I purchased a pair of used Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro that came with the original Beyerdynamic cable and an unbranded clear Chinese OFC cable. I was looking for a short cable to use at my desk.
I gave this cable a very careful listen to music in several genres and consider myself an audiophile of some 40 years experience.
I notice that most reviews simply say whether it works or not, whether the channels are reversed, how long it lasts and the fact that the connectors are glued so if and when it presumably dies, it won't be easily repairable. This is fair enough, especially for such a cheap cable, but no-one seems to touch on the sound quality which I feel is one of the most important aspects of an audio cable so I would like to address that shortfall.
To get cable construction out of the way first, the build quality is adequate imo.
The cable outer is rubberised and subsequently there are less microphonics than with even the Beyerdynamic original cable. i.e. sound travelling up to the earpieces when the cable brushes up against anything. It's a very good choice. Highly commendable.
The thickness of the cable is good - it's not flimsy but also not too stiff, chunky, thick or heavy. Again, commendable.
The connectors are glued as others have noted - if the cable develops a fault it will be very difficult to repair whilst retaining the original connectors. This suggests to me that the choice of connectors was a cheap option, which may have some bearing on their sonic characteristics. The additional screw on 1/4" adapator is a nice touch but better connectors such as Rean, which could be opened and repaired if necessary would have been by far preferable. The connector is initially quite a struggle to detach once connected to the mini XLR socket, but is ok after a few connection-disconnections. My cable was correctly wired.
Now, to the sound quality.
I took my time over a few days to gauge the sound of this cable because your ears and brain get tired of picking out fine details quite quickly. I used a number of musical genres and tracks.
To summarise from the outset: I found this cable to be more capacitative than both the Beyerdynamic original and the unbranded OFC I have. In other words, it smooths off the top end of the treble. As the DT 1990 Pro have a known frequency response peak just below 9 KHz, this wasn't entirely unpleasant. It tamed that bright treble a bit. I also found that the soundstage presentation was "different". Some aspects in the image presentation were clearer, others more muddy. It was immediately noticeable to a subtle degree but by carefully choosing what pieces I listened to in order to narrow it down, it became very obvious indeed.
For all playback I was using a Creative SoundblasterX G6 set to stereo only in "direct" mode - all effects and processing bypassed. Player was Winamp v2.95 all effects off, although I did switch a couple of times to the latest version of VLC Player for comparison.
It should be noted that the DT 1990 Pro are intended for studio engineers because of their fine presentation of detail and pinpoint accuracy in placement across the soundstage. For home listeners they are intended to accurately relay what the recording engineer intended in their mix.
Specific listening examples:
Lossless recording of Gary Numan - opening to "Music For Chameleons" from 1982's ' I, Assassin' album.
Using this cable the soundstage seemed a little more open and clear to start with, the fretless bass having a little more punch, however as it progressed, the brush cymbal on the far right was significantly lower and harder to pinpoint. As the vocals came in, then the percussion and the rest of the synths the whole track became quite muddled and placement became less easy than with the unbranded cable I already had.
Lossless recording of "From Gagarin's Point Of View" by Esbjorn Svensson Trio's 1999 album of the same name.
There is a lot of subtle detail in this piece and the double bass has some real punch to it. I found that using this cable increased the punch in the bass but sacrificed overal clarity in the top end - snare and brush cymbal were much harder to pinpoint. The room ambience was less clear.
Lossless recording of "Winter in Venice" from Esbjorn Svensson's 1997 album of the same name.
This piece has even more subtle details than the previous piece. Zipping through to around 2:19 and then onwards, there are various points from here on where people are having quiet conversations in the distant background or where someone presumably in a fictitious audience is quietly humming 'doobie, doobie, doobie' along with the music. There is also a jazz cafe type ambience to the piece. I find that this cable made it MUCH more difficult to pick out the humming at all, let alone pinpoint it, and as the music became more complex the overall presentation became less clear, the room ambience lost.
The clincher for me, however, and why I returned it, was a streamed piece from
Nicolas de Grigny - Premier livre d'orgue: La Messe 2016 Album played by Anne Chapelin-Dubar
track 12 - Premier livre d'orgue: La Messe: Quoniam tu solus santus. Fugue à 5 voix
This piece showed that the cable had distinct sonic characteristics which were not conducive to presentation of detail. Around 1:14 the piece becomes less complex, quieter, and you can hear the solo stop (some sort of clarinette I think) played against lower pitched flutes, and the atmosphere and size of the cathedral should really stand out and you can hear the reverberations, except that with this cable, you can't. I found switching between this cable and the unbranded one and the Beyerdynamic original, this cable muffled a great deal of detail.
I would not recommend this cable for critical listening, certainly not on the DT 1990 Pro. If you just want a short cable for gaming that tames down an overly bright set of headphones then it might be ok.
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Meilleurs commentaires provenant d’autres pays
Stefan_Mac
OK, but a sideways move at best , not an upgrade
Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 7 juin 2022Jonathon Hughes
Sweet little cable for my DT 1990 pros
Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 13 janvier 2022
MR C R Wienrich
I purchased the cable for my AKG K182's - works a treat.
Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 30 juillet 2021