Interesting, you think the Darkvoice or bottlehead would be better or the LP by chance?
I have not used the BHC myself, so I can only provide direct commentary on the Darkvoice and LP. The Darkvoice is āwetterā than the LP by quite a bit. To me that means itās not as quick in its response and thus blends together sounds a little bit more. The LP - so far, limited experience - sounds like a very good solid state amp with really good spatial performance (initial impression I reserve right to modify). I do know that @M0N and @Polygonhell both have a lot of experience with tube amps and recommend the BHC over the DV.
Even so, the DV + DT880 is a very enjoyable budget-minded experience. You can clean up the DV significantly with some tube-rolling too, IMO.
Asked since I have the darkvoice in house just havenāt had the time to sit with it yet. been real busy. Already owning the LP just had me a bit more curious as the single ended definitely isnāt anything fantastic on the LP but it does sound great when balanced is used.
Gotcha. The DV is going to give you a different sound that is enjoyable in its own way. The DT880 takes well to OTL tube amps for sure.
Alright so I gave it two days of listening so far on the darkvoice and I have to say I am pretty damn impressed. Sounds much better on tubes than it did on my old spark and for me personally a bit better than my asgard as I like that extra warmth and bit of fullness it adds to the sound overall. This is actually quite the incredible combo. Bass seems still tight, the detail is there, mids are still very centric on the sound which is very lovely but now the bass is more present more warm I can hear it better and the brightness isnāt so glaring and up in my face. Originally I hated the 880 honestly and ended up picking up the 1990 as an upgrade to my 880 and 990 both. This however, changes my opinion on the headphone my only complaint would be that itās a shame that for me I would need what is this like a $300 tube amp just to make the headphone sound good for me personally.
I am actually more curious now on balancing these to my liquid platinum as SE just doesnāt cut it at the same time curious on the IFI Pro ican with the tubes plus + xbass. as I have been contemplating the purchase.
However, due to the fact I already own a T1 and 1990 I canāt feasibly reason with keeping an 880 in house so of course both the amp and headphone will be leaving.
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thanks for the feedback, what do you think sounds best with your 1990? are the 880s brighter than the 1990s? the only beyer iāve heard is the 880. I liked it it on the a3 and dv, and it really scaled well with the 880i, pretty pleased overall with it. I would imagine balanced with the lp would be pretty sweet
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Asgard 3 so far in my opinion. Havenāt sat with RNHP yet and liquid plat while sounds alright just isnāt all that grand due to lack of balanced port.
close to even if 1990 is using itās A pads however, I think overall the mix sounds better on the 1990 and the treble isnāt so noticeably raised in comparison. Granted I definitely think the 880 has better vocals.
I have sat down with lets seeā¦ Amiron Home, T1, T5P, DT 1990, DT 1770, 177X GO, DT 770, DT 880, DT 990, T90, Tygr 300R, MMX 300, Custom One Pro Plus, Custom Studio, and DT 880 special limited black edition(different tuning).
I have no interest in the portable headphones from them nor the older sets with the microphones on them.
Was thinking of looking at the DT 770 M as I was told it may have a different tuning I just havenāt looked into it. I also know amiron Wireless over there is tuned different as well from its wired counterpart
I would like to think so for sure. If I ever get a balanced dt 880 I would be sure to give it a shot. Granted T1 sounds spectacular on LP being balanced
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how different is the tuning of the all black 880?
Quite a bit so. So, to my ear it sounded like it stll lacked in body / fullness however, not as much as the original dt 880. Itās quite a bit bassier sounding on the same level as a 990. Upper mids sounded slightly recessed in comparison to the original 880 while the rest of the mids sounded raised more. Lower treble they sounded relatively even however there sounded like a small falloff somewhere in the highs than peaking back up. Itās brighter than the 880 edition but not as peaky as the 990. It honestly sounds like a mix in between the 880 and 990 granted closer to the 990. Like you took the 990 and gave it more mid presence but not as sibilant.
I should place an edit here: I tried the all black version of the 600 ohm and it had the same tuning as the original 600 ohm. So it seems to only be the limited edition 250 ohm black that has this tuning in particular. I cannot comment on the āchromeā edition as I am unsure which version of the headphone that is
ah i see, i think the black pads make the difference over the grey grandma couch pads haha at least in my experience. i just use the grey now on the all black
They are indeed I had tested that as well just to be sure. Black pads seem to bring up bass less treble while the grey are the polar opposite. However, the difference is marginal
Black pads warmed up everything but not in a good way, grey is the way to go. Nice neutral. To me it was pretty noticeable difference hahah
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Iām assuming thatās the iFi Zen DAC + CAN stack? How do they pair up with the DT880?
curious as well I imagine it would be pretty good considering the can has a significant amount of power and I heard from people is a warm amp
specs on iFiās site say that on balanced, you get 385mW f@ 600 ohm but only 196mW @ 300 ohm via single ended. so youād probably be really disappointed with how they sound if you used the 600 ohm. the 250 ohmās should be just fine.
thereās a thread on here that shows how to do a reversible balanced mod to the 880ās, so if you like DiY, take a gander at that.
@KayDu @RiceGuru Iām not the best to ask since I donāt have many sources to plug these headphones into. Iāll spend the weekend with these cans and let you know further. But first impression is the balanced power matters. Like, it matters a lot. Way more than I thought it would. And yes, these are indeed detail monsters.
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I have that stack and headphones. I started writing and it started to become a lengthy review on the Zen Stack; I didnāt want to go that route.
The TLDR is that Zen CAN and the DT880 singled ended isnāt quite ideal. It will play loudly just fine, but you may experience a little distortion at higher volume and it sounds a little thin by comparison.
In contrast, if you can manage go fully balanced, the CAN isnāt that bad. Iām relatively satisfied with its sound with a bal DT800. You can also fine tune your experience with the gain and use 3d/xbass button on the CAN.
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I would imagine so. Balanced outputs on amps that have them are generally way better than their single ended output.
So i have the DT1990 Pro here since yesterday for comparison with the 880. I have put the A-Pads on nearly immediatly and i think they sound better than the b-pads. First thing i noticed was quite a lot of clamp, but letting it sit on my headphone stand fixed the issue. Nonetheless, the 880 is still way more comfortable to me.
My impression for now: Its an awesome sounding headphone, thats for sure. Treble is quite a bit more crisp but sometimes a bit grainy(- i have read that before, i guess i understand what is meant by that, so i use the word aswell) on the 1990, the bass a bit more present. Staging and precision is also very good. Stage is a bit wider on the 1990 i would say. It sounds well balanced i would say. The treble can be a bit peaky at times in female vocals and certain drums ( especially listening to ultra aggressive stuff like breakcore, which i do all the time) but the treble works actually really well with the aggressive music that i listen to. For more calm sounds like Heilung or acoustic the room sounds very nice to me.
Running it off my darkvoice is quite nice, but solid state is totally fine too.
I think everything on the 1990 seems a bit more refined to me.
Build quality is awesome and this things looks and feels so quality.
But heres the thing. I have payed 124ā¬ for the 880 and that headphone sounds so super awesome, that im really questioning myself if i can justify keeping the 1990 which had cost me 427ā¬. That is 3.5 times the price but definetly not 3.5 times more performance. I have enough experience now to know that more money doesnt mean particually better performance or that you can double the amount of performance by doubling the price.
Its just, i wear the 1990, its fine, it sounds super and im happy. If i take the 880 and put it on, i dont feel the need to switch back to the 1990. IĀ“m totally fine with the sound of the 880 and i actually love it. I have took the 880 deep in my heart, thats for sure.
I will listen more to the 1990 and see if my opinion changes, but i guess i will send it back and put the 427ā¬ into something else to test or save them to go more highend in the end ( i know, deminishing returns hit even harder there 
)