beyerdynamic DT 880 PRO Headset - 250 OHM

Product Information

The DT 880's soundstage is the same as most headphones. Only the Ultrasone Edition 8 do much of anything different. The HD25's were still hurting my ears. Not surprisingly, as they are the only on-ear headphones in my test. The others are all over-ear. The DT880 is clean, clear and open like the Omegas, and doesn't feel that much different on the head. The DT 880 sounds light and airy, spacious, smooth, beautiful, clean and open. WIth the DT 880, you'll hear everything right — and wrong — with your recordings. For sub bass, these are probably the most sub-bassy analytical heaphones I have owned. There are more bassy analytical cans, however. The problem I had with the DT880s were the earpads. It's not that they aren't soft, because they are. They are just not large enough, so the drivers ended up touching my ears. Anything touching my ears is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, as it makes my ears itchy and red from irritation. But the biggest problem I found about the DT880s was the treble. It has some of the worst treble of any headphone I have listened to. It's sharp, unrefined, and metallic. It has the finesse of someone banging on a dumpster with a hammer, giving me an earache, and strangely, a taste of metal in my mouth. I like treble, but not like this. The bottom and top sound heaviness to the DT880 gives it a rather bland and uninvolving mid and vocal section with not enough mid bass to my ears.

The coiled cable is quite heavy in weight, and if you listen to your DT880’s while standing or moving, you can notice the cable’s weight and heavy swings. This happens because of the coiled nature of the cable. Since DT880’s are semi-open headphones, these do leak sound, but not as loud as fully open cans. No instructions and no warnings, thank goodness. It just comes with a flyer talking about beyerdynamic's history. It is a favorite among professional recording engineers for its accuracy, and a favorite among music lovers for its clean, open, uncolored and faithful-to-the-concert-hall sound. I greatly prefer this beyerdynamic DT 880 to the far more expensive Sennheiser HD 800. Highs - I found the highs on the DT880 to be almost perfect. There is enough sparkle to keep things lively, without becoming sibilant. Extension seems good - and the nice thing is that the highs are not overdone. Treble- The treble is almost if not perfect, the treble is not harsh, there a good amount of treble in these cans.Don't sweat it: get the 32 Ω version for an iPod or iPad, the 600 Ω version for use at home or studio, or the usual 250 Ω version if you want it to do everything. To summarize this headphones sound signature in a few words I would say it's like a sip of hot chocolate while sitting in front of a warm fire on a cold day. It's inviting, yet polite and comforting. It's a great balance of transparency and detail in the treble, with a more forward mid-range for added warmth. It's a more "Sennheiserized" sound signature than the DT770/990, which I found to be more aggressive (V-shaped). Beyerdynamic adds a touch of sparkle up top while keeping the mid-range luscious and intimate.

The Beyers were most comfortable to me, in fact, they were some of the most comfortable headphones i've ever tried on. Most who have done side by side comparisons of the 250 and 600 ohm models find that they sound the same, yet the 600 ohm model has a reputation for being the best sounding, likely because the people using it are pairing it with higher end amps, or possibly just because of "placebo effect". I would and did get the 250 ohm model because it is easier to drive (I can use them without a dedicated amp if I need to, though they sound much better if I do. Conclusion: The DT880’s can be considered as a good headphone. I liked way DT880’s presented the details, and one can easily figure out the flaws in a recording. This type of presentation will be useful for mastering or critical listening, and utility for musical pleasure is quite not the same. Lows were accurate, But the presentation of mids & treble in DT880 did not quite appeal my tastes. And of course, the compromises made in pro model disappointed me further. Still, these are the headphones i was looking at, at around the 200€ pricerange and i think more people will be choosing from these cans. These are tough, well-built, inexpensive and great sounding fully professional headphones from the world's leading maker of professional headphones. beyerdynamic has been making professional audio equipment since 1924 and the world's first professional headphones since 1937! If you want natural, open and uncolored sound from a tough set of professional headphones, get a pair for yourself.Bass- The bass on the dt880's is very tight its not boomy what so ever, but he bass is well defined and very pleasing. The Pro and Premium 250 Ohm use the same drivers and therefore sound exactly the same except that the clamp strength is slightly tighter for the Pro than the Premium, which changes the sound a tiny bit (more bass). If you stretch the headband a bit on the Pro, it sounds exactly like the Premium Beware of the many expensive but wimpy headphone amplifiers with no more than 2 V RMS output, which isn't much more than the 1 V RMS output of an iPod. These wimpy amps are the ones often powered by batteries and sold with exotic DACs at high prices for use with iPods, but read the specifications carefully to be sure that they have plenty of output. Ask an electronic engineer if you need help.

MACBOOK AIR WITH ROLAND DUO CAPTURE DUO USB INTERFACE- This works better than the Fiio in terms of bass, overall volume ( officially it drives 47 Ohms) and presentation. I think a RME or a Apogee would be much better or of course a dedicated dac/amp. Beyerdynamic has a specific vision in making their products: Their products should last long (very long) and should employ quality engineering for precise and accurate sound reproduction. THis DT 880 is much sturdier than Sennheiser HD800. The DT 880 is tough enough for professional abuse. It probably refers to the SPL with 1 milliwatt of input. If so, at 1 volt, this would be 111 dB for the 32 Ωversion, 102 dB for the 250 Ω version and 98 dB for the 600 Ωversion. 1 mW is 179 mV at 32 Ω, 500 mV at 250 Ω and 775 mV at 600 Ω. The 32 ohm model is meant to be driven by phones, iPods, etc, does not need a dedicated amp, but many who have compared it to the others say that it does not sound as good as the 250 and 600 ohm models

Soundstage: The DT880’s soundstage is airy, spacious, but not fully circular or 3D soundstage, but more of a 2D like with left and right separation. Depth is moderate. Instrument separation, detail retrieval is very good. According to my observation, these cans sounded good particularly in instrumentals, and classical. Vocals were not great. I can say the DT880’s are not forgiving to poor recordings. Hence these are revealing and resolving. I would prefer to pair DT880’s with a OTL tube amp for music listening, then the mids will open out much better and highs much more sweeter and in control. The only negative, and for me it is a very small one, these cans are not for extreme bassheads. There is plenty of bass for me, it's controlled and tight and well defined, but it doesn't go to th extremely low powerful frequencies other can's manage. So maybe Techno/trance/dance/hip hop fans should consider other alternatives. The 32 Ω DT 880 is about 5-10dB more sensitive from a constant voltage (as are most amplifiers) than the 600 Ω version. The 32 Ω version isn't as sensitive as the Ultrasone Edition 8, but it's close. FOr portable use, the long straight cord of the 32 Ω (or any of the) versions is a pain. Balanced sound, faithful reproduction of the instruments. All the bass-boosted (-crippled) items were automatically eliminated from my considerations.