🔶 Beyerdynamic DT880 600Ω

[peter]

Unfortunately it’s starting to look like it. It would be a bummer though because the stock is dried up for the european resellers.
I really appreciate your help though. Is there any other way to determine the impedance?

[WaveTheory]

Do you have a digital multimeter lying around? I don’t know the 880’s wiring schematic off hand but if you touch one probe of the DMM to the tip and another to the shaft of the plug you’ll get a rough idea of their impedance (it varies with frequency but should be at least 600 ohms).

[peter]

@WaveTheory

Do you have a digital multimeter lying around?

I’ll try to borrow one, thanks for the tip. Also just ordered new cables just in case.

[Alfredo3001]

@M0N your impression would be much value to me! I sold my dt880 600ohm today. I think I wasn’t ready to part with it .

[donjklassen]

Beyerdynamic TYGR 300 R

I like his description of the 880’s treble response as “losing the forest for the trees” at times. I think that’s pretty accurate. For most recordings, I really love my 880. They have great resolution and spatial presentation for the price. But that treble is peaky and sharp at times. I notice it most when I listen to hard rock or metal and the drummer rides the crash cymbals. The peak of the 880 treble is right in the range of some crash cymbals and that’s the area where the 880 breaks timbre a…

@WaveTheory just curious are these impressions based on your darkvoice or Asgard 3?

[WaveTheory]

Yeah, good question. For me it’s really both the DV and the A3. I’ve not heard a solid state amp make the 880 sing like the A3 does. My SP200 certainly didn’t. The 880s take on a holographic sound very much like what you hear when driving them with the Darkvoice and good tubes, but with the cleanliness of solid state to boot. On both amps though, there are tracks where the 880’s treble can overwhelm my ears. A common denominator seems to be in the choruses of rock/metal tracks where rapid cymbal hits are used to add energy to the song. To my ear those cymbals make more of a “kksssshhhh” sound through the 880 instead of the more onomatopoe-ic “crash” sound. It’s not all of such tracks, though. Some of it is recording quality. But, when it crosses from the acceptable to the irritating/painful, it goes quick.

[donjklassen]

fair enough and I could definitely see this being case with any Beyer on any given day probably lol… ive got mine with the dv and zen dac and its made the 880 just right for my ears and they’re sort of specialized in my collection for low volume listening… really good detail at low volume and really enjoyable… I even ‘cheat’ sometimes and throw on the bass boost which again at lower volumes doesn’t really take away from the mids

[WaveTheory]

Yeah, as I said in another thread, the Zen is on my radar screen, and mostly because of the 880. I have a Hip-Dac and the sound it makes with the 880 is pretty good, but it doesn’t really get loud enough, and if you want the bass boost there isn’t enough power to give it the extra kick without being sloppy and boomy. I wish the Zen had an optical in, which is one reason I hesitate on it. I want to be able to use the other DACs I have that don’t color the sound as much for other cans, and its USB only input makes such switching a bit of a pain. Your Zen + DV + 880 combo probably sounds like heaven though.

Edit: I’ve also considered drilling out both earcups on my 880 and turning them into a dual-cable-entry set so I can run them balanced off the Hip-Dac for the extra power it gives. I’ve done enough soldering I could do it, I’m just so afraid of messing up the 880 because overall they are awesome.

[donjklassen]

oh my bad I hadn’t read that… so we are already on the same page then… its too bad you can’t just use the hip as a dac only… not an option? (I don’t know that product well enough)

[WaveTheory]

Unfortunately, the Hip-Dac does not have any form of line-out or pre-out. It only has 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm single ended headphone outs.

[peter]

I may have found the issue. I suspect the cable I use merges both L/R channels into one stereo mix so of course it wouldn’t be able to locate any audiospatial information or sound less detailed as I described it.
I will see when I get the new cable tomorrow or Tuesday. Thanks for your patience with me lol

[M0N]

That will do it lol, would really destroy fidelity

[peter]

Ok, that was definitely it and everything sounds fine now. Still unsure if I hear a difference between amp and no amp but at least it’s not worse like before. Next step is a proper DAC I guess

[M0N]

That’s good that it was fixed lol. So an amp isn’t going to be immediately night and day, so as you spend time with the amp, and then after a few days go back to without an amp, see if you notice any differences. A dac will upgrade it further, but again not a night and day difference

[WaveTheory]

@M0N

immediately night and dac

You know you’re an audiophile when your autocorrect thinks you meant “dac” instead of “day”

[M0N]

Fixed it lol, that actually was just a mistype, I don’t have autocorrect on my pc lol

[WaveTheory]

Oh, OK…

You know you’re an audiophile when your brain says “day” and your fingers type “dac”

how’s that?

[M0N]

That’s more accurate lol

[snailstone]

Has anyone tried this with the SMSL SP200? I’m thinking of getting a pair if my amp con power it properly.