DT-990 Pro : Astoundingly Good

The first time I used them to work on a track, it was late at night and I had no option to mix on the monitors, so I figured I'd do what I could with the arrangement and then fix the shortcomings in the mix on the monitors the next day.

The next day, there **were** no shortcomings in the mix and I wasted a lot of time muting and soloi-ng sounds to try and track down where I'd got the balance wrong the previous evening, because they were so well mixed that I couldn't tell if the reason I couldn't pick them out from the others was because they were perfectly balanced or because one of them was too quiet/loud (they all just blended so seamlessly that certain sounds were only what they were because the whole was greater than the sum of the parts)..

I use Yamaha HS8 monitors so, if there's anything wrong with a mix, I'm **going** to hear it: I got them precisely **because** they're so unforgiving (if you can make your mix sound good on them, it won't simply sound good on anything but **everything** else).. So that gives you some idea of the performance of the DT 990 Pros!

The only negative concerns comfort: after a couple of hours, they definitely feel a bit tight below the ear and no amount of repositioning (or even loosening) changes that. After a couple of hours it's more than time to give your ears a rest anyway, but the DT 990 Pros aren't any more comfortable when you put them back on an hour later - something about the grip just has a lasting impact, it seems. They're not painful to wear for long periods and the discomfort is only a minor irritation, but you might notice some nevertheless.

For the price, therefore, some minor discomfort after prolonged use aside, the DT 990 Pro headphones are astounding; I expected them to be okay, workmanlike and 'good enough', but nowhere near as good as they are - not only would but will buy again.