A lot of science based audio techs do not beliefe in break in. Break in has never been measured in loudspeakers or headphones.
There is a break in though, but it's not the device, it's ones brain adopting.
Just imagine, if the membrane, coil, whatever material would 'deteriorate' in the first 30 hours by an amount we could hear, what would that mean for hour 300 and 3000.

 

Actually, there IS a break in that matters, but not in the drivers, it's worn cushions, especially with beyerdynamic ones. The sound of over ear headphones changes when they change their placement due to long wearing times. Exchanging your old worn in cushions to identical fresh replacement ones moves the drivers away from your ears, resulting in a different frequency response and level. Try it for yourself.

 

Beyerdynamic actually have some marketing verbage saying that they "will sound brilliant right out of the box". Which is funny, because the word "brilliant" in that statement is exactly what people complain about. But that's neither here nor there.

I have DT-990 Pro, and they are fine, and if they broke/died,etc. I'd probably replace them. But I probably would not buy another pair of Beyerdynamics hoping to get a set that is "closer to the truth" without spending a significant amount of more money. I'd get a pair from a different manufacturer and use them as two different references. If you really want to believe in burn-in, you should use a pink noise generator.

 

dt 990 pro are in my opinion fantastic headphones.. im going to listen to music on the X series again but if it sounds like shit what is the point of listening to music if its only unpleasant?

in my opinion dt 990 pro x
low bass
too bright treble
unpleasant midrange

 

Last edited: Sep 27, 2026

My headcanon is that Beyerdynamic headphones are bright so they better suit older professionals who can't hear all frequencies properly. Their aging ears will balance the sound.

My FiiO FT3 is also a tad less brighter than Beyers and it bothered me to the point I modded them, made passive filters, tried software EQ, but even so, if I try other headphones, I lose soundstage, clarity and a lot of the fun you get from hearing good drums ring. I think that having multiple pairs os the way to go if you want to reference, I keep some very cheap Moondrop Chu 2 earbuds because they're pretty neutral.

 

https://hearsplugins.com/

there's also this hearing adjustment plugin that you may or may not find useful if your hearing range isn't what it used to be.

mine's certainly isn't!

 

BEATS ARE THE BEST HEADPHONES YOU CAN BUY. SORRY FOR SHOUTING, I'M GOING DEAF.

 

(edited misattribution)

I'm not primarily mixing on headphones, or listening to much music on them. They are still valuable reference tools if you mix on monitors. They are good for detail extraction aka zoom tools, and if you can get your mix to sound good on multiple reference sources, translation to a million different devices, cell phones, computer speakers, etc. is not that big of a concern. You can just buy something you want to consider "the truth", but most people will not go with DT-990s to do so. The frequency response you mention is what everyone complains about them, which is very likely why they have their own Headphone Lab software, unlike almost every other manufacturer.

Someone left a pair of Yamaha HPH-MT7's once, and I use them sepecifically because they are unpleasant if your mix is bad. I even have Cubase's control room to use the internal speaker in the Mac, if I want. You know in about 1 minute if your mix sucks.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Sep 27, 2026

There are headphones that deliver unique or distinct sound, but that doesn't make them good for critical monitoring since that "sound" they deliver is usually doctored in some way that makes them palatable for non-critical applications.

If you're using any headphone, for critical listening or monitoring you're going to need to apply a correction curve to make them not color the sound in one direction or the other. I use Equalizer APO for this on all machines that I use to process audio. I use correction curves from auto-eq for all different models of can's I have and just switch between them. I have eq curves I made with REW (room eq wizard) for my in room monitors as well, all sorted in EQ-APO. It's as easy as pressing a button to engage the correct curve for the audio monitor (speak's or can's) being used at any given time. The best part is EQ-APO and REW are both freely available tools on the windows side.

 

Last edited: Sep 27, 2026

i actually have to say the harsh treble brightness is giving ears fatigue after 5 min.. i tried with an simple EQ on masterchannel and it kinda made it better.. 6 kHz – 8 kHz range by -3 dB to -6 dB to eliminate the sharp treble glare. it kinda works for now

 

Something is definitely wrong in this forum. clone quoted me "im going to listen to music on the X series again but if it sounds like shit what is the point of listening to music if its only unpleasant?"

I never posted this. I'm out.

 

dude you use your eyes and some old tales...I use my ears.

 

headphones aren't supposed to sound pleasant, that's what speakers are for

 

a careless thing to say nevertheless tzzsmk

 

Similar to your setup, this combination below finally ended my relentless search for headphone nirvana.

Oratory1990 EQ > Sennheiser HD 490 Pro > APL Virtuoso

 

Does anyone own or has actually used the new Lewitt LW6 headphones?

Seen a lot of audio channels on youtube etc taking about them, but maybe they got them for free.

Looking for an unbiased opinion .I already have some other Lewiit gear, so curious.

I'm a Sennheiser user currently.

 

They're probably the same gang of internet influencers who appear every time a new product is launched

Try following this THREAD on ASR for some real-world opinion, but it's still early days and I expect Amirm will do his own test review at some point.

 

Update: oratory1990 has commented in the above thread.