The headphones come with two sets of ear pads for what Beyerdynamic says is for “balanced” or analytical listening.

Of these, the DT1990s were the absolute winner in terms of quality and clarity, there was no question about it. Taking a step back, you can fully appreciate the overall build even further thanks to the padded leather headband and removable cable on the bottom of the left ear cup. Luckily the DT 1990 actually takes really well to EQ, and they do not retain too much of its original characteristics in the treble. The driver grills have a silver colored mesh, breaking up the all-black look and making the DT 1990 Pro handsome, but not necessarily a “pretty” or ultra-stylish headphone. There's a reason why audio professionals use Beyerdynamic products, and it's down to that each pair of headphones have been articulately crafted to enable users with a lifetime of exceptional performance.

Whilst its ability to image is great, the layering of elements in tracks was not always the cleanest; particularly when there were several tracks originating from the same direction within the soundstage. Despite the DT1990's treble not triggering my ears, I still find the treble overly sharp that renders the consonant range and instruments hitting this region as unnatural - thereby ruining the timbre of vocals whenever this treble region is covered in a track. We’ve reviewed older products like the DT 990 PRO to newer ones like the DT 700 PRO X, both of which are easy to recommend depending on your needs. While treble resolution is excellent, the highs are a bit too energetic at times, reaching the threshold of my preference for brightness.

The amount of cushion takes off some of the moderate clamp force, but only time will tell before the foam loses cushioning. Fairly linear, but there's a small hill going up 200Hz that sort of makes the midrange warmer than neutral. In any mix you can clearly hear each element play, you can distinguish exactly from where the sound is coming from. Now, there are those who say EQing the treble peak at 8kHz ruins the sound signature or other technical aspects of the DT1990 such as sound stage, resolution, etc.of Genelec monitors set up in a perfectly treated studio, but I can say that they are something that I can quite easily use to get to know exactly how the music will sound on those Genelecs. I welcome such people to try using a Parametric EQ software like Equalizer APO on your current headphone, apply a Peak filter at 7734 Hz and crank it up to something like 9 dB - you'll get the same effect. I gave my reason of why I bought it if you read the end of the very first paragraph, if you care to check again.

As previously noted, the bass and mids really do not need that much EQ–for those regions it is mostly fine-tuning. The first one is that it adds what sounds like what I can only describe as shimmer to whatever you listen to.After the Second World War, the company moved to Heilbronn, Germany, and now also has a US subsidiary with headquarters in Farmingdale, New York. This spike will affect some people more than others, however, there is no denying that the spike is there and it is rather large. I have tried many options, started with TPA6120 but they wanted more as the loud peaks were not as nice as I would like to, so I ended with WCF E88CC OTL and that was it! It’s not often we listen to a headphone that impresses us so much that we stay up until 2 am rediscovering my favorite albums. The ear pads don’t change how the drivers sound, but if you opt for the “balanced” pads (the one with a bunch of holes on the back) you will get a slightly more emphasized low end than the analytical ear cups.

Some people suggest using Dekoni Elite Velour pads, but I find the dulled transient response of these ruins the sound, and they are more likely to exaggerate sibilance than the Beyer pads. Additionally, the dynamics in the bass are very good for the DT 1990 Pro; they have a very good punch and slam quality. If you compare it to something like the Focal Clear, it should be obvious that the Clear does not need such a peak to have excellent detail retrieval, resolution and clarity.I will start off by saying that I personally found the DT 1990 Pro’s sound signature to be pretty good. frequency is right in the middle of where sibilance is found in vocals, which is far too easy to be overlooked if the monitoring system you are using does not cover that range well, and personally, I would rather remove to much from there than not enough (always within reason of course). The DT 1990 Pro’s bass actually has very good extension, it only begins to gently roll off at around 40hz. Given their open-back design, they fall into the airy side and give you the impression that you're actually not listening to a pair of headphones at all, which is very impressive to me.