Post by wolfield on Aug 23, 2020 23:59:13 GMT
Hi! My name is Serhiy, I'm from Ukraine. I work as a sound engineer at a small local TV station.
I use different studio grade monitors for my work, but for listening to the music I'm in love with my beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO's, I like their warm and bright sound, their energy. And while being V-shaped they don't overly mask and influence the mids, that still sound tonally correct and realistic, the feature I'm very found of. I'm using them at home for over 10 years.
While 990's are my main phones at home I'm using Porta Pro for even longer in the portable scenarios. I've bought them when I was a student and haven't changed them since.
I like and enjoy Porta Pro's as well, but the problem with them is that they lack clarity and detail and they get muddy quickly with volume, that you need to crank up in the noisy environments since they are fully open.
So I've decided to begin a quest for the search of the headphones that will be quite similar in the sound and character to the DT 990's, but will be more suitable for the street wear, which means that the phones should be preferably closed back with some isolation, have a straight or detachable cable and have the looks that won't make you a complete alien.
The first, obvious to me, choice were Custom One Pro and Custom Studio. I've ordered both and oh boy how disappointed I was. At the first glance these are the phones I'm looking for: kinda the same drivers as 990's and other DT series, so much better looking, replaceable cord. And even when you put them on and start listening you will not immediately notice the catch with them. Custom One's sound surprisingly flat for beyers, but with the same character full of energy and clarity, very deep bass extension, Custom Studio's are more brighter and bassier at the neutral bass port setting, more close to DT 990. I've even enjoyed a flatter response of Custom One's over Studio's. But Studio's pads are more comfier than faux leather from Custom One's.
BUT! All of this doesn't matter because after you will play a bass-heavy track you will immediately notice that something is critically wrong in the lower end department of the both headphones. Very clean, almost sinusoidal bass notes of the electronic music start to sound like a wall of freaking ROAR.
DISTORTIONS! Too much of the distortions in the bass. They are very nasty, very close to the clipping in character(3rd harmonic?), like someone applied a multiband hard limiter. Both headphones don't stop roaring even at the very moderate volume levels. So highly noticeable distortions! Even $5 earbuds can provide much cleaner bass than these. How the hell did this happen?! How the hell such respectable and beloved company can produce such garbage? And for the moment they are still made in Germany... How they fu**ed up a good sounding driver that is powering DT 770/880/990?! Did they replaced the diaphragm material? And what's funny is that Studio version of Custom's produce even more audible distortions that One Pro's.
Disappointed I've sent back both to the store. I didn't even bother measuring the distortions, although I've had an electret measurement mic on hand, just in the disappointment I've packed and sent them back.
Now I'm lost and need an advice where to start looking.
I'm in the search of the cans that similar in the character to my DT 990 PRO but:
- preferably closed back, but super isolation is not the priority
- preferably over-ear, but on-ear are fine if they worth it sound-wise
- it doesn't matter if they are big full size headphones if they look reasonably okay(DT 990 PRO are just too ugly for the street)
- impedance and sensitivity doesn't matter much, unless it's something too extreme. I have a Meizu Hi-Fi DAC Pro dongle that can supply around 2.3 V RMS(measured myself) undistorted, and pump over 80 mW into low-ohmic load. And 2.3 V RMS is enough for 250 Ohm beyers to my taste.
- bright, but no brighter than beyers, with good clarity
- good bass extension
- relatively flat midrange
- reasonably low distortion level
My budget is under $300.
Thanks in advance!
I use different studio grade monitors for my work, but for listening to the music I'm in love with my beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO's, I like their warm and bright sound, their energy. And while being V-shaped they don't overly mask and influence the mids, that still sound tonally correct and realistic, the feature I'm very found of. I'm using them at home for over 10 years.
While 990's are my main phones at home I'm using Porta Pro for even longer in the portable scenarios. I've bought them when I was a student and haven't changed them since.
I like and enjoy Porta Pro's as well, but the problem with them is that they lack clarity and detail and they get muddy quickly with volume, that you need to crank up in the noisy environments since they are fully open.
So I've decided to begin a quest for the search of the headphones that will be quite similar in the sound and character to the DT 990's, but will be more suitable for the street wear, which means that the phones should be preferably closed back with some isolation, have a straight or detachable cable and have the looks that won't make you a complete alien.
The first, obvious to me, choice were Custom One Pro and Custom Studio. I've ordered both and oh boy how disappointed I was. At the first glance these are the phones I'm looking for: kinda the same drivers as 990's and other DT series, so much better looking, replaceable cord. And even when you put them on and start listening you will not immediately notice the catch with them. Custom One's sound surprisingly flat for beyers, but with the same character full of energy and clarity, very deep bass extension, Custom Studio's are more brighter and bassier at the neutral bass port setting, more close to DT 990. I've even enjoyed a flatter response of Custom One's over Studio's. But Studio's pads are more comfier than faux leather from Custom One's.
BUT! All of this doesn't matter because after you will play a bass-heavy track you will immediately notice that something is critically wrong in the lower end department of the both headphones. Very clean, almost sinusoidal bass notes of the electronic music start to sound like a wall of freaking ROAR.
DISTORTIONS! Too much of the distortions in the bass. They are very nasty, very close to the clipping in character(3rd harmonic?), like someone applied a multiband hard limiter. Both headphones don't stop roaring even at the very moderate volume levels. So highly noticeable distortions! Even $5 earbuds can provide much cleaner bass than these. How the hell did this happen?! How the hell such respectable and beloved company can produce such garbage? And for the moment they are still made in Germany... How they fu**ed up a good sounding driver that is powering DT 770/880/990?! Did they replaced the diaphragm material? And what's funny is that Studio version of Custom's produce even more audible distortions that One Pro's.
Disappointed I've sent back both to the store. I didn't even bother measuring the distortions, although I've had an electret measurement mic on hand, just in the disappointment I've packed and sent them back.
Now I'm lost and need an advice where to start looking.
I'm in the search of the cans that similar in the character to my DT 990 PRO but:
- preferably closed back, but super isolation is not the priority
- preferably over-ear, but on-ear are fine if they worth it sound-wise
- it doesn't matter if they are big full size headphones if they look reasonably okay(DT 990 PRO are just too ugly for the street)
- impedance and sensitivity doesn't matter much, unless it's something too extreme. I have a Meizu Hi-Fi DAC Pro dongle that can supply around 2.3 V RMS(measured myself) undistorted, and pump over 80 mW into low-ohmic load. And 2.3 V RMS is enough for 250 Ohm beyers to my taste.
- bright, but no brighter than beyers, with good clarity
- good bass extension
- relatively flat midrange
- reasonably low distortion level
My budget is under $300.
Thanks in advance!