Quick First-Impression of the new BeyerDynamic DT 770 Pro X Headphones

[PaulieDC]

I got on the preorder list for the new DT 770 Pro X's because it was time for a good pair of closed-back headphones for the odd times I'm recording voiceovers or acoustic guitar. My Sony 7506's are 30+ years old and I gave my ATH-M50s to a member on here, so it was time. Otherwise, I'm all about open-back for everything else.

The 770's arrived yesterday. Since I have the 1990s, 990 Pro 80 ohm and 990 Edition 32-ohm, I can provide an initial comparison. I just unboxed the 770 Pro X last night and gave them 5 hours of initial burn-in.

Comparison "lab": Laptop, MOTU M2, iTunes on Win 11 running Steve Oliver's Tradewinds as my reference track:

• Comfort: they are BDs lol, they will win comfort awards every time, and these are just like my 990s
• Frequency shifts: my 990 Pros don't need a lot of adjustment for everyday listening, but my 1990s need a big 10-12db cut at 8.5KHz with a Q of 4. Interestingly, I needed to cut the new 770 Pro X's also at 8.5KHz, but at -6db (half the cut of the 1990s), same Q of 4. So they have that 8.5KHz spike, but less than the 1990s, and easy-ish to tame. I also cut 250Hz and 2.5KHz each about 1.0-1.5db, Q of 1, just like I do on the 1990s. Now the 770 Pro X's match my other BDs pretty closely.
• Overall sound: to my huge delight, they sound like Beyer Dynamics, just closed instead of open. The open back pairs of course sound more natural and "open", and the new 770s sound bold and more concentrated, to be expected, but still have the BD excitement that I totally fell for last year when I became a BD fanboy. To be fair, the DT 1990s with the different Tesla technology are in a league of their own, but the 770 Pro X are just like 990s in overall sound, just louder and bolder.
• Volume: So I started the reference track and set my 990 Pros at a nicely loud-ish level on the MOTU M2, listened, and then hit pause... then I switched to the 48-ohm DT 770 Pro X's, hit Play, and my eyes almost popped out on springs like I was in a Road Runner cartoon. WOW are these loud! Bass is huge, mids are like getting hit in a boxing match. I wasn't paying attention to the fact that I was going from 80-ohm 990s down to 48 ohm in the comparison, AND that they are closed-back and BD has its ability to make HPs crank. Seriously, you do not have to worry about having enough volume even from an $89 interface.
• My Favorite Feature: hands-down, the same mini-XLR jack on the left, same as the 1990s, to have that detachable cable. That's one of the reasons I spent more and waited about 8 weeks for the 770 Pro X instead of getting the regular 770s on sale. In fact, I have a couple custom Mogami cables with Neutrik connectors that I got made for the 1990s, and I automatically used one for the 770s which was so nice, so I definitely had a good signal path. BTW, BD also gives you a cheap drawstring bag to keep these 770s in, which is better than the nothing you get with 990 Pros, lol.
• Not So Good: Well, you have to do the expected couple of tweaks on the output EQ with BDs but I'm OK with that. My biggest grump with all of these BDs I own is the stiff cable they provide. Too springy and has too much memory, so like with the 1990s, the stock cable stays in the box. For the 770 Pro X they give you a detachable straight cable, probably 9' long. The ability to change cables on these 770s: priceless.
• Can You Mix on Them? At this point I'm all about open-back, and for years I did mix on the 7506's and the ATH-M50X's, not realizing what I was missing. However, I do believe that if you learn these and get your EQ tweak where you want it, there is plenty of definition and you could learn to mix on them. But SonarWorks is probably a good idea once they come out with the profile, because the bottom end on these 770s is thunderous and you'll want to correct that so you don't end up with paper thin mixes. But you do get the BeyerDynamic comfort and sound. And I'm weird, I like the Made In Germany label on the side.

BD lists this new version at $199:

DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition

Studio headphones for recording and monitoring purpose (closed)

north-america.beyerdynamic.com

Click to read more...

 

[Thundercat]

Excellent and thorough review! Thank you!

I’ve been very happy with my Mass Drop HD650x’s, but now I want to look into the BDs.

Thx!

 

[PaulieDC]

Excellent and thorough review! Thank you!

I’ve been very happy with my Mass Drop HD650x’s, but now I want to look into the BDs.

Thx!

You definitely go from tame to exciting, I had 650s for a few years and they were “fine” and I was happy with them. Once I tried the 990s, no going back because I don’t want neutral and flat when playing/listening/composing, I want it sounding somewhat exciting, and that’s what hooked me. In my DT 1990 review I provided to EQ to tame and then suggested you learn them where they’re at, don’t try to sterilize (Neumann NDH 30s are the solution for neutral).

So if someone wanted to go from HD650s to BDs, my suggestion are the 250 Ohm DT 990 Pro, I mean, for 169 bucks for German-made headphones, wow. Anne Kathrin Dern said in one of her gear videos a couple years back that she sees the semi-open 880s the most in her realm of film scoring and studio work, to provide a bit more isolation when the environment can be noisy, but if isolation is not an issue, the 990s are pretty fantastic.

And so are these 770 Pro X’s if someone prefers closed-back. Yikes, didn’t plan to write all this, lol! Hopefully some part of it helps if someone is searching.

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UPDATE: Al Maurice in a post below brought up the DT 900 Pro X which I wasn’t familiar with, but seem to be worth checking out. A little bit more expensive and newer design, and from what I can read, a little flatter response.

 

[Al Maurice]

Hi @PaulieDC -- Thanks for the review. Did you take a look at the DT900 Pro X (semi-open back), I'm particularly interested in those as they have a slightly flatter frequence response curve, with all the usual BD top end and similar characteristics of your new CANS?

 

[PaulieDC]

Hi @PaulieDC -- Thanks for the review. Did you take a look at the DT900 Pro X (semi-open back), I'm particularly interested in those as they have a slightly flatter frequence response curve, with all the usual BD top end and similar characteristics of your new CANS?

I haven’t looked into or tried out the 700 or 900 series, mainly because my main headphones are the 1990s, so I bypassed looking at the middle range that are near 300 bucks.

So I just did some research now and the 700 and 900 series are definitely a flatter response according to many reviews. In fact, some reviews are freaking out on these 770 pro X that I bought, complaining that they are V-shaped in tone and as I mentioned above, you have to tame the high-end and you certainly get a lot of bottom end, so I can see that being true. I’ll be using these closed back headphones for tracking so it doesn’t make that much of a difference to me.

From reading up on all of this the 900 Pro X seem like a much better 990 without spending the big bucks on 1990s. My big concern is, if I try the 900 Pro X, I’ll keep ‘em, lol! I’m thinking 5 pairs of Beyerdynamic headphones might be a little excessive. But TBH, I use the DT 990 Pro 80-ohm with the MOTU M2 on my mobile rig and I'm 110% happy.

By the way, the 900s are actually open back, doesn’t look like they make a semi open in the Pro X series, or at least not yet.