Yeah I have one pair of Beyerdynamic DT 990, 250 Ohm, as well as a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 at work. They sound great. Nice and flat sound. Letting the music decide how it should sound.
But it’s harder to find earbuds that aren’t bass-heavy, in my experience. I’m currently using a pair of Jaybird Vista 2. They are both pretty comfortable and provide good sound, which is rare for me (I have very open ears that buds easily slip out of.)
Not much, but some. Can’t say worse or better without extensive tests, but my gut feeling says it’s just… different.
Less ambience comes through, into the closed phones.
The sound that plays from the open ones probably sounds more true, because the sound echoed back out from the ears and head just escapes out.
Meanwhile the closed ones might sound a little more “rich” because there would be a slight echo/reverb from the closed phones, as well as closing off most ambient sounds.
Hard to describe these things, unfortunately. But I hope this helps.
If you are in a place with lots of ambient noise, closed ones are definitely recommended. Otherwise it’s probably okay with open ones. I have the open ones at home.
I went from working in an office where closed were basically a requirement (to not be rude AND to block out distractions) to working from home. I love these headphones but was wondering if now that I’m in a more controlled environment I should switch to open. Sounds like it’s probably not worth the extra expense.
Yes open and closed have a big difference. Typically in the world of studio headphones you’d use open back for critical listening, and closed back for recording (so the sound in the headphones doesn’t bleed back into the microphones).
I’ve used a bunch of models over the years but I didn’t realize you were asking about specific models, I meant generally open backs sounds more flat/true than closed, closed being used for practical reasons when recording. As a casual listener you may also want closed if you don’t want to annoy people around you, and some of them sound just great for casual listening!
I realize my post was vague now. The poster I replied to said they have DT 770s and DT 990s which are essentially open and closed versions of the same headphones and I have the 770s which are the closed ones.
In retrospect that requires a lot of specific knowledge on Beyerdynamics products (but in my defense I didn’t think anyone else would see it when I commented 😅)
I never owned the beyers myself but I’ve used both of them before and they were really nice, the distinctions between the closed and open versions were the same as with any other closed/open models! The DTs always seemed extremely comfortable to me and it’s just a matter of coincidence/need that I never owned them. So to answer your question to the best of my abilities, if you think that you’d like to have opened cans and like your 770s, then by all means the 990s would be a great choice.
Wow.
And here I am trying to find good earbuds and headphones that don’t have so much freaking bass, so I can hear the rest of the instruments…
Check out studio headphones. They have a “flat” frequency resoponse and they arent neccessarily expensive. (eg. AKG k240)
Yeah I have one pair of Beyerdynamic DT 990, 250 Ohm, as well as a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 at work. They sound great. Nice and flat sound. Letting the music decide how it should sound.
But it’s harder to find earbuds that aren’t bass-heavy, in my experience. I’m currently using a pair of Jaybird Vista 2. They are both pretty comfortable and provide good sound, which is rare for me (I have very open ears that buds easily slip out of.)
I have a pair of DT 770 Pros @ 250 Ohms. Does open vs closed make much of a difference?
Not much, but some. Can’t say worse or better without extensive tests, but my gut feeling says it’s just… different.
Less ambience comes through, into the closed phones.
The sound that plays from the open ones probably sounds more true, because the sound echoed back out from the ears and head just escapes out.
Meanwhile the closed ones might sound a little more “rich” because there would be a slight echo/reverb from the closed phones, as well as closing off most ambient sounds.
Hard to describe these things, unfortunately. But I hope this helps.
If you are in a place with lots of ambient noise, closed ones are definitely recommended. Otherwise it’s probably okay with open ones. I have the open ones at home.
It does help - thanks for the detailed reply.
I went from working in an office where closed were basically a requirement (to not be rude AND to block out distractions) to working from home. I love these headphones but was wondering if now that I’m in a more controlled environment I should switch to open. Sounds like it’s probably not worth the extra expense.
Ah okay, yeah, probably not, from my personal experience. Of course it depends on how much of an audiophile you are but in the general case, no. 👍
Glad to help! ☺️
Yes open and closed have a big difference. Typically in the world of studio headphones you’d use open back for critical listening, and closed back for recording (so the sound in the headphones doesn’t bleed back into the microphones).
You’ve used these two models or you’re just speaking generally?
I’ve used a bunch of models over the years but I didn’t realize you were asking about specific models, I meant generally open backs sounds more flat/true than closed, closed being used for practical reasons when recording. As a casual listener you may also want closed if you don’t want to annoy people around you, and some of them sound just great for casual listening!
I realize my post was vague now. The poster I replied to said they have DT 770s and DT 990s which are essentially open and closed versions of the same headphones and I have the 770s which are the closed ones.
In retrospect that requires a lot of specific knowledge on Beyerdynamics products (but in my defense I didn’t think anyone else would see it when I commented 😅)
I never owned the beyers myself but I’ve used both of them before and they were really nice, the distinctions between the closed and open versions were the same as with any other closed/open models! The DTs always seemed extremely comfortable to me and it’s just a matter of coincidence/need that I never owned them. So to answer your question to the best of my abilities, if you think that you’d like to have opened cans and like your 770s, then by all means the 990s would be a great choice.
Reddit has good resources for that, there used to be a user that had a website to help choose but I can’t find it
The user you’re thinking of is probably LifelongCaboose who also has a blog somewhere with audio equipment reviews.
Campfire Holocene
In my experience: Find something that gives you fine control over equalizer settings, or can be hacked to accomplish this.
The pair of Jaybird Vista 2 that I have has good sound at flat EQ, and Jaybird also supply an app to change the EQ.