beyerdynamic DT-1990 Pro 250 Ohm

I'm an amateur electronic music producer and I upgraded to DT-1990 Pro's from DT-880 Pro's. I had my 880's for six years so I knew Beyerdynamics makes quality products. After reading some reviews, upgrading to DT-1990 was a no-brainer.

I use my DT-1990's for music production as well as for listening to music on my free time.

Compared to 880's, the difference is huge - even though 880's are also a great pair of headphones! Totally worth the higher price. What I find especially excellent in these headphones is the clarity; you can pick out every single detail in a song and every instrument has its own place. It feels like for the first time I'm actually hearing music in a way the producer/mixer intended it to be heard.

I haven't tried the analytic pads on these since I use Sonarworks 4 Reference software (which I recommend HIGHLY!) to get the flattest response regardless of the pads I'm using. Without the software I do find the highs a bit too loud, but this might be because I'm so used to the software's correction. Anyhow, I think I'm not qualified to judge how the treble, mid's, or the bass excel on their own, but I do find the balance to be perfect (note: with Sonarworks!).

I also have a treated room with calibrated KRK Rokit 6's, and I must admit I often choose the DT-1990's over the KRK's. The clarity is just brilliant on these headphones... It's the best I've heard. Sure, the stereo field is obviously larger on the KRK's, but I do enjoy working on DT-1990's primarily and listening and balancing with KRK's afterwards.

The ONLY reason I gave 4/5 for sound is because I'm aware of the fact that there are headphones in the 1000-2000 euros range, which I expect to exceed the DT-1990's. I leave the fifth star up for grabs until I've heard those "top notch" headphones. Regardless, these are the best headphones I've ever heard, and I do recommend these even though I haven't heard the competitors (sry AKG). The reputation of these headphones is absolutely justified in my opinion.

I was just a tiny bit humored by the "For mixing and mastering" in the description of these headphones, since it seems to be common knowledge in the music production community that speakers always eventually outrank headphones, especially in the mastering process. Now (in my amateur's opinion) I believe that one absolutely can produce a top quality song with these as long as one learns the characteristics of the sound and uses reference.

Oh and lastly, these are built like a German TANK! You won't be able to break these. And the comfort is Beyerdynamic's standard, that should tell enough.....

Edit: After about a year since writing this review, I was looking for new, endgame headphones - not because I was unsatisfied with the 1990's - but because my budget was ready to give in and I was curious about what lies ahead. I tried Sennheiser HD-800S and Focal clear Pros as an upgrade to these 1990 Pros.

First I tried the HD-800S: no contest. I wanted headphones for mixing, but also for the most enjoyable listening experience. I listen to a lot of rock, metal, electronic music and pop - music that is energetic and bassy. HD-800S are very, very analytical headphones and even with Sonarworks everything just sounded dull. Obviously the HD-800S had a huge soundstage, and the details were unmatched, but I instantly knew I wanted to return these headphones.

Focal clear put up a closer fight. To keep this short, I will just say that in my opinion, Clears excel 1990's at every aspect expect for one. Clears are more detailed, more crisp, more defined, bigger soundstage, punchier etc., but I felt like something was lost in the sub region. Clears are more balanced and less coloured than the 1990's, which is obviously a good thing, but I enjoy the warmth in the sound of 1990's (just gonna state this once again, this is all with Sonarworks correction applied). I cant justify spending 1000 more euros for headphones with which I feel like I'm losing something important in the music.

Td;lr, 1990's are fantastic, in my opinion they hold up even to the competition at 1300 euro price range. Decided to change my rating of sound from 4 to 5/5.

There's quite a bit of reviews that echo my sentiments exactly, so I'll just semi-briefly go over the main points:

Before the DT-1990 Pros, the main headphones I've been using professionally, in my work as a sound designer and music producer, have been the DT-880 Pros. I used them for nine years straight (occasionally changing the earpads, of course, hehe), and still use them on a secondary system.

The 880s have worked beautifully all this time, and now that I've switched over to the 1990s as my main cans... this is indeed the true upgrade I wanted. Like the DT-880 Pro, but better, in both sound and build quality. That pretty much sums it up, really.

The Beyerdynamic high end is something you need to assess yourself, though. Whether it is your cup of tea or not is really a preference thing, and using headphone calibration software is recommended in any case, no matter which ones you use. For me, the bold highs without calibration ensure I don't end up with a piercing mix - and I cherish that, as the material I work with often needs to be comfortable on mobile devices' built-in speakers, too.