beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro Headphone Review

[pablolie]

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I originally had the 2nd-gen DT1990 Pro, but I’ve since sold it. I used the money from the sale to grab a dead-stock 1st-gen DT1990 Pro plus two pairs of genuine original earpads.
I did some quick and simple measurements on both headphones. Bear in mind my measurement gear and testing environment aren’t ideal, so please take these results with a grain of salt. I ran the tests at a pretty low volume, so the graphs are a bit jittery and unsmoothed. I also threw in my HD650 as a baseline comparison—all measurements were taken at roughly the same output level. I organized the curves like this in REW just to make side-by-side comparison easier.

The main reason I dumped the 2nd gen is its vocal performance. The midrange vocals feel slightly recessed, and I get this weird breathy, leaky articulation on sibilants. I’m not sure if it’s a shifted peak around 3kHz or just inconsistent treble fluctuations, but the entire upper end sounds like a mess of sharp, metallic shards with practically no damping at all.

The 1st gen is bright too, but its treble is a clean, sharp, precise kind of brightness—like a scalpel. When I’m mixing on the 1st gen, every track just opens up effortlessly. I can pick apart individual timbres and tiny details with almost no effort.

The 2nd gen just doesn’t give me that clean resolution. Everything sounds coated in that fragmented, metallic treble harshness, which masks fine details across the board.
To be fair, the 2nd gen does have better low-end response. Compared to the HD650, it barely has any noticeable bass roll-off at all.

Are you really listening at 115dB (!) with the 1st gen and at 65dB with the 2nd gen? You're comparing headphones at completely different SPL levels?

 

[solderdude]

He just shifted all 3 plots over the entire range so don't look at the absolute values but only the relative values.
This is just done to make sure the plots are separated.
The DT1990promkII is actually the loudest at the same volume followed by the DT1990pro and the lowest sensitivity is the HD650.

 

[1122333]

He just shifted all 3 plots over the entire range so don't look at the absolute values but only the relative values.
This is just done to make sure the plots are separated.
The DT1990promkII is actually the loudest at the same volume followed by the DT1990pro and the lowest sensitivity is the HD650.

Thank you for your explanation.