Beyerdynamic DT 880 600 Ohm Review (Headphone)

[Sharur]

This is a review that I have been waiting for a while to read because these headphones raise an interesting hypothesis discussed by another reviewer, i.e. high impedance headphones work best with amplifiers with high output impedance. The reviewer hypothesizes that this has to do with damping factor and in his listening he found that he achieved far superior bass performance from these headphones (and overall performance as well) with high output impedance amplifiers even if they had rather modest output numbers . Beyerdynamic confirms that this headphone should work best with high output impedance amplifiers like the ones it sells. I would love to see Amir engage with this hyothesis and report his findings. It might offer some insight for the rest of us as to the interaction between headphone performance and headphone amplifier output impedance - if there is one.

600 Ω beyers are designed to work with an amp of any output impedance. Lower output impedance is still technically superior.

 

[solderdude]

This is a review that I have been waiting for a while to read because these headphones raise an interesting hypothesis discussed by another reviewer, i.e. high impedance headphones work best with amplifiers with high output impedance. The reviewer hypothesizes that this has to do with damping factor and in his listening he found that he achieved far superior bass performance from these headphones (and overall performance as well) with high output impedance amplifiers even if they had rather modest output numbers . Beyerdynamic confirms that this headphone should work best with high output impedance amplifiers like the ones it sells. I would love to see Amir engage with this hyothesis and report his findings. It might offer some insight for the rest of us as to the interaction between headphone performance and headphone amplifier output impedance - if there is one.

see post #41 The damping current between 0 Ω and 100 Ω is as good as the same as it is determined by the DC resistance of the driver. This is clearly evident by the rising impedance (see Amirs measurement) not having an audible nor measurable effect.

 

[Sharur]

see post #41 The damping current between 0 Ω and 100 Ω is as good as the same as it is determined by the DC resistance of the driver. This is clearly evident by the rising impedance (see Amirs measurement) not having an audible nor measurable effect.

I remember @JohnYang1997 mentioning that there was an audible but not measurable difference a while back

 

[JohnYang1997]

I remember @JohnYang1997 mentioning that there was an audible but not measurable difference a while back

Maybe it's in a different context. Normally I wouldn't say anything like this. Perhaps measurable, audible and preferred with some output impedance like 100ohm in some Beyerdynamics' headamps.

 

[Sharur]

Maybe it's in a different context. Normally I wouldn't say anything like this. Perhaps measurable, audible and preferred with some output impedance like 100ohm in some Beyerdynamics' headamps.

 

[JohnYang1997]

View attachment 138926

Alright that's a long time ago. During that period I also did blind tests with cables and heard differences. Still not sure about it. But obviously the difference if it exists is not very big.
Well on the other hand, null test can still be performed. So if there's audible change it will be measurable.

And well what I said from technical point is true. I did measure shp9500 at amplifier end and driver end. Distortion changed from 0.0001% to 0.1%. This is also true. I'm not very sure about whether planars like LCD behaves the same or not. I think there's slight chance the difference is audible.

 

[sunnyd]

600 Ω beyers are designed to work with an amp of any output impedance. Lower output impedance is still technically superior.

This is the review that I was referring to:

. The reviewer (who really liked the DT880 600 ohm) would agree that the headphones "work" with a lot of amplifiers but consistently found that they sounded much better with high output impedance amplifiers. He tried several. The improvements that he found are essentially the same as the weaknesses identified in the testing. Beyerdynamic's own amplifiers, the A2 and A20 have 100 ohm output impedance. Is it not worth at least entertaining the possibility that higher output impedance might produce better sound with a 600 ohm headphone and investigating whether this point is valid? The reviewer acknowledged that a lower output impedance would be preferable for other headphones.

 

[Sharur]

This is the review that I was referring to:

. The reviewer (who really liked the DT880 600 ohm) would agree that the headphones "work" with a lot of amplifiers but consistently found that they sounded much better with high output impedance amplifiers. He tried several. The improvements that he found are essentially the same as the weaknesses identified in the testing. Beyerdynamic's own amplifiers, the A2 and A20 have 100 ohm output impedance. Is it not worth at least entertaining the possibility that higher output impedance might produce better sound with a 600 ohm headphone and investigating whether this point is valid? The reviewer acknowledged that a lower output impedance would be preferable for other headphones.

z-reviews indirectly said it works best with near 0 output impedance. I've tried 220 Ω OI, 68 Ω OI, and 0.04 OI with the DT880 600 Ω. I subjectively prefer the 0.04 Ω OI speaker terminals over the former.

 

[JohnYang1997]

z-reviews indirectly said it works best with near 0 output impedance. I've tried 220 Ω OI, 68 Ω OI, and 0.04 OI with the DT880 600 Ω. I subjectively prefer the 0.04 Ω OI speaker terminals over the former.

Speaker terminals have large noises. The noise although may not be apparently audible it's possibly over threshold and can color the sound.

 

[sunnyd]

z-reviews indirectly said it works best with near 0 output impedance. I've tried 220 Ω OI, 68 Ω OI, and 0.04 OI with the DT880 600 Ω. I subjectively prefer the 0.04 Ω OI speaker terminals over the former.

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Sharur]

Speaker terminals have large noises. The noise although may not be apparently audible it's possibly over threshold and can color the sound.

everything sounds much more compressed and closer to me from the 68 Ω OI jack

 

[Sharur]

At halfway up the volume knob from the 68 Ω OI jack, I'm getting very audible clipping from the amplifier. Volume matched to the speaker terminals there is zero audible clipping. @solderdude confirmed that the 68 Ω OI jack provides 8.4V out and the amp amir used has even less than that.

 

[solderdude]

0.9dB attenuation is nothing. Not the difference between an amp clipping or not.
The review is just not level matched subjective babble.

On 100ohm nothing changes audible so. The damping current is not very different, the amplitude is 1.3dB lower and bass levels around 100Hz are 0.3dB higher on 100ohm.

 

[Sharur]

0.9dB attenuation is nothing. Not the difference between an amp clipping or not.

It was an obvious static popping noise and I did level match.

 

[Robbo99999]

For posterity here's Oratory1990s measurements of DT880, DT880BE and DT990.
View attachment 138766

You know you're showing a compensated frequency response there from Oratory, not the raw frequency response. I'm making this clear for the readers, that's why it looks.....strange.

 

[sunnyd]

0.9dB attenuation is nothing. Not the difference between an amp clipping or not.
The review is just not level matched subjective babble.

On 100ohm nothing changes audible so. The damping current is not very different, the amplitude is 1.3dB lower and bass levels around 100Hz are 0.3dB higher on 100ohm.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[markanini]

You know you're showing a compensated frequency response there from Oratory, not the raw frequency response. I'm making this clear for the readers, that's why it looks.....strange.

Because it's not a graph of a single headphone, the purpose is making a comparison. If you try using the tool you will see the lines are clearer and easier to interpret this way.

I do wish the tool generated a legend to show the compensation used though.

 

[Sharur]

Because it's not a graph of a single headphone, the purpose is making a comparison. If you try using the tool you will see the lines are clearer and easier to interpret this way.

I do wish the tool generated a legend to show the compensation used though.

it does. you used the harman target

 

[Materhoe]

Amir, we need the 1990 Pro review

 

[markanini]

it does. you used the harman target

Kind of. "Compensated"