DEALUX
Active Member
They have a sort of similar tonal profile but they're both bad in some significant ways. To my ears, Beyers like the DT 880 and 990 have a smoother timbre (perhaps due to better midrange tuning) which helps render stuff like room/reverb cues quite a bit better, but the big caveat is that they all have a sharp metallic timbre that gets very annoying after a while. Perhaps the 880 has it to a lesser extent than some of the other Beyers.
The HD800, on the other hand, is bad because it has a very "plasticky" timbre and imaging that is a little confused. Due to its unique tuning and perhaps reflections in the cups, they have a very spacious sound at first glance but at the cost of a hollow sound that often seems to lack body or physicality. Instruments are actually kinda hard to pin to a specific point in the soundstage because parts of any given instrument seem to be missing (there's a sensation of haziness or lack of clarity). So in essence in order to get that wide and fairly deep sound (though vocals will often sound in your head or behind it) it sacrifices image clarity or sharpness, at least as far as I perceived it. But the HD800 sounds much more open compared to any Beyer because it has much much less dampening. Beyers are treble murder cans without all of the dampening foam and filters but that means they also sound somewhat closed compared to some true open backs.
Edit: A cheap used HD800 is good value and whilst I really liked the way they looked and felt (though the headband killed the top of my head) I had to get rid of them because I was dissatisfied with the sound.
The HD800, on the other hand, is bad because it has a very "plasticky" timbre and imaging that is a little confused. Due to its unique tuning and perhaps reflections in the cups, they have a very spacious sound at first glance but at the cost of a hollow sound that often seems to lack body or physicality. Instruments are actually kinda hard to pin to a specific point in the soundstage because parts of any given instrument seem to be missing (there's a sensation of haziness or lack of clarity). So in essence in order to get that wide and fairly deep sound (though vocals will often sound in your head or behind it) it sacrifices image clarity or sharpness, at least as far as I perceived it. But the HD800 sounds much more open compared to any Beyer because it has much much less dampening. Beyers are treble murder cans without all of the dampening foam and filters but that means they also sound somewhat closed compared to some true open backs.
Edit: A cheap used HD800 is good value and whilst I really liked the way they looked and felt (though the headband killed the top of my head) I had to get rid of them because I was dissatisfied with the sound.