beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Headphones

I bought these to compliment my Beyer DT770's which I've always enjoyed the sound of, even if they don't have the most balanced sound signature compared to my other "reference" headphones, such as the Sennheiser HD600 or Roland RH-A30. I find them to be very capable in their own right and even I'd say the balance between the bass, mids and treble is very tasteful and workable for most material.

So the idea of an open back DT770 with some additional treble sounded great to me. Unfortunately my impressions, both at first and after some weeks, have been the same; they sound like how people will exaggerate the DT770's sound signature. You have extremely high amounts of bass and forward treble, but the mids are left alone. They make my DT770's sound like Sennheiser's in comparison.

It's not that I'm against the V sound signature—I used Sony headphones for years! But the DT990 has been coloured to such an extent that certain instruments will sound wrong. I have a few tests, such as tracking specific sounds and listening to certain kinds of music, where these fail completely; distorted electric guitars that have very forward, aggressive mids will sound like they're mid-scooped like it's the 1980's heavy metal scene all over again. There are certain genres that this headphone just cannot reproduce with accuracy.

Beyer claimed that these headphones are for mixing, but I don't even think I could use these for any sort of tracking with how extreme they colour the sound signature.

For positives, it's built wonderfully and I've had no worries in terms of how long they will last. They're also extremely comfortable, just as expected as a DT770 owner and I really like the way they look.

And while the sound signature is not to my taste at all, they do sound very detailed with no blurring or noticable gaps in the frequency range. I even enjoy the treble these have. I just wish they had more forward mid range, which has made me realize that I already have that... the DT770. I ended up selling them because of that.

i will let the chart do most of the talking here. It sounds different from the 250ohms version for sure. Treble is not piercing at all with excellent definition. It has a massive boost at 12-16k and bass falls sharply below 70hz. Though i think the bass has good punch and is highly detailed. There was a dip at 4.5khz i had to fill out. any more than 2.5db of boost at 2-3.5k makes vocals sound honky. taking out the boost at 12-16khz removes hiss and does Not degrade definition.

Just recently purchased these babies having had the DT 880s for the longest time and loving them so I thought it might be fun to compare them

The build quality of the 990 Pro is somewhat improved over the 880s editions they are somewhat less flimsy but my biggest bugbear with Beyerdynamics headphones is still here.. The headband adjustment... It is really really awful

impossible to adjust it exactly the way you want and on my 880s it has worn out completely
Compare this to my sennhesier 598s which i have owned for years and the headphone adjustment is just as good as when I bought it that headphone is also a lot sexier than anything I seen from Beyerdynamics

Though the 990 pro is a good looking headphone in my opinion better looking than the 880s edition which is the version I got.. I have the 880s 600 ohm version

My dt 990 pro is the 250 ohm version

Comfort is an area were my 880s win they quite a lot less clamping force might it harder to have them stay on your head but they are more comfortable

pro 990s have quite a lot of clamping force this might lessen with more use though I will have to see overall though i feel i can almost forget im wearing headphones with the 880s with the 990s i can feel a good amount of pressure on the side and on the top of my head

My 598s wins even over the 880s they feel lighter on my head and overall they are the most comfortable headphones that i own and a lot better than the pro 990s

Okay so be careful with the headphone adjustment cause it is crap and will wear like crazy they are decent but not great when it comes to comfort you cannot disconnect the cable which is also true for the 880s this is just really dumb and i see no reason for this

but how do they sound!

its important to stress that fundamentally the 990s and the 880s are the same headphone i would not be at all surprised if they have the same driver this is not to say they don't sound different cause they do but its obvious that the 990s is just a spin off from the 880s

With this in mind the 880s is my favorite headphone i absolutely love my 880s so is there anything that the 990 has improved? No... it might in very specific genres be a bit better but overall it actually does the opposite and worsens the sound considerably

The 990s can make a recording that on the 880s were delivered with a lot of emotion and heart that gave you goosebumps it can turn this recording into an ugly mess you be amazed how a pair of headphones can butcher a song so badly

For music that relies mostly just on vocals the 990s is a bad idea bad bad idea it really does destroy the music in its entirety and makes it sound like total crap

For pop music it is a lot better suited and the genre it really likes is heavy rock type of music were you can even argue the 990 is a better fit than the 880s but then there are prob better headphones than the 990s that fit that type of music already

The 990s has a treble that is insane i have no idea what they were thinking the 880s already has a treble that is a bit accentuated and it works quite well i only noticed that they had a bit more treble when i compared them to my 598s

but the 990s has such an insane amount of treble it hurts the entire audio presentation its completely insane what were they thinking?!

I could only find one genre av music were this insane amount of treble actually benefits its really badly recorded material from like 70 80 years ago otherwise in every genre of music the treble of the 990s is just inane and i don't know what beyerdynamics were thinking

The bass of the 990s is more interesting in a way i never felt my 880s were bass shy but compared to the 990s they lack the same impact when it comes to bass that kick that feeling of power so in that case the 990 wins

sadly the 990s has way to much of it and it actually drowns out other parts of the music

For me the 990s bass aint quality its quantity over quality its sounds quite " dirty " its not particularly detailed and is somewhat muffled though again there is a lot of it impressive for an open pair of headphones? Maybe

The mids there aint any the 990s are treble and bass and that is it there is nothing holding it together there is no body to the sound its just treble and bass

Soundstage the 880s are overall somewhat bigger in soundstage which surprised me so the sound is more outside of your head

So let me go through a couple of recordings and describe what they sound on the 880s and 990s songs that stood out to me when i compared them

Bob Dylan - Girl from the North Country

On my 880s this song is gorgeous there is a feeling of space bob dylans voice has a body to it it sounds really really good
Hearing the 990s Bob dylans voice is disembodied its nasal it sounds tinny the sound is more in your head this song sounds like total crap on the 990s and it sounds amazing on the 880s

Chess anthem

this song dont sound bad on the 990s but with my 880s the voice is in the middle of a big space there is endless space the instruments and the voice exists within a real actual space when it gets loud the sounds opens up something fierce on the 880s it sounds like im listening on speakers its amazing

The 990s are much more inside your head and there is no sense of space it never takes off and when he sings real loud and the instruments go up and up the 880s just opens more and more and more while the 990s are just playing inside your head with no sense of space or air

This recording is out right amazing on the 880s and just very very meh on the 990s

Walter Wanderley - Summer Samba

There is a lot going on in this track.. okay decent amount of stuff going on... the 990s sounds less congested and the 880 sounds " busy " the treble boost aint as offensive in this track either amazingly enough

So for more congested pieces of music with a lot going on the 990s does a better job but i only noticed this when directly comparing them but hey it its a thing with the 990s

The 990s lays out everything clearly so you can hear everything the 880s make it sound a bit chaotic even though the presentation aint actually chaotic

Jussi Björling - Sverige
Old recording tons of tape hiss the voice is hiding in this tape hiss wanting to get out!

the 990s makes the imperfections the hiss more apparent but the voice is still center stage the 880s almost seems to forget there is any tape hiss the voice takes much bigger center stage though i think the treble of the 990s might benefit the song a little bit

So its a tie if i am feeling generous i might give the nod to the 990 this song makes me emotional when using both headphones which is a good thing the 990 dont butcher this beautiful song yay

Martin Solveig and Dragonette - Hello

The 990s has much more bass so much it starts eating up the vocals the portion of the song were multiple hellos are being said going from left to right quickly is closer to the ear cups on the 990s

The 880s dont sound anemic but something feels like its missing when going from the 990s at the same time the voice gets to be left alone and dont have to be worried about being eaten by the bass

but..but it dont have to be this way! the answer lies somewhere between the 990s and 880s the bass on the 990s is also quit fatiguing like having a subwoofer in your ears but there is def a lot more of it

Joss Stone-"The Chokin' Kind"
This is prob the example you should use if you want to know why the treble on the 990s is a bad idea its so sharp it makes my ear bleed whenever joss stone sings the letter S my ears hurts this is a song that on the 990s dont just sound bad it hurts your ears

on the 880s its a fantastic track a great song i love this track but not on the 990s

There are distortion inherent in this song so when she goes loud in one portion of the song it sounds bad no matter what but it sounds a lot worse on the 990

The way the 990s sounds when she sings the letter S shudders like seriously beyerdynamics!

So would i recommend the 990s?

Not really no the 880s are much much better headphones if you love bass though you might want to look for another headphone though i still dont think the 990s should be your first or second choice if that is what you want the shure 840s have much better quality bass for example and still has more of it than the 880s


the 880s are amazing headphones having heard the 990s im now even more convinced of the fact
Chess anthem on the 880s sounds so freaking good oh my god

check it out on youtube! when it goes loud it becomes eargasmic the 598s cannot do what the 880s do here either so i think what the 880s do here is something special on the 990s its just meh to be fair the 598 was also meh on this track only the 880s could make it truly shine

That is what has impressed me the most how the 990s can make a surprising amount of songs either unlistenable or just completely lose all of their emotional impact as if someone took all the heart all the life in the recording and sucked it out its quite depressing actually the 990 vampire!

I dont know if the 990s editions sound better i only have the 250 ohm version my 880s are the 600s which i heard is the best sounding version of the 880s

Best way i can describe it is this take the 880s sound but put it inside a small box increase the treble and bass 10 fold that is the 990s

I use an aune x7s as my headphone amp and the x1s dac from the same company plugged into my computer with usb with my aune x7s im using the external linear power supply they sell as a separate