beyerdynamic DT-1990 Pro 250 Ohm Reviews

German Made Excellence

These are my new goto heaphones for mixing. Apart from the obvious build quality, feel, and clarity. These you can wear for hours on end. The airy-ness and transparency is excellent.

I still have a pair of airpod max pro, to compare with 'consumer' headphones.It's quite insane how these headphones cost less than a 'prosumer' product.

250 ohm works great directly on mbp without an amp, so you could techincally work with these outside mixing/mastering.

I doubt someone with a classic model with purchase these, these don't seem like they'll break down ever. Perhaps to have a different perspective.

As a first pair of mixing/mastering, you will not be disappointed. The price point is spot on.

Clean clean clean.

The DT 1990 pro. The build is stunning. Sturdy, heavy in appearance but not on the head. Impressions are that this will last for years. Metal, leather and the light use of

plastic. These are a work of art and a very nice blend of form and function.

The comfort is just as well thought out. Hours is use, it doesn't feel heavy, it can cause a hot spot on the top of my head after a 4hr period or so. It's doesn't disappear on your head like a Sennheiser 6 series, but it nearly does. Especially after break in.

The sound. Clean. Bright but not harsh highs. They extend well and deliver all the detail in a cohesive way. Not a "chill" sound. It forces detail, all the time. And it does this with absolute precision.

Mids. High mids are slightly recessed, the rest of the mids are present and add a nice warmth and just enough of a lush sound to balance the highs. Vocals are clear and warm. Even more so with the A pads. B pads recess the mids a little more.

Low end is very present. Deep reaching, accurate, and with great speed. Easily the best dynamic driver I've ever heard. Planar type bass. The A pads reduce the bass, add some mids and bring the highs even more forward in comparison. With either pads the sound is never muddy. Everything stays in its lane while being incredibly detailed.

Good natural soundstage. Wide but not artificial. Every frequency has room to breath and move. If the Sennheiser Hd660s is a 4/10 for soundstage, the DT 1990 pro Is a 8/10 Not HD800 wide, but it sounds right, natural.

This thing sounds analytical warm with the B pads and analytical with the A pads. Best sounding headphones I've had to date. Highly recommend.

Great quality headphones from Germany

This are headphones with great sound and build quality.

Sound is a bit aggressive, but overall quite balanced. Initial clamp force is high (it gets lighter with use), but still comfortable to use for multiple hours.

Received accessories are great and sufficient.

If you buy this headphone please note, you need an headphone amplifier.

Be sure to order a passive filter cable from solderdude

Let me start this with these are the best headphones I've ever used, hands down. HOWEVER, with that being said, my listing of used headphones is short so take my word with a grain of salt.

You can hear the clear difference with the right equipment. My current setup is a Topping E50/L50 paired with the TCT1 TRS Balanced Cables and a passive filter cable connected to my DT 1990 Pro. I also have Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 PC speaker setup out of the SE output so I can use the Line-out function on the remote and switch between the two or play from both simultaneously.

Anyway, I did a lot of reading before I ordered these headphones. I even ordered the Pro 900 X before I ordered these to see if I could hear the difference between these, the Pro 900 X and the DT990 Pros. Obviously, it was quite clear, haha.

Now we know these have a high treble peak at like 8k+ so for those with sensitive treble ears, your problems are solved with the passive filter cable. It essentially lowers the peak of 8k+ down to normal levels and still maintaining the full sound that these headphones have to offer everywhere else, unlike using the harman curve, which does the complete opposite and dumbs down these headphones.

It's really amazing and I highly recommend reading up on diy-audio-heaven about them

These cans are amazing.

My old 770 broke so I've been looking for a replacement, checked a bunch of reviews and decided to check on these. I don't do any mixing or mastering, I only listen to music, watch movies and play video games with my headphones.

It's my first time ordering from this store so I thought the shipping to the US would take like 2 or 3 weeks, but it only took a week and the packaging came in good condition and everything inside was perfect.

Now for the headphones, I've been using this daily for 8 months now and I only have a 770 to compare.

In terms of the sound is good out of the box although when I first got it I plugged it to my pc through a Magni 3 and the treble was way too bright, the 8khz to 12khz felt like it was stabbing my ears so I had to tune it down with an equalizer and also tuned down a bit the lower mids and tuned up the upper bass and now it's perfect. The treble is still a bit annoying sometimes with the vocals but that's fine.

Overall the sound can be amazing when you tune it with an equalizer, the soundstage is very wide, sometimes I can hear new sounds that I didn't hear before in some songs, the bass is subtle but powerful, if I want more bass I can change to the Analytical pads but I'll lose a bit of soundstage, the mids and treble are very detailed and clear.

The build quality is amazing, I love that it's mostly all metal, the pads are easy to remove unlike my old 770 where I had to heat up the pads a bit in order to put it back on and also had to use a small flat screw driver to push the lips of the pads, with the 1990 there's no need for all that, the small groove on the side really helps putting the pads back on, you just have to twist it a few times and it's done. The headband feels really good as well, I leave it hanging on a 5cm wooden stand and it doesn't show any signs of friction and by the looks of it, it seems to be very durable, hopefully it won't start peeling off any time soon.

The comfort I can't stress this enough, it's really good, it press hard enough that holds in place but not so hard where it start to hurt, sometimes it feels like it's a closed back headphone if there's no one making noise in my house and sometimes I wanna go sleep with the headphones, the first 2 or 3 days of using it gave me headaches because it was pressing a bit hard but after a week the pads started to have the shape of my head and now I don't have any problems, my ears are around 8cm tall and they fit perfectly inside the pads, they don't touch the side or the bottom of the pads and I don't feel my earlobes being squashed by the pads, and the pads itself are really soft, they're easy to remove and clean. Only problem with the comfort is that it makes my tinnitus louder.

The cables are a bit stiff and it's hard to unfold and stretch and put it in a place where it won't fold and tangle all over again, and the mini XLR plug stays in place when it's connected.

For this price range this is one of the best headphones that there is if not the best.

You can hear the value you invested in this pair.

I was hesitant about buying headphones as a main tool for mixing. It was a completely different sound, when compared to other consumer headphones, when I first put them on. But the "openness" of these really helps with your mixes. I opened a session I was working on for some time and finally was able to gain stage everything almost in 1 go. You don't struggle with these to gain stage or hear the harshness of the guitars. Instruments separation is very present when listening to music. I really like them for mixing.

Exceptional pair of headphones

I upgraded from a $400 wireless headset, as it was constantly running out of batteries, and would fall off your head if you shook it. The DT 1990 Pros have excellent clamping force and comfort. I did however swap out the default bass ear cushions for the neutral sounding ones. The swapping process is a little bit confusing, but then you realize it is actually quite smart. I suggest watching a Youtube video on how to do it, as a visual aid will be much better than any of the manuals. I instead applied an EQ via software (applying an EQ for these headphones is a must). Build quality is excellent as always. Comes with a nice case and two mini-XLR to TRS cables, one coiled, one straight. The detachable cable is a nice touch, but I find the plug to be a little long, as if I tilt/rotate my head too far left, the plug hits my shoulder. I tend to like open back headphones, as I don't really like having to take them off to talk to someone (personal preference). Sound quality is excellent (as it should be for 360 GBP), once an EQ has been applied.

Upgrade from the DT990

I'm a producer over 10 years and I've worked with the DT990s for about 7 years, so I am absolutely biased :)

But I'll try to be critical. I compared the DT1990 against the 770, 880, 990, 900 Pro, 1770, AKG something, Devine Pro and Neumann's in the store. Of these, the DT1990s were the absolute winner in terms of quality and clarity, there was no question about it. I am not sure how they compare to other brands like LCDs.

However, the DT1990s are not flat. In fact they are considerably worsely tuned than the predecessor DT990. The DT900 Pro were the 'flattest', but none of them are by any means flat. They are all boosted in the high end, but the 990 has 3 peaks, the 900 Pro has a broad peak and the 1990 has a narrow peak (bit higher freq than the others). Therefore, they sound quite musical, the high end (8-12k) on the 1990s is boosted so it sounds all crispy clear and beautiful, but you need a good reference monitor to ground you to reality.

Nevertheless I'm giving this a 5 star rating despite of it, because the clarity of the 1990s is a huge improvement from the other models. In any mix you can clearly hear each element play, you can distinguish exactly from where the sound is coming from. The stereo image is way way better than the other models.

In terms of build quality it's also clearly improved to the other ones, but for comfort I have to note that they are quite heavy (a lot heavier than the 990s, because these are metal as opposed to plastic from the others).

P.s. don't bother to buy the 1770s, they are pretty crappy and not a clear improvement to the older models...

My first time into hifi

I have never enjoyed music like this before!

Sounds is amazing except comfort, it's a bit tight on the head but overall tolerable

My favourites

The Beyerdnamic DT 1990 PRO sound energetic and "assertive", has good detail, wide sound and bright transients, so the details of the sound are clearly audible. The sound of these headphones is "full" and evokes a lot of emotions, so they will be well appreciated by both music producers and music lovers.

Sonido cristalino

Estos auriculares tienen una claridad absoluta en los medios y agudos. En cuanto al low end, comparado con otros auriculares, es un poco mediocre. Algo que se siente mucho es la espacialidad stereo en las reverbs o delay, el paneo y la distancia, el rango dinámico.

Es escuchar con auriculares en otro nivel del videojuego, otra calidad, otra historia.

Perfecto para quienes quieren profesionalizarse en el mundo del mixing y el mastering. Un lujo.

Yeah, great.

Used a lot of cans and my hearing isn't the best anymore. This one has a HF lift, exactly where I need it. Stereo image is reassuring stable, mids are sweet. Use it with an RME ADI-2, great combi, the ADI-2 has an excellent on board EQ to finetune the reproduction, even a true loudness function. Thought about buying an even better one but held it off. Enjoying it way too much.

best headphones for mixing and listening

i've used many good headphones; Audio Technica, Shure etc., but these are the natural step up from the Dt990 Pros i've used for years. Phenomenal clarity, detail and space allow me to hear every element and balance my mix better than i've ever done!

amazing

this was and are my first high end headphones and Im enjoying in every aspect of them. I paired them with topping E/L30 combo and they sound excellent!

After a bit of tuning one of the best :)

DT1990 are simply great for its price, but have some downsides too. As many here I own also DT990 so will compare.

DT1990 have unbelievable nice build quality - the example of precision German craftmanship. They looks nice, handles nice, sounds nice and the moment you take them to your hands you have that premium feeling worth of every euro spent on these. Many Hi-end headphones, even those twice as priced as these, can have poisonously pronounced treble to bring in the clarity and this is that case. On the other hand those heights are very very very detailed with very low distortion, what makes it incredibly precise and analytical while listening. You have 2 pad options in case which is really nice, but none of these perform to tame the treble peak. To tweak this to absolute precision, tame the hights and increase comfort even further I strongly recommend buying another branded Velour pads for these as I did. I have found on one review including measurements that one (not sure I can say other brand name here in review) specific pads remove the poisonous 8khz peak and it is very true! These headphones with aftermarket pads are simply incredible listening experience I have never experienced before. As I used new pads, I moved the DT1990 pads to my old DT990 and it improved them too! with black pads they looks very nice and sounds a bit better too :)

Both DT990 and DT1990 sounds very good, however when listening to song with rice shaker with DT990 I have troubles to indentify hi-hat or shaker or whats goin on in there. However with DT1990 I can very confidently and clearly identify the rice shaker and the amount of rice being shaked :) it is remarkable in identifying the details and you immedietely knows if track is mastered good or wrong because with so low distortion and clear details you hear the difference in mastering of the tracks so much, that you will hate the wrongly recorded songs. Btw I think they are even better for gaming!

The sound dampening or acoustic chamber in DT1990 is also MUCH better than DT990. Both are open phones, however when you put DT1990 on your head it better filters the space and noise floor around you, the best to describe this is like you sit in very nice sound dampened and quiet cinema room.

The amplifier is a must for these. I have tried many options, started with TPA6120 but they wanted more as the loud peaks were not as nice as I would like to, so I ended with WCF E88CC OTL and that was it! I cannot imagine anything better for listening as this combo...

They are very good headphones but require some tweaks to become absolute best. As mentioned the pads. Also the cable... its nice, looks quality, but smells! smells like chinese shoes :( Hope that smell will come off eventually but instead of two cables in box I would like one better braided cable or something, so I think I will change the cable later too.

Don't look any further.

These are the headphones you want!

Amazing sound quality that will help you mixes improve a lot!

Had the DT 770 250 Ohm version before which are amazing as well, but the 1990's are even better.

After 3 years of use. The plastic mount is broken. In general, the headphones are good, but my personal opinion is better to take the younger model.

AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME !!!

Awesome headphones! Everything sounds awesome! Best phones I ever had! I recommend with two hands!!!

AWESOME! Thank you Beyerdynamic!!!

Great for professional use but not for listening to music to relax.

It would be the perfect headset if it wasn't for the big bump in the sibilance range (6KHz-10KHz) that makes these headphones noticeably sharp and even piercing on S and Ts (noticeable on vocals and cymbals.) Great for professional use but not for listening to music to relax.

Best headphones I've ever mixed with

Since these were so expensive, I was kinda afraid to be disappointed but damn, do they deliver!

In my current setup, I only have the DT-770 to compare with, which I like for recording but find a bit too unreliable when it comes to mixing : having used the DT-1990 for a few months now, I can tell that the difference is striking, especially with the bass definition and high end clarity. I mean, everything is just clearer and better defined, without anything sounding unnatural or artificially added, and it shows in my recent mixes. Premium comfort, I don't feel them even after 5-6 hours in a row. Only thing is to make sure your listening environment is quiet if you pick the open-back ones, because they really let everything go through them. Quality comes with a price, in different ways!