DT 990 Edition 600 Ohm

With regard to Audeze it's worth knowing about Veblen goods: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen\_good](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good) >A **Veblen good** is a type of [luxury good](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_good) for which the demand increases as the price increases, in apparent contradiction of the [law of demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_demand), resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve. They are named after American economist [Thorstein Veblen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen) who described the contradiction. >The higher prices of Veblen goods may make them desirable as a [status symbol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_symbol) in the practices of [conspicuous consumption](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumption) and [conspicuous leisure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_leisure). A product may be a Veblen good because it is a [positional good](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_good), something few others can own. Simply put, people think *they must be good because they cost so much*... In my quest to find the perfect headphone, I ended up with the following (ranked in order of personal favorites): HD620s, DT990+DT770, MDR-7506, ATH-M50x, HD650... And I returned or got rid of Mackie MC350 & HD280Pro. Most of those headphones need EQ, although the HD620s and HD650 are great without EQ. DT990/770 really need EQ (especially 990) but the drivers take EQ really well, and they are incredibly comfortable. I also own Realphones 2, Waves Nx (all rooms plus ARS3), Sonarworks SoundID Reference (with microphone & virtual monitoring add on), and I've tried Oratory1990's profiles, Lewitt Space Replicator, and a few other competing products. And have Kali LP-8s, a pair of passive Avantone Mixcubes, and Edifier R1850dB bookshelf speakers. With all that my point is: *I could mix on any of them (with or without correction) and end up with roughly the same result.* It took a while to get to that place, with a whole lot of confusion about "What is correct?" What matters isn't the way a mix sounds on your headphone or speakers, but rather how your mix sounds in comparison to good reference mixes. Once that is realized, you can mix on almost anything -- especially if you understand a spectrum analyzer and use that to get a visual on what you're hearing. The endless obsession with better headphones and better monitors is unnecessary. What happens is people keep buying new gear over time -- and their mixes *do* get better. They think it's the gear, but really it's the time they're putting in. I could have stopped with the MDR-7506 and been fine... And "you can't mix in headphones" is an annoying myth. What someone means when they say that is, "I can't mix on headphones" -- and it's usually coming from people who work in studios on monitors so it's just what they are used to. It all comes down to what you're used to. In fact, the "best headphone" is whatever someone uses long enough that their brain acclimates itself to the sound. Even weird tonal balances like the DT-990 without correction can become normalized to someone if they put in enough time.

The difficult thing for me is perception of headphones can change over time. Sometimes what I think about a headphone on first listen isn't the lasting impression. It's more relative, based on comparison with whatever I've been listening to most recently. I did a test where I used the DT-990s for a month without EQ... And at some point it became totally normal to me, and even great. It was like "Oh, this is what the people who like this headphone experience." But before that all I heard was the strange tonal balance with piercing highs that many report. Anyhow, sorry it didn't work out. Bummer.

Haha, the DT-990s have a ridiculous frequency response. Even Beyerdynamic knows, because if you run their "Beyerdynamic Headphone Lab" software it totally corrects it. They do take EQ really well, and once corrected they are fantastic headphones! So basically they're great for music production & PC use... As long as you're running correction. You can use Equalizer APO with an Oratory1990 Harman Target for free, systemwide... I recommend Realphones 2. It does a fantastic job of correction & gives you a bunch of virtual rooms & devices as well. It's basically like VSX except you can use your own headphones. Anyhow, if you need to use these without EQ then you probably don't want them.

Yes. Absolutely. Simply put, you get better signal-to-(environmental)-noise ratio. But more, you get a full bodied sound with a good closed back headphone. I feel like fans of open back headphones really want to be listening to speakers! My favorite headphone is the Sennheiser HD620s. In addition to having a neutral-ish sound, it has really good external noise rejection. I love it. That said, I do use my DT-770 & DT-990 a lot (with correction) just because I love how they feel. HD620s are very comfortable, but the 770/990 are *even more comfortable*. I also have the HD6XX and I see why it's popular. That headphone and the HD620s, I can use without EQ. I also love the MDR-7506 and ATH-M50x, which would make me kind of an outcast here. \--- I use headphones 8-14 hours a day. (Work from home + music production.) I probably use closed back headphones 80% of the time. I do like open back headphones, but I *love* closed-back headphones.