THE PATH TO THE ULTIMATE LUXURIOUS, FUN, TRANSPORTABLE CLOSED BACK HEADPHONE
Beyerdynamic started in 1924 and they are known for making the first modern headphones.
Year 1937: Beyerdynamic DT 48. “DT” stands for “Dynamic Telephone”.
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Over the following 70 years, Beyerdynamic would achieve incredible feats in headphone development. From developing the first dynamic driver with over one Tesla of magnetic field strength, to summiting Mt. Beyer. Jokes aside, without Beyerdynamic, headphones and our community would not be where they are today.
We’ve been pursuing this collaboration for years and we couldn’t be more excited to show you the DT 177X GO:
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FROM PRO...TO GO!
The DT 1770 PRO version was originally designed for mixing desks and professional audio interfaces. The PRO version needs more power to operate the drivers and was designed to show flaws in recordings.
From the Beyerdynamic website:
“The DT 1770 PRO are the ideal headphones for live acts as the extremely high efficiency drivers assure a perfect listening experience in the loudest environments.”
We worked with Beyerdynamic to modify their DT 1770 PRO version and make it better for our community and the kind of music listening that we do: from a sit-stand desk, at a coffee shop, or around the home.
Tuning
The DT 177X GO has a slightly smoother sound, with some additional damping. Designed for the home versus a recording studio or concert venue.
Power
The DT 177X GO is easier to drive from low power devices, along with the added capability of balanced drive built into the earcup connector. (We’re working on a 2.5mm TRRS Balanced cable for Digital Audio Players and Bluetooth Pucks made by Astell&Kern, Cayin, Earstudio, FiiO, iBasso, Onkyo, Questyle, and others.)
Here are a couple of gear combos that we have been enjoying around the office…
In use with Astell&Kern XB10 (can use Single-ended 3.5mm or Balanced 2.5mm):
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In use with EarStudio ES100(can use Single-ended 3.5mm or Balanced 2.5mm):
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2.5mm TRRS Balanced cable in development (prototype):
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We’re also working on a Lightning Cable and investigating a USB-C version...
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Our classic line of desktop amps certainly gives a great performance using both single ended (Cavalli Tube Hybrid) and balanced (THX AAA 789) outputs. However being able to step away from the desk with just a laptop or portable player and continuing to enjoy such excellent sound quality and dynamics has been a real treat that we are happy to finally share with you!
T.FernandezDon't know about the other people here but I'd be more interested in shorter 3.5mm and 4.4mm cables than your 2.5mm prototype. For length I think that around 1.2 meters would be optimal for portable use.
cell201135Yes, we are working on several cable options for this headphone including balanced options which would be compatible with our line of Balanced Amplifiers (THX AAA 789 and Liquid Carbon X).
NathanielKigerI’ve heard both... 177x is THE best Breyer out of them all in my opinion... darker than the rest for sure though, but no peaks.
Updated: Take this back as the tuning is different from the demo I heard. I'd have to hear them again... THESE need eq in the bass now...
NathanielKigerOur tuning aims in working with Beyerdynamic were to keep the “fun” and enjoyable character of the headphone while smoothing the bass to mids transition and the treble just a bit. You can see in this graph that the bass level remains the same but the overall effect of the smoothing may sound a bit more linear (a little less v-shaped):
T.FernandezSo what's the word on the 2.5mm TRRS Balanced cable for Digital Audio Players?
Will they be available for purchase through Drop or available some other way?
Thanks in advance for the reply.
T.FernandezFor a headphone designed to be portable, these are some really noisy cables in that whenever it rubs on or gets touched by anything, I can hear it. It's ok if I'm using it at home and not moving around very much, but I feel like this might get annoying if I'm walking around and it's rubbing against my clothes. Hopefully whatever design you're using for the balanced cables is better, though based on the photos it looks the same as the single ended cables.
jkhmonkeyYES, this exactly too... I totally agree. Not only this, but also, the "drop down" portion of the cable from the earcup is too stiff and rubs on your shoulder, making the situation worse. It should be a soft material, that is not stiff, and has strain relief... not this hard-ass rubber, micro-phonic cable, that makes it so you can't even turn your head in public...
zep483based on the freq plots; this sounds like a classic case of ‘driver break-in’ needed.
I had always believed the tesla drivers are a reasonable break-in time; maybe prodigy fat of the land on repeat at a lowish volume level (say 30-40%) for a few days....
bet the new set responds ‘more freely’ after this exercise.
i have had many headphones with poor or average bass ‘out of the box’ vastly improve, some surprisingly so, after a little movement on the drivers. some ‘cans I felt were anemic in week one, were wonderFUL in week four.
makes sense; they become more flexible, and can find an easier time pushing bass notes.
if the new sets have significant bass differences to the previous ones, some break-in can equal the playing field.
Xmetaldavexlooks like you get these headphones; their raison d’etre was to allow cable switchups (eg my Beyer T90s are resolutely without the cable mods they so deserve, being their largest deviance from the T1 flagships, when considering their ‘portable winding’ in field ohmage..).
Microphonics which many seem to be complaining about, which I concur, any ‘walk around’ headphones with cables that generate cable movement noises are a ‘fail’, so hopefully youwill be without the microphonics of the cable as well as being able to use the balanced cable /amp that these Drop modified ‘cans were built for.
WhitedragemYeah this was my thought exactly, but nothing is changing... I'll keep going and see... I've been running them non-stop since I've got them.
zep483silver is exceptional for removing nuances of sibilance (something Teslas are known for). If it is a high ‘nines’ cable (ie greater than 99.999 pure copper with a nice clean molecular layout) then expect high frequency transients to be the area to look for changes. The 3 dimentiality of the sound/front to back and left/right imaging should open up.
Cables that restrict second harmonics on cymbal crashes (eg >16khz area) will kill air space.
High frequency sound, and ‘the air’ around instruments are the obvious changes that come to mind.. but definately the sibliance on vocals is where most people ‘notice’ the changes.. most likely because of how our (lizard) brain has lots of information processing for areas crucial to our survival. We haven’t de-evolved yet, so some frequencies we have ‘heightened’ sensitivity to picking out the differences.
Does your source equipment change the sound depending on cable mode?
eg a FiiO x5iii in some ways has worse output specs when using ‘balanced’ mode output.
WhitedragemI'm not really concerned with Highs here... my main problem with the set I have is that the bass seems to be recessed and the sub-bass seems lacking on most tracks. I do get more bass on my class A amp than I do on my 789 and other amps... the bass is completely gone on my tube amp, which normally provides more low end... so idk what to think about these... so far the only way to get serviceable low end is to EQ them.
zep483how much time have they spent playing Prodigy “Fat of the Land”?
I would have them play back 24/7 for ten days to expect any subbass if ‘fresh out of the box’.
Believe me when I say ‘it isn’t a myth’, and is likely the reason so many are saying ‘inferior subbass vs demo units (that had been ‘broken in)’.
At the moment, a user would be fearful that their new audio purchase doesn’t offer what they expected.
This fear means that we get highly analytical; we have to justify the purchase to ourselves..
I know I find most headphones ‘out of the box’ unlistenable- with a horrible grain to the textures, and unformed bass two traits universal to most pricepoints (IEMs are a different kettle of fish, especially ‘armature’ units).
Seriously, loop ‘fat of the land’ - your subbass will come.
zep483I would like to offer some reassurance; however brief, about this not being psycho acoustics.
bass frequencies are ‘easy to cancel out’ by pointing two speakers together and wiring ‘out of phase’.
logically now, assume that a driver, with ‘all over the place’ responce ‘ie an uncontrolled driver that hasn’t found its’ natural motion yet’; and what chance do ‘two of them’ have to act in unison and give predictable response? They won’t have full movement, nor nuanced free movement until the driver surrounds ‘soften’ and ‘break in’.
this isn’t unique to headphones; maybe look up some subwoofer reviews and look at write ups mentioning that over time the low note control they offer after ‘break in’ extends, massively over their out of box state.
some companies go to great lengths to run 1000hours onto parts before drivers leave the factory.
my experience is that, the bigger the driver, generally, the longer the break in period required.
The teslas drivers are commented on widely for taking a longer time period than typical.
i have never heard a headphone sound ‘good’ (vs its future performance) within the first four days of use. (100 hours)
headphones like akg70X (large driver headphones) have a ‘very long break in time’ many people estimating around around 1000 hours to have their bass come into effect.
it isn’t just the bass frequencies that will benefit, but bass frequencies are so obvious that most people describe the effect by using them as reference.
’sub bass’ <50hz is the last to really form.
there is a reason why new drivers are not flexible. nor am i until I stretch a bit.
let them stretch. they will extend more, and ‘react’ more readily to electrical changes into their coil.
this isn’t psychoacoustics like people who ‘don’t believe’ say it is. confirmation bias is a wonderful thing. people are now actually starting to believe the world is flat. find audio reviewers you trust and ask them questions or read their extended work.
with regards to the notion of sub bass improvements for break-in, I would suggest subwoofer reviews ;-)
XmetaldavexJust got my cable... 2m red terminating in a 2.5mm balanced for the massdrop balanced connector... It is a thinner cable than the site suggests, but its pretty much perfect and the tip of the cable from the headphone is much less rigid than the stock cable, and NO JANK... Thanks so much for the recommendation! I most likely will get some other cables from them soon!