DT990 Pro X vs DT990 Pro vs DT900 Pro X – Which One ACTUALLY Makes Sense?

Hello there, my friends. Today we're going to talk about the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X. Yeah. Alright, now you're probably familiar with this line of headphones. If you're not, this is the follow-up to the DT 990 Pro right here. And they also have in their lineup the DT 900 Pro X. They've been putting 'Pro' and 'X' on the names of things to indicate that they are 'Pro' and 'X', apparently. Here's the thing. I'm just going to dive right in and kind of spoil this review. It's not really a review. I just want to compare these and talk a little bit about studio headphones and some of the misconceptions that folks might have about them. The DT 990 Pro X does not sound at all like the DT 990 Pro.

00:00:45

In fact, it sounds a lot closer to the 900 Pro X, just worse in every way. The Beyerdynamic DT 9 lineup, it's one that is a little bit legendary for being bright. Very bright. The thing is, anytime you mention that, hey, these headphones are bright, and that, you know, that might be a little bit fatiguing or a little bit, you know, sibilant, you inevitably get greeted by all kinds of copium in the comments from people who say, But no, these are meant for studios. This is a pro device. It's a studio headphone. You're not evaluating it correctly. It's not for regular music listening. It's for studio use. And that's what I want to push back on a little bit in this video.

00:01:24

Because I think a lot of people are very confused when it comes to what actually makes for a studio headphone. And when applied to these, that concept, it doesn't really make sense. And I guess the first point that I want to make here is that all of these sound kind of different from one another. Let's just take a look at the way that the products are positioned within the market. 990 pro studio headphones, that's what it's meant for. DT 990 pro x studio headphones, legendary studio sound. DT 900 pro x studios, it's everywhere and that means that you know if they're all marketed for studio use, you know they put 'pro' on the box, they put 'pro' on everything.

00:01:57

It's 'it's', a pro this pro that whatever people are bound to think that they are meant for studios or for pro use, whatever the hell that means. But they all sound different from one another so which one is the one that's actually for pro use, which one's the one that's actually meant for studios? Just because it has that term associated with it or 'pro' associated with it, it doesn't really mean all that much. So let's dive into the data here. Let's start with the DT 990 Pro X. I don't actually think that this has been published yet, this information on this headphone. This is the HPTF variation for the DT 990 Pro X measured on multiple different test fixtures. So this actually shows how this headphone can vary across different heads.

00:02:32

I'm kind of surprised that there isn't more variation here because we also happen to have some human data for the DT 990. The 990 varies quite a bit across different individuals. So the behavior itself can change. And this is largely due to, if you think about it, you know, like the placement is different. The coupling is different. The positional variation is big. I don’t think that this is actually down to acoustic impedance differences, but that’s a deeper topic for another time. The DT 990 Pro X is a very Strange choice of tuning. There's no other way to put it. This is bright, yes. It has those treble zappies that you can see up there, all the way from about 6 kHz onwards. I don’t really mind some of the ones higher up in frequency.

00:03:11

I don’t mind a gradual elevation. I do mind the 6 kHz resonance, though. That is a bit of a spicy region for me. And then the other thing that doesn’t really make much sense to me is that this just has very little bass. And I just want to emphasize here that what you want for a neutral or balanced kind of sound signature is not a flat line across the screen here. You want some kind of downward tilt that falls within this range. That dotted line that you see there, that's actually tilted diffuse field by about 10 dB for base to treble delta. We've gone over that in another video, but the closest that this is to any kind of target that may actually exist would probably be something like flat diffuse field.

00:03:50

But again, we know that that is unlikely to sound balanced. I kind of think that there might be a reason to make a headphone that is flat diffuse field, but again, I don't know that i that it would be suitable for studio use; it's just more of an interesting thing. The other side of this is that they also didn't achieve that-like it's almost a flat diffuse field, but also with additional treble peaks, which is not enjoyable or palatable at all. Let's move on to the DT 900 Pro X, which is, I believe, a little bit more expensive. This one is the one that I think is the closest to what would actually be suitable for any kind of pro application, because the colorations that you get here are less.

00:04:27

There still are some, particularly at around 6kHz and also one at around like 10-11kHz, but again, the overall tilt, the overall balance is significantly more neutral, more reference. It's not nearly as lean sounding, it's not nearly as bright. The perceptual balance is a lot more even keel. It still has some of the treble zingies in there, right at around 6kHz and 11kHz, but compared to the 990 Pro X, it's just better overall. You can see there's this sort of weird dip at around four kilohertz. I don't know what that is, but that seems to show up consistently on a number of the models. Either way, the 900 Pro X is the one that is, in my opinion, the most appropriate for any kind of reference sound, even though it still isn't quite, but, you know, a lot closer.

00:05:12

And now let's move on to the original 990. And good Lord, goodness gracious me, this is just absolute treble murder death. And this is why this headphone is a little bit contentious. It's a little bit controversial. Now, here's the thing. I actually think that there is a place for the DT 990 Pro, like the original 990. And there's a couple things to note here. First, it is true that the pads wear in over time on the 990. The thing is, these are semi-worn pads on here. That's the result that I got with- Pads that have been sitting on a block for at least six months, So there's at least some sort of pad wear going on here, and it's still absolute treble insanity.

00:05:54

So my suspicion is that it actually requires it needs to be worn for a while, probably it needs to have some human in it in order for it to really get that balance. But I suspect that this is still going to be a little bit on the zingy side after they wear in a little bit more. But again, I still think that this is better than the DT 990 Pro X. And that's because this also has bass. So I'm not going to say the bass is incredible or anything like that. It's just that the elevated bass does serve to balance out the treble zing. So I can absolutely imagine a scenario where after the pads wear in, say that treble comes down about 10 db; the base to treble delta on this being a reasonable V-shape kind of sound, you know, not so out of whack as it is right now, but that also doesn't really make sense for studios because that's a very colored kind of sound.

00:06:48

These two, the 990 Pro and 990 Pro X, are both very colored in very different ways. Now, the 990 Pro X is just lean, harsh, strident, rough in the treble. They were clearly going for something with this headphone, but good sound quality was not that thing. And again, there is room for different sound signatures. We say this all the time. That's why we evaluate against the range. But this idea of studio headphone or headphones for studios is one that I think that the community and manufacturers are both confused by. But now it's time to give a quick shout out to Headphones. com for making these videos possible. Headphones. com is the sponsor of this channel. This is also where we publish all of our articles and written material.

00:07:29

And I think we'll probably need to put together an article on the misconceptions to do with studio sound, what actually is suitable for studios to use, and some recommendations based around that. Headphones. Com also has a crazy 365-day return policy, so you can try things for yourself and have 365 days to return it. So check out headphones. com the next time you're in the market for a new pair of headphones or audio equipment. Okay, back to the video. Let's now talk about some of the issues to do with the concept of studio headphones. I get the feeling that there are two predominant ways that people think about studio sound. And what that should be. On the one hand, you'd probably have an idea that pro-use audio, pro-use equipment should be neutral, flat, reference.

00:08:13

So, you know, when you're using the headphones and you are making whatever audio adjustments that you're making, the playback that you're getting in your headphones is what it's supposed to sound like. And the idea there would be to use equipment that doesn't have meaningful colorations in it at all. The other way to think about this would be to say that these are tools. They have a meaningful exaggeration in areas that will reveal problem areas in the mix, okay? The playback equipment is going to editorialize the sound in such a way where you can more easily identify various different problem areas and then make adjustments accordingly. Here's the problem with the latter way of thinking about this. And again, this is just the way I think about it, but I feel like it's a bit of a problem.

00:08:55

If you have playback equipment that has these kinds of colorations, like in the case of the 990 Pro X, we're talking about very little bass response and some stabbies there in the treble, like a really lean kind of sound. This is going to inevitably impart the inverse editorialization on the music, such that when it is played back on more normal sounding equipment, those colorations are now going to be part of the mix that they're listening to. That's the editorialization that you are imparting as a result of fixing things with this kind of tool. So let me just say that another way. Unless you are only using headphones that have colorations like these, if you are correcting for those colorations using these headphones, your mix is going to sound very weird on most equipment.

00:09:43

You are effectively doubling down on the circle of confusion, compensating for the playback equipment that nobody else is going to be using. And if you think about it, like normal headphones, like headphones that most people have don't sound like these. I'll give you an example. If you were to equalize your mix to sound like it has perceptually flat bass using these headphones, when you then listen to that mix on normal headphones, that's going to be compounding the bass boost that you then added into the mix. When people not using this headphone are listening to it, they're going to be getting a massive bass elevation because their playback equipment isn't missing the bass that this is. All right? And the same is true for the treble.

00:10:21

As an example, here is what my voice sounds like with a 10 dB treble cut. Does this sound okay to you? You're listening to this on presumably more normal headphones than what this sounds like, unless you're somebody who is, you know, coping and seething right now in the comments about how, you know, these are meant for studios because then you're probably using these headphones. If you are specifically compensating for the colorations that the headphones have, it is then introducing the inverse colorations into your mix. This doesn't make sense. There's this kind of inertia for headphones. And their marketing, if you're specifically targeting a certain market in this case we're talking about the pro audio market, you're going to do everything that you can to put pro audio on the box, you're going to put pro audio on the name of the product, you're going to design it in a way that is as suitable as possible for that audience to the best of your abilities.

00:11:10

And there's many things that they've done here that do that. The problem is that the community has taken these ideas and created kind of like a circle of inertia around these headphones where it's like, these are the products that are used in studios, so therefore they're appropriate for studios, and therefore I'm going to buy them to use them in studios. And then this becomes the kind of sound that people think is appropriate for studios, when really it's not. In theory, you could still mix on these, as long as you were well aware of the weird colorations that they happen to have, right? So as long as you knew that this isn't what it's supposed to sound like, and weren't thinking, 'hey, this is some sort of reference sound, because it's very much not.

00:11:50

The thing is, You can also do that with any headphone. So then any headphone becomes a studio headphone, right? Do you see the problem here? Weird colorations. Oh, but it's a tool to, you know, find all the flaws in the mix or the issues in the mix with sibilance. Well, then you have the inverse colorations going on. Oh, no, but you don't use it all that much. You make sure you just reduce it by a little bit because obviously it's exaggerated in the treble. Now you're just recognizing where the coloration is in the headphones. You've become a better listener. I guess that's the most redeeming thing about these headphones. This is where I think it makes sense to look at headphones that are going to be closer to neutral or reference, or something along those lines.

00:12:31

Something that is more even keel, more balanced, has fewer of these editorializations that you're going to end up hearing with these headphones. So in conclusion, the DT 900 Pro X is an okay sounding headphone. It is the one that I recommend out of all of these three, and I don't think it's really all that close. The DT 990 Pro, the original, is a meaningfully colored headphone in the treble that is quite zingy. Again, I can see a case maybe for it for gaming, but still it's not one that I'm really going to recommend. I have a hard time with this headphone. It's very, very bright. And then the DT 990 Pro X, this is a really weird sounding headphone. It's just lean and harsh and bad in every way that I can think of.

00:13:13

Except maybe the midrange? Like the midrange, yeah, okay, it's fine. But it is deficient in the bass, exaggerated in the treble, and uneven at the same time in the treble. It just doesn't, no, no. Anyways, that's going to do it for this video. If you guys are mad about anything I've said here, please make sure to inflict that fury in the comments below. But also, if you're interested in the measurements for these headphones, that will be linked in the description and you guys can deep dive on that if you guys would like. And if you'd like to chat with me or want to fight, you can do so in a Discord, also linked below. And until next time, I'll see you guys later. Bye for now.