I needed to get another pair of reasonable quality headphones for better isolation and tracking to augment my aging HD25s, and read this article 'http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan10/articles/studioheadphones.htm' and others on the web to get some idea of what to get.
I settled on the DT770s and they arrived last week and I initially tried them on my ipod and laptop to see what they were like. All sounded good and then I did some more tests in my studio as that's where they'll be used.
My system is an FF400 going into a Win7 64bit, i950, 12Gb, music-only pc running Cubase 6.5. My monitors are Quested F5's (also pretty old but still good) and my HD25's. The mixes I've done over the last few years have been accurate and stable across songs and the HD25s mirror the Questeds in balance in that if I hear too much bass in my headphones I'll also hear it in the monitors.
I generally mix on my monitors (my studio is in the garden) and use the headphones for tracking and to get a backup viewpoint.
However, the DT770's have much more bass that doesn't mirror what's coming out of my monitors or what's being recorded (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar through a 5w combo) which is worrying me. That said, their isolation is good and they have a very clear mid and upper range which appears to be accurate.
Do I persevere with the DT770's and make allowance for the extended bass when tracking as I don't think I could used them for mixing, or do I send them back and get something more 'balanced' or neutral?
Thanks very much.

There are alternatives - higher impedance, using open or semi-open phones.
I would tend to use DT770 for live sound only, you might find the 250ohm and 600ohm version sounds different in the bass/treble balance but I cannot guarantee that.
I tend to use AKG K701 for editing but have used sennheiser as well, the HD25s are good but perhaps you have a limit on how much money you will spend?

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-<{DH}>-

I think you will find that you cannot return headphones

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Sam

I got them because for the price, they seemed to offer what I want and all the reviews seemed consistently good. My HD25's need a refurb anyway so I thought I'd try an alternative as I was beginning to get a lot of spill from the 25's when I was recording acoustic guitar.
I've got Rode NTK, AT4040, SM58, and SM57 mics and know I can get good recordings so I might just stick with them and use them only for tracking.
I hadn't thought it would be a problem to return them, but now you mention it might not be possible from a hygiene perspective(I bought them from GAK as they had the best price).
They're not bad, just different to what I'm used to.
Thanks!

I think they are just 'different' to the HD25s, really, and the same will apply to pretty much any other headphone you try. It's really just a case of getting used to them and learning how to interpret what they are telling you...

hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Yes, spent a couple of hours using them last night and things settled down quite nicely. Still more bassy than I'm used to but they've got good isolation and are nice and clean in the mids and uppers and, most importantly, I wasn't getting any spill while recording acoustic guitar.
Thanks.

I would say that HD25s are 'bassier' than DT770s (I use both). The DT770s maybe have more lower mids. Their sound is 'smoother' than the Sennys, but does seem to represent the mix well. Their great plus is that they are very sensitive to distortion, so if your levels are pushed too far they make it obvious.

I probably did slightly prefer my old Sennheiser HD565s, but they are now stuffed. HD650s are on the Eternal Shopping List of Nice Music Stuff.

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Instant gratification is actually pretty good. It's fast as well.

I'm a fan of the DT770s and don't find the bass too overblown. I'd say stick with them! They certainly have more bass than something like the AKG240, they sound lacklustre to me whilst the Beyers compare favourably with my Sennheiser HD600 'benchmark'.