[Jibbie]

I'll chime in with some DT990 vs Pro 900 impressions real quick.  The DT990 has a bigger soundstage of course, and its a bit more accurate or neutral.  It still has great bass for an open headphone, but it just cant compare to the bass on the Pro 900.  They both have recessed mids, but its been a while since I've heard the Beyer that I can't comment on which one is worse.  The DT990 is definitely brighter.  The highs on the Pro 900 calm down nicely after awhile, especially when amped.  And like I said, the Pro 900 bass is, in every way, better than the DT990 (if you're looking for thundering bass, that is).  I doubt you'll regret the purchase.
 
Colmustard is referring to how revealing the Pro 900s are.  Pandora streams relatively poor quality mp3's, so every song sounds pretty bad on the Ultrasones.  I listen to everything in FLAC, and while 320 still sounds great, anything below starts to really sound compressed.  The Pro 900 are the most revealing headphones I've ever heard.  (I've never heard any Stax or anything like that, which I'm sure are even more revealing).

 

[Artie17]

Jibbie, 
 
Will using a dac/amp such as the E7 help improve my listening experience or should I just stick to lossless ?

 

[Jibbie]

A DAC and amp will always help, however poor music quality is always bad, and a DAC will only expose the flaws even more.  320kbs is just fine, if you aren't a FLAC-head like me and many others here.  I just think of it as, "hard drive space is cheap, music quality is priceless."

 

[Artie17]

Yea, I have a bunch of FLAC music at home, but it's gonna be hard to transfer it to my Macbook (120GB SSD). I might have to invest in an external HD. 
 

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Yea, I have a bunch of FLAC music at home, but it's gonna be hard to transfer it to my Macbook (120GB SSD). I might have to invest in an external HD. 
 

1TB drives run around $60. A USB adapter/case is a few bucks more. Or just get one made to be external. It'd do that over suffering low quality music.
 
That said, I'm a Pandora One user. The 192kbps streaming they do is not that bad actually. It's definitely compressed sounding, but it's actually pretty good. I use it a lot to find music, so I have an acoustic channel. You can certainly use the PRO 900's for this. I do it on my SRH940's too which reveal even more detail problems. And on Pandora One, it's actually ok to listen to. I don't cringe. So I also recommend that at like $36 a year or whatever. Great way to find music and it sounds pretty good.
 
Very best,
 

 

[lazysleepyboi]

 
Quote:

1TB drives run around $60. A USB adapter/case is a few bucks more. Or just get one made to be external. It'd do that over suffering low quality music.
 
That said, I'm a Pandora One user. The 192kbps streaming they do is not that bad actually. It's definitely compressed sounding, but it's actually pretty good. I use it a lot to find music, so I have an acoustic channel. You can certainly use the PRO 900's for this. I do it on my SRH940's too which reveal even more detail problems. And on Pandora One, it's actually ok to listen to. I don't cringe. So I also recommend that at like $36 a year or whatever. Great way to find music and it sounds pretty good.
 
Very best,
 

haha, at this time, it's 2 TB for 60 dollars, they're getting really cheap
 

 

[krod3003]

Quote:

You definitely don't want to buy an overpriced balanced version.

I bought it and I feel it has more imaging and depth compaired to the stock ones. Honestly though I got them for $325

 so it was worth it. Gonna pick up a Black Dragon Cable for them cause the stock cable it hefty and long as s**t! Any one have a Silver dragon cable for it BTW? Would love to read some impressions.
 
 

 

[gorocketcat]

Ha - well, too late. And to be completely honest paying 700 bucks for the balanced version seems a bit nuts. I imagine that I'd be entering a whole new price tier, and would be comparing the 900s to completely different headphones. 
 
My order has shipped and will be here tomorrow afternoon. Can not wait. 
 
Any recommendations on nice, soft, leather ear pads? I know that the Jmoney ones are popular, but he is currently unavailable and won't be able to ship out orders until September. 

 

[benzoylmethyl]

I like the velour pads.  :-/  I don't know why no one else does.  Although the J$ pads look like they'd hug my head like the XB700 did, which felt like cuddling with a leather pillow.

 

[Jibbie]

Yeah, I've never minded the velour pads.  The shape of my skull around each ear is quite different however, which makes getting a good seal on them very hard.  I constantly shift them around and honestly wouldn't mind big comfy pads like the XB700 or the Denon line.

 

[gorocketcat]

I'm not a huge fan of the velour. I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 580s, and am currently "testing" the 990s, and find the velour kind of itchy. I'd love a set of earpads that are as soft as the Bose ones. I know a lot of people here think they sound average at best, but I find Bose headphones incredibly pillowy and a pleasure to wear. 

 

[benzoylmethyl]

Quote:

Yeah, I've never minded the velour pads.  The shape of my skull around each ear is quite different however, which makes getting a good seal on them very hard.  I constantly shift them around and honestly wouldn't mind big comfy pads like the XB700 or the Denon line.

 
Did you see the pic of the 900s that have the XB700 pads on them?  I thought it was posted in one of your threads, but I can't find it now.    They looked amazing...it made me consider keeping the 700s just so i could tear the pads off!  But it would be much more fiscally responsible for me to just order the J$ pads.  lol.
 
 

 

[gorocketcat]

Obviously yeah, I'm a new guy: Could you remove the pads from the XB500s and put them on the 900s? Is it as simple as that? 
 
Because the XB500s are under 50 bucks on Amazon. Those things look crazy soft. 

 

[Jibbie]

Yeah I saw that picture as well.  It was in a recently made thread that, unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of.  It did look amazing though, and something I'd love to try.  More so than the J$ pads anyways.

 

[benzoylmethyl]

Jibbie: I know man, me neither.  Now I'm thinking about not sending my XB700 back, though.  J$ pads are about $70, and I only paid $70 for my XB...Hmmm...
 
The only problem with the mod is that I would have to sacrifice a set of pads for the PRO900 and my XB700.  I'd have to figure out a way to safely remove the pads from the XB700, then get them securely attached to the 900's pad holder.
 
gorocket: see above.  The 900 has a screw-type "quick removal" (or some marketing jumbo) pad system. They aren't just pullovers like on most other cans, including the HFI series.
 
I'll see if i can hunt down that picture.