beyerdynamic DT 990 Edition 600 Ohm Hi-Fi- Headphone

So this is an out of the box review of the 990 edition, so first 24 hours of ownership. I am a bit of a headphone nerd so can tell pretty quickly if I’m going to like a pair of headphones. I currently own AKG 702 & 7xx, senn HD6xx and Philips X2HR headphones so I am comparing the 990’s to those directly. I bought the “edition” version as I wanted a straight cable and the few other tweaks they’ve made to make them more “home friendly”. Build and design: so they look cool, better in person and feel well built (much better than AKGs for example). I would’ve liked the shells and grills to be metal but this would increase cost and weight so not necessary and purely aesthetic. Comfort: these are very comfortable. When you first put them on they don’t feel like they are going to be as comfortable as people make out but very quickly you forget you’re wearing them. I would rate them right up there on comfort out of the box. Most people rave about 650/6xx being comfortable, rubbish, those things hurt unless you’ve got a peanut sized head or you stretch out the headband which is easy to do. These need no “breaking in” in the comfort dept. Sound (most important bit): these are right up there with the best at under 500 dollars/pounds. They seem to tick all the boxes and combine all the best bits of the other headphones. They have plenty of bass but not too much, clear highs and have an airy feel to them or “wide soundstage” for all the audiophile nerds out there. Negatives: I have got the 250 ohm variant and they are a beast to power. I have the 300 ohm 6xx and the 990’s are harder to power than those. I have a zen DAC currently which powers them ok but I’ve had to crank it to over 2 O clock on the DAC to get a good volume level (I do listen to metal so quite loud). The zen isn’t the most powerful so your mileage may vary but a headphone amp is a must for these. Go for the lower resistance headphones if you don’t want to buy or do not have a headphone amp. I love these headphones and they are definitely going to be keepers. My 702’s have already been packed away!

I picked up three pairs of headphones to test with the aim of only keeping one for gaming and music (these were the cheapest of the three). I tested all three pairs with the Audioquest Dragonfly Red, the Chord Mojo, and the Schiit Stack Uber, I was instantly impressed at how much of an all rounder these headphones are. The soundstage is wide and spacious. The sound is crisp and clear (slightly bright) with a great amount of bass. With a bright AMP/DAC these are too bright for music, with a slightly darker or more neutral AMP/DAC these are a very good all rounder for music. Now to where they really shine... gaming. I can't recommend these highly enough for gaming, although be aware you will need an amplifier as these won't drive very well from a normal headphone port. I use these for PC gaming (of the three AMP/DACs I used only the Schiit Stack works with the PS4). The bass levels are excellent, the soundstage perfect for immersion and the brightness that is present in music works so well here. Lastly, they are like a cloud on my head. I love putting these on. For anyone interested I kept the Sennheiser HD650 also for music. I was so impressed with the DT 990 in games that I decided to keep both. EDIT: I've changed my score from a 4 to 5 star. Having now compared these to the Fidelio X2 (my current favourite headphones), I'm even more impressed by the performance to price ratio. If your spending limit is around the £120 mark then get these, you won't be disappointed. These are still the comfiest headphones I've used. ***Be aware, the 250 OHM version will require an amp. If you're running without get a lower OHM version (I believe there's a 32 OHM version). From what I have read there is no discernible sound difference between the versions.

My main reason for buying this was for practicing electric guitar with a Boss ME-80. I wanted open-backed headphones because I didn’t want to be completely cut off from the world while practicing, but wanted to keep the noise level down in the house. The headphones worked perfectly well for this application. Extremely comfortable with the velour ear pads which exerted very little pressure so great to wear for long periods. Also, because these are open-backed my ears didn’t get hot like with close-backed devices. However the open design meant I could hear the strings clearly through the phones which was very odd. As a secondary requirement I wanted to use these to listen to lossless FLAC music using my Naim SuperUniti streaming system. The quality was excellent - clear, open soundstage, superb level of detail. Brilliant. Sadly, the open design caused issues because of the level of sound leakage. Made them impractical in a space shared with other people who don’t want to hear the music you’re listening to. Also makes it impossible to listen to music while something else is going on in the room eg someone listening to the TV or kids playing etc. I’d guessed that this might have been an issue with open-backed headphones, but hadn’t realised the level of leakage. So reluctantly I decided to return these and have now made best friends with a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 closed-back headphones. (A minor trade-offs in terms of comfort, but otherwise excellent - see my review of these if you’re interested). I would still highly recommend these if you want to listen to music from a good quality system where you aren’t going to disturb anyone else - like in an apartment for example or in a room on your own. I did try them with an iPad but wouldn’t recommend them because the iPad doesn’t have the grunt to drive them at sufficient volume. You’d need a headphone amplifier.

Well. WOW. These Beyers are the absolute dogs....... I have owned many more expensive headphones from Sennheiser,Sony etc which are just not in the same league as far as I am concerned and having owned previously some DT770 which broke but I loved I thought I would get another pair from them and I am absolutely delighted I did. The open back gives a feeling of having your speakers right on your ears. I couldn't remember the 770s giving this amount of detail. These have just the correct amount of bass, treble and midrange whatever music you throw at them and they are by far the comfiest headphones I have ever owned or tried. Well worth the £134 I paid (I went for the edition version as all reviews I read said they were the comfiest for home use whereas the pro version was better for studios) and the 32ohm version so I could use them comfortably with my portable devices,although they are just as good with my main hi fi equipment. Honestly, they are a fantastic bit of kit and rightly deserved of all the great reviews of them. Buy, you will not be disappointed !!!

The final upgrade to my system - see my other reviews. My old Beyerdynamic DT990 Pros (250 ohm) are 35 years old and the cable connecting the two headphones has become stiff, has split and is held together with insulation tape. They still sound great....I decided to buy the 600 ohm version also because this model is less tight on the head and doesn't have the coiled cable. To be fair, when the pads are new they are quite stiff and so they are not as comfortable until they are broken in a bit. Having said that with the other improvements to my system these have a wonderful sound, much sharper and defined than my old pair with a less pronounced bass end but still plenty of it. They will need some "running in" but very pleased with thr sound which is no doubt significantly enhanced by the cable choices on my system.

Slightly Bloated mid-bass, Weak; Slightly undetailed mid and upper mid range (Leaving much to be desired for vocals) as they don't have much center prominence or texture and faitiguing semi-grainy high end. Imaging is okay, you can somewhat tell what direction things are coming from on some tracks however it isn't with pinpoint accuracy. The soundstage isn't overly diffuse; which makes for an inviting close up presentation of your music Comfort is acceptable, however the sliders are very loose so they do not hold their position if you like to adjust them. The pads are soft but can be ichy depending on the wearer. Clamp is acceptable. The cable is pretty bad, it coils itself up and is very springy (not to mention microphonic for what seems like a silicone insulated cable.

I was looking for headphones to mix vocals, electric guitar and some acoustic instruments using software on my Apple Mac + iPad + iPhone using an audio interface (for which I use the sensational iRig Pro Duo… best thing I ever bought). I live in a flat so am unable to turn up the volume on my speakers/monitors without annoying the neighbours, so needed to buy some open-back headphones. Unfortunately I can’t tell an “audiophile” from a unicorn or a “soundstage” from my elbow, and I do not understand the abstract terms used by experts to describe sound coming out of headphones. I was also unable to find any shop that would let me listen to the sound on any of the headphones. And the descriptions/advice form experts on the various online forums was conflicting to say the least. In desperation I did what every newbie would do… I put my faith in the “Top 10 Open Headphones” lists on various websites, all of which had the DT990 Pro at No. 1. I ignored the two most common criticisms made against it, i.e. that it has piercingly uncomfortable high frequency response (“treble”) which will give you sore ears, and that it has weak low frequency response (“bass”) so you will not be able to enjoy most forms of modern music. I didn’t care much for the latter as these headphones are not intended for listening to mindless thumping beats - there is enough cheap rubbish you can buy at a fraction of the price if your only concern is how high the headphones can go on the “oomph-oopmh” scale. So I ordered the DT990 Edition 250Ω, and MAN they sound amazing! I was half expecting a hissing treble fest with tinny bass, but these headphones just blew it out of the park for me. Despite not owning a DAC/amp, the bass is (how shall I describe it) “punchy” and there is quite a lot of it! And the treble is right where it should be, even for my sensitive ears. To my pleasant surprise, when I plug the headphones directly into my iPad Pro 12.9, the sound above 85% volume is way louder than my ears can bear. I definitely don’t need an amp with my iPad Pro to use these headphones. The volume isn’t as high when plugged directly into my iPhone 6 and I could certainly make use of an amp there. But when I plug these directly into the my (2011) iMac audio out port, I can’t turn the iMac volume past the 50%-55% mark without destroying my ears! It turns out my iRig Pro Duo has a built in DAC/amp with 150Ω output which makes the headphones really loud on my iPad Pro, and I can finally use them on my iPhone to full effect as well. I have not experienced sound from expensive headphones so I don’t know what these £500+ headphones sound like. They probably sound twice as nice as the DT990s. But who cares? After listening to my DT990s I don’t think I want to listen to any other headphones, whether they cost £10 or £10,000. In case you’re wondering what the difference between the various DT990 versions is… I listened to the DT990 Edition 250Ω, Edition 32Ω and Pro 250Ω, all at the same time with all my devices, but I chose the DT990 Edition 250Ω in the end. * I prefer the Edition 250Ω over the Pro 250Ω because (a) I find the Edition 250Ω straight cable easy to move around especially when playing guitar, and (b) I find the Pro 250Ω clamping force to be strong to the point of slight discomfort. I could not detect any difference in their sound quality. In fact the Edition 250Ω sounded more “open” due to the reduced clamping force. * I prefer the Edition 250Ω over the Edition 32Ω because although the latter goes higher in volume, at higher volumes the Edition 32Ω sound seems not to hold up (at least to my inexperienced ears) as linearly as the Edition 250Ω. The Edition 250Ω on the other hand seems to maintain the overall spaciousness (I think that’s what experts call “soundstage”?) and the sound does not distort even mildly, no matter how how I turn up the volume. * I just love the overall feel and sound of the Edition 250Ω… feel and sound is ultimately a personal thing! I am really glad I didn’t pay too much attention to the horror stories on forums related to these headphones. These are surely the last open headphones model I will ever buy.

The upshot is that these are easily the most comfortable and best headphones you can get for this money! The built quality is amazing. No flimsy stuff here, fits perfectly around the ear. What's critical for me is comfort -> most headphones get painful to wear after several hours or even after a few minutes. Not so with the DT990. Perfect fit and perfect comfort! OK - obviously what matters the most is the sound quality. Let me just say this -> the quality of the sound will blow you away. It's as simple as that. For this price-point, you will not find better headphones. The sound is clear, sharp, you get perfect bass, etc. Alright, the downsides are as follows. If you like wireless, these headphones are not for you - these headsets come with a cable. Remember DT is originally for the studio - this is a studio headset brand. Anyway, I never work in a studio but i love wearing these. they are not the smallest headphones. The DT990 Pro are about double the price and they are better but unless you really obsess about sound (which I do) you will be perfectly fine with these and at this price point, again, you will not find headsets that give you finer, clearer, sharper sound with such comfort. Overall, if you do not mind the size and you do not care about wireless then go with these. They are the best in the market right now.