Well, I admit, I didn't have them at the same time. But I'm pretty sure it was the new one, because dave1 bought them based on everyone's impressions on head-fi (they were described as DT880's with bass over there), and he lent them to me for several days, and I was completely underwhelmed with them. And all of this was very recent (like within the last year).
I did not remember being underwhelmed with the DT880's (and that's saying something, as I like my bass -- I will only live without the bass if it does something else that I want extremely right -- like the K501's midrange). But I'll be getting my own pair, so will revisit this argument when I have more recent impressions.