Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro Review (headphone)

[amirm]

Amirm ,its exactly what you posted but someone mentioned the DT1990 Pro is different from the 990

Oh, I thought you had the 990. Until I test the 1990, my EQ should not be applied to that.

 

[flipflop]

its exactly what you posted

Then it shouldn't make the sound "much brighter". It should be much duller.
Make sure there's a minus sign in front of the gain amounts for band 1, 2, and 4.

 

[ishouldbeking]

Then it shouldn't make the sound "much brighter". It should be much duller.
Make sure there's a minus sign in front of the gain amounts for band 1, 2, and 4.

That's a possibility, but that poster was also talking about the higher-end DT1990.

 

[lordhumungous]

That's a possibility, but that poster was also talking about the higher-end DT1990.

Yeah I was talking about DT 1990 pro which someone mentioned has a different audio profile

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

If I have already owned the headphone, obviously yes. Otherwise no. I don't like hunting in the dark. Measurements provide a guide and hypothesis to verify with listening tests. Combine the two together and you have powerful conclusions. Rely on what you are suggesting and you could very well be producing wrong results. Remember, the purpose here is to test a headphone and provide reliable and durable outcomes, not to have it be a quiz for me to pass in every review.

Implicit in your question is that I have preconceived notions of the sound of a headphone based on measurements alone. If this were the case, then I would not bother with listening! I listen because I can't strongly determine how good or bad some response error is until I have tested that part by itself. EQ allows me to remove or add back in any deviation in response on demand, and if needed blindly. This is a powerful technique.

And no, it is rarely if ever subject to bias. I can't tell you how many times I have clicked on and off and wondering why there was no difference in sound, only to find out that EQ was turned off altogether. In other words, I am able to easily catch mistakes this way. To the extent an EQ correction is too minor, and hence have some placebo factor, then I mark it such and note it in the review. Most of the corrections are quite large and clearly audible as is the case with this headphone.

Sorry, but that’s just plain wrong.

Confirmation bias is a well-recognised scientific phenomenon. You cannot just wish it away. You cannot escape it by will power, or being good at recognising difference, it simply doesn’t work like that.

If you measure before listening, you risk introducing confirmation bias. End of.

 

[Marmus]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Beyerdynamic DT990 (250 ohm) open back headphone. A member was kind enough to purchase one new and drop ship it to me due to request from membership! The DT990 costs about $160 and has been around for many years.

I like the look of the DT 990:

View attachment 109718

The pads felt hard at first but after just a couple of hours of use, they became more comfortable. Combined with light weight of the unit, they are nice to wear.

I did not care as much for the plastic cups, nor the sharp edges of meta pieces:
View attachment 109719

The cups are round and large making for easy fit not only around your ears but also the measurement gear. I have never had a headphone so easy to mount on my fixture to measure.

Note: The measurements you are about to see are preformed using standardized GRAS 45CA headphone measurement fixture. Headphone measurements require more interpretation than speaker tests and have more of a requirement for subjective testing as a result. In addition, comparison of measurements between different people performing it using different configurations requires fair bit of skill. So don't look for matching results. Focus on high level picture. Listening tests are performed using RME ADI-2 DAC and its headphone output.

Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Measurements
Let's start with frequency response of DT 990 and comparison to our preference target:
View attachment 109720

We have some serious issues here. The headphone is tuned to produce its max bass output at around 150 Hz below which it drops rapidly. Inverse is in play above 2 kHz where we way overshoot. Predicted response then would be a bit boomy and very sharp and bright. Here is the same as relative measure:
View attachment 109721

Bad news doesn't stop there. Distortion is quite high:
View attachment 109722

View attachment 109723

The DT990 is also extremely insensitive:
View attachment 109724


You better have a very high performance headphone amplifier that can drive its high impedance and provide the required power:

View attachment 109725

Notice how 250 ohm is the minimum impedance. Close to tuning frequency of the headphone, it shoots up to 350 ohm so your headphone amp needs to also have a very low output impedance as to not impact the frequency response of this headphone. Heaven knows you don't want to mess up the response of this headphone any more than it already is!

Group delay response shows some areas you don't want to eq as usual (shown as dip in frequency response) and some fuzziness that I rather not see:
View attachment 109726

Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Headphone Listening Tests and EQ
It took all of a few seconds to want to rip the DT 990 off my head as I always start with female vocals and this headphone shred the vocals to pieces. And proceeded to drill into your head with those shards! This thing is so bright that it brought high frequencies resonances that I did not even think were in the music! This stood out even more because there is little sub-bass energy. The peaking around 150 Hz provides a bit of help there but also can sound a bit boomy on some content.

Distortion was a serious problem. At moderately high level it would add this warbling sound to many tones from vocals and some lower notes. At higher levels bass notes would start to create ticking sounds. You wouldn't normally listen that this level though so it is an engineering failure more than audible one (without EQ).

I am always hopeful that I can fix headphones with EQ but my first two tries last night were met with failure. This headphone's main saving grace is its rather good spatial qualities. Alas, fixing the high frequency peaks and levels by eye killed that aspect and still left the nastiness that was in there at times. Any attempt to boost the bass frequencies resulted in nasty bass distortion and worse warbling sound per above.

Right when I was going to give up, I decided to use an assisted method to develop the EQ. I swept the headphone and manually dialed in EQ settings and iterated to get rid of the peaking in three high frequency bands. This was the result:
View attachment 109727

Focusing on the left, I had dialed in some 6 dB yet the effect was minimal in response. I pushed that up to eve 10 dB and the graph simply did not change indicating the driver is out of gas. Audible effect of that bass boost was horrible with distortion galore. So I took that out. I then found the sound to be rather dull and spatial effects compromised. So I dialed in a shelving filter that boosted the entire range. This was the final result:
View attachment 109728

You can mess with that shelfing filter (Band 5) to your taste. On some content I wanted it higher, on some others, less. The latter is what I am showing here.

I must say, I was surprised how this finally salvaged the headphone sound. I am listening to it as I type this and it almost sounds "normal" in a good way! Mind you, if you turn up the level too much, the warbling sound comes to haunt you but that is likely not your everyday level.

Conclusions
While the DT 990 Pro is a comfortable headphone to wear, it has a seriously flawed design with poor frequency response which exaggerates the heck out of highs and dumps a bunch of distortion in there for good measure. It also lacks deep bass reproduction. Careful equalization did manage to salvage it at the end but took a lot of doing.

I am not going to recommend the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro. It is just too broken. Even though EQ helped a lot, it is still an inefficient headphone with high distortion. If you have one, use my EQ and comment on how you like it. Otherwise it is a pass with or without EQ. Let's hope we can find a headphone as comfortable as this but with much better engineering.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

I have started buying items (iem,hp, amp, and DAC.) From these tests to 1: see for myself and 2: find the best one or several for me.
So just got the ST 990 pro 80 ohm with straight cord as a "see for myself" baseline to plots and opinionselour.
FIIO M9 >A50s> HP or IEM. 990 sounds exactly as Amir described but I found the highs to be objectionable due to distortion. Sara Gomes and Diana Krall with gravelly voice! The base in SRV's Weather distorted the sweetness of his solos. This at mid and up levels. Actually these phones could not duplicate the sweet sounds he gets. At low volume it was ok but bass was then gooshy soft no detail. Same for some jazz instruments. Full rock just sounded like grunge.
Sounds like excess low freq energy causing a diaphragm distortion mode that breaks up the higher tones. Worse at louder. I like louder and accurate so these are going back.
Great test and review Amir. I am nuts to buy a product I think I will not like. It is fun though.

 

[tdockweiler]

Not surprised so many people have issues with their treble.
I've never been a fan of the Beyerdynamic headphones at all, but I've loved the DT-990 Pro 250 from day one.
The treble doesn't even bother me remotely unless it's extremely poor tracks that are super harsh to begin with (like some J-pop).
I actually have had my HD-650 and Q701 in storage thanks to these.
I've used these for 2 years now and don't have one complaint.
I actually find my pair to have slightly more elevated low bass than the other two.
Not by much though.

When I listen to all my music on these, there is not a dramatic difference in how it sounds on the other headphones. Yes, I know that's hard to believe!

I have tried the DT-990 Premium and hated those. I've owned the 32 ohm, 250 and 600ohm versions. Yes, pretty stupid to even bother with.
My head was not too compatible with those since the cups aren't as deep and my ears would be crushed against the insides of the cups.

Maybe this is why the treble is better on the PRO version for me?
I also wear glasses, but not sure if that makes much difference.
There is almost no clamp on the PRO for me at all.

Know what recently was extremely painful for me to listen to? AKG K371! Yes, really.

The most painful treble in a headphone I've ever heard though was the Grado SR-325 Gold Version.

The first K701 was also painful on the Schiit Asgard 1. Don't anyone ever try that combination!

I bet that would be the worst measuring amp ever. I do love my Magni 3+ though!

It's finally something I found to be as good as my old Headroom Micro Amp (under $300).

Here's another weird fact though that makes no sense.

The most neutral sounding headphone I ever heard was a Beyer DT-770 600 ohm headphone.
Most people who have it said it's some sort of a bass monster!
Mine must have been broken or something. Not sure what was going on there!

 

[dmac6419]

Not surprised so many people have issues with their treble.
I've never been a fan of the Beyerdynamic headphones at all, but I've loved the DT-990 Pro 250 from day one.
The treble doesn't even bother me remotely unless it's extremely poor tracks that are super harsh to begin with (like some J-pop).
I actually have had my HD-650 and Q701 in storage thanks to these.
I've used these for 2 years now and don't have one complaint.
I actually find my pair to have slightly more elevated low bass than the other two.
Not by much though.

When I listen to all my music on these, there is not a dramatic difference in how it sounds on the other headphones. Yes, I know that's hard to believe!

I have tried the DT-990 Premium and hated those. I've owned the 32 ohm, 250 and 600ohm versions. Yes, pretty stupid to even bother with.
My head was not too compatible with those since the cups aren't as deep and my ears would be crushed against the insides of the cups.

Maybe this is why the treble is better on the PRO version for me?
I also wear glasses, but not sure if that makes much difference.
There is almost no clamp on the PRO for me at all.

Know what recently was extremely painful for me to listen to? AKG K371! Yes, really.

The most painful treble in a headphone I've ever heard though was the Grado SR-325 Gold Version.

The first K701 was also painful on the Schiit Asgard 1. Don't anyone ever try that combination!

I bet that would be the worst measuring amp ever. I do love my Magni 3+ though!

It's finally something I found to be as good as my old Headroom Micro Amp (under $300).

Here's another weird fact though that makes no sense.

The most neutral sounding headphone I ever heard was a Beyer DT-770 600 ohm headphone.
Most people who have it said it's some sort of a bass monster!
Mine must have been broken or something. Not sure what was going on there!

Like my 990 too,ain't returning either, k371 sounds good keeping those too.

 

[ishouldbeking]

The most neutral sounding headphone I ever heard was a Beyer DT-770 600 ohm headphone.
Most people who have it said it's some sort of a bass monster!
Mine must have been broken or something. Not sure what was going on there!

Glad you're enjoying yours! Always good to remind ourselves that headphone measurements, preference targets, and actual individual headphone preferences can be quite different, and enjoyment is 100% subjective.

I've always wanted to track down a 600 ohm 770; they seem pretty rare these days. Regarding the bass, I have a lower ohm model, but the reports that they're "bass monsters" are a bit misleading. They do have elevated sub-bass, but there's a distinct dip in the upper bass that runs completely counter to the consumer-oriented upper bass boost so many folks are used to hearing, which when paired with the sharp treble can give the illusion of "neutral" performance. I'm not sure how the 600 ohm version compares, but it might be similar. In reality, the 80 ohm and 250 ohm 770s are pretty far from neutral, with more of a U-shaped tuning and the same sharp treble spike as the rest of the DT series.

 

[ron46]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Beyerdynamic DT990 (250 ohm) open back headphone. A member was kind enough to purchase one new and drop ship it to me due to request from membership! The DT990 costs about $160 and has been around for many years.

I like the look of the DT 990:

View attachment 109718

The pads felt hard at first but after just a couple of hours of use, they became more comfortable. Combined with light weight of the unit, they are nice to wear.

I did not care as much for the plastic cups, nor the sharp edges of meta pieces:
View attachment 109719

The cups are round and large making for easy fit not only around your ears but also the measurement gear. I have never had a headphone so easy to mount on my fixture to measure.

Note: The measurements you are about to see are preformed using standardized GRAS 45CA headphone measurement fixture. Headphone measurements require more interpretation than speaker tests and have more of a requirement for subjective testing as a result. In addition, comparison of measurements between different people performing it using different configurations requires fair bit of skill. So don't look for matching results. Focus on high level picture. Listening tests are performed using RME ADI-2 DAC and its headphone output.

Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Measurements
Let's start with frequency response of DT 990 and comparison to our preference target:
View attachment 109720

We have some serious issues here. The headphone is tuned to produce its max bass output at around 150 Hz below which it drops rapidly. Inverse is in play above 2 kHz where we way overshoot. Predicted response then would be a bit boomy and very sharp and bright. Here is the same as relative measure:
View attachment 109721

Bad news doesn't stop there. Distortion is quite high:
View attachment 109722

View attachment 109723

The DT990 is also extremely insensitive:
View attachment 109724


You better have a very high performance headphone amplifier that can drive its high impedance and provide the required power:

View attachment 109725

Notice how 250 ohm is the minimum impedance. Close to tuning frequency of the headphone, it shoots up to 350 ohm so your headphone amp needs to also have a very low output impedance as to not impact the frequency response of this headphone. Heaven knows you don't want to mess up the response of this headphone any more than it already is!

Group delay response shows some areas you don't want to eq as usual (shown as dip in frequency response) and some fuzziness that I rather not see:
View attachment 109726

Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Headphone Listening Tests and EQ
It took all of a few seconds to want to rip the DT 990 off my head as I always start with female vocals and this headphone shred the vocals to pieces. And proceeded to drill into your head with those shards! This thing is so bright that it brought high frequencies resonances that I did not even think were in the music! This stood out even more because there is little sub-bass energy. The peaking around 150 Hz provides a bit of help there but also can sound a bit boomy on some content.

Distortion was a serious problem. At moderately high level it would add this warbling sound to many tones from vocals and some lower notes. At higher levels bass notes would start to create ticking sounds. You wouldn't normally listen that this level though so it is an engineering failure more than audible one (without EQ).

I am always hopeful that I can fix headphones with EQ but my first two tries last night were met with failure. This headphone's main saving grace is its rather good spatial qualities. Alas, fixing the high frequency peaks and levels by eye killed that aspect and still left the nastiness that was in there at times. Any attempt to boost the bass frequencies resulted in nasty bass distortion and worse warbling sound per above.

Right when I was going to give up, I decided to use an assisted method to develop the EQ. I swept the headphone and manually dialed in EQ settings and iterated to get rid of the peaking in three high frequency bands. This was the result:
View attachment 109727

Focusing on the left, I had dialed in some 6 dB yet the effect was minimal in response. I pushed that up to eve 10 dB and the graph simply did not change indicating the driver is out of gas. Audible effect of that bass boost was horrible with distortion galore. So I took that out. I then found the sound to be rather dull and spatial effects compromised. So I dialed in a shelving filter that boosted the entire range. This was the final result:
View attachment 109728

You can mess with that shelfing filter (Band 5) to your taste. On some content I wanted it higher, on some others, less. The latter is what I am showing here.

I must say, I was surprised how this finally salvaged the headphone sound. I am listening to it as I type this and it almost sounds "normal" in a good way! Mind you, if you turn up the level too much, the warbling sound comes to haunt you but that is likely not your everyday level.

Conclusions
While the DT 990 Pro is a comfortable headphone to wear, it has a seriously flawed design with poor frequency response which exaggerates the heck out of highs and dumps a bunch of distortion in there for good measure. It also lacks deep bass reproduction. Careful equalization did manage to salvage it at the end but took a lot of doing.

I am not going to recommend the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro. It is just too broken. Even though EQ helped a lot, it is still an inefficient headphone with high distortion. If you have one, use my EQ and comment on how you like it. Otherwise it is a pass with or without EQ. Let's hope we can find a headphone as comfortable as this but with much better engineering.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Hello! I have the 990 Pro, i'm now using them with the fx audio dac x6, but i would like to upgrade to something below 200 euros, do you have any advise?
Thanks

 

[ishouldbeking]

Hello! I have the 990 Pro, i'm now using them with the fx audio dac x6, but i would like to upgrade to something below 200 euros, do you have any advise?
Thanks

Advice for new headphones or a new dac/amp setup?

 

[ron46]

Advice for new headphones or a new dac/amp setup?

New dac/amp or dac + amp, thanks!

 

[flipflop]

New dac/amp or dac + amp, thanks!

FiiO K5 Pro

 

[ishouldbeking]

New dac/amp or dac + amp, thanks!

There are a lot of different options depending on features and form factor. Some classic stack recommendations would be the JDS Atom + Atom DAC, Schiit Magni Heresy + Modi 3 DAC, the latest Topping stack, etc (though I'd wait to make sure the Topping amp issues get sorted). People seem to like the K5 Pro as an all in one, even if the measurements aren't state of the art. Similarly, I've been really happy with my Qudelix 5k, which functions as a portable bluetooth receiver, DAC, and amp all in one.

 

[Blank Verse]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Beyerdynamic DT990 (250 ohm) open back headphone. A member was kind enough to purchase one new and drop ship it to me due to request from membership! The DT990 costs about $160 and has been around for many years.

I like the look of the DT 990:

View attachment 109718

The pads felt hard at first but after just a couple of hours of use, they became more comfortable. Combined with light weight of the unit, they are nice to wear.

I did not care as much for the plastic cups, nor the sharp edges of meta pieces:
View attachment 109719

The cups are round and large making for easy fit not only around your ears but also the measurement gear. I have never had a headphone so easy to mount on my fixture to measure.

Note: The measurements you are about to see are preformed using standardized GRAS 45CA headphone measurement fixture. Headphone measurements require more interpretation than speaker tests and have more of a requirement for subjective testing as a result. In addition, comparison of measurements between different people performing it using different configurations requires fair bit of skill. So don't look for matching results. Focus on high level picture. Listening tests are performed using RME ADI-2 DAC and its headphone output.

Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Measurements
Let's start with frequency response of DT 990 and comparison to our preference target:
View attachment 109720

We have some serious issues here. The headphone is tuned to produce its max bass output at around 150 Hz below which it drops rapidly. Inverse is in play above 2 kHz where we way overshoot. Predicted response then would be a bit boomy and very sharp and bright. Here is the same as relative measure:
View attachment 109721

Bad news doesn't stop there. Distortion is quite high:
View attachment 109722

View attachment 109723

The DT990 is also extremely insensitive:
View attachment 109724


You better have a very high performance headphone amplifier that can drive its high impedance and provide the required power:

View attachment 109725

Notice how 250 ohm is the minimum impedance. Close to tuning frequency of the headphone, it shoots up to 350 ohm so your headphone amp needs to also have a very low output impedance as to not impact the frequency response of this headphone. Heaven knows you don't want to mess up the response of this headphone any more than it already is!

Group delay response shows some areas you don't want to eq as usual (shown as dip in frequency response) and some fuzziness that I rather not see:
View attachment 109726

Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Headphone Listening Tests and EQ
It took all of a few seconds to want to rip the DT 990 off my head as I always start with female vocals and this headphone shred the vocals to pieces. And proceeded to drill into your head with those shards! This thing is so bright that it brought high frequencies resonances that I did not even think were in the music! This stood out even more because there is little sub-bass energy. The peaking around 150 Hz provides a bit of help there but also can sound a bit boomy on some content.

Distortion was a serious problem. At moderately high level it would add this warbling sound to many tones from vocals and some lower notes. At higher levels bass notes would start to create ticking sounds. You wouldn't normally listen that this level though so it is an engineering failure more than audible one (without EQ).

I am always hopeful that I can fix headphones with EQ but my first two tries last night were met with failure. This headphone's main saving grace is its rather good spatial qualities. Alas, fixing the high frequency peaks and levels by eye killed that aspect and still left the nastiness that was in there at times. Any attempt to boost the bass frequencies resulted in nasty bass distortion and worse warbling sound per above.

Right when I was going to give up, I decided to use an assisted method to develop the EQ. I swept the headphone and manually dialed in EQ settings and iterated to get rid of the peaking in three high frequency bands. This was the result:
View attachment 109727

Focusing on the left, I had dialed in some 6 dB yet the effect was minimal in response. I pushed that up to eve 10 dB and the graph simply did not change indicating the driver is out of gas. Audible effect of that bass boost was horrible with distortion galore. So I took that out. I then found the sound to be rather dull and spatial effects compromised. So I dialed in a shelving filter that boosted the entire range. This was the final result:
View attachment 109728

You can mess with that shelfing filter (Band 5) to your taste. On some content I wanted it higher, on some others, less. The latter is what I am showing here.

I must say, I was surprised how this finally salvaged the headphone sound. I am listening to it as I type this and it almost sounds "normal" in a good way! Mind you, if you turn up the level too much, the warbling sound comes to haunt you but that is likely not your everyday level.

Conclusions
While the DT 990 Pro is a comfortable headphone to wear, it has a seriously flawed design with poor frequency response which exaggerates the heck out of highs and dumps a bunch of distortion in there for good measure. It also lacks deep bass reproduction. Careful equalization did manage to salvage it at the end but took a lot of doing.

I am not going to recommend the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro. It is just too broken. Even though EQ helped a lot, it is still an inefficient headphone with high distortion. If you have one, use my EQ and comment on how you like it. Otherwise it is a pass with or without EQ. Let's hope we can find a headphone as comfortable as this but with much better engineering.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Does this one take the cake regarding poor frequency response and bass distortion compared to the 7506 which you reviewed a couple of months ago and billed as "the worst you ever saw"?

P.S.: I toyed with the idea of getting either the DT880 or DT990 in the past, mostly because so many people claimed it was a very detailed headphone, but this thread has completely deterred me from going in that direction (and probably from buying a Beyerdynamic headphone in the future). It looks like the Sony MDR-7506 is not too far off the signature of the DT990 from what you say, and I already have that.

 

[ron46]

There are a lot of different options depending on features and form factor. Some classic stack recommendations would be the JDS Atom + Atom DAC, Schiit Magni Heresy + Modi 3 DAC, the latest Topping stack, etc (though I'd wait to make sure the Topping amp issues get sorted). People seem to like the K5 Pro as an all in one, even if the measurements aren't state of the art. Similarly, I've been really happy with my Qudelix 5k, which functions as a portable bluetooth receiver, DAC, and amp all in one.

Thanks! Yeah i heard about the topping l30 issue, is there now any new model that replace him or for topping stack you mean the l30+e30?
I searched the other and only the k5 pro is on amazon.it, do you have any other advise maybe?
Thank you again!

 

[ishouldbeking]

Thanks! Yeah i heard about the topping l30 issue, is there now any new model that replace him or for topping stack you mean the l30+e30?
I searched the other and only the k5 pro is on amazon.it, do you have any other advise maybe?
Thank you again!

Honestly not sure. Hopefully some of the posters here who closely follow the review threads can chime in with suggestions.

 

[Sharur]

The DT880 600 Ω is as comfortable and has lower distortion

 

[Sharur]

Seems like dt880 sales are not on par with dt990

dt880 masterrace

 

[DeepFried]

I'm not really surprised by the findings in this review, mount beyer is well known. I have a pair of DT770 pros 250ohm and they're also guilty of murder treble out of the box.

To be able to use them at all without suffering actual pain from female vocals and violins I had to add some extra damping in front of the drivers, fortunately the beyers are very easy to disassemble and mod this way. I found a couple of ply of paper towel tissue took the edge off the treble wihout affecting the mids or bass (that I can tell). Even with the extra damping they're my brightest headphones but they're no longer piercing, just sparkly. Pad wear may also have helped tame the sound.

They've actually become my favourite headphones, very comfortable and with a fun sound (though far from harman). I didn't find any problems with the bass but my listening levels are quite low, 60-70db.