Interesting, your not the first I have heard make this remark but honestly, after switching my own 880 600 ohm to a tube amp and giving them a long listen they are quite amazing headphones especially considering the price differences I could see how someone would prefer to just stay with the 880 for the long haul. Personally, I donāt get that grainy sound out of my own 1990 however, I did encounter that with a couple amps so it could be a particular setup causing that and not so much the headphone. I do like the bass more on the 1990 myself it sounds more full and seems to have more impact in my opinion with tubes it fills both headphones out quite nicely I will admit I really enjoy the dark voice pairing.
Have you tried the T1? You may find some enjoyment in that instead as itās smoother, more relaxed, with a wider soundstage
Maybe its the dac that produces the grainy thing, i still have a Modi 2 Dac. But its nothing that bothers me, it doesnt occur all the time.
I agree with you that the Bass on the 1990 sounds quite a bit more full and i like that.
And like you said, DT880 on tubes is just awesome. Have it running of my darkvoice aswell.
HavenĀ“t tried the T1 yet, didnt want to shell out 1000ā¬ at once for both headphones. Its the next one i wanna try. But for now i will keep the 1990 and let it grow on me. I have a month till i have to return it afaik, so i will give it more time. Depends if i will keep the 1990 or not.
Impressions are still early for sure
ah okay well that makes a bit of sense. When I tried the old magni 3+ to modi combination there was some grainyness and it didnāt sound all that great to be honest. Using a Topping E30 that issue was not present same with the bifrost as well as the enog I had in house at the time. Beyers and being setup picky I suppose?
Yeah, one of the more annoying things I noticed with time is that the bass can sound really hollow itās really noticeable to me on the dt 880 but 1990 seems to correct that by quite a bitā¦ adding a tube amp to the mix helps in both accounts
Hmm, T1.2 should be around the same price as the DT 1990 even more so now that 3rd gen came out having a different signature and build at 32 ohms. May not be a bad idea to keep an eye on the T1 for testing reasons for you in my opinion.
So thats probably really a thing. I had thought about getting a better Dac before, but i have often read that it maybe makes sense to skip all the other cheaper dacs and save for something more expensive. Im not sure on that.
The T1 is expensive in germany. I could get a new one for around 760ā¬, Beyerdynamic B-Stock 599ā¬. The 1990 was 427 from Beyerdynamic directly. The 3rd Gen is 999ā¬.
Im watching the used marked on them, but maybe its just better to buy from Beyerdynamic so i can return it if i donĀ“t like them or simply cant justify its price. I will see.
Well, depends really. You can side grade and get a slight upgrade or you can save up to a much higher degreeā¦ going from the $200 range dacs you will end up having to jump to like the $600 price bracket to really get a significant difference. the older modis are no longer so expensive so itās not like you canāt pick up an alternative if it helps.
Thought beyer was pretty particular on their returns? Hmm, that may just be here they are pretty fussy about you trying to return stuff lol. Normally I just go through like Adorama or Amazon as they have great return policies
Those prices sound about right. Doing a quick search here the T1 2nd gen here is looking to be around $650 it was cheaper however a ways back before covidā¦ the lack of supply has caused prices to increase tremendously
You are right about the dacs. Thats exactly what i have in my mind. I can go for another Dac around 100-200ā¬ and see it as a sidegrade, different flavour, more features etc. Havent decided on that for now. Im constantly lurking ebay here about these things, maybe i find something nice used.
I will find out i guess. They had a returnpaper + shipping sticker in the box, so i guess its no problem.
And yeah, prices defo went up for all the things. I mean, i have to deal with this issue all the time with everything that is not from europe and thats a lot of stuff.
eh, just see if you can grab a Topping E30 in my opinionā¦ should be around $100 - $130 and if I recall they ship internationals so shouldnāt be too troublesome for you(least I would hope not) one of my favorite budget dacs in that price margin. Does well for the beyers.
well thatās rather reassuring yeah when I tried to return the Amiron(because seriously screw this headphone lol sounds like a bad T1 with more sibilance and the alcantara just does not suit me at all) they threw a fit because I just used the product and wanted to return it. Finally had it returned though. Had full intention to keep the Amiron at the time, only bought it cause it was cheaper than T1 and seen as the alternative, but couldnāt get past that sibilance issue or comfort problem I had not like you can really change itās pads easily either.
yea no kidding, hell I am seeing just ifi zen dac over here being sold at like $300. Used to be $120.
Thats isnĀ“t a bad idea. Just looked it up, amazon actually sells topping here so its 129 prime shipped. And it has USB optical and coax input. My Modi has only USB, which sucks.
The annoying return process is the reason why i buy nearly everything possible on amazon, its just so much easier and without stressā¦
IMO if you donāt mind only having usb, if you actually wanted to make an upgrade in the range, the allo revolution dac is really worth a look imo, also can be upgraded later on with a nicer psu as well (for now you can just use a cheaper wall wart but if you can get a nirvana smps right away that would be really nice)
In some way it doesnt bother me because it sits on my desk and i mostly use it with my PC anyways. Sometimes i wish i could connect my phone to an external Dac and use it as a player. And i guess i cannot connect it to a normal usb port on a dac. But thats a wish, not a must.
Im not sure on upgrading the dac now. A sidegrade would be more for features /Inputs instead of really better sound ( i guess? Maybe i would be able to hear it, but maybe), but i cant tell since i had only the modi 2.
The Allo Revolution dac is 300ā¬, found one site in france that sells it.
You can do that with most dacs tbh, you just need a proper otg cable for the most part. In the case of the allo dac if you chose the thesycon version you can use it on a phone actually with a micro b otg cable
Going to a higher tier dac would be pretty noticeable imo
So then you would only need a power supply for it, I think that would be around 70 euro with tax that would be benficial to the sound quality, but you can always grab it later and use a random 5v power supply you have laying around the house (or buy a cheap one like this one )
I will think about all this. Didnt wanted to shell out another 300-400bucks on a dac now xD. But maybe i should upgrade this next instead of a headphone, since im basicially pretty happy with what i have at the moment.
Thats the thing. Last month i got the lake peope amp and i wouldnt even think to plug a headphone in my magni 2 anymore. It has really improved all my headphones. So a dac as the next thing seems really like a good idea.