beyerdynamic DT 1770 PRO Closed Studio Reference Headphones

Bought with my own cash money.Update IV --- 23/2/16 --- Ditched the A20 as treble detail was a little bit lacking and the bass had a tendency to be slightly overwhelming (only a tad - but enough to cause brain annoyance!) which I'm putting down to the power output of the amplifier as I had a similar issue with my high output tube amp. I preferred the sound signature of the DT1770's plugged straight into my iPad but it didn't go loud enough on some recordings and lacked some body (Brilliant for modern well mastered tracks so if that's your bag - you don't need an amp!). I've since switched to the Oppo HA-2 which has a good clean neutral sound and with its low gain switch the bass is once again perfect and no loss of any resolution whatsoever. Killer combo. Keeper for Defo (and no more updates!!).Update III --- 25/12/15 ---- Now paired with Beyerdynamic A20 Amplifier - Just Wow! Really opens these babies up! I thought they were great without an amp and even better when paired with my Fiio E12a but paired with the A20 these are sublime. Expensive but worth it (Someone burgled my house xmas eve and took my Sony MDR-Z7 but left my Beyers! Silver lining and all that!).Update II --- 23/11/15 --- After more research (and reading Dale Thorns review - who I usually agree with) I found out that these may not match well with tube amps so bought them again and paired them with my Fiio E12A and these are like a different headphone. Maybe my original pair had a slight driver mismatch but the boomy bass and slightly distant mids along with a slightly higher volume in the left ear have all been rectified with this pair! I've been amazed that these have such powerful deep bass when its present on a recording but when the track doesn't have any bass these stay faithful to the original recording and don't add any extra colouring. Truly amazing and not something I have heard on any other headphone. So glad I tried them again! Although the DT150's are still amazing value for money I think I will be keeping the DT1770's and retiring my tube amp.Update --- 6/11/15 ---- Now sold! After Extensive A/B testing against my £96 Beyer DT150 250 ohm through my Littledot II MKII tube amp I've come to the conclusion that there isn't enough difference to justify the extra £350. I've EQ'd the mid bass down a few Db and this has brought the tanklike DT150's to life. I was amazed at the difference it made. Plus the Mids are more present on the DT150's which is a shame as I wanted to love the 1770's but they just didn't do it for me to justify keeping them.Original review ---Having lived with the DT770 250 ohm for years I was on the fence about these given the higher price but I finally bit the bullet and they certainly are exquisite.Build quality is always top notch with Beyer but these have an added layer of luxury to the usual utilitarian materials and styling.Hifiguy 528 (Hifi insider) Mike on YouTube had it right when he said the DT770's feel like a toy next to these! Check his unboxing for a peek at all the bits n bobs and the materials etc.I usually love neutral headphones with a bit of oomph (Oppo PM3 are the stand out ones for me) but I've always loved the bass on my DT770's as it just thunders through my bones with an amp.What I've never loved is the extremely bright treble. Sure it's great for detail but the Oppo PM3 showed me you could still have the treble detail without the sibilant peaks that the DT770/880/990 line is infamous for. I always found myself EQ'ing the Mids up slightly on the 770's with their V-shaped sound signature.And basically the DT1770 addresses all these issues for me. You get all the Bass loveliness of the 770's but with a more present midrange and a perfect treble (to my ears). I've seen some reviewers say that even the 1770 has a peaky treble but I don't see how that can be the case! It's just right and very welcome! The bass also has more texture on the 1770's (something I had never heard before! Bass texture!? But yep you can get a real sense of it with these).But are they worth the price hike? Well as always it's subjective but if for whatever reason you're like me and can't use open backs then these I reckon are as close as you can get to a high end open back sound in closed back form and still keep the price below £500!The sound stage is certainly very 'open' for a closed back can and certainly not as congested as the Oppo PM3's. What's more these being Tesla drivers they are extremely efficient and run to substantial listening levels straight out of my IPhone 5s despite them being 250 ohm (a hell of a lot louder than my 770 250 ohm anyway! Weird!).I've now got them running through my LittkeDot II MKII Tube amp and they sound great.Hope some of this helps.Stew

Firstly, I should say I have tried these before, and I do not remember them sounding this good.I have spent considerable time with the DT 770 250 ohm (80 ohm, too), as well as DT 990 and other variations. These are a fairly big step up in detail retrieval. With the DT 770, I was left wanting more, and I couldn't help but think that they lacked just a tiny bit of of natural detail. I also tried the Fidelio X2HR, and although they were impressive with vocals, they lacked quality or sub-bass, and did not have more in the way of detail in the treble (even compared to the DT 770).I put these DT 1770 on, and instantly I could hear the vocals with a lot more detail and forward presence. The detail and natural sound of them is pretty mind-blowing. I don't think these can be beat for their bass performance. I read a lot of reviews saying bass can be flabby, but this is not the case with my headset, as they are incredibly detailed for bass also. I would say these are the first headphones that I would describe as 'sounds like you are in the room listening to the artists'.Blu-ray audio is even more of a treat. I loaded up Shutter Island in 4k, and for the first time in a movie, I could hear that they are speaking in to a mic, if that makes sense - these things pick up so much detail and it is hard not to be impressed, even for the price I paid of £369.Unlike the DT 770, the treble response does not hurt my ears. The physical comfort is also a step up, due to the more comfortable pads. The headphone just screams quality. The supplied cables, although long, are very light an not irritating at all.

These replaced some HD650s which had been modded to improve the bass. What a difference. The DT1770 Pro was so much better all round but particularly the bass. They need 300 hours burning in before you experience what they are capable of. So much detail. I have a fully differential amplifier (balanced), so to take advantage of the diffential output from the amp I modded the phones. I already use Custom cans cable (much better than the supplied cable) I replaced the jack plug with a 4 pin xlr at one end, at the other end i fitted a mini 4 pin xlr plug. On the headphones I replaced the 3 pin mini xle socket with a 4 pin mini xlr socket. Next I rewired the cabling inside the phones as per the 4 pin mini xlr standard, thereby separating left and right channels and removing the shared return of the original setup. Boy was that worth doing! The DT1770 headphones have now moved up another quality level. I still after listening for many am stunned at how much detail these headphones can deliver. I use the Topping A90 Descrete Amplifier, Topping E70 Velvet DAC, IFI Zen Steam.

I've been using M50x for 5 years and don't regret it because for £100 it's the best value for money but if you want that next level sound you need to spend around £300 on audiophile headphones and the DT 1770 Pro does just that. It's so good in instrument separation and the detail is next level with huge prefect bass that doesn't destroy the mids or highs. If you like some bass with detail this is the headphone to get. The comfort is excellent, way better then my m50x were it hurt my ears after 2 hours. These don't hurt at all. Please bear in mind that you'll required to use a dac. I've a dragonfly cobalt dac which improves the sound dramatically but please invest atleast on a decent dac as I've used these on my onboard supremefx mobo and it's not good. As you're just better off just getting a £100 headphone without a dac, due to the fact that you'll be bottlenecked by your onboard audio if you buy expensive headphones which will only get 30% of its potential without a dac. Just a heads up.