Beyerdynamic DT990 Premium Headphones Discussions | Drop

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Beyerdynamic DT990 Premium Headphones

Jul 29, 2015

Those of you asking about individual amp performance with the DT990/600 or if the headphone is a good fit for your amp: audiobot9000.com is a good resource if your amp just so happens to be listed.
Alternatively try something like http://auditry.blogspot.com/2014/02/headphone-amp-power-calculator.html and http://auditry.blogspot.com/2014/02/7-steps-find-out-how-much-amplifier.html; I'm sure there are other resources too.
Then the other question being "is the DT990/600 good for you?" First off, I don't know you or anything about you. What kind of music do you listen to? What do you like about it? What will your listening environment be? Are you planning on using these with a tabletop amp or your phone/dap? What do you want your headphone and amp to highlight or make shine the most? Do you listen to music at a high or moderate volume? What quality is your music collection?
An HD650 isn't going to give you a ton of treble energy; so if you want that, that isn't the right headphone choice. I hope some of that makes sense. It's hard to recommend something blind as audio is very personal and subjective when it comes to a listener's preference. Objective performance is easy. If you listen to classic music and I listen to melodic metalcore, well my opinion shouldn't even be taken into consideration for your use. The same can be said if you only listen to EDM.
This is where knowing an individual reviewer's preferences is very, very helpful. If they like opposing aspects of sound and listen to nothing in my audio collection, their review is useless to me. Their comparisons to other headphones that I may have heard can still be useful to an extent. Also, if your setup isn't the same as the reviewer's and you're taking their impressions as absolute truth, you may still have a very differing experience based on your source and amplification. Some headphones have QA/QC issues with consistency; the reviewer's pair may differ from the pair you receive. If you look up benchmarks, those are again done with the individual's gear and not yours.
Audio is a pita, but very enjoyable. There is always more to learn.
I already mentioned that entry solid state amps make for a sub-par listening experience with a 600 ohm headphone. I also mentioned that I've never auditioned an OTL amp, so I'm not able to recommend anything outside of objective results (requirements). The DT990/600 is colored with a v-shaped frequency response. I rather enjoyed how they performed with my EDM and rock/metal fusion genres collection. Their sound is unnatural without a doubt. They can sound too harsh on some dac/amp combos depending on the individual's sensitivity to treble. They were very harsh to me when under amped; not at all with proper amplification.
Is the DT990, let alone the DT990/600, for everyone? No. Is any headphone? Probably not. Is it the highest performing headphone? No. Is it the best bang for buck pair in it's price bracket? Not in my opinion. What would I recommend instead of a DT990/600? A Hifiman HE-400 if your dac, amp, preferences, head shape, size and neck can handle the difference in weight. Is one better than the other? Too subjective; objectively I'd have to say the planar magnetic HE-400 performs on a higher level. The DT990/600 has more bass quantity and treble quantity throughout more of the FR. The HE-400 is the darker headphone of the two. Both are v-shaped; the DT990/600's being more pronounced. I can still enjoy both.

Jul 29, 2015