Beyer 770/880/990 compared

[Mackie 0]

At last, a proper session was spent with the reknowned BeyerDynamic DT770/880/990 family and herewith are my opinions of their performance. Please note that the following comments are subjected to my imperfect ears, judgement and of course, solely on my personal preference.

 

DT770 (consumer version)

This pair is a new consumer version of the long-time favourite pro-version of the recording industry that has lesser clamp pressure of 2.5N as opposed to 3.5N.

 

As expected with closed cans, the 770 gives very good imaging but compromises on soundstaging. However, there's still a good amount of air and ambience to instruments. Most impressive department is bass that carries very good punch, weight and slam but details and tonality on the lower regions are left somewhat wanting. This is not a serious quibble if one listens mainly to trance, rap, R&B and pop/rock music. However, this proves to be an Archilles' heel if one places a lot of emphasis on double bass commonly featured in acoustic and jazz pieces. Being forward and yet not bright in nature, transparency is still slightly lacking but the most worrisome area is in the mids and treble, especially the latter. Any equipment and recording that present sibilant vocals tends to be exacerbated via the 770 and treble is a bit too sharp for my taste. I tried a few changes in interconnects to tone down this effect and one of this is Klotz GY107. Treble is more recessed and mids are less sibilant but the bassy signature of the interconnects do add on to the 770's already weighty sound. This could be a boon to those who are "bass heads" but to me, I reckon Klotz SQ422 star-quad interconnects give better tonal balance. Lastly, background noise in recording is rather prominent and on some live tracks, a constant spurae is heard.

 

DT880

I heaved a sigh of relief after switching to this pair of semi-open cans and one can't help noticing its neutrality. Soundstaging and imaging is evenly balanced and air/ambience of recordings are superior to 770. Mids are silky smooth and on some vocal pieces that are notably nasal and sibilant, they are more bearable with the 880. Highs exhibit good decay and extension but the lows are of a different story. Although 880 is capable of deep bass, it lacks the slam of 770 but equally snappy. Where the 880 excels in this area are details and tonality of bass notes. 770 sounds flat once it hits a certain bass depth while the 880 goes on to present different tones in the same test pieces. Also prominent is the latter's ability to project bass details that are prevalent in pieces featuring double bass, taiko drums and percussion instruments. Another point of note is the low bits of information do not obscure the mids and highs while 770 can sometimes be affected because of the hump in upper bass. While 770 suffers a bit on background noise, this problem is least troubling for 880 and makes it the most silent of the lot.

 

DT990 (consumer version)

Following the heave of relief upon listening to the 880, the 990 offers a breath of fresh air. The latter projects excellent airiness, ambience and soundstaging and in my opinion, the 990 is the best of the lot in these areas. Naturally, extension and decay of highs are superior than 880 albeit not by a huge margin but notably so. Mids are the most recessed of the lot and equals 880 for smoothness. As with open cans, a common weakness is bass performance but this is not so for the 990. In fact, 990 retains every character of the 770 in this area but pales a tad in comparison on the slam bit. Elsewhere, 990 is capable of punchy and weighty bass but duly so with 770, it falters in what 880 dwells better ie, bass details and tonality. The same "hot" signature in the treble of 770 is prevalent in the 990 but less bothersome as being open cans tilt in the 990's favour. Of the brethren, 990 is the weakest in detail presentation but most enjoyable with small and large-scale orchestral music.

 

Summary

I stand by my case to recommend DT880 for all kinds of music, DT770 for those who are into pop and finally, DT990 for those who listens mostly to orchestral, jazz and with a lesser priority on pop music. Since I own DT880, I will be keeping DT990 solely for my classical collection and those who are into pop should lean in favour of DT770. As I found out, closed cans are not for me as I feel a bit claustrophobic hearing them.

 

Test Discs

1. Janet Jackson - Velvet Rope

2. Missy Elliot - Under Construction

3. Patricia Barber - Nightclub

4. Keiko Lee - Daydreaming

5. Tsai Chin - Golden Leaflets

6. Antonio Forcione - Live

7. Ray Brown Trio - Some of my friends are guitarists

8. Die Rohre - The Tube (all tube recording and mastering)

9. TakeDake - Asian roots.

 

 

Equipment used for review

-Pioneer PD9700 cdp

- Monarchy DiP 24/96 (digital interface processor)

- Musical Fidelity X-24K dac

- Musical Fidelity X-cans V1 (tube rolled with Mullard CV2492)

- Mike's Crossfeed

 

Accessories:

MAS Power Master, Belden 19364 power cords, Belden 1694a digital cables, Tara Labs Ref Gen II interconnects, Black Diamond Racing cones type 4, Audio Industries cones, Soundcare Superspikes 2, AudioQuest ferrite clamps and Mission Isoplat.

 

The Brethren

 

 

Edited July 13, 2003 by Mackie

[Blues 0]

interesting review.

Mackie did you try using the cone tweak on 770 and 990?

as I could remember, I think 770 has got more improvement to my ears than 880. So I wonder if it can do some wonder to the 770

[N@Z 0]

Great review. Any chance of a comparo between the DT990 with other brands, say from Grado or Sennheiser?

[Sipher 0]

Good job Mackie

i like the pictures u taken especially the last 3. Professionally taken!

[iconic 0]

nice pictures and reviews. though with dialup haha long time loading.

 

i've got the dt880s now, but find them boring for music other than acoustic rock. i mainly listen to rock, electronica. but with these rock and electronica music, i find sibiliance with the dt880s. and im also thinking of buying dt770s as my portable headphone. but as you said, the dt770s exagerates the brightness more?

 

do you think the dt880s and dt770s make a good combo? like for dt880s are really good for vocal slow'ish music, and for the other types of music to use the dt770? i don't like sibliance

 

thanks!

[matbon0013 0]

Interesting observation Mackie, you really can put your perspective to words :salute:

And great pictures too!

[adhoc 0]

iconic, perhaps the sibilance can be toned down by changing/modding your source/cables?

 

EDIT: and, so, mackie, what will you be doing with your dt770 then?

Edited July 13, 2003 by adhoc

[Blues 0]

iconic: the dt770 does have sibilance and it's very hard to get rid of it. System matching is the key word here. And I didn't manage to do it with both creek obh-11 and corda ha-1. My source is marantz cd6000OSE. I reckon you might need source that is a little dark/warm sounding and rolls of the highs.

[adhoc 0]

tubes in other words, eh?

[N@Z 0]

Tubes don't sound dark or rolls the highs. Well, not in it's normal character anyway. Typically warm sounding yes.

[adhoc 0]

dark- maybe not (my bad there), warm- typically (doesnt warm indicate a fuller sound in the lower frequencies?), but IIRC most, if not almost all, of the threads pertaining to tubes i read make reference to their capabilities to tone down sibilance and 'take the edge off digital harshness'. i would raise examples but there are simply too many in head-fi.

 

but then again if you OWN tubes, then i concur most respectfully to you.

[N@Z 0]

That's a fair explaination adhoc. I will concede that as a generlisation yes. I have only owned the MG Head & listened to a Cary 300SEi so I couldn't really say 100% for sure either. Alot depends on the design/designer of the tubed amp.

[Northern Oak 0]

iconic: the dt770 does have sibilance and it's very hard to get rid of it. System matching is the key word here. And I didn't manage to do it with both creek obh-11 and corda ha-1. My source is marantz cd6000OSE. I reckon you might need source that is a little dark/warm sounding and rolls of the highs.

Guy/Cookie/Blues: Other than changing source and amp, I find that playing with power cords and interconnects do "affect" (instead of color) the sound very much as well. I've been trying for the past 1 month with different cables and even the plugs itself.

Edited July 13, 2003 by Northern Oak

[Blues 0]

Oak, yeah I reckon cable will change much. I don't know about power cord as I have not heard real good/hi end ones. Maybe it does to clean the power but I doubt if it can smoothen out the harshness/sibilance.

 

[Northern Oak 0]

I was able to add/reduce brightness, liquid sounding, airy, deep wide soundstage, controlled, laidback,forward, deep bass, weak bass, bloated bass, dynamic, sound thin, sound thick by playing around with the power cords. It's fun but frustrating at times

 

Sorry about OT.

Edited July 13, 2003 by Northern Oak