laxu
Rock Star
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- 4,888
I've been using the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 Ohm as my everyday headphones for years now. They are very comfortable, but they are not accurate. They have disgusting amounts of high end emphasis, which makes anything guitar sound pretty harsh.
I use Sound Source on MacOS to apply AutoEQ correction to them, and on modelers used global EQ. That works well enough. I used Sonarworks Reference ID's IR-based solution before, but got so frustrated with its bugs (crashing on wake from sleep, crashing whenever another audio interface or modeler got turned on, correction not working without restarting the app...) that I requested a refund.
My other headphones have been the Sennheiser HD 6XX 300 Ohm (that's the actual model name, 6XX). They're a variant of the HD 650 afaik. Great headphones for modelers especially, but they press on my head a bit too much to be comfortable for long time use, and the ear cups could be a tad larger. They sound really good out of the box though and I'll recommend them any day for use with modelers that can drive them.
I found an open box Sennheiser HD 490 Pro (these were released at the start of 2024) for a bit less money and ordered them. They are exactly what I was looking for: Reasonably accurate headphones without correction, that are also very comfortable. They feel a good chunk lighter than the HD6XX. Being able to swap the cable to either side is a nice plus as my DT990 Pros had it on the wrong side and the HD6XX has cables coming from both sides.
Their novelty feature is that they come with "Producer" and "Mixing" earpads. The Producer earpads are a comfy velour type you find on most Sennheisers. The Mixing earpads are more of a cloth material and unfortunately nowhere near as comfortable. The mounting system for these also makes it cumbersome to switch them, it takes just enough time to not be something you swap regularly. But apparently the Producer ones give a bit better overall results while the Mixing ones are more lean on the low end.
They definitely do make the headphones have a different character. The Mixing ones are more "airy" to my ears, probably due to less low end and maybe some treble or high mids emphasis. I think I will stick with the Producer ones just because they are more comfortable. I was surprised that they made a very noticeable difference so they are not a total gimmick! With faster switching I could see these being useful.
Overall the sound is very similar to the HD 6XX, but I think the HD 490 Pros manage to sound more "3D" and "open". It's early days, but I definitely like them so far and they'll be my new main headphones!
