These are nice. They look stylish and they fit well on my large head. I have the 80 Ohm and I find I have to turn the volume up way louder than I'm used to in order to get listenable levels. I guess I'm used to lower impedance, but I'm surprised even the lower of the two options here still seems like they might do best with a headphone amp.

I also own the Philips Fidelio X2HR, and these pale in comparison. For a similar price, the X2HRs are much more comfortable, have more bass, and offer a removable headphone cord (which means you can bring your own, use a cable with a headset mic, or replace the cable if it breaks without soldering). Seriously, the fact that the Beyerdynamic don't have a removable headphone cord is devastating to me. The main benefit the DT 990 has is weight - they're really light, so they can be on your head a long time without much fatigue. I also think they look pretty good, but a little cheap when you look close compared to the all metal exterior of the Philips.

Well, I once hated headphones but these phones are changing my mind.

Why did I hate headphones?

First of all, headphones are uncomfortable. They're heavy, hot and clamp your head like a vise. These are none of the above. The DT-990 Pro 250 is light in weight with soft velour ear cups. Since they don't have plastic ear cups that induce sweating, they don't feel hot. The headband is tight enough but not too tight on my head (hat size 7 1/2). It's a bit astonishing to me that these headphones feel as good as they do.

Another reason I hated headphones was the boxy sound that seems to emanate from the center of my skull. A bit of research indicated to me that this condition is more likely to occur when using closed back headphones. The DT-990 Pro 250 is an open back design. The soundstage is broad. Maybe not as broad as listening in a well laid-out room with precisely placed and designed speakers but the soundstage is open and broad enough for me to distinguish individual musical instruments and their position in reference to the overall musical program. Again, I'm astonished at the openness of the sound field.

Finally, I hated headphones for the reason many others like them--the isolation involved. I know there are other types of headphones available today that allow outside sounds to be heard but the only phones I had ever used in the past were those that tried to shut me off from the outside world. Sometimes, being isolated is good. But I prefer to be aware of what's happening around me. The DT-990 Pro 250 headphones allow in enough environmental sounds to keep me connected but not enough to be distracting. I want to know if the phone rings, someone knocks at the door, the dog barks or Mr. Murderous Home Invader is coming through the bedroom window.

I've only had these headphones for one day. From what I've read on Amazon and on other websites, the sound of these phones will improve as they "burn in". I've witnessed this sound improvement with time and use happening with stereo speaker systems and with two SACD players so I know it's possible. But even without the break-in period, the DT-990 phones sound good to me. Some reviewers complain of the mid-bass being overly boosted and the treble being too prominent. I don't have golden ears but I don't find these characteristics present. The design of the phones does color the musical programming somewhat but, in my opinion, this adds a little punch without going so far as to be obtrusive.

When the UPS guy delivered my package yesterday, I was listening to John Hiatt's "Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns" CD. It has typical bass heavy production, however, the headphones never sounded boomy at all and I could pick up details in the recording I had never noticed. Since classical music is where I listen most closely, I then put on the RCA Living Stereo SACD of the Boston Pops doing "Gaite Parisenne". There's lots of high frequency sounds on this recording but I never noticed any irritating, piercing treble out of the headphones. Next I played another RCA Living Stereo SACD, Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony in Dvorak's Symphony No. 9. This is a superb full orchestra recording. Again, I felt astonished at the details coming out in this CD through these headphones. Today, I've listened to selections from Arthur Rubenstein's Chopin CD box set and Martha Argerich's EMI concerto box set. The phones can pick up too much detail at times--I could detect foot tapping and breathing during one of the live Argerich performances. But the pianos always sound natural, lively and forward if slightly lacking in warmth at times. I expect "warmth" will develop with continued use. I've also plugged the DT-990's into my Kindle Fire HD tablet and listened to parts of the MP3 of Nicola Benedetti's "Fantasie" compilation. I know many feel MP3 is not true high fidelity, inferior to other downloadable formats as well as CDs. Still, it's the direction recorded music is headed today and it can be entirely satisfying and enjoyable, especially when one listens with the DT-990s. Ms. Benedetti's "Lark Ascending" sounds every bit as good to me on the MP3 through these headphones as it does from the original CD played over my B&W home speakers.

Time will tell and many things can occur. If I can remember, I will update this review over time with more on how these phones break in and how they perform long term.

UPDATE, July 6, 2013:

Well, those who said the phones would "burn in" knew what they were talking about. I've barely used my home speakers since taking possession of these headphones in May and the sound has improved significantly. They have definitely developed that "warmth" I was hoping for. I enjoy listening to music more every time I use them.

There is one point I do dislike about these phones after extended use and familiarity with them. They are not very aesthetically pleasing to my eye. The brown plastic grid and white lettering on the exterior ear pieces of the Pro model really look kind of cheap and Mickey Mouse. I guess it's a style that some might like but I'm not exactly joyous about it. The other DT-990 models look a lot better, however, they cost considerably more and they are said to sound the same. For the price difference, I would still buy the Pro model. Can't see them when I'm wearing them anyway.

These are pretty solid headphones. They are comfortable, and while the 250 ohm version really needs some sort of DAC on a PC, they do sound pretty good. I can wear them for long periods of time without any fatique. I think my biggest gripe, and the reason I am taking off a star is there durability. about 6 months in, the casing around what holds the band on started to crack. This is actually pretty common, that folks in the 3d printing world and etsy sell replacement ones. So it's an easy fix, but one that after 6 months, should not need to happen. I had a pair of A40s from astro for like 8 years that held strong and i still sold them with replacement pads, and they showed no signs of this type of issue.

However, for the price, it's hard to beat these headphones. they are budget friendly and while they require a DAC, they are great.

*UPDATE*
As promised, I wanted to come back and let you all know what I thought of these cans after some burn-in. I didn't use white noise or anything special. I just left my cans connected to my AMP playing music from my computer on random at high volume. When I went to work or sleep, I would leave these playing. So....drumroll: did the burn-in make any difference? YES! A resounding YES! As you read on to my original review, you will know that I love crisp clear highs. But even for me, these headphones were a bit fatiguing initially. There was a bit of a "shattering" effect from the highs. Which I really like, but can tire your ears out very quickly. After about 300 hours of burn-in, these cans have really hit their stride. The highs are still EXCEPTIONALLY clear. I can still hear the squeak when a finger drags over a fret. I can still hear every string during an acoustic strum. The softening of the highs didn't steal anything from the clarity. The burn-in allows me to listen for a couple of hours without aural fatigue.

Also, I've had a chance to use these cans using a multitude of amps. They sound fabulous using my Yamaha speaker amp/receiver. They sound great using a good headphone amp. Fiios E17 or E7/9 is probably the minimum I'd recommend. In a nutshell, these things are thirsty for power. And although they sound good without proper amperage, these cans scale beautifully when provided juice. In a nutshell, these cans thirst power, and the more you give it, the more these cans respond. Please consider this when purchasing. If you don't have a dac/amp setup or a speaker receiver with a good headphonen port, then make sure you budget for it...or plan to purchase one down the road. An already 5 star review has now become a 5 star review with an exclamation mark. ENJOY!

*ORIGINAL REVIEW*
I just received these headphones today, so keep in mind that these cans haven't been burned in yet. Generally a high end headphone requires about 100+ hours to burn in properly. John Grado of Grado headphones says 50 hours is a good burn in time. Others say the AKG 701/702 require about 300 hours to burn in properly. But 100 hours is widely held as the norm. I was going to wait to write the review, but they sounded so good right out of the box that I couldn't wait to write a review. I will update after about 6 months of use, so come back if this review doesn't convince you to "add to cart". I'll see if these headphones have a tonal softening after some burn in.

What's in the package: Nothing but the headphones. You get the headphones with the 3.5mm jack and 1/4" screw on adapter. Both ends are gold plated.

Okay, now that I've got that over with, I'll get to the meat and bones of the review, the sound--and how glorious they sound. I figured the best way to test the dynamic range and audio quality of the music was to pick a handful of songs that highlight a certain instrument or frequency range. So I'll reflect on my impressions from the various songs I chose to test out the fidelity of these headphones.

Billy Jean(Michael Jackson) - Michael Jackson stated that he wanted to write a song with a great bass-line, and into the studio he went with Quincy Jones. The product of this inspiration and the collaboration was Billy Jean. The quintessential MJ song. I chose this song specifically to test the clarity of the lower freqs. WOW. The bass is deep and clear. Each bass note has it's own presence. The notes don't slur/blend into each other. There is a discernible transition from note to note. EXACTLY what I was hoping for.

Getting in Tune(The Who) - Subjectively speaking, I think John Entwistle was the greatest bassist of all time. To test the speed of the bass, I chose this song because no one played the bass quite like Mr. Entwistle. Whereas Billy Jean is a slow bass-rift, Getting in Tune is classic John Entwistle and the bass notes fly all over the place rapidly. These cans keep up with the amazing fingers of John Entwistle without breaking a sweat. And as was the case with Billy Jean, each note has its own distinct presence. Open headphones usually aren't the best for exhibiting the lower freqs, but these are amazing.

In the Air Tonight(Phil Collins) - I wanted to see how these cans handled drums. And if you want to go to drums, what is better than the opening drum rift in this song? Does it have the anger of a John Bonham or the craziness of Keith Moon? No, but it has the unrivaled coolness. Drums are a dynamic instrument tha covers almost the entire frequency gamut. So Drums are actually one of the best instruments to test a set of cans. Like everything else I've heard through these things, the drums are AMAZING. From the banging of the sticks, to the stomp of the bass drum, and the crash of the hi-hat these cans magically reproduce the energy that Phil Collins brings to this song.

Leather and Lace(Stevie Nicks & Don Henley) - I chose this song for two reasons: the vocal mastery of the two singers; and the amazing acoustic guitar play. With a lot of lesser cans, Stevie Nicks young voice comes off squeaky. With these, the multiple layers of her brilliant voice all comes through. The youthful highs and the textured lows of her voice are all on display. Don Henley's raspy highs are depicted with amazing honesty. This song is perfect for highlighting two very distinct singing styles. And when they harmonize? you can cleary hear each singer distinct from the other. The acoustic guitar is just unbelievable through these cans. I can hear every string from each strum of the pick. Often times a strum will sound like 1 note, but I can actually hear all 6 strings separately. If you never heard this effect before, you are missing out.

Mr. Know It All(Kelly Clarkson) - I picked this song because Kelly Clarkson has one of the best voices going today, and because it is a modern pop/rock song with modern production value. Whereas the other songs kept gaps in the frequency range, this song presents a wall of music effect. By this, I mean that almost the entire frequency range is ALWAYS present. The bass-line isn't as distinctive as was the case with Billy Jean and Getting in Tune, but that is such the way of newer songs. The bass-line is a ever-present steamroller. Now this isn't a bad thing. These cans allow the bass to maintain its ever-presence while still allowing the mid-range and highs to co-exist. Kelly Clarkson's powerful voice doesn't get drowned out. With amazing clarity, every layer, every tone, every break in her voice sound AMAZING.

Piano Concerto No. 1(Tchaikovsky - performed by Ivo Pogorelich) - This is my favorite classical piece. This is also my favorite rendition of this piece. Ivo Pogorelich takes a lot of artistic freedom in his interpretations, and this song is no exception. His piano performance is imperfectly perfect. I know that's an oxy-moron, but because he chooses to play it the way he feels, the emotional impact to the listener is that much greater. So you can imagine my disappointment when this version of the song was unbearable with these cans. I am a bit torn when it comes to hi-fidelity and classical music. You almost ALWAYS get static. I don't care whether you have a HD-audio or FLAC copy, it is the nature of the recording methods. The best performances are usually live, and you are going to get static in a live recording environment. So although every instrument is distinct and the sound-stage vast, the static is just too much of a distraction. The better the headphones or speakers, the more static you will get. So I was forced to play a different version of the same piece--the Martha Argerich version which has a lot less static. Her rendition is textbook. She plays it as Tchaikovsky wrote it. She is technically one of the finest pianists EVER. This version has a lot less static, but there still is static nonetheless. This version allowed me to focus a bit more on the instruments. When someone hammers the ivory, often times you will hear the reverberations and echo inside the piano box. And these are the first cans I've listened to that reproduce this effect as realistically. You can hear the horse hairs sliding across the strings. Just an amazing set of cans for classical music, but you have to make sure you have the best recordings or else the static will ruin your listening experience. This is no gig on the cans, it is a gig on the recording methods. So you may not be able to enjoy your favorite pieces unless you find a flawless version of it. I would say about 90% of my classical collection is adversely effected by the poor recordings and are thus rendered unlistenable with these cans ability to reveal every flaw.

Hate it or Love it (50 Cent - G UNIT version) - I love this song. And you can't do a current headphone review without including a hip-hop song. So why not pick my favorite? A good set of hip-hop cans will get your head bobbing and your fingers snapping. You won't even realize you are doing this. It's why hip-hop is such a good genre of music for clubs. These headphones are almost too precise for hip-hop. I am so amazed by how great they sound, I find myself listening to the intricacies of every note that I don't find myself bobbing and weaving. If headphones can be too good for hip-hop, these are them. The precision distracts from the vibe that is so important to hip-hop. The same thing happened when I tried a few other hip-hop songs like Hot Revolver by Lil' Wayne, The Way I Are by Timbaland, and Diamonds from Sierra Leone by Kanye West. Maybe over time I will get used to the precision and won't get distracted, but presently, I'm not sure I'd choose these headphones for hip-hop. Stereo Hearts by Gym Class Heroes and Without You by David Guetta don't suffer the same fate. These songs don't rely on bass as much as the other songs. And as such, they are fantastic for listening to with these cans. But these two songs aren't so much as hip-hop. They are more dance-pop songs.

There are so many other songs I'd like to cover like Sweet Child o' Mine, Crazy Train, any live Clapton, anything David Bowie, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Marley's Redemption Song, Journey, Annie Lennox, Foo Fighters, Collective Soul, Linkin Park and so many more. But I think I'll let you discover that for yourselves. I have never listened to a set of headphones that rival these. I've always leaned towards precision from my Hi-Fi equipment. Maybe it's because I grew up playing instruments growing up, but I love hearing the instruments and voices in all their flawed glory. I love hearing a break in a voice, the strum of an acoustic, and the clatter of a hi-hat. These cans are truly for the sound-purist. What an amazing bargain at ~$200. Imagine what they will sound after 300 hours? I know...I can't wait to find out. If you want to find out more about these headphones, post a comment and I'll be sure to reply.

I broke my Sennheiser hd 595's after 14 years of use and was pretty bummed. They were 32 ohm and had the softest easiest sound that I had grown very accustomed to after several years working from home full time. Those cans got thousands of hours of play time. They were gentle and did not fatigue easily at all. At first the pressure of the headband gave me a headache but after a month that goes away.

When I bought the 595's it was a toss up with the 990's and this time I went with the 990 pros in 250 ohm. I thought my desktop bang olufsen realtek drivers would cover the impedance and it kind of worked but there was alot more to be extracted. I tried an old audio interface rated at 80ohms on the hf out and that was better but I really started thinking I was going to need a dedicated DAC with amp or just an amp designed to run these 250's at their full potential. finally I remembered I had an old Onkyo reciever in my basement which had a headphone jack. This thing must have a 10lb transformer inside of it, its an ht-r510. When I run the bang output of the pc into the cd in on the onkyo I get a decent line level and can drive these 990 pros the way they were designed to be run. These cans compared to the HD595's are on a whole different level.

The sound stage first of all is massive and very detailed. when you listen to a mix like Yussef Kamal's black focus or LTJ Bukem The Rebirth, you are given a pretty good example of what these cans can do with their drivers. The high hats, bass, snare, vocals, keys, lead, melodies, they all sit in their own distinctive area and are very easy to interpret. The old 595's sort of wiped all of these together in a soft but comfortable listening fabric. The 990's are very different, it almost gives me anxiety on some tracks and this is where I will say that having a 8 to 10 band eq is very helpful. It seems to me that around 8k things are a bit bright and I found myself attenuating 1 through 20khz to my own taste. I gave a subtle 2db boost to the 60hz and 32hz on the low end and cut the 500hz by 2db because the mid vocals were a bit too prominent. This allowed me to achieve the balanced sound of my old 595's but with a very massive sound stage. I dont know what causes this sound stage to be so much larger than my old cans, maybe the drivers are bigger in the 990's but it is incredible.

I really enjoy the 990's so far and have a few hours of listening on them as of this review. If you are scratching your head over a good headphone amp and already have a decent desktop DAC, maybe look at a vintage receiver like mine. I have an Onkyo HT-R510 which can be had used for under $50 and runs the heck out of these 250 ohm 990 pros like nothing, I cannot bear to listen to them even past half volume because the receiver can push them so hard. I am realizing that now I can add phono to my office, I have a ton of vinyl albums, and now I have an excuse to add some decent floor standing speakers to jam on as well.

On a side note, I tried the 990's for playing pubg. I dont really play alot of games in fact I only play pubg. These are very nice for determining where footsteps are. It is a bit odd when someone is below or above you, I have trouble telling if someone is a building over or if they are in mine. either way you know someone's coming and its time to get real. I had alot of fun using these to play pubg.

I look forwards to doing further testing on some flac audio and maybe getting a tidal subscription. On a side note, I really like the mod I keep seeing which allows you to use a balanced removable cable. I could do this easily.