I've had my pair of Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro headphones for a little over 5 years. While that's a good amount of time, that's not long for a good pair of headphones. My pair broke the other day, and not sure it's worth the effort to repair them.
While I have had mixed feelings about the headphones, I am sad to see them go. They were crazy comfortable and worked well over long periods of time. Sound quality was good but didn't live up to my expectations.
Current state of my DT880 Pros
While I likely can repair these, I am not sure how well they will hold up. The cord is very poorly designed on the DT880's and is why they don't work right now. A few years ago I moved into a new house and my computer is now on the other side of me and the cord kept pulling across my neck so I decided to re-wire them. I swapped the left and right so I could keep the cord on my right side and not have it tensioned across my neck/chest. So I am very familiar taking them apart and wiring them, but as you can see the terminals are no longer connected and it isn't something you can just solder. They slide into place and the more they shift the more likely they won't hold in place anymore.
I decided I had better things to do, so I was going to order a new pair. I really wanted a pair of Sennheiser HD 700 or Hifiman HE 560's. At $500 a pair, I decided now was not the time to spend that sort of money even if I use them for 8+ hours a day.
Sennheiser HD 700
Hifiman HE 560
While the HD 700 was a really nice option, the HE 560 was what I really wanted to get. Unfortunately, they are very expensive and have inconsistent quality control.
I ended up settling on the Sennheiser HD 598 for two reasons, price and soundstage.
The HD 598 Special Edition is only $170 on Amazon. They are widely accepted as one of the best headphones for gaming as they offer a very large soundstage allowing you to head footsteps and gunshots with amazing precision. There were two considerations I had when choosing my next set of headphones, gaming, and music. Both of them are equally important to me.
The HD 598 is an open headphone, this means the outside is not closed off as you can see by the grill on the sides. This allows you to have a larger soundstage but less bass. The soundstage is important for certain types of music but critical for gaming. While both can be used for both applications, closed headphones eliminate almost all ambient noise from your environment. While this is ideal in many cases, as a father it isn't ideal. I also don't live in a noisy environment so there isn't much to drown out.
Sennheiser headphones are known for being very neutral, something I look for in headphones. I don't like an artificial flavor like the massive bass Beats by Dre artificially add to your music. I prefer to have a sound that as accurate to the original music as possible. I can change it from there if I want to (I typically don't) but I don't want it forced on me.
So far I haven't had a lot of time with the HD 598 and they haven't been fully broken in yet. Something that is important for new headphones to reach their optimal performance. That being said, I am very happy with my choice, they sound fantastic, they are comfortable but not nearly as comfortable as my DT880's. After a week I should have a good opinion of what I really think about them.
These cost less than what I paid for the DT880's, and I likely would have been happier with these the first time around. I did far more research when I bought the DT880's than I did this time around. Although my options were very clear this time around, HD 700, HD 598, or the HE 560 are clearly the best options available. Although the AKG K7XX is a very popular option for gaming, it wasn't high on my list. It probably should have been, but the HD 598 really stood out beyond all others even against the HD 700 and were extremely affordable.
At some point, I really want to get a pair of HE 560 or HD 700 and see what I'm missing.
Schit Stack
I am seriously considering an external DAC and AMP, and the most obvious choice is the Schiit Stack. The Schiit Stack is two $99 devices that act as an external DAC (Digitial Analog Converter) and Amplifier.
Most sound cards cannot properly drive quality headphones and will retard the performance of quality cans (headphones). There are a few options from Schiit that are very high quality for short money, but the base Magni & Modi combo runs only $200. They have some more expensive options with tubes for a different flavor and even better performance.
I'm still on the fence if I want to drop another $199+ on a DAC/AMP. As I run an MSI M5 Gaming Z270 motherboard, I have a very good sound card on board, but it will not give 100% performance out of the HD 598 even though they are only 50 ohms. Good headphones can run as high as 600 ohms and become very difficult to drive without a very powerful amplifier.
I would pick up the Schiit stack in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact I would need to run more cables in an already cable nightmare. I really want to try it though and see how much of a difference it is. For $199 it is very tempting. I'll let you know if I end up getting them and try them out.
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come on, buy a new pair, you deserve them
Sennheiser headphones are in general one of the best to go to. I used to own the Beyerdynamics as well. I'm an audio engineer so monitor headphones are too crucial for me. I've tried a lot of brands. But Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, Audio Technica and AKG stood out in most cases. But it's personal preference as you have pointed out. Great choices though. I appreciate your sense of wanting a natural pair of headphones and not colored. Not many think like that these days. Most want "More Bass". Totally respect you for the knowledgeable preferences. Great personal write up bro. Cheers!
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lol
haha Didnt know you are an electronic engineer too :p thats a cool buy of headphones, i play CS, DOTA and MOHA but couldnt ever dare to buy another pair of expensive ones since my last Sony mate was overthrown by my nephews.. But, i l check one of these you mentioned. Enjoy :)
You seriously know your stuff @themarkymark. And I admire how you know your stuff! That's all I can say. 😀
I just pretend well.
lol 😂
OK
I worked with a cheap set of DJ headsets for my film editing and finally got a pair of real Sony studio headphones. It’s a whole new experience.
The earnings of this post alone is more than enough for you to get the headphones of your desire.. how about that...
On a side note, nathan fillion’s new pictures came out as he takes the role of cop in new series “The Rookie”.. so might be time for you to update your profile picture? :D
Hardly, the ones I want are not $40.
Would kind of ruin the Firefly theme I got going on.
Patience is the key my friend.. 3 hours later and now your post payout is 70$ :p
And whatever sbd that you will get, will be of 2.5$ worth each (appx). So lets wait till the time payout occurs...
Hahaha... well... my job was to inform.. if you change your mind, you now know where to find new pics of nathan fillion :p
With my ratio of killing headphones, I would never invest in something that good.
I used to break one set almost every month, so finally, I decided to "borrow" my wife's cordless Pioneer.
The quality of the sound is really bad, but I haven't had an incident with getting up and walking away from my desk and having my head jerked back for a while now.
Plus, every now and then they pick up radio or TV signal from somewhere which is a nice bonus.
Beats by Dre man, thats the real headphones
They are one of the worst. They are are so inaccurate and artificial. I wouldn’t use them if they were given to me for free.
I didn't know headphones can cost up to $500....
There are pairs that are $3,000 and I’m sure even more.
That's more expensive than my laptop. I guess I would only understand it when I am rich enough to just buy it and not ask why is it more expensive than a laptop
These are better https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/senneheiser-reveals-50000-orpheus-headphones/#/2
That’s just silly at that point.
I really like the look of the Hifiman HE 560. That wood grain.. Fancy
I hate it when headphones die. Takes a while for ears to adjust to new ones. I really like Sony MDR 7510 I using at moment. I am on my second set of them, they have really nice flat response
Wow! tengo unos auriculares de hace un tiempo y empezaron a fallar, se oye bien aun y ya les agarré cariño. ¿Que es eso de votar testigos? Lo averiguaré ;-)
I like your post themakymark because to appreciate the good quality of the music one must have a good quality headphones.