Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro - Review 2022

Beyerdynamic's DT 1990 Pro, circumaural headphones intended for use past recording and mastering engineers, are all business in design and function—and at $599.99, quite expensive. The headphones utilise thick, replaceable cables featuring high-fidelity connections and an open design that provides an excellent sense of space (but takes them out of the running for most live room tracking). They're quite comfy despite a massive build, and audio performance is exceptionally accurate—a flat response that doesn't ignore the deep bass in mixes, but avoids obvious boosting and cutting. Engineers looking for a reliable tool to analyze mixes will not be disappointed, despite the loftier price. Those looking for a mega-bass sound or tons of extra features are barking upwardly the wrong tree.

Design

The DT 1990 Pro headphones have a beefy, fully open pattern—circumaural, with huge velour-covered earpads. There's a matte black frame with vented outer panels, and a plush black leather-covered headband. The padding within the headband is replaceable (though replacement padding is non included), as are the earpads. While the design is quite bulky, the fit is secure and comfortable, even over long listening sessions.

Ii pairs of earpads ship with the DT 1990 Pro: one pair for neutral listening, and one that gives a slightly enhanced bass response. They look nearly identical, and are not labeled, which is annoying. You tell them apart past the holes lining the interior—there are several holes on the bass-enhanced pair, and only four holes marking the neutral pair. The earpads, it should be noted, are a scrap of a pain to remove and supervene upon. That said, most users will probably settle on one pair and go on them in place rather than going back and forth oft, given the subtle differences. Inside the earcups, 45mm Tesla drivers deliver a frequency range of 5Hz to 40kHz, with an impedance of 250 Ohms.

Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro As the name implies, the headphones are intended for professional studio use, and as such, the included cables are of very high quality—simply be forewarned that neither cable has an inline remote or mic. One cablevision is nine.8 feet and direct, and the other is xvi feet and coiled. Both cables cease in 3.5mm connections, and at that place are two screw-on 0.25-inch headphone jack adapters in the box. The connection for the cables, located on the bottom of the left earcup, is a mini XLR—rare to run into on headphones even in this price range. Both cables lock into identify.

A large difficult-shell zip-up instance is included. The headphones don't collapse or fold downwards, so the example is rather big, but it also houses the two cables and extra earpads.

Functioning

We tested the headphones using an Apogee Symphony as our audio source. With the enhanced-bass earpads in place, on tracks with intense sub-bass content, similar the Knife'southward "Silent Shout," they deliver a hearty low frequency response, but still sound quite accurate. You get the subwoofer-like depth of the lows, but information technology isn't necessarily pushed frontward in the mix. Kendrick Lamar'southward "Deoxyribonucleic acid" besides features intense bass response, somehow deep and powerful, but never overwhelming the mids and highs or sacrificing the residual of the mix. Swapping to the neutral, analytical earpads, the bass response driblet-off is subtle. In fact, it's more noticeable on tracks with less deep bass in the mix, when the enhanced pads are calculation in a little extra to a track that's light on low frequencies.

Pecker Callahan'south "Drover" is one such rails—the drums get more than body and depth through the bass-enhanced pads than through the neutral ones—but again, the departure is subtle. The overall audio signature is bright and articulate, with a wide open stereo image and sense of infinite. There doesn't seem to be one aspect of the frequency range that is widely favored over another. You hear deep bass when the mix calls for it, it'south never invented.

The percussive opening to "Paranoid Android" on Radiohead's newly remastered OK Figurer sounds precise and clear, with rich, smooth bass response providing a pleasant thickness to the kick drum, and detailed highs lending the guitar work and percussion added profile and clarity.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church building in the Wild," the kicking drum loop gets an ideal high-mid presence, assuasive the assail to retain its sharpness and slice through the layers of the mix, while the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the crush are delivered with ability and depth, but zero feels exaggerated. The vocal performances on this rail are delivered with the utmost clarity and precision—there's no added sibilance, nor is there a dulled response.

On orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, some added bass presence is apparent in the most subtle sense with the enhanced pads in identify. Actually, it's a very natural sound even with these earpads—and perhaps a lilliputian more clinical without them. The lower annals instrumentation is delivered with a lovely richness in the lows and low-mids, simply information technology never compromises the rest of the mix—the college annals brass, strings, and vocals notwithstanding own the spotlight and are delivered with tremendous item.

Conclusions

For $600, the DT 1990 Pro headphones don't disappoint, only information technology'due south worth doing research before plunking downwards the big bucks, as there are some worthy competitors that notwithstanding offer a very accurate sound signature for engineers and musicians. From a purely sonic enjoyment standpoint, we adopt the Beyerdynamic Amiron Home, but those headphones are more than for domicile listening, where the frequency response can be tinkered with slightly here and in that location. In the pro section, we're also fans of the less expensive Sennheiser HD6 Mix, the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro, and the in-ear Etymotic ER4 XR—all solid options that bring unique strengths to the table.