beyerdynamic DT-1990 Pro 250 Ohm

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.

After a couple of weeks of gathering all sorts of information about reference headphones in the market, I decided to go for the Beyerdynamic's DT-1990 Pro. The main reason was to add a reference listening device to my home studio setup, and I must say I'm definitely amazed by the overall quality of the product.

So here's my detailed review, after one month of relatively moderate usage (~4 hours average per day):

The build quality is very high, they seem quite durable and sturdy.
In terms of comfort, the weight is not really an issue since the materials used in the ear cups (especially the analytical ones) and the band are of very high-quality. My only concern is that, after long sessions, the heat around the ears can become a little bit annoying, but it's not a major issue since its root cause can be related to lots of different factors.

Let's move to the sound: very, very, very good.
Sound stage is huge, brightness and clarity are first citizens, along with high transient speed and good resolution. Stereo imaging is very accurate as well. Given their open-back design, they fall into the airy side and give you the impression that you're actually not listening to a pair of headphones at all, which is very impressive to me.
The bass response is very linear and distinct. No noticeable roll off even at sub-bass frequencies.
The mid range is a little bit forward, but that's exactly where the Tesla driver shines: they provide astounding clarity and speed, making mix work very accurate.
The trebles are also very accurate and clear; the only thing to notice in this range though is that there's a noticeable peak at around 8.5kHz, which can result in highlighting sibilant sounds; when it comes to mixing, this could be very useful (since it helps in spotting issues e.g. with vocals or acoustic recordings), but from a pure listening perspective, this could cause some annoyances to very demanding audiophiles.

Given their price, I think it would need to be doubled in order to find something significantly better.

No need to mention Thomann's celerity, super fast delivery times and great customer service!

Short recap: if you need a pair of reference headphones for your home studio and those are in your budget, definitely get them! You won't regret it for sure.

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...

These are absolutely amazing! They will reveal any issues in the mix very accurately. They have that peak at 8khz but it will only be present on too trebly records. You have to keep that in mind when mixing though. They have amazing bass response up to those very low end. The clamping force is strong so I personally stretched it a couple of times to loosen that grip and they are perfectly fit now. I feel like on most cheaper beyerdynamics the clamping force gets too loose after some time. Here it may be just perfect after a couple of months, I guess thats why its such a strong grip to begin with, its supposed to be more comfortable over time. My clarett pre usb drives them very well. My phone drives them easily as well, but they lose (about 7-10% I would say) of the soundstage and detail they have. My computer direct audio drives them ok, but you can hear the audio card is cheap when plugged into, the sound feels slightly more robotic. I made a comparison side by side of those against the Audeze LCD-2 which is twice the price, and they sounded pretty similar in terms of overall audio quality. Of course the Audeze had a 5-7% wider soundstage (as you would expect from planar headphones), but the details and stereo reproduction was at the same level. You can tell exactly from which angle comes an instrument with both with the same accuracy. LCD-2 sounds darker, they dont have that 8khz peak. The dt1990 overall sounded more exciting due to that peak, which may be a good thing for solely listening to music, but may be a slight disadvantage in terms of mixing audio. The sound is a little colored in the treble which may result in producing slightly darker mixes if this feature is forgoten. This is why its always recommended to mainly check audio from monitor speakers or use eq passive or active eq while using the dt1990. Nevertheless compared to a classic with twice the price (Audeze LCD-2) those headphones did not feel any worse, just slightly different. I think this says a lot about them. I love mine and the fact that they come with lots of accessories is incredibly convenient. I let my girlfriend use them a couple of times, and now she wants them as well... :)