Reviews by Vamsi Vadrevu
My audiophile story began in 2015 when I got Audio Technica ATH M50x. I thought that was endgame and I would never need to buy another pair of headphones! Boy was I wrong! This is an expensive hobby people! Stay away if you can.
I liked the M50s clarity and isolation but its comfort was atrocious! I still wanted to like them because I paid a lot of money for them!. I used them for about 3 years and then I happened upon Sennheiser HD 598 SE being available at a very tempting price on Amazon. I got them on a whim. And since then they've been my most-used headphones. Just because of comfort!.
I realized the importance of comfort. Even though ATH M50x was clearer than HD 598, I still preferred HD 598 for everything. But lately, I began recording, mixing and performing live (amateur flautist here) and I felt the need for a comfortable and transparent set of headphones, especially when tracking flute pieces that tend to contain a lot of sibilant sounds. Even when mastering flute sounds, they need to be clearly audible and DT 770s were recommended for clean treble.
Comfort was my most important criterion, however (right after sound of course!) And all the reviews about reliable studio headphones pointed to DT 770s. Again there was confusion on which version I would have to get. 80ohm or 250ohm (32 ohm was out of the equation because I hate leather pads after having experienced the softness of velour on HD 598, I'm never going back to leather pads again!)
Ultimately decided on getting the 250ohm version as I had 2 interfaces and an analog mixer. All three devices can drive these headphones comfortably. I believe the 250ohm version was indeed built to be used with professional audio equipment. In fact, I have never had to crank them above 50%, beyond which they get dangerously loud for me(I have sensitive ears and I can listen comfortably with lower DB volumes than most people I've met)
So, amongst all my headphones and speakers, how would I rate them out of 100?
Yamaha HS5 studio monitors - 99/100
Beyerdynamic DT 770 pro 250 ohm - 95/100
Audio Technica ATH M50x - 92/100
Sennheiser HD 598 - 90/100
Sony MDR 7506 - 85/100
Build: These are extremely well built. The cans may look like cheap plastic but it is extremely solid construction. Beyerdynamic have thoroughly thought this design through to the last detail. I've seen DT 770s from the 2000s still being used in studios by my friends. They will last a lifetime. One weird quirk I found was with the wire that goes into the right earcup. It was not routed in the same shape as the left side. So I removed the screws from the yoke holding the earcup and rotated it and placed them back and now the wire gets routed symmetrically and beautifully as intended! I may have OCD! I like the wires to be shaped symmetrically on both sides!
Comfort: They are very lightweight and fit securely on the head. Although the HD 598 are more comfortable, these are a close second. ATH M50x are utter crap for my comfort (as I have large ear lobes). DT 770s do get very sweaty if you're not in an AC room.
Bass: Oh my! The bass is very deep and clear, much clearer than ATH M50x which I thought was the ultimate bass king. It's like the bass is rumbling
Mids: Mids are clean and flat, and do not get drowned by bass or treble. Most of my work gets done in these frequencies from 300Hz to 3kHz and I'm happy that these are very flat in these frequencies.
Treble: This would be "make or break" for most people. These are a little treble heavy- which gives them that "clarity". It also helps us identify sibilant problem frequencies during recording and mixing. Since I've gotten these headphones, my recordings seem to have less sibilant and hissy flute sounds! Even though my ears got used to the warm HD 598 sound signature, it didn't take much time for me to adjust to the highly sparkly and treble rich DT 770s. For people with tinnitus and sensitive ears to high frequencies, stay away, please. Compared to ATH M50x the treble is higher quality and doesn't get piercing like ATH M50x (although I got used to that sound signature too!) It is all in the individual taste. But for getting mixing work and tracking work, nothing can beat these. You will see many reputed artists using these as many studios have these in the recording rooms.
Separation: Very very distinct. Much more clarity than ATH M50x. All instruments are transparent. In fact, these have such precise channel separation that the first 2 days I kept wondering why my left ear was hearing more volume, I thought these were broken. I even created a return request with www.headphonezone.in and they very kindly asked me to raise a return request. But my saner mind prevailed and I decided to do a thoroughly scientific test. I imported a few popular songs onto Reaper and just measured the effective loudnesses and to my surprise, I could clearly see that the left channel was louder on many popular tracks because many professionally mastered songs tend to push the bass frequencies to the left channel slightly causing the overall LUFS on left to be higher! I was able to perceive this very distinctly on these headphones. I thought the right channel was broken! That's how pinpoint the precision is in the stereo separation. It helps a lot in fixing channel imbalances. If your studio monitoring headphones can't show you channel imbalance issues, then they're not fit to be studio monitors. I believe many professionally mastered songs were not done with Beyerdynamic headphones, because if they had, we wouldn't have such channel imbalances on big studio tracks!. On none of my other headphones, I was able to perceive that slight channel imbalance.
Sound Stage: This was a pleasant surprise for me. I expected the sound stage to be very minimal like ATH M50x but they are surprisingly airy for a closed-back headphones. They are almost as good as HD 598 which are open-back headphones!. It might be because the drivers are situated farther away from the ears in DT 770 compared to ATH M50x where the drivers are basically touching your earlobes! And this makes the treble piercing for ATH M50x. I like Beyerdynamic's design. The Germans indeed know how to build good headphones. Both Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic have nailed the basics (sound quality, comfort).
Accessories and other considerations: My only gripe is with the highly egregious cover they throw in with these! They're horrendous. But considering that these will stay only in a recording studio, they get the job done. Oh, and a non-detachable cable is sacrilegious in 2021! I will mod them with a 3.5 mm jack after the warranty period ends for these.
Overall Thoughts:
I'll probably sell my ATH M50x because these DT 770 pros are more comfortable, better suited to my closed-back headphone needs and make my recording work easy! They help me catch mistakes right in the tracking phase and help identify mistakes in the mixing phase when EQing problem frequencies. This is a laser-focused tool for the studio. People may not enjoy listening to sounds because they are very revealing and will pinpoint all the flaws in your mix.
If you're buying them for listening pleasure, forget it (especially the 250ohm version). Although some people (like me) do enjoy picking out every single detail in a song with its analytical prowess.
I liked the M50s clarity and isolation but its comfort was atrocious! I still wanted to like them because I paid a lot of money for them!. I used them for about 3 years and then I happened upon Sennheiser HD 598 SE being available at a very tempting price on Amazon. I got them on a whim. And since then they've been my most-used headphones. Just because of comfort!.
I realized the importance of comfort. Even though ATH M50x was clearer than HD 598, I still preferred HD 598 for everything. But lately, I began recording, mixing and performing live (amateur flautist here) and I felt the need for a comfortable and transparent set of headphones, especially when tracking flute pieces that tend to contain a lot of sibilant sounds. Even when mastering flute sounds, they need to be clearly audible and DT 770s were recommended for clean treble.
Comfort was my most important criterion, however (right after sound of course!) And all the reviews about reliable studio headphones pointed to DT 770s. Again there was confusion on which version I would have to get. 80ohm or 250ohm (32 ohm was out of the equation because I hate leather pads after having experienced the softness of velour on HD 598, I'm never going back to leather pads again!)
Ultimately decided on getting the 250ohm version as I had 2 interfaces and an analog mixer. All three devices can drive these headphones comfortably. I believe the 250ohm version was indeed built to be used with professional audio equipment. In fact, I have never had to crank them above 50%, beyond which they get dangerously loud for me(I have sensitive ears and I can listen comfortably with lower DB volumes than most people I've met)
So, amongst all my headphones and speakers, how would I rate them out of 100?
Yamaha HS5 studio monitors - 99/100
Beyerdynamic DT 770 pro 250 ohm - 95/100
Audio Technica ATH M50x - 92/100
Sennheiser HD 598 - 90/100
Sony MDR 7506 - 85/100
Build: These are extremely well built. The cans may look like cheap plastic but it is extremely solid construction. Beyerdynamic have thoroughly thought this design through to the last detail. I've seen DT 770s from the 2000s still being used in studios by my friends. They will last a lifetime. One weird quirk I found was with the wire that goes into the right earcup. It was not routed in the same shape as the left side. So I removed the screws from the yoke holding the earcup and rotated it and placed them back and now the wire gets routed symmetrically and beautifully as intended! I may have OCD! I like the wires to be shaped symmetrically on both sides!
Comfort: They are very lightweight and fit securely on the head. Although the HD 598 are more comfortable, these are a close second. ATH M50x are utter crap for my comfort (as I have large ear lobes). DT 770s do get very sweaty if you're not in an AC room.
Bass: Oh my! The bass is very deep and clear, much clearer than ATH M50x which I thought was the ultimate bass king. It's like the bass is rumbling
Mids: Mids are clean and flat, and do not get drowned by bass or treble. Most of my work gets done in these frequencies from 300Hz to 3kHz and I'm happy that these are very flat in these frequencies.
Treble: This would be "make or break" for most people. These are a little treble heavy- which gives them that "clarity". It also helps us identify sibilant problem frequencies during recording and mixing. Since I've gotten these headphones, my recordings seem to have less sibilant and hissy flute sounds! Even though my ears got used to the warm HD 598 sound signature, it didn't take much time for me to adjust to the highly sparkly and treble rich DT 770s. For people with tinnitus and sensitive ears to high frequencies, stay away, please. Compared to ATH M50x the treble is higher quality and doesn't get piercing like ATH M50x (although I got used to that sound signature too!) It is all in the individual taste. But for getting mixing work and tracking work, nothing can beat these. You will see many reputed artists using these as many studios have these in the recording rooms.
Separation: Very very distinct. Much more clarity than ATH M50x. All instruments are transparent. In fact, these have such precise channel separation that the first 2 days I kept wondering why my left ear was hearing more volume, I thought these were broken. I even created a return request with www.headphonezone.in and they very kindly asked me to raise a return request. But my saner mind prevailed and I decided to do a thoroughly scientific test. I imported a few popular songs onto Reaper and just measured the effective loudnesses and to my surprise, I could clearly see that the left channel was louder on many popular tracks because many professionally mastered songs tend to push the bass frequencies to the left channel slightly causing the overall LUFS on left to be higher! I was able to perceive this very distinctly on these headphones. I thought the right channel was broken! That's how pinpoint the precision is in the stereo separation. It helps a lot in fixing channel imbalances. If your studio monitoring headphones can't show you channel imbalance issues, then they're not fit to be studio monitors. I believe many professionally mastered songs were not done with Beyerdynamic headphones, because if they had, we wouldn't have such channel imbalances on big studio tracks!. On none of my other headphones, I was able to perceive that slight channel imbalance.
Sound Stage: This was a pleasant surprise for me. I expected the sound stage to be very minimal like ATH M50x but they are surprisingly airy for a closed-back headphones. They are almost as good as HD 598 which are open-back headphones!. It might be because the drivers are situated farther away from the ears in DT 770 compared to ATH M50x where the drivers are basically touching your earlobes! And this makes the treble piercing for ATH M50x. I like Beyerdynamic's design. The Germans indeed know how to build good headphones. Both Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic have nailed the basics (sound quality, comfort).
Accessories and other considerations: My only gripe is with the highly egregious cover they throw in with these! They're horrendous. But considering that these will stay only in a recording studio, they get the job done. Oh, and a non-detachable cable is sacrilegious in 2021! I will mod them with a 3.5 mm jack after the warranty period ends for these.
Overall Thoughts:
I'll probably sell my ATH M50x because these DT 770 pros are more comfortable, better suited to my closed-back headphone needs and make my recording work easy! They help me catch mistakes right in the tracking phase and help identify mistakes in the mixing phase when EQing problem frequencies. This is a laser-focused tool for the studio. People may not enjoy listening to sounds because they are very revealing and will pinpoint all the flaws in your mix.
If you're buying them for listening pleasure, forget it (especially the 250ohm version). Although some people (like me) do enjoy picking out every single detail in a song with its analytical prowess.
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