manual they tell you that you can use the included pin jumper to bypass the headphone protection circuit and divert the full power of the amp to the headphone circuit. Thatās 50 watts per channel into 8 ohms or 80 watts per channel into 4 ohms.
Thatās not something that is recommended to anyone who doesnāt know what theyāre doing with headphones, amplifiers and raw power like that. The vast majority of headphones, and IEMās, on the market are high efficiency, low impedance, ones. The DT880ās, 600Ī©, are an exception to this rule. They are high impedance and hard to drive headphones that require a good bit of power to get good sound out of them.
After I received the headphones I let them burn in for 72 hours. Playing them right away, out of the box, they didnāt sound that good at all. But after such a long burn in, they sounded much better.
Now, the Emotiva amp delivers on the power as Zeos said in his video review. But that comes at a sacrifice. That sacrifice is noise on the circuit. Remember this is a speaker amp, and not purposefully designed to run headphones like other dedicated amps are doing. So the noise floor is quite high. I can hear a hiss when the amp is turned on. Thatās with no music playing and the volume knob turned completely down to nothing. The hiss is less noticeable when music is playing loud enough and youāre not trying to hear it.
I did plug in a pair of 64Ī© headphones into it for a few seconds with the volume all the way down and no music playing and the hiss was incredibly loud. Again, this is not a dedicated headphone amp but a speaker amp first.
Some people Iāve seen say you need this Emotiva amp, or other high- powered amp to drive these headphones properly. Well I have a few other dedicated headphone amps, both solid state and tube, that I can do some testing on to see how true that sentiment is.
The other amps I used were the Drop THX 789 (solid state) and a Darkvoice 336 SE (tube). I chose some songs that I know well and enjoy which had a decent amount of bass and mids in them to try this testing with. The only things I was looking to check on were
power and noise. I wasnāt looking for sound-stage, dynamic range or clarity. I just wanted to see if these other amps could power the DT880ās well enough to enjoy music without distortion and the least amount of noise as possible.
I found something interesting in my testing. But first, Iāll say that all of the amps I used, the Emotiva BasX A-100, Drop THX 789, and the Darkvoice 336 SE all powered the DT880ās just fine. Not once did I hear any distortion at all. I think overall, the Emotiva performed the worst in one out of the two areaās I was checking on.
As for power, yes, it has the power to drive these just fine. But, the noise floor was high compared to the other two amps. In fact, I heard no noise at all in the THX 789 or the Darkvoice.
On the Emotiva I had the volume knob at probably 50% to get a real good volume that I wanted to listen at. With the THX 789 I had to put it on high gain (level 3) and turn the knob all the way to 75% to match the volume level of the Emotiva. The same went with the
Darkvoice, 75% on the volume knob (there are no gain switches).
Now the interesting thing I mentioned which I found is that the bass response of the DT880ās was best felt on the THX 789 over the Emotiva which has far more power to drive these. The THX 789 just performed better in every way over the Emotiva with these
headphones. The Darkvoiceās bass response seemed to match the Emotiva. Both were good and acceptable, but the THX 789 sounded so much better.
Also, the DAC I used was the Geshelli Labs Enog with the optical input and the source files were FLAC played through my Linux PC and the terminal music player CMUS.
EDIT: I should also mention that I had the Dekoni Choice Suede pads on the DT880ās, not the stock pads.
Overall, yes, the Emotiva can easily drive these headphones, but in my opinion, itās not the best choice to pair with them. The noise floor is very high and the bass response was a touch lower than on the THX 789. I honestly did not expect the THX 789 to outperform the Emotiva in this area, but there it is.
Of course, all of this is subjective and based on my ears, and how I perceived the sound. YMMV.
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Whatever works!
Thanks for this insight, makes me feel less anxious about getting the ārightā DAC/AMP combo. I been mulling over lots of stuff, and Iām currently leaning towards the ifi Zen CAN launch edition and the ifi DAC right nowā¦
Can I ask your method for burning in headphones? This is something Iāve read a lot of people doing and I guess Iām curious to see if my set would benefit from it.
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In my case it is the ifi zen CAN!
Sounds much better with the 880ās than the Emotiva
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All I did was connect the DT880ās to the Emotiva and started playing music from my library and let it run for 72 hours. I put them on my head and checked volume levels at the start to set it at a decent level. Then I put the headphones on a foam block and let it go.
I think it will benefit from a burn-in session. Iāve found some headphones sound pretty good right out of the box, and some do not. These DT880ās did not sound good out of the box to me.
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Is there a difference between a dedicated burn-in session and simply using them for a while?
No, I donāt think so. One can choose to do a burn in before enjoying their headphones, or just use them and listen to them improve in sound slowly over time. That is, depending on how long a headphone takes to get to its optimal sound. Some wonāt take long at all, others might take a while.
This morning I did another test using the Schiit Jotunheim on high gain. I was too tired last night to turn on my Windows PC or get behind the desk again to swap some cables around.
The differences in this test compared to the other three amps are I am using the Schiit multibit DAC module inside the Jotunheim and while playing the same tracks as yesterday, they are on my Windows box and through Foobar.
Still looking at the same things as before, noise floor and power here. With the Jotunheim I found that it had more power, or headroom, than the THX 789 and Darkvoice. Getting the volume level about the same was better at 55% to 60% on the knob compared to the 75% on the other two. There was no noticeable noise floor at all. That is unless I had no music playing, the amp on, and I turned the knob to 100%. Only then I could detect a faint hint of hiss. But for any practical sense of the measurement, there is no noise with the Jotunheim. The other thing was that the bass response was comparable to what I experienced with the THX 789.
So now with four amps tested on the DT880 600Ī© I can, in my opinion, say that any decent amp on the market can power these headphones respectably. One doesnāt need a āpage 11ā mod to enjoy these headphones. In fact, the Emotiva BasX A-100 is probably the poorest choice to pair with these headphones.
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So, plot twist, since Iām content to listen to these through my Yamaha RX-V363 at the moment, I did a thingā¦ I was watching different reviews on YT and I came across the review from āNo Theme Reviews.ā
After watching the full video where he sorta debunks Zās recommendation, he goes on to talk about the Beyerdynamic A20 and A2 being great for these (sort of an obvious choice looking back on it.) However, since Iām not keen spending that kind of money specifically just to get the ābestā sound out of these guys, I bought his other recommendation: A $60 Douk amp that apparently has a favorable output impedance to match the DT880. Since this is crazy talk, but cheap crazy talk, Iām going to take a chance and see how it sounds. Should be here in a month or so since itās shipping from China.
Meanwhile, Iāll stick with my Yamaha, and probably go with the iFi CAN/DAC stack at some point soon.
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if a low damping factor alters the frequency response bringing the bass up a bit i donāt think thatās crazy talk at all, we just need to know wether it works or not. It would be nice to view some measurements too to get an idea.
I am not a fan of the āNo Theme Reviewsā channel and I am effortlessly driving my (modded) DT880/600s balanced from the THX789 and Topping A90 (and sometimes single-ended from the Beyer A20 amp) but can only repeat here what I wrote as a comment to the video concerning the little Douk DAC-Amp:
āOut of curiosity, I ordered the Douk and it is really surprisingly good. It has no issues driving the 880 and all my high impedance āvintageā cans (several AKGs/Beyers in the 600 Ohm range) and it sounds quite ārichā (i.e. bass is present and dynamics are quite good). The DAC is a bit limiting the performance with its 48/44kHz and 16bit but it is perfectly OK for casual listening. The biggest surprise for me is that the Douk powers with ease my vintage Pioneer SE700 which is an extremely low-sensitivity piezo-electric headphone from the 70s for which I need my ājumperedā BasX A-100 to power it decently. If only the Douk wouldnāt run so hot (really hot ! about 70 deg. Celsius), I would definitely recommend it as a must-buy for everyone to test it before getting any of the expensive gear for (very) high-impedance cans.ā
Again, this amp is for those who want to experiment a bit with high output impedance amps (120 Ohm) - not really for serious listening. But it works. I do have some safety concerns however: 1.: Temperature (class A = always hot). 2.: The Douk comes with a low quality 24V cheapish power brick which I replaced immediately with a slightly better one. Nevertheless, I would buy it again.
P.S.:
The Douk with its original chinese power brick which lacks all(?) of the safety labels/certifications required to operate it in the EU (and US I guess). It also has a fixed cable with an US-plug. I also placed some of these sticky plastic feet on it to have some space for ventilation in order not to burn my desk surfaceā¦
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Ah interesting, well thatās a plus as I was also thinking about checking eBay for some vintage stuff. Thanks for the details on how it operates.
