When you say the DT880 are uncomfortable, were you testing with a premium/edition model or the Pro model? beyerdynamicâs pro headband has a noticeably higher clamping force.
I would question those ASR numbers, honestly.
Non pro, but I actually think I like headphones when they have a snug fit, like the 900 Pro X. But my problem with the DT 880 is the headband, the foam on them are too thin for my liking, but Iâve loosened them up a bit, so itâs not as uncomfortable now.
I found a pair of DT 1770 Pro for a very cheap price. How about them in terms of imaging v the DT 1990 or DT 880? I donât know what soundstage does in terms of gaming. I know that the Beyer 1xxx series is overkill for gaming, but it would be pleasant if I had proper headphones for music listening aswell. Could be nice with alternative to use balanced cables aswell, and I wouldâve more amp alternatives.
As a long time lurker I would like to chime in as well. Although I have âbetterâ or âmore expensiveâ headphones, I bought a pair of DT880 600 Ohms, mostly out of curiosity, you know the hype and all. Although I liked them, I always thought these couldnât be the hyped headphones and these should be more to get from them. @WaveTheory also helped me along the way. I had SP200 at that time. It was fairly powerful and I think Iâm not that sensitive to higher frequencies. I also tried them on SP400 (which is gain limited so less single ended power than SP200), SMSL M500s own headphone jack (which was suprisingly good) and a DIY hybrid tube amp which is very powerful but also strangely bright, not a good match.
So although I enjoyed DTs, they didnât get much playing time. Then a wild Emotiva BasX A100 appeared on a used marketplace site. Mind you, Iâm not in the continent of America and this could be my only chance to try so I jumped on it. Anyway, I knew DT880 didnât need that kind of power nor BasX was the best amp.
When BasX arrived, I tried both with and without the jumpers. I liked sound with the jumpers better so kept them on. Bass was more tight I think. Bass might have been higher without the jumpers because of higher output impedance, but also it sounded just a little looser to me. Graphs from DIYaudiohaven suggests that 600 Ohm DT880 isnât affected from output impedance that much. So it might have been placebo or confirmation bias for all I know. Anyway I sold the SP200. Now Iâm using BasX exclusively with DT880 because the noise floor is noticable on every headphone I have except DT880. Cannot turn the volume knob past 9 oâclock with full DAC volume.
Conclusion: I like the pairing, I donât feel Iâm missing anything anymore, DTs doesnât feel overly bright or harsh, even in higher volumes, I enjoy them. I intend to keep both DT880 and BasX for now because they are getting harder and harder to find. Maybe I would buy a pair of passive speakers or another hard to drive headphones like HE6 etc.
If you read all, thanks, I wanted to share my experience in case some of you are on the same boat. These are not hard to drive but like many of us said, but they should be kept under control that is possible with appropriate power. Less educated of us might point out the numbers like 100mw or 600 ohm, but I would like to remind you that that impedance is not constant throughout the frequancy range nor the music is. More experienced audiophiles or experts would argue, delivering the power immediately whenever needed is more important.
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Correct, itâs not as effected as the 300 ohm Senns or the 250 ohm-ers from Beyer. One of the advantages of the 600 ohm impedance (and IIRC, itâs impedance ranges from something like 613 ohms up to a little over 800) is that itâs so high that most output impedances donât effect the damping factor all that much. I was introduced to this on my Cayin HA-1AMK2 tube amp. My 6XX could sound very different on the wet-dry spectrum depending on where I set the ampâs output impedance. The DT880-600 changed some, but not near to the degree.
Preach.
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@WaveTheory Nice to know people are learning from you. Inlcuding me re the 880/600 and Asgard 3âŠLoving it, especially since adding in the Loki.
Re my search for a new usb to dac cable I have tried 5 including the AQ Forest and have settled on the Nordost Blue Heaven (at a discount lol.) Differences are subtle at first, but I like this one. Besides the usualâŠblacker, better SS, presence, cleaner details, etc. what clinched it was going back and listening to some tracks I know well, but hadnât heard in
a while. It was a whole new experience of those songs and simply, wonderfully better!
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I wouldnât even entertain the idea of an he6 if I were you. Theyâre really picky and theyâll show you how grainy that a100 is. 600ohm beyers are really forgiving to that grain but the he6 will make it the only thing you can hear. They straight up deserve better and they make it really clear when they have tons of power, but the power is dirty.
I get where you are coming from. I donât plan to buy a pair since even with adorama deal, they donât come as cheap with customs, shipment etc. It is more of a what if thing. And if I somehow end up with a pair, I would use it just to compare and see for myself.
Yeah the he6 variants are something that put control abilities of your amp on display and if it isnât up to snuff, it really shows. Even 200wpc speaker amps only usually have a pull of 5-10w at the 64ohm HE6se v2 draw (64ohm tested, btw by ASR (who I absolutely detest) and me) and some headphone amps can make more wattage at that impedance but with quite a bit cleaner sound but with sacrificed dynamics from the lack of voltage swing speed that speaker amps have. Itâs a very fine balance that costs a lot of money to dive at blindly. I spent probably $50-70k buying and reselling speaker amps before just asking @M0N for a rec and the first one I tried from a rec list of his (admittedly not his first rec) but by the sound of it, it was what I was looking for and finally found a decent stopping point to move on to headphone amps and DACs lol. They really are a serious testing headphone and a phenomenal competitive shooter headphone. Better imaging by a decent amount than my HE1000se but not nearly the soundstage but itâs not a detriment in the scope of non BR scale shooters. Now, all this being said, 600ohm beyers seem to benefit from a lot of what does justice to he6 variants while not nearly as extreme. Itâs pretty crazy how far t1.2s and 880/990 600ihms can scale with some overkill amps. I still would like to get my hands on a 600ohm 770 some day or maybe make myself a t5 with a t1.2 driver that isnât ear destroying sharp.
Iâm pretty sure you can still get the drivers direct from beyerdynamic or harvest a first gen mmx300. I rarely see the 600ohm 770s pop up for sale.
I have a DT770 600ohm with a small tear in the driverâs (paper?) material that I intend to swap someday. Iâm donât think itâs audible but Iâd like to bring it back to pristine condition. I can confirm you can order them from beyer but they have limited stock and you must call the to find out if they have it available.
I think you can order the mmx300 manufaktur, you can pick between 32 or 600ohm drivers from Beyerdynamic EU.
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The DT880 600ohm was my first higher grade headphone. Back then I had no clue what the ohms meant for headphones and just though âhigher = betterâ. Just had a creative sound card with an built in amp.
Over all didnât sound that good and I moved on. Later on when I got more in hifi I brought them out again and balanced modded them. Since then they are my favorite headphones. I have some much more expensive ones, but I rarely bring them out anymore.
DT880 600ohm 
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@DSpader Welcome to HGHF. I got mine several months ago and darn if they havenât become my favorite as well! I add just a touch of eq (Loki Mini) to fill out the lower end, but the detail is amazing, as others have mentioned. Theyâve been described as Beyerâs
âlightning in a bottleâ and I agree, IF you give them enough power. I use the Schiit Asgard 3 which smooths the treble just enough. Enjoy!
hey @MrAyrit Iâve just seen your Topping A90 review and you mentioned you preferred DT880-DT990 600 Ohms on A90 more than your SA1 and bottlehead crack. Would you like to elaborate more here?
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Yeah @MrAyrit!
I used to have the thx789 with modius running my t1.2nd balanced. I used to like it⊠There was an amazing sense of speed, clarity, and dynamic range that caught my attention.
Iâm curious to try thx again with the BF2.
Using Soloist 3xp+BF2 T1.2nd rn.
Although I canât comment on the 880s with an A90, the SA-1 didnât power my balance-modded 880/990 600 Ohms. Full tilt/high gain, they were loud but didnât deliver what these cans are capable of. Obviously, running any amp full tilt, you know itâs technically beyond itâs limit and unable to adequately control the drivers.
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Measurements in ASR show that powerwise A90 > SMSL SP400 > Singxer SA-1 and I kind of feel my SP400 is not as powerful as they market it to be, so I get what you mean. However Iâm sure you know there is a safety thingy in place in Singxer SA-1 to protect them from current fluctiaons etc. coming from DACs. If you disable it, things may change.
Iâm aware of the jumper mod. It only filters signal coming in from DACs. The issue with driving 600 Ohm cans is only in part due to power. As Wave Theory touches on above, itâs all also the design of the amplification circuit and the quality of the parts used - this impacts on whether they can deliver the power quick enough/control the drivers.
Singxerâs SA-1 sounds brilliant, but it canât do really hard to drive cans.