Beyerdynamic DT150 Review (Closed Back Headphone)

[NDRQ]

Ehh, another crap Beyer, just like most of their lineup...

 

[PeteL]

What an oddity. I assume this must still sell well enough to continue it. Studio /Pro use perhaps? I'm guessing it's robust.

Not sure why anyone would buy this for home /hifi though.

Thats like the official drummer's monitors, sometimes back there was nothing that Isolated more from the outside, the closest of the closed backs, plus they never have enough Kick Drums, that kind of bass boost help.

 

[Thomas_A]

Ehh, another crap Beyer, just like most of their lineup...

With the EDT100 pads it beats most HPs around in terms of neutral response from 30 Hz to 10 kHz.

 

[phoenixsong]

Skipping the voting this time taking into account the easy mod potential, differing post-mod opinions, scarce availability in some countries and relatively high cost

 

[Thomas_A]

Availability and cost is an issue. In Europe it is around €139 plus €16 for the EDT100T pads.

 

[PeteL]

I am sure one of the forum historians will tell us but I think this is a 20+ year old design and it shows it.

I am no Historian, but according to this guy, it was released in the late 60s, Wow, a 50+ year old design... (there was no references to this text so "real" historians are welcome to chime in.)

Beyerdynamic DT150 Professional Headphones Review

Never forget where you came from

medium.com

 

[tdockweiler]

I've been curious about this headphone ever since I saw the below video where they used them a lot.
Is it the DT-150? I think it is. This is a live recording of Joe Hisaishi's "Departure".
I think the video has pretty good sound for Youtube.

 

[bequietjk]

Would love to hear a review on the DT250. I miss them man specifically for recording and monitoring guitar tracks. After you do the foam layer trick for the connector cable it's one of the most unique and personal and raw listening experiences. At least in my experience.

 

[solderdude]

I've been curious about this headphone ever since I saw the below video where they used them a lot.
Is it the DT-150? I think it is. This is a live recording of Joe Hisaishi's "Departure".
I think the video has pretty good sound for Youtube.

The 'half' DT150's are called DT108 and exist in 50 and 400 ohm impedances.
These are not DT150 based though but DT109 and have a directional communication mic.
Then there is also the DT100 (16 and 400ohm) which also looks similar.

DT100, 108, 109, DT150 and DT250 are often found in studios, the DT150 has the best isolation (with or pads).
Not easy to break, good attenuation of outside noises, work fine as a monitor (even with original pads), all parts are available and easy to replace, they are cheap.
Sennheiser and AKG do not make anything as sturdy (well maybe the HD25 but that's an on-ear) and ugly looking so there is little competition.

 

[Thomas_A]

The DT100, while looking very similar to the DT150, is a completely different headphone soundwise. No bass whatsoever. Not sure what its use is professionally, perhaps for monitor voices.

 

[DrZingo]

I've been curious about this headphone ever since I saw the below video where they used them a lot.
Is it the DT-150? I think it is. This is a live recording of Joe Hisaishi's "Departure".
I think the video has pretty good sound for Youtube.

Excellent cellist.

 

[PeteL]

DT100, 108, 109, DT150 and DT250 are often found in studios, the DT150 has the best isolation (with or pads).
Not easy to break, good attenuation of outside noises, work fine as a monitor (even with original pads), all parts are available and easy to replace, they are cheap.
Sennheiser and AKG do not make anything as sturdy (well maybe the HD25 but that's an on-ear) and ugly looking so there is little competition.

The headphones themselves are not cheap tough for a studio monitor, I was actually surprised that they where more expensive than the DT770 which is already an expensive studio monitor, the latter certainly "look" more expensive. Wondering if it's more mainly some mystique nostalgia thing or if there is a real performance or robustness benefit, beside isolation, and even that. Even large studios like to keep cost in check for large quantities of monitors from what I saw around. Those models are quite oldies. Of course the artist themselves will get what they like. As standard goes, of course there is not one to rule them all but I think the main one used to be the MDR-7506, with a stear toward Audio-Technica M-series in the 3rd millenium forward, but of course it's just generalities, Senns, Beyers and AKGs are common too.

 

[phoenixsong]

The headphones themselves are not cheap tough for a studio monitor, I was actually surprised that they where more expensive than the DT770 which is already an expensive studio monitor, the latter certainly "look" more expensive. Wondering if it's more mainly some mystique nostalgia thing or if there is a real performance or robustness benefit, beside isolation, and even that. Even large studios like to keep cost in check for large quantities of monitors from what I saw around. Those models are quite oldies. Of course the artist themselves will get what they like. As standard goes, of course there is not one to rule them all but I think the main one used to be the MDR-7506, with a stear toward Audio-Technica M-series in the 3rd millenium forward, but of course it's just generalities, Senns, Beyers and AKGs are common too.

In Japan the JVC/Victor MX10B/MX100Z/V and Sony MDR-M1ST monitoring headphones are pretty popular too
*And yes I was also surprised at the DT150's price

 

[Timbo2]

Excellent cellist.

I also recommend the film!

Departures (2008 film)

 

[solderdude]

The headphones themselves are not cheap tough for a studio monitor, I was actually surprised that they where more expensive than the DT770 which is already an expensive studio monitor, the latter certainly "look" more expensive. Wondering if it's more mainly some mystique nostalgia thing or if there is a real performance or robustness benefit, beside isolation, and even that. Even large studios like to keep cost in check for large quantities of monitors from what I saw around. Those models are quite oldies. Of course the artist themselves will get what they like. As standard goes, of course there is not one to rule them all but I think the main one used to be the MDR-7506, with a stear toward Audio-Technica M-series in the 3rd millenium forward, but of course it's just generalities, Senns, Beyers and AKGs are common too.

closed studio phones

DT100: € 155
DT150: € 139
DT770: € 129
DT250: € 198
MDR7506: € 99
M50X: € 125 (not replaceable headband that gets ugly soon)
M70X: € 255
SRH 840: € 99
SRH 840A: € 148
SRH940: € 215
HD300 Pro: € 175
K271: € 99,-
K371: € 119 (breaks easily)
HPHMT5: € 89
HPHMT8: € 185

 

[ChristianL_Mtl]

closed studio phones

DT100: € 155
DT150: € 139
DT770: € 129
DT250: € 198
MDR7506: € 99
M50X: € 125 (not replaceable headband that gets ugly soon)
M70X: € 255
SRH 840: € 99
SRH 840A: € 148
SRH940: € 215
HD300 Pro: € 175
K271: € 99,-
K371: € 119 (breaks easily)
HPHMT5: € 89
HPHMT8: € 185

Hello,

I own the DT-250 (80 ohms).

What is the difference in bass response between DT-150 and DT-250 ?

And what is the difference between the 80 and 250 ohms ?

I plan to upgrade in the next months or so. That said, I have them for nearly 20 years now, they are really sturdy and they served me well.

And if someone has EQ curves for the DT-250, I would like to see them !

Best wishes,

 

[Robbo99999]

Hello,

I own the DT-250 (80 ohms).

What is the difference in bass response between DT-150 and DT-250 ?

And what is the difference between the 80 and 250 ohms ?

I plan to upgrade in the next months or so. That said, I have them for nearly 20 years now, they are really sturdy and they served me well.

And if someone has EQ curves for the DT-250, I would like to see them !

Best wishes,

index/list_of_presets - oratory1990

r/oratory1990: Mostly covering topics like headphones, in-ear headphones, acoustics, electroacoustics, acoustic tuning, headphone design …

www.reddit.com

DT-250 is in there, amoungst hundreds of others (not counted them).

 

[Robbo99999]

A pretty hard to EQ mess above 4kHz and not much better everywhere else. It's an old old headphone though, so we can let it go, I still voted it "Poor" though. On the subject of old headphones though, the HD600 is also old and there's not much to fault it apart from the poor soundstage which is not characterizable through it's good frequency response......so old doesn't mean bad. Anyway, I don't like this headphone, the DT150 in this review, and I voted as such.

 

[solderdude]

See these as relevant to the other measurements (horizontal line is audible flat) measurement made by Sonarworks.
Not measured on an industry standard rig but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that the plots aren't 1:1 comparable to Harman compensated measurements. One can use these as Tyll's plots relative to each other. Sonarworks EQ's to them.
To person A this sounds fine to person B it may not.

DT150:

DT 250/80:

DT250/250:

My DT150 (horizontal line = audible flat, non industry standard):

Amirs (Harman compensated industry standard) DT150:

My DT250-250 measurement: Seeing how close my cheap-ass measurement of the DT150 is to an expensive industry standard measurement it is pretty safe to assume, the very similar construction, DT250 will measure about similar to this.

You can extrapolate DT250/80 from the measurement above from the Sonarworks differences.

 

[DrZingo]

When applying eq to headphones, I find measurements useful in the lower frequencies but go wholly by ear (using a descending sine sweep) in the treble. Comparing your measurements to Amir's, they match nicely in the lower frequencies but at 10 kHz one has a peak and the other a trough. Since the wavelength at that frequency is 3.4 cm, I suspect the distance to the transducer and possibly the shape of the ear canal has such a big influence that few generalizations can be made.
In my experience, a "rough" treble typically means that you have three or four peaks above 5kHz in the headphone and little else.