Sunday 19 June 2011

TU882 and the DT880

Again, I found an excuse in my packing to swap the headphones, from the Sennheiser HD650 to the Beyerdynamic DT880 (600 ohm version). The first thing I noticed was that there was no noise at all. No hum. Virtually silent. Very promising indeed. Listening to my standard favourite/test set of music, there were a number of differences between the Senns and the Beyers.

The bass is more present (i.e., louder) and rich with the Senns. The Beyer, they feel more articulate, but less in your face. Far more restrained on the Beyers, where on the Senns they feel like it has been let loose a little. The presentation of the Beyers was less warm than the Senns, and a little more clinical. The voices on the Beyer is more refined, but lack the lushness, similar as well with guitar strumming, the Beyers are precise, but lack that slight indulgence that makes it full and warm. Overall, the balance favours the mids and probably overall a little more balanced than the 650's, though probably a little shy in the bass region. I would regard the Beyers DT-880 as more precise, controlled and pristine. Whereas, I would describe the HD-650 as warm, natural and lush. Obviously very vague terms, which are highly subjective, not only to me, but between different sessions, moods, etc.

The above observations were made between two sessions, over two consecutive evenings at around the same time. The setup was identical except for the headphones, and it was the Elekit TU-882R with the Western Electric 396a (with around 20 hours on them thus far). The volume control was different by around 2 to 4 'hours' relative to each other.

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