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Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro Review (headphone)

ishouldbeking

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One last comment: these are also known to be sensitive to pad changes. The stock velour pads soften up pretty quickly, and the treble has been shown to soften as well as the pads age. There are also differences between the black limited editions and stock silver pad versions (reports suggest black pads have more upper bass bloat). I know for the 770s, some of the popular mods involve switching to Dan Clark's leather "alpha pads", which supposedly helps with treble and boosts the bass even more. Lots of head-fi posts dating back a couple decades, as these have been popular with the modding community for a long time. (The truly adventurous can google "Darth Beyers" and see some spectactular mods.)
 

wwenze

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While that maybe true I really wonder why they don't sell worn-in pads. I mean do I have to accept 3-6 months of bad sound everytime I replace pads? Why not make the default pads like the worn-in pads?

A better question would be, how long will this good-sound duration last before it becomes bad sounding again?

And that's the problem when people talk about time-dependent performance.
 

Atratusnex

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I ive in Denmark. But I'm sure I can find a couple of little screws that will fit. I just found it a bit strange that their 'European' webshop only ships to France and Germany. Thanks for the offer all the same ...
Accordingly, to beyerdynamic they mostly sell their products in Germany . So it's their biggest market still.... I think that might be the reason why they don't have the same service in other countries. https://www.beyerdynamic.de/unternehmen/ueber-uns/story
 
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xhattan

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Well, we will find out soon enough. I sent my pair of the T1 v2s to Amir last week. Gotta be honest: I'm a little worried.

Well, if you like them, then you shouldn´t be worried. They could measure like the worst headphones in the world and I still would think they sound better than the Senn HD800.
 

JIW

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Although not to imply the closed PRO version is any better, but if the Beyer house sound is consistently applied to their closed headphones, then it makes sense why Drop said they smoothed out the DT1770Pro when designing the DT177x GO which I use daily for video editing. But then I have high frequency hearing loss so I guess I need this high end bump when cleaning up the audio!

Oratory1990 has measured both the 1770 and the 177X with their different pads. The treble is indeed smoother and reduced although the broad dip in the upper midrange remains. The rest of the midrange is also smoother.

DT1770 leatherette pad
Screenshot 2021-02-01 at 17.45.39.png


DT1770 velours pad
Screenshot 2021-02-01 at 17.41.53.png


DT177X leather pads
Screenshot 2021-02-01 at 17.42.55.png


DT177X velours pads

Screenshot 2021-02-01 at 17.43.56.png
 

ZööZ

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Yikes! I was afraid of such results but did not expect a headless panther, luckily I can just shrug it off and live in denial until the 600ohm non-pro version is measured , at least when it comes to the bass distortion.

I'm not sure what possessed me to buy these. Uncorrected, they sound bad to me just like Amir described. Somehow they sounded good to me when I demo'd them at the store.

Using Oratory1990's PEQ corrections, though? Absolutely love them.

Interestingly, Oratory's corrections don't look too much like Amir's.

I'll have to compare those two equalizations later this evening myself and see which one I prefer, but the Oratory1990 PEQ does make the headphones sound better albeit I listened them au naturel for years, the treble wasn't too unpleasant but I was very much aware of the elevated levels.

You also don't boost the deep bass at all, but I assume that's because you were running out of headroom and having excursion issues? I think you like to listen to headphones a *lot* louder than I do. I have to crank these way past my comfort zone to get these headphones to pull those kinds of shenanigans.

I haven't noticed such shenanigans either and my first thoughts were also that Amir likes his music LOUD, infact the elevated treble might have been the limiting factor for me to crank them so loud to hear any problems (have to confess I do not even know what distorted bass sounds like so the problems might have been present) and I found myself listening to them louder with Oratory1990's EQ and hearing a obvious difference in the "resolution" of relatively high frequencies as they weren't over saturated with the highest of highs and preferring the bass response without the 105hz hump. I think I got a benefit in the "sub-bass" region aswell, but all that might just be my imagination and/or my lack of experience with proper sounding equipment.
 
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stalepie2

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Yeah! Haha good way to make some extra coin
It'd be worthwhile to re-measure after an adequate period of playing sound through it without the pads being softened (i.e. playing sound but not being worn) to see if the FR of the driver changes, and if the FR is the same; why wouldn't Beyer do what AKG did with the K702 anniversaries/K7XX/K712 (to a degree) and release a model with softer pads from the start to soften the treble.
Actually they seem to tune some of their headphones by the filter pads put inside, as the TYGR 300 R headphone for gamers is supposed to be either a modified DT 880 or DT 990, but uses the Amiron Wireless filter pad (part #934208), as this post documents:

https://forum.headphones.com/t/beyerdynamic-headphones/9404/13

And in reading reviews I get the impression that the headphone has changed over time beyond cosmetics. Ken Rockwell's review says his 1988 version sounds less "brittle" in the highs:
https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/beyer/dt-990.htm

(I had trouble believing the Edition and Pro versions wouldn't sound different just based on their cup differences, but no one ever seems to point that out).
 

ZööZ

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(I had trouble believing the Edition and Pro versions wouldn't sound different just based on their cup differences, but no one ever seems to point that out).
I sure hope they do:eek:
 

sejarzo

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Interesting-- I have a pair of 880s that I like a lot. Can you comment on what you didn't like about them?

Severe lack of low end and uneven treble, compared to the HD600s that I owned at the time (2007-ish, as I recall.)

I find big circular pads to be extremely comfortable, but they usually leak at what would be the 4-5 o'clock point if you were to look at my left ear (and conversely, 7-8 o'clock on my right ear) due to the shape of my head/jaw, thus adding to the lack of bass in many cases.
 

PuX

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DT990 is supposed to be the brightest of the classics, so issues in treble are to be expected.

but I am kind of surprised with bass results - DT770 and DT880 have amazing bass (subjectively), Sennheiser and AKG aren't even close.

DT880 review would be much more interesting, especially if you can get both a 600Ohm and 250Ohm version for a comparison test.



btw in Europe you can get DT990 cheaper, closer to $110-120, if it's in stock.
 
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Robbo99999

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Beyer in general seems to have more bass than Sennheiser, wonder if that’s why the suffer distortion or if it’s poor drivers. A shame really as to me they have some of the best comfort next to HD6xx, so they have things going for them, just never could get use to that unnatural highly fatiguing treble.

Wonder if AKG has the same treble trouble.
Not as bad as that Beyer judging from the looks of the frequency response! Here's a measurement of AKG K702 done by Crinacle on a Harman compatible GRAS setup - to me that's a very nice well behaved easy to EQ curve, no nasty sharp peaks or dips:
K702 Crinicle best measurement.jpg

It doesn't have all the nasty peaks. Also this measurment is only an average of 3 seperate optimally placed measurements, and they were all close together, so there's not really any significant smoothing happening here in this measurement due to averaging.
 
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thunderchicken

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I picked up the 880 Black about six months ago and they were unlistenable until I did the "toilet paper" mod. No idea what it did to the overall FR, but it killed the eardrum shredding treble. I did some Dekoni ear pads and a ZMF pilot pad for comfort. They're super comfortable, but the best headphones in that price range are still the Phillips Fidelio X2.
 

Robbo99999

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I want to know what he uses to clean his seed off his headphone! I do like his commitment though, and I think it's some good entertainment that he's aware of creating I'd say. I really haven't seen his other vids, but it was entertaining. Amir's review is not invalid, I think the only thing not touched upon was the diminishing of the treble peaks with worn-in pads, which is significant, but not the best way to ship a headphone (needing to burn in the pads with use to diminish the "ear splitting" peaks)....but that's not part of the review because it's measured as a new headphone. It does make a big difference according to the Oratory graphs, so we can concede that.....the issue then remains of the bass that doesn't like to be EQ'd up, at least at loud listening levels. Twas a funny video though.....there's worse headphones in the world.

EDIT: he did talk a lot of rubbish, like he didn't know what the Target Curve was, saying it was "some bullshit he made up", something along those lines.....well it is indeed the Harman Curve, but Amir doesn't like to call it that, but has just as much right to call it the Harman Curve as the likes of Oratory....a few technical reasons why this is the case (it's the same kit being used fundamentally between them). He also said this was a major headphone testing site & why has he only just tested the DT990 now.....well it's not a major headphone testing website, only since the last few months. A few false accusations there.
 
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KR500

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I don't own the 990 phones reviewed here ( thank you Amir ) but do have the Beyer 880 250 ohm phones and they are very comfortable which is important to me.
If a manufacturer's design has a high clamping force or sweaty pads that become noticeable in the course of listening, it is a problem and kind of a dealbreaker for me, even if they sound great.
I adjusted the treble and bass issue's on my 880's with a Schitt Loki 4 band eq after reading Solderdude's really helpful web site.
Also have the closed 770 Pro Beyer 250 cans.
 

NDRQ

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Not surprising. I often reading SBAF forums and everyone saying that the only good Beyer is the DT880, and every other is just utter garbage, especially the newer models with the Tesla technology.
 
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