Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro

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vroom_skies

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 25, 2005
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Well I don't know much at all about audio and even less about headphones.

He is planing on getting a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro's.
I know nothing about them, other then they are pretty pricey.

Could you please help me out on assisting him with his purchase.
Keep in mind that he only has on board sound on his alienware laptop. I'm assuming he would like to stay below 300. I'm guessing a a good pair of cans and then an amp or external sound card, if not both would be best.

Thanks for all the help in advance,
Bob

Ps- they would be used for all types of audio and he does like bass.
 
Ok, so then it looks like they are a good pair.

I take it just on board sound would not be doing the headphones justice? Would you recommend an amp, external sound card or both? Or even other?

Thanks for all the help
Bob
 
An amp is almost always a good idea with good headphones. Every once and awhile you'll find a device with a good headphone amp in it, but it's pretty rare. Better to get a good one yourself. In the case of the 990s they are pretty high impedance so you'll probably want at least a simple voltage amplifier, like a Cmoy. They won't put a whole lot of current load on the system and as such won't stress most opamps too bad, but they are going to require a decent amount of voltage to get loud, more than many soundcards may be willing to provide. So you may find that they sound good, but quiet, if you don't amp them.

After you've got an amp, a new soundcard may be a good idea. Depends on what you want to do, how much you are willing to spend, and what you've got already. Don't worry over the internal/external thing. There's a lot of misinformation about that but it really isn't a problem to shield an internal card, and good ones do just that. For example the Lynx Two is one of the best sounding cards out there, and best specing too (I'd post them but apparently all the sites are down right now that I tried) and they are internal. Just get a good soundcard that it good at what it is you do. By that I mean don't go and get something like a MOTU 2048 if what you are doing is playing games.
 
For an easy solution, I'd get an amplifier + DAC combo so it would act as a sound card and amplifier the source. Something like the Corda Move would be convenient, but I don't know if the amplifier would be ok for those headphones. Other options include the iBasso D1 and Headroom Total Bithead, although I'm sure there are others out there.
 
The only problem with those is often they aren't very functional soundcards. When you hook a DAC via USB to your computer, it becomes a soundcard. That means how well it works for various things depends on how well designed it was for that. Well, as normal soundcards tend to skimp on the DAC portions, DACs tend to skimp on the soundcard portions.

Not saying it isn't a legit way to go, and of course one can always get a soundcard with S/PDIF out and hook that to the DAC, but there are issues with the "one size fits all" solutions.
 
vroom_skies said:
Well I don't know much at all about audio and even less about headphones.

He is planing on getting a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro's.
I know nothing about them, other then they are pretty pricey.

Could you please help me out on assisting him with his purchase.
Keep in mind that he only has on board sound on his alienware laptop. I'm assuming he would like to stay below 300. I'm guessing a a good pair of cans and then an amp or external sound card, if not both would be best.

Thanks for all the help in advance,
Bob

Ps- they would be used for all types of audio and he does like bass.
Click to expand...

which alienware? older or newer one? since he likes bass and has an alienware.. I assume he plays games also..

older alienware with pcmcia slot = audigy2 notebook + DT770's

newer alienware with expresscard slot = xfi notebook + DT770's

I have owned the audigy2 notebook and it pushes the 770's pretty well but you can still get an amp for pretty cheap, soundcard has optical outs if you need em, and you won't have to lug around an external soundcard.
 
I believe there are 250 Ohms and 80 Ohms versions. If you are not planning to use the headphone amp get the 80 Ohm version
 
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