Beyerdynamic DT 990 Premium Open-Back Over-Ear Hi-Fi Stereo Headphones (Black, Upgraded Drivers)

I have read plenty of reviews on many different brands of headphones. Thanks to a few gift cards I was able to shop for some quality headphones. I narrowed it down to either the Sennheiser hd 598's or the 32 ohm Beyerdynamic 990 dt's. I heard both are great but I settled on the beyer's. It's been over a month and in total I have burned in my new phones about 70 hours using my ipod playing overnight and the static from unclear radio stations. I listen to them about 2 hrs a day, everyday. To sum them up in one word...PHENOMENAL!! I love these things. For a while I wasn't listening to my music anymore. Don't know why. I own about 300 CDs. I listen to almost everything but prefer metal(too many genres in this department to list), along with hardcore,punk,ska,rock,rap,r&b,reggae, and speedcore. The 990's make me want to listen to all of my CDs all over again as if I was hearing them for the 1st time! I have heard my CDs a thousand times over and with the 990's I can hear things I have never heard before!! Absolutely ridiculous!! I have adjusted to the digital age and crammed all my CDs into my iPod Classic . I use the EQ a bit on it to see how the different genres sound. When I want a little more bass I'll use the R&b or hip hop setting. This setting sounds great with most of my music. Although on some of the grind core I listen to, I have to tone down the bass a bit cause it sounds distorted. With the classical EQ setting, it makes the grind sound tame but in a really great way. The bass is crystal clear!! It's mind blowing! The speedcore is even tamed as well on this setting! If that is possible because that type of music usually destoys any kind of speaker due to it's rumbling bass, ear piercing pitches and digital drums/drum machine. The 990's excel with that genre and by no means are these phones bass emphasized. But when put to the test with extreme music, they can handle the chaos! And with the right eq setting,any genre of music is enhanced. They can definitely handle a lot more power than my iPod. The 32 ohm version was made to cater to portable devices. That being said, I have to turn up the volume to about 85% on the iPod to get it where I want it. Almost blasting my ears out but not quite. I am curious to see how a good amp/dac combo would enhance the experience. The 990's have a 250 and 600 ohm version as well. I would assume those 2 sets would surely benefit amped up. A few more notes on the 990's. They are incredibly comfortable and can be worn for hours. They are sturdy as well. Another thing I noticed when listening is the treble sounds incredibly high even with the EQ adjustments. Almost ear piercing high. I've heard the term bright used by other reviewers when describing the treble. And the bass, I just want more. Like i said, they can handle whatever is thrown at them. I'm already spoiled with these, hehe. I recommend the 990's to anyone who loves music and wants it to come alive! I know they are expensive. I couldn't have got em without a little help, ie gift cards and those horrible credit cards!! With this economy and now obamacare! Who can pay things off anymore??!!Debt is great ain't it!! All in all if you love music, get these. Also looking into getting the Phillips Fidelio X1 or X2. Not sure but need to do more research and start saving up. Hope this helps! UPDATE: Had these for a year and they are goin strong!! Still sound just as good or better then when I got em! BTW, I did get a $50 Samson headphone amp. After combining the Beyer's with the amp, I didn't notice much of a difference. They did not improve the sound quality, the only thing that changed was the volume. The phones sounded louder but that was it. The bass, mids, and highs were not clearer or sounded any different. Perhaps one of the various Fiio amps or a tube amp would help? Need to do more research to find the right combo. Maybe I'm just nitpicking or being too critical. Don't know enough about headphones and amps and prob never will. But I do know I love the Beyer's. Either way, just get these headphones. Their awesome!!Take it easy:)

The short version of this review is that I am 100%, absolutely pleased with these headphones and would buy them again. The long - What do I like? Sound - Pristine reproduction, almost completely uncolored. Pure, clean bass and excellent sound imaging. Instrument / performer location is nearly transparent with these, creating a wide soundstage. A great test album for these 'phones is the Bill Evans Trio album "Exporations". "Nardis", "Israel" and "Elsa" feature some very low acoustic bass from Scott LaFaro and very delicate brush work on the drums. These are the first headphones that I have heard that reproduce this so well. Classical music sounds excellent as well - John Eliot Gardiner's recording of Beethoven's Symphonies on period instruments is ridiculous on these. It sounds so good! Modern rock is also handled with ease - uncolored and clear. Perfect bass response, and when you want a boost in the bass, the DT990s handle the extra kick easily. I used the EQ on my headphone amp to boost the bass as a test, and found no problems or muddiness. IMHO, these phone do not need the bass boosted - they sound great with no EQ. Comfort - The most comfortable headphones I have worn. I don't think there is any problem here for anyone. Construction - Okay, these are only a few weeks old. I cannot attest to the long-term durability. I can say that they appear ot built very well. The cord is heavy and appears to be durable. The constuction is solid, yet lightweight. I think it'll do just fine over time. Comparison - I do NOT own 43 different pairs of expensive headphones. (As it seems many reviewers claim to own!) I have one other pair of "real" headphones; Grado mid-priced (~$100) headphones that sound great as well. The DT 990 kills them, leaves them in the dust so to speak - as they should for the price difference! (But I still love the Grados!) What I was able to do a few months ago was visit this absurd electrincs shop in Tokyo (Akihabara) and audition a ton of 'phones with my own MP3 files. The DT 900s were among them. The only headphones that I thought were this good were the Sennheiser's with "wood-trim" and the DT 880. (Sorry, I forgot the model number of the Sennheiser) I cannot give you a run-down of this model compared to that model ad infinitum. The DT 990s sounded better (to me) than many 'phones costing quite a bit more - some AKGs (I think the Quincy Jones model) and Audio Technica were hundreds more expensive and IMHO were inferior to these. I can tell you that I love the sound of these and do not regret buying them. I am not going to comment on noise isolation. These are open type 'phones, as anyone intelligent enough to read has already discovered in the product description. If you are reading this and don't know what that means, do an internet search on that term. Plus that, they are GERMAN made and engineered! (If you don't know it by now, literally every product made in Germany is superior to similar products made elsewhere with one exception - dental floss.) This product again reinforces my admiration for German engineering. Simply awesome product! I hope that this review helps you to decide what to buy. I had a very difficult time deciding, and had the good fortune of being able to visit Tokyo prior to buying. I was able to audition dozens of headphones in a store there, Akihabara. I don't think that you will find that here in the US. (If there was a store like that here, all of the audition headphones would either be broken or stolen, sadly.) Update - December 30, 2012 - Fantastic 'phones!!!! I am fully aware that nearly all headphones exhibit some type of "break-in" where the audio qualities may change slightly after some hours of use. I can only say that the Beyerdynamics sound better to me than they did a month ago. Hard to qualify that, really... I think that they sound more "open" and transparent. Excellent 'phones, no change in my opinion from earlier. Just a very fine audio product and the best headphones I have heard. Easily in the category of "Would buy again." Update - January 2014 - Better than ever - cannot knock these at all. Worth the money, sound great, look and feel as good as the day they were new. Sound better than new. Very happy with these after living with them a bit now... I recently bought the much cheaper Bro' of these Beyerdynamic DTX 910 Stereo Headphones for Portable and Home usage (Silver Black) for use away from home, and am very pleased with those for $70.

Beyerdynamic 483966 DT 990 Premium 600 ohm HiFi Headphones I own this headphone AND the DT 990 PRO 250OHM headphone. I really think in my opinion these are the best OPEN CAN headphones for the price range. I bought a bunch of other ones in the price range before and ended up very unsatisfied. Example: Philips Audio Fidelio X2HR, Audio-Technica ATH-AD500X , Sennheiser HD 599. None of those were acceptable to me. My ears just really gravitate to BeyerDynamics GT990 series headphones so why not just buy it again ? I bought this one because I wanted to use it for just dedicated music listening on my hifi stereo. I use the 250ohm "pro" for computer usage for mastering multitrack recordings (note not for actual recording since they leak a LOT due to openback design, but for mastering songs). HEre is my main obvservations between these "premium 600ohm" vs "pro 250ohm": 1. These are lighter on the head 2. These have straight cord rather than coiled 3. The obvious GREY vs black open back look 4. These are 600ohm , and require a good headphone amp to drive them -- my stereo has a really good discreet headphone amp and they sound amazing -- without an amp, you will find them somewhat quiet. The 250ohm require less power to drive them and actually can be used direct to phones too 5. This 600hm version sounds just a TOUCH crisper than the 250ohm version --- if you dont like clinically crisp sound, then you will not like them. 6. To be honest, I find for some reason the "airyness" or "open" "wide" sound stage is better on the 250ohm version (?) It 's likely i have not broken them in enough but at first listen, thats my gutt feel. After a good 50hours maybe i'll feel differently. 7. This comes with a very nice case If you dont know what the DT900 series sound like in general? I will describe them as extremely open and "airy" , very wide 3D sounding headphones. They are not the flattest response but thats not what i want in music listening. It's an exciting musical headphone, very forward treble crispness. Not heavy bass but very well balanced bass and just enough mid end presence to make vocals sound right up there. Comfort-wise, I've yet to ever complain wearing them for an entire 8hour work day!! NEVER gets hot around the head. Never fatiguing because it is very light. Portability isnt the forte since it doesnt really fold. It's too bad the cord isnt replaceable though. I'm really happy with this and i highly recommend giving this a shot if youre around the ballpark of ~250-350 price range and looking for an openback set.

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!

Malgré sa destination produit, ce casque est clairement plus orienté mixage / mastering que écoute passive Hi-Fi : on recherche une certaine neutralité, de l'homogénéité, du détail dans les textures et de la précision dans les attaques. 250ohm = ampli impératif : prudence le choix de l'ampli/préamp peut radicalement modifier le comportement et la couleur du casque. Ecoute : Excellente précision dans tout le spectre, peut-être un poil généreux dans le bas, quasiment pas de distorsion (merci le casque ouvert), le niveau de détail est tel qu'il ne pardonne effectivement pas les nettoyages faits à l'arrache. Cette précision, particulièrement au dessus de 7/8khz lui a valu beaucoup de critiques comme quoi il agressait littéralement les oreilles, alors que c'est justement son atout principal et fait de lui un outil redoutable une fois passé quelques heures de domestication. Ouverture stéréo bof, mais on s'en fout ce n'est pas un casque Hi-Fi que l'on recherche mais un outil de travail. Ecouter du mp3 est une véritable torture avec ce casque. Confort : Le confort légendaire des DT mais sans le pincement des arceaux des PRO qui peut être fatiguant à la longue. Les oreilles ne chauffent pas, on peut le porter des heures (des jours ?) durant. Finition : RAS c'est du BeyerDynamic, toutes les pièces sont interchangeables. Petit plus, il est fourni avec une housse de protection semi-rigide. Seul reproche, ce câble non torsadé très long destiné à une écoute domestique et fixé au casque sans connecteur (RAH).

Yüksek malzeme kalitesine sahip, audiophile seviyesinde bir referans kulaklığı. Harici bir amfiye bağlamanız iyi olur. Yüksek frekansları fazla ve detaylı verdiğinden, özellikle belli müzikler için @Oratory1990'ın equalizer ayarı uygulanabilir. Lambalı bir amfi de ekstra getiri sağlayabilir, ama normal amfi + EQ yeterli olur. Yüksek frekansların detayı, bass'ların diğer frekansları bozmaması ve "imaging" başarısı sayesinde, rekabetçi online oyunlara da uygundur. 2000 lira fiyat seviyesi için rakipsiz bir kulaklık denebilir. Zaman zaman 1900 TL civarına iniyor. DT 990 Pro'ya göre ergonomi ve malzeme olarak daha iyi. Ses kaliteleri aynı.

Um es gleich vorweg zu nehmen: der offene 990er war für mich Liebe auf den ersten Beat. Er hebt sich klanglich von den beiden Modellen 880 und 770, die ich ebenfalls zum Vergleich hatte, deutlich ab da er den Bassbereich - insbesondere auch sehr tiefe Bässe - viel stärker in den Vordergrund holt. Dabei wirkt der Bass aber trotzdem noch relativ präzise und "wummert" nicht planlos durch die Gegend, ist aber auf jeden Fall recht dominant bei diesem Modell. Ein weiterer Pluspunkt ist das breit aufgestellte Klangfeld. Der Ton ist nicht direkt im Kopf, sondern kommt irgendwie von überall - als wäre man in einer Blase aus Klang in die man am liebsten noch tiefer eintauchen möchte. Insgesamt wirkt die Musik auch "sphärischer". Damit meine ich aber absolut nicht, dass diese hallt oder ein Echo hat, sondern irgendwie mehr vor sich hin schwingt und lebendig wirkt, was vermutlich dem starken Bass zu verdanken ist. Ich finde es zudem recht erstaunlich, dass der Klang so offen und gleichzeitig doch irgendwie gezielt am Ohr ist. Das ist wirklich schwierig zu beschreiben, hört sich aber sehr angenehm an und verleiht der Musik das gewisse etwas. Durch die Betonung des Bass wirkt der 990er zudem sehr warm und wie schon erwähnt auch lebendig. Die Höhen geben sich im Vergleich zum 880 und 770 nicht wirklich viel. Die Mitten sind leicht schwächer aber fügen sich noch relativ harmonisch ins Gesamtbild ein. Vielleicht könnten diese geringfügig stärker sein. Dieser Mix aus starkem Bass, leicht nach hinten versetzten Mitten und wieder relativ normalen Höhen ist auf Grund der daraus resultierenden Frequenzkurve die Badewanne von der man auch an anderen Stellen immer wieder mal liest. Im krassen Gegensatz zum 770er ist die Musik unabhängig von der Trageweise immer identisch. Selbst wenn man den Kopfhörer langsam von den Ohren wegzieht merkt man keine übermäßig starke Veränderung in der Klangfarbe. Es wird einfach nur leiser. Sehr schön ist noch die sehr differenzierte Klangdarstellung über das gesamte Spektrum. Während viele gerade günstigere Kopfhörer gerne dazu neigen alles in einem Einheitsmatsch auszugeben kann man hier wirklich Bass und Höhen deutlich getrennt voneinander wahrnehmen. Ein Hi-Hat behält also z. B. auch bei einem starken Bass noch das typische Zischen und wird nicht nach unten gezogen. Der Tragekomfort ist sehr angenehm und man vergisst nach einer Weile förmig, dass man Kopfhörer trägt. Das Anschlusskabel ist mit 3 Metern ausreichend lang und wirkt robust. Am Kabel selbst ist ein 3,5mm Klinkenstecker; ein Adapter auf 6,3mm liegt allerdings bei. Ebenso gehört zum Lieferumfang noch eine praktische Transporttasche mit Lederüberzug, die innen mit ausgeschnittenem Schaumstoff den Kopfhörer hält und beim Transport vor Stößen etc. sichert. Mit seinem ausgeprägten Bass und dem vergleichsweise weiten Klangfeld, dass hier einfach das gewisse etwas liefert, ist der 990er meiner Meinung nach das Spaßmodell aus dieser Reihe. So mancher wird ihn wahrscheinlich als viel zu basslastig einstufen. In dem Fall ist er dennoch eine Überlegung Wert wenn man ggf. den Bass leicht rausdreht, denn die anderen Eingenschaften bleiben weiterhin erhalten. Wer sich jetzt fragt wo die Vor- und Nachteile der 600 Ohm Variante liegen - hier ein kleiner Ausflug in die Technikwelt: an der Membran, die den Ton erzeugt, befindet sich eine gewickelte Spule aus Draht. Dieser Draht ist bei Kopfhörern mit geringer Impedanz von z. B. nur 32 Ohm relativ dick während er bei Kopfhörern mit hoher Impedanz sehr fein ist - so wie bei dem hier rezensierten Modell. Der dicke Draht besitzt also einfach einen geringeren Widerstand als der dünnere Draht. Für den Klang ist der springende Punkt, dass der dickere Draht "schwerfälliger" ist da mehr Masse bewegt werden muss, wohingegen bei einem hochohmigen Kopfhörer die Spule leichter ist und feinste Signaländerungen besser herausarbeitet. HiFi Enthusiasten greifen aus diesem Grund lieber zu hochohmigen Kopfhörern. Falls jemand jetzt denkt "super, da nehme ich doch direkt die 600 Ohm Variante", der hat die Rechnung ohne seinen Zuspieler gemacht; womit wir dann beim Nachteil der 600 Ohm Variante angekommen wären. Auf Grund der hohen Impedanz benötigt der Kopfhörer vor allem mehr Spannung um sein ganzes Potenzial entfalten zu können. Geräte wie normale MP3 Player oder auch einfache Soundkarten im PC verfügen jedoch nicht über eine derartige Leistung. Der Klang wirkt dann in seiner Dynamik stark beschnitten (durch Versuche selbst ermittelt) und auch die maximale Lautstärke ist sehr begrenzt. Wer mit der 600 Ohm Variante liebäugelt sollte also einen geeigneten Kopfhörerverstärker sein Eigen nennen. Wer erst jetzt realisiert hat, dass er möglicherweise noch weiteres Equipment benötigt, muss das Portmonee aber nicht unnötig strapazieren. Den DT990 gibt es auch als 32 und 250 Ohm Variante, wobei vor allem letzteres ein interessanter Kompromiss ist, den man z. B. mit einem preiswerten Verstärker vom Typ Fii0 E11 kombinieren kann. Wer das ganze nur am PC nutzen möchte kann auch zum Modell E10 greifen. Ich selbst verwende übrigens den Verstärker Corda Jazz von Meier Audio.