Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO Closed Studio Headphones - 250 Ohms

As I've just started my audiophile journey, I wanted my first setup to be the best "affordable" startup kit I could put together, and so the research began. After reading different reviews on this site (thank everyone!), I kept getting pulled back to the beyerdynamic headphones as a great candidate for my first kit. Almost all reviewers had the same opinion that the sound signature was U or V shaped (scooped mids), and that is generally the way I tend to EQ my music on whatever source I'm listening to, so it just made sense that they would be mine. (oh yes, they would be mine)

Then the shopping begins... Looking at what I considered to be the affordable options, there's the DT 770, DT 880, DT 990, and the different impedance options. And that lead to some additional research, reading reviews on the closed, partly open, and fully open options, and whether or not I wanted to get an external DAC / amp for the kit. (hint: I did) With that in mind, the DT 770 Pros were the cans that kept calling out to me for the sub-bass and clear treble, and I liked the idea of the fully contained closed environment which I believe helps hear the detail even better. The higher impedance 250 ohm version made sense to me as well given my experience with loud speakers, where higher impedance drivers pushed by decent power often sounds more dynamic and alive to me.

So, I ordered my DT 770 Pro headphones paired with the iFi Zen DAC v2 from a very well known online retailer (not going to promote them here, they don't need it), and impatiently awaited arrival of my very own entry level audiophile headphone kit. When they arrived, the unboxing and setup probably took about 2 minutes, and I immediately started listening to my old progressive standards like Pink Floyd, Tool, Genesis (the good stuff with Peter Gabriel), A Perfect Circle, Kate Bush, and so on. The sound was crisp and detailed in the upper mids and trebel with a good amount of detail I hadn't heard before, and the low end was actually very surprising. In a couple of songs, I could almost imagine the sub-bass vibrating my floor and I had to take the headphones off to see if I left my speakers on. (hint: I didn't)

Ok, so they rock, but do they jazz? The next test for me was to play some of my favorite jazz artists (piano and guitar) to see if I can get more detail from what is already mostly very detailed and "airy" jazz compositions. Pat Metheny, Kevin Eubanks, Acoustic Alchemy, Joe Sample, etc. Again, everything sounded better than I had heard before with more detail, more dynamics and clarity, and I began to really notice the soundstage at this point too. It seemed in no uncertain terms that these cans were just meant for my ears, and that assumption was not met with disappointment as I carried on.

Of course, now that I began really picking up on the soundstage, I had to go back to my progressive / alternative standards to give them another listen, and yep, there it was. Those certain "extras" in Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, and Porcupine Tree songs seemed to come from different places in my office, but not only that, the instruments (especially drums) and vocals began to expand outside my immediate headspace as well the more I listened with intent. Maybe it's partially or mostly psychological, but it surprised me when I heard it because I really didn't expect headphones to give me that particular experience.

As for build quality, other than the fixed cable (coiled, which I like), I can't fault them at all. They aren't flashy or pretty colors, or anything fancy like that, and I didn't really want that anyway. They have a more practical design and are built to last, and apparently you can buy just about every replacement part online if / when you need them. Let's see that big company named after a fruit do that! (hint: they won't)

As many have already reported in reviews and threads on this site, comfort is key with these cans. When I first put them on, I didn't adjust the headband correctly for me, and they sat a bit low on my head. I was worried for all of about 5 minutes about the comfort level, given that they were new (not yet stretched) and they were sitting on a bad place on my upper jaw, not comfy at all. Then I had that (oh, duh!) moment when I pushed them up just a bit and adjusted the head band, and I let out a sigh of relief just knowing that me and these headphones were going to get along. They are relatively light weight and the velour ear pads feel amazing, so once they stretched a bit after a day or two I could almost forget I have them on.

And there you have my newbie / noob / newly initiated (re)view and perspective of the DT 770 Pro (250 ohm) headphones. Yes, I will be adding a more powerful amp to my setup (of course), and yes, I will be trying other headphones, but I really think I nailed my starter kit with these given my preferred music / sound signature. If you're thinking about checking them out, I can't recommend them enough, especially at the price.

This is a classic studio headphone. They have medium size soundstage, which is fantastic for a closed back headphone. There are not many closed backs with wider soundstage and good isolation, certainly, none in its price range. These are among the rare audiophile headphones that are not rolled off at sub-bass. Most of the open back and a lot of closed backs are having this issue. Not this one. Sub-bass is not only present, but boosted at 5dB which gives very fun sound. Unfortunately, this brings us to the main issue. The treble. Treble is piercing and fatiguing over longer listens. It's the infamous Beyer-peak at 6kHz. It gives the illusion of clarity and help catch sibilance during studio monitoring, but without EQ it is very hard to enjoy this one. With both elevated (sub)bass and treble this gives us a U-shaped signature which makes mids (hence, vocals) recessed, a common issue with V and U shaped signature headphones. All these issues are fixable with the help of EQ. Bass has a boomy quality to it which gives it power but takes away the resolution in the lower range. Velour pads are very comfortable, as is the headband. Build quality is outstanding, these headphones are indestructible, while still lightweight (270g). Isolation is very good. Unfortunately, cable is non-detachable which is the only build objection. However, cable is robust and extensible. One more, this is one of the hardest headphones to drive, so don't expect high volume from the portable sources.

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.