I currently own HD600 and DT770 paired with my amp Aune X7s and dac Focusrite Solo. I’m currently looking for a headphone for gaming and as of now I have my eyes locked on DT880 600ohm. However I’m not sure whether my amp will be able to drive them to their fullest quality. Could you guys please tell me whether my amp will be able to drive and whether is it worth to buy DT880 600ohm? Or do you have any recommendation for my setup? I’m also looking for a headphone that has warm and relaxing sound signature. 650 was on my mind on this one but too many people say that it wouldn’t be worth it since they sound almost similarly to my HD600.
Because of the pandemic I’m not able to try them in shops.
Balance your 880s. It’s like $75 and pretty much the only way to power them properly without trash amps with tons of single ended output that sacrifice tons of quality. After you do they come alive. Something like 375-400mw is enough power and there’s only a handful of amps in existence that will do that at 600ohm and they pretty much all suck. Also that amp isn’t even in the ballpark of powering them well enough.
What has the single ended output to drive them? Weirdo tube amps or a jotunheim, jds labs atom (shitty quality) like your options are pretty limited. People cry all the time about 990s being ear piercingly sharp, and they are until you drive them well enough that the bass and mids can get loud enough to catch up to the easy to drive highs. The difference isn’t subtle at all. It’s like two completely different headphones. 880s aren’t any different. Can they be driven off of a dap or a motherboard and get plenty loud? Sure. But they aren’t what they could be at all if they’re only getting 300mw of power and the change isn’t gradual, they plateau hard up until a little over 300mw and im not just talking out of my ass, I’ve done serious amounts of testing after I balanced them and swapped back and forth on quite a bit of different amps between single ended and balanced. Im not saying you’re wrong, but options are pretty limited and that x7 is like 20% of the power those things need.
Given the OP has an amp that might quadruple power when balanced, I think the recommendation is fair. We can squabble over the voracity of massive power recommendations on DT880 600, but here it seems reasonable given he already owns the Aune. Myself am going to settle single-ended at A3 and DV.
All entry levels, jot, asgard 3, l30, etc. I mean I can literally list you about 90 amps that can power them singled ended
This is half correct. This happens through one of three reasons. The person has treble intolerance to a moderate degree is most likely the cause and this stems from the ability to hear/hearing loss as well, the person is using less power than needed, or the person is using something like a thx amp that makes the sound not only brighter but anemic which effects the lows and mids. 990 are extremely sharp this is a known fact so most avoid them and prefer things like sennheiser
@Heart I owned that aune for a short period. Unfortunately no it does not have enough power unbalanced… most units like this place all their power in that balanced port… would recommend changing of amp and dac or getting a balance modification
It will get them volume but not to full drive without balance from my experience with it. Cannot drive mine on medium for 600 ohms that’s for sure. Has to be high gain with alot on the dial
if you listen to Z the emotiva basX seems to power them. if you listen to the forum, the magni 3, the monoprice liquid spark, the asgard 3, are all $100-$300 headphone amps with enough single ended power to drive them properly that several folks around the forum have tested themselves. the JDS labs atom is one of the least reccomended amps as of late due to the fact that it barely has any power and the magni 3+ and asgard 3 has been some of the best performers in price to performance in regards to overall sound and power relative to their competition. not mentioning the old forum favorite the weaker than asgard 3 but very much a reccomended budget pairing the liquid spark for the dt880 600 ohm.
Damn. You guys are making me feel like I just bought the worst thing possible. Balanced cables here cost a lot so that leaves me with a only choice which is forgetting that DT880 600 ohms. I guess the closest alternative to those would be The Tygr 300R, it has like 32 ohms but they are also rare to find. Z really made the amp look so cool, they cost a lot so I thought it has enough power for my future headphones. I need to learn more about audio calculations, it was my fault blindly buying things.
Nevertheless I got my question answered. Thank you guys.
nah, it’s just that the particular headphone in question is a picky one and power demanding at the same time.
completely different sounding signature to the 880, definitely not technically an alternative honestly.
never buy stuff blindly in this hobby, gets you burned pretty quick.
I would honestly just recommend digging around for a post modified beyer if you really want the 880s or you can try to run the headphone unbalanced… when I tried it though it definitely wasn’t full driven… just got volume but it was lacking in some areas such as the low end and detail retrieval
I actually was very interested in 880 because of your gaming guide:D Great soundstage and sound imaging and also because many people recommend these but now I realize that these are quite demanding in power. I also have DT770 for gaming but I feel like I could do more than that for gaming. Otherwise the HD600 is not bad (for gaming) but I feel like the sound stage is not exactly gaming material imo. Well the Tygr isn’t availaible here anyway.
Sorry I did a mess with the original post and instead of reply I deleted.
After the balanced mod I’m using the 880 600ohm with the x7s at no gain and in many songs i cannot max out it because the driver starts to distort and when it doesn’t the volume is extremly high, autually i prefer to work with little to no headroom in order to get more control, maximize the performance of the amplifier and avoid to change the gain every time I use others headphones with lower power requirement since the gain in the amp is located on the bottom.
PS my source is a khadas tone board that as an output of 2Vrms his dac is the focusrite solo that has an output of 4.6Vrms (15.5dBu) so the amplifier internal gain is even less required since I has alteady a signal that is boosted of 7.2db compared to a standard unbalanced dac
I don’t like touching the controls on the bottom of X7s as Z said it wouldn’t be good for the amp. I think that I can either upgrade the amp or just simply use headphones that have the range up to 300 ohms.
You’ve got an amp that is specifically designed for drive high impedance headphones so I will not worry about the combo 880 x7s. Actually the aune x7s will work better on a dt880 than a tygr300 that is 32 ohm for example. Because the aune as a relatively high output impedance (at least the 2018 version I didn’t find new measurements of the newer versions) so if the impedance curve of the headphone isn’t constant (in many cases it isn’t on dynamic headphones) and the damping factor is low it can cause variations of the frequency response. I personally will be worried more about the choice of the headphone itself since I how the hd600 as well. For me the dt880 is worth because I use it mostly in production where the better imaging and stage combined with is extremely analytical sound make it worth. But I really don’t know if I will keep it just for general use because I much prefer the 600 for that. Actually I will use the 880 over the 600 for general purpose just in electronic tracks.
I’m not a professional in the audio area. I just want a good quality headphone that will stay with me for a very long time:D in this case I’m looking for a pair used mainly for gaming and because DT880 is constantly being recommended as a good headphone for gaming I thought I could give them a shot.
I’m not a gamer so i can’t help you specifically there, but i can describe you the differences between the 880 and the 600, the main advantage of the 880 over the 600 in imaging/soundstage is that with the 600 the soundstage in not constant with that i mean that how you probably noted the sounds in the center, all left and all right appears closer to you instead when the sound is moving in between left/center right/center the sound seems to be more far away and less focused even if actually it is not. With the dt880 the dept of the soundstage is much more constant so if you’ve got a sound that is moving from left to right the dept of the sound still pretty much the same during the moviment. I dont konw if that helps in gaming but many say that it does.
Yes. Sound stage and sound imaging are a major part of playing FPS games. The treble is also very important because it helps you notice footsteps. I’m no e-sport athlete, just a casual guy looking for a good pair of headphones. So hypothetically my Aune X7s can drive 880 600ohm but not to its fullest quality? I can only use the unbalanced port because the 4pin xlr balanced port demands a balanced cable, which is very expensive and hard to find.
In order to balance the 880 you need to modify the internal wiring of the headphone is not just about buy a cable. You will drive the headphone properly also in se with the aune since you’re using the focusrite that has already an higher output compared to others dac by setting the gain to medium it will drive the 880 easily. The 880 has a lot treble but maybe you will miss the immersion that a warmer headphone will give you. If you find that the hd600 sound good about tuning and you want just a better soundstage/imaging the 880 will solve the problem but if you think that the 600 sounds a little light and thin you will have that same problem with the 880. Did you check the fidelio x2? I’ve heard it ones and has a nice sounstage and a warmer signature that maybe is more appropriate for gaming. About the amplifier if you decide to go for a low impedance dynamic headphone you have the focusrite also and it will do the job. I have a focusrite 2i2 and it drives low impedance dynamic headphones pretty well.