Help me decide between the Beyerdynamics DT770/880/990 and ohm variants to add to HD6XX and ATH m40x collection, out of an O2 amp

[Raintech]

Looking to add one of the Beyerdynamic DT's to my collection, mostly for home listening, and occasional gaming(CSGO and overwatch mostly, soundstage and pinpointing locations are important). Wearing them for long periods is also important, multiple hour gaming sessions for example. I hear they're extremely comfortable but want some more opinions on that. 

I have an Objective2 SDAC/ODAC, a combination DAC & Amp which claims to be able to power "any headphone on the market" but not sure if those claims can be trusted for the 600 or 800 ohm variants. 

I currently own:
- Sennheiser HD6xx (my current daily driver for at-home listening, but still clamps super tightly and gives me a headache for long sessions)
-Audiotechnica ATH M40x (my out-and-about closedbacks, I don't like full closebacks as they make my voice sound all wierd yet don't want to be "taht guy" with super leaky headphones in public)

Preference wise, I've found myself enjoying both balanced and bass-forward sound signatures equally. Mostly find myself using a bunch of IEMS from Shure, KZ, and 1more these days. I find the in-ears are more comfortable for long sessions, but find myself missing the better soundstage of the bigger head cans so it's probably time to get something new to try out, and after some searching I've decided its time to add one of the Beyerdynamics DT's to my possession. 
I love my sennheisers HD6xx's for PC useage; The open back sounds alot more natural to me, and for discord calls doesn't make my voice sound all wierd in my own head which I hate. BUT I absolutely cannot wear these for long hours anymore, as the clamping force is just way too tight, and despite trying to fix the clamping issues (trust me I've tried everything) it just doesn't get better. So looking for something else to wear after I'm tired of the 6xx's clamp, or perhaps something else to daily drive that's a bit of fun.



So questions:
-How do the various DT's headphones perform for gaming? Not sure if I'll prefer them for gaming over my HD6XX's or not. Both "fun factor" and "locationally accurate" are considerations I'll care about for FPS games (fun sounding gunshots/explosions and directionally locating footsteps etc). Which one would be best for this use-case?
-Which of the DT lineup do you guys think will complement my current headphones from a pure audio, "brings something new or fun to the table" music-listening perspective?
-Which ohm variant should I get with my Objective2 SDAC/ODAC? I'm thinking 250ohm is a good sweetspot, as I fear the 600 or 800 ohm variants may sound slightly weaker than the 250ohm variants out of my O2 amp.
-How's their comfort for long gaming sessions? 

I only plan on buying 1 of these. Currently leaning towards the 880's or 990's given my preference towards open backs, but the semi closed 880's sound interesting, whereas the 990's are apparently more Vshaped and fun sounding, which sounds like it'll be up my alley for both music and games, given my HD6xx's apparently aren't very bass-forward according to most people, and the DT990's should offer a nice contrast to that as according to frequency response graphs they appear to have a generous amount of bass.

[rice guru]

Unfortunately the 880 is not really semi closed as advertised being an owner of all 3 DTs the 990 premium is more semi closed than an 880. They are fairly comfortable in the long Term. If you want something super different than what you have the 990 is decent and will be different but if you ask me which is best the 880 is my vote. 990s bass are great through for gunshots and explosions. And staging wise both 880 and 990 are very similar. For your gear yes I personally would stick to the 250 ohm and probably a slight EQ for the 990. Alternatively the beyerdynamoc tygr exists and is very easy to drive and has the benefits of the 990 without too much treble murder. 

[Raintech]

29 minutes ago, rice guru said:

Unfortunately the 880 is not really semi closed as advertised being an owner of all 3 DTs the 990 premium is more semi closed than an 880. They are fairly comfortable in the long Term. If you want something super different than what you have the 990 is decent and will be different but if you ask me which is best the 880 is my vote. 990s bass are great through for gunshots and explosions. And staging wise both 880 and 990 are very similar. For your gear yes I personally would stick to the 250 ohm and probably a slight EQ for the 990. Alternatively the beyerdynamoc tygr exists and is very easy to drive and has the benefits of the 990 without too much treble murder. 

Thanks for the reply. Woah, that's awesome you have all 3 of the DT's. I think having something "different" will be quite important for me in the long term; That way there'll be more reason for me to keep the headphones around, rather than selling one of them because they're too similar. 

Why do you think the 880's are best if you don't mind me asking? Do you think the 990s treble is too harsh? I assume we're both thinking the same thing here, which is to EQ down the top end a bit on the 990's.

[rice guru]

1 hour ago, Raintech said:

Thanks for the reply. Woah, that's awesome you have all 3 of the DT's. I think having something "different" will be quite important for me in the long term; That way there'll be more reason for me to keep the headphones around, rather than selling one of them because they're too similar. 

Why do you think the 880's are best if you don't mind me asking? Do you think the 990s treble is too harsh? I assume we're both thinking the same thing here, which is to EQ down the top end a bit on the 990's.

The treble is harsh on the 990 but the midbass is also a bit too muddy at times. I am also a big fan of the 880 600 ohm cause it sounds best on better amps. But like you said you want something a bit more fun than the 650 so the 990 might be the move. The treble gets less harsh as the pads flatten but also another good easy to do mods is to buy tygr tuning foams which due tame the treble down a bit. And makes it a bit nicer headphone to listen to 

[CTR640]

DT880 is the best among the DT series like the 770 and 990. Less piercing, it's sound open despites it being advertised as semi-open because it's not. If I mute the audio, I can hear anything. There is no 800ohm, only up to 600ohm. I have DT880 600ohm too and it sounds damn good! The Beyerdynamics sounds really great with better/powerfull amps.

 

Another nice Beyerdynamic to look for is Tygr 300R.

 

I just see rice guru his reply now lol.

[Raintech]

 

8 hours ago, rice guru said:

I am also a big fan of the 880 600 ohm cause it sounds best on better amps. But like you said you want something a bit more fun than the 650 so the 990 might be the move.

4 hours ago, CTR640 said:

Another nice Beyerdynamic to look for is Tygr 300R.

 

 

I'll definitely check out the Tygr 300r's too. Appreciate the responses.

I'll probably go to my local store and ask to try out both the 880 and the 990, and see how the prices compare. From their online website, the 990's are on sale, which will probably tip the balance for me. They're about 66% of the price of the 880's, and that seems like a good value deal to me. I do hear alot of people who own the DT's suggest the 880 as the best for critical listening, but I'm not exactly sure that's what I'm after with these. Prior to this thread i probably would have bought the 990's from a comfort perspective with no 2nd thoughts, so I'll make sure to give the 880's a nice hard listen and see what I think of them inperson.

My main concern with the 880's is they might remind me too much of my HD6xx's (acoustically the same as hd650 as riceguru's reference). Even though I love my HD6xx's, it might make it hard for me to justify keeping both headphones around and harder to choose which one I'd want for a specific purpose. Kind of like having 2 similarly sized hammers in the toolshed. But hey, if i like th hd6xx, I might love the 880s, alot of reviews seem to describe both in similar fashions, balanced, natural sounding headphones. Obviously, one has the Sennheiser signature sound that i'm used to, and possible getting slightly bored of, whereas, the other has the "Beyer sound" that I'm looking to try out from these, and haven't experienced yet. Plus they seem more comfortable than the 6xx's, so might take over as my new daily drivers if that's the case.

If the staging from both are pretty similar I won't have too much remorse from picking between them, as long as it doesn't cause my competitive ingame rankings to decrease. For single player games I'm wondering whether the 990's will sound a bit more fun, whilst still giving me that "beyer sound" experience I'm curious about, and if the same characteristics which make them less desireable than the 880's for critical listening might be a boon for my use case, as a break from my HD6xx's with extra treble and bass and scooped mids, whereas the hd6xx's kind of complements them by almost being the opposite. 

[rice guru]

47 minutes ago, Raintech said:

 

 

 

I'll definitely check out the Tygr 300r's too. Appreciate the responses.

I'll probably go to my local store and ask to try out both the 880 and the 990, and see how the prices compare. From their online website, the 990's are on sale, which will probably tip the balance for me. They're about 66% of the price of the 880's, and that seems like a good value deal to me. I do hear alot of people who own the DT's suggest the 880 as the best for critical listening, but I'm not exactly sure that's what I'm after with these. Prior to this thread i probably would have bought the 990's from a comfort perspective with no 2nd thoughts, so I'll make sure to give the 880's a nice hard listen and see what I think of them inperson.

My main concern with the 880's is they might remind me too much of my HD6xx's (acoustically the same as hd650 as riceguru's reference). Even though I love my HD6xx's, it might make it hard for me to justify keeping both headphones around and harder to choose which one I'd want for a specific purpose. Kind of like having 2 similarly sized hammers in the toolshed. But hey, if i like th hd6xx, I might love the 880s, alot of reviews seem to describe both in similar fashions, balanced, natural sounding headphones. Obviously, one has the Sennheiser signature sound that i'm used to, and possible getting slightly bored of, whereas, the other has the "Beyer sound" that I'm looking to try out from these, and haven't experienced yet. Plus they seem more comfortable than the 6xx's, so might take over as my new daily drivers if that's the case.

If the staging from both are pretty similar I won't have too much remorse from picking between them, as long as it doesn't cause my competitive ingame rankings to decrease. For single player games I'm wondering whether the 990's will sound a bit more fun, whilst still giving me that "beyer sound" experience I'm curious about, and if the same characteristics which make them less desireable than the 880's for critical listening might be a boon for my use case, as a break from my HD6xx's with extra treble and bass and scooped mids, whereas the hd6xx's kind of complements them by almost being the opposite. 

The 880 is pretty different from the 6xx. The 6xx is a very smooth warn sound. While the 880 has a very neutral sound with a hint of treble forwardness and a nice kick to the midbass to add a nice subtle impact. The soundstage and imaging is also a nice improvement over the 6xx

[CTR640]

Regarding the critical listening, what kind of critical listening? Studio? Music? Gaming?

 

my DT880 is not for critical listening, it's to enjoy audio for anything like music, movies, gaming etc etc. I'm sensitive to sibilance so no DT990. A warm sounding dac/amp can help to smooth out the sibilance but the DT880 is damn nice headphone aside the Tygr.

 

Price should not always be the deciding factor. You can have the DT990 at a much cheaper price but you might or might not be happy. You can have the DT880 at a higher price but you might or might not be happy. So try to get them from a reputable store with a good return policy.

[ShearMe]

For comfort reasons I'd suggest an audio-technica ATH-AD900x or AKG K612. Much lighter clamping than traditional headphone designs. 

[Raintech]

Update on this thread, ended up going to my local store, it's pretty hard to trial headphones right now with all the covid stuff going on, but I listened to the DT880/250's and although I liked it, found the DT990/250's a bit more refreshing. Definitely alot more fun. Boomier base, and suuuuuper sharp were the first things the DT990's threw at me. Perhaps less detailed than the 880's but plenty good enough. I've decided to keep the 6xx's as my daily driver music cans, and to pickup the DT990's for gaming and as a change of pace for music when bored. 

The staging on the DT990's is insane, everything sounds way wider, both music and gaming. Nearby audio sounds alot NEARER, and further audio cues sound alot further than compared to the 6xx. Defnitely alot better on staging is my first impression, the audio feels alot more sidewards. Like music comes from both sides, more than from the 6xx where it feels like everything comes from straight ahead. Probably just the wider staging which I'm not used to yet. Songs with audio elements that rapidly switch from one ear to another (like certain EDM tracks) are really fun on the DT's compared to the sennheisers. Probably also helps that I've been using in-ears alot the past year, they really can't compare to actual cans.

 

The sharp treble makes footsteps a LOT more noticeable in games, and the bass somehow also feels less boomy and echoey, but also punchier at the same time, again, all positives for directional staging. I think I'll really enjoy these for gaming, no issues with treble fatigue so far, but I've gone ahead and applied a slight EQ down on the treble and a slight EQ to raise the mids. Will probably finetune the EQ to my preference over the next few weeks and months.

My store gives me a 30 day change of mind refund so I'll see if any treble fatigue develops with the DT990's and I can always go back to picked the 880's if I prefer, but the 990's were on sale for about 30% off, so I'm happy with the value on these so far. First day of using them has indeed been very comfortable.

Appreciate all the answers and help on the thread, ended up adding the DT990 250ohm PRO to my possession, been using it for a few hours so far.