beyerdynamic DT-150

My choice of this earphones has strange reason - I wear eyeglasses and all earphones invariably pressed my earlobes against the temples of eyeglasses, which is quite painful in minutes, not to say hours in front of monitor.
The idea was to buy earphones with earpads so large that earlobes all inside won't be pressed by them. (Yes, I could broke away the temples of my eyeglasses and tie the glasses with stringline onto my ears, but it's impractical). DT-150 looked very promising, yet from the pictures you'll never be sure. So imagine, I asked Thomann staff for internal measures of earpads, he, he! They were very polite and without calling me a fool they sent me requested info so I was able to compare it with my measurements and order the earphones.
Well, the earpads ARE large, my ears are comfortably inside. Their pressure is distributed to larger contact area so it gives comfort feeling. Although the earpads press on the temples of eyeglass aside of earlobes, it's hardly to feel.

With my problem solved I've found some other features of this earphones as a bonus. The sound of DT-150 is very good, they block-out noise from outside so I can listen at lower level thus spare my hearing. I can hear the individual ambience of various instruments from live recording or soft-synths more distinctly so I can make whole sound spectrum more balanced now, despite the fact that enclosed earpads seem to pronounce bass frequencies. Detachable (and replacable) cable and earpads are nice feature for wear and damage. In various sockets jack of the earphones fits tightly, no waggling and crackle, just clean sound. With adapter the same.
CONS - sweating, off course. It develops quite quickly, sooner than expected. But with some regular breaks in listening it's manageable.

I received this headphone yesterday,

Right out of the box the DT-150 sounded far from neutral. The mids sounded elevated. But ... the reason for this was not difficult to find. I have been continuously using the Beyerdynamic DT-770 pro 250 for the last six months or so. And, how much I like the DT-770, it is definitely NOT a neutral headphone. It has elevated bass and highs. Not in an unpleasant way though, but it has this much talked about V-shaped frequency response. As could be expected, after some hours of acclimatization the DT-150 sounded different, NEUTRAL! This is how your brain can fool you. It sounds neutral to me now. It delivers great detail and good instrument separation. It does produce the biggest soundstage, but for a closed headphone it is impressive. Listen to 'The Virtual Barbershop' at youtube and you will get my drift. While being a very good instrument for studio work it is also a very musical headphone. But beware: it is fairly unforgiving when it comes to low quality recordings. Alternatively, if you listen to magnificently recorded material like Diana Krall's S'Wonderful, you get an impression of what the DT-150 is capable of. The DT-150, neutral? Yes. But this headphone also has a character of its own, and did surprise me in a pleasant way.
Comfort wise this headphone may have a small problem, though. The leatherette earpads become a bit sticky and itchy after long listening sessions. On the other hand, they fit my fairly large head and ditto ears perfectly. Clamping force is moderate and more than acceptable for a closed headphone. An option is to install the velours pads of the DT-100. I ordered and received these as well and have to see what they do to the sound.
Looks? Well, the DT-150 is not going to win a beauty contest, although it is far from an ugly design. It is sturdy, and has been built to last. All the same, the finish is not great. My sample has a scratch on one of the earcups. But as it doesn't catch the eye I will not return it for another.
Money wise you could hardly do better than buying the DT-150. You get a LOT of headphone for not too much money. I have listened to a Beyerdynamic DT-880 premium. Although it is tricky to compare an open headphone to a closed one, I should say that the DT-880, at almost thrice the price, does NOT deliver a ditto extra performance. They sound better, but not much better.

Theo Mestrum, Holland

These cans from Beyerdynamic are a studio mainstay and rightly so.
The isolation is great without the cans sitting too tightly which is always welcome. They excel at tracking and when listening to music in noisy environments.

Pros:
They are fun and engaging! Often when mixing, mastering and working on music with reference monitors or headphones you get used to the cold, sterile flat response often required for this kind of work.
These are a different breed all together. The bass is full, lush and warm with plenty of lower midrange push which makes the music sound fun and engaging. Just really pleasing. If you are tracking a band these will put smiles on the musicians faces as they can help getting the right vibe out of the performance.

They are built like a tank! No matter how rowdy stuff gets these should survive it. Built quality and parts quality is excellent and every part is replaceable by the user, nothing more than a screwdriver needed. They are made to be user maintainable which means that anyone can fix them with spare parts. No need for a technician to do so. If you buy these in bulk just snag some spare cords and pads while making the purchase and you should be set for life. The DT-100 velour pads can also be made to fit these if you don`t like the pvc altho doing this will reduce the isolation and bass response slightly.

Cons:
They can be too bassy for correct mixing unless you know them really well and can compensate while working.
In any case it`s hardly a con as they aren`t made for mixing and a final mix should always be done with monitors for correct stereo imaging.
For mixing I can recommend the AKG K701`s. They have a huge soundstage and a very flat response. Do not expect to get a real kick out of rock`n roll or EDM with the AKG`s tho.

All in all a highly recommended "studio secret" more people should try out.

Normally it is expected that the more expensive headphones also correspond to a higher overall quality of the product and although this is often the case, this DT150 headphones are the demonstration that, sometimes, the most expensive instruments not always correspond to the most useful tool for our purpose. I tried several studio headphones but these DT150, are really great for monitoring the recording signal. What you hear from the headphones is coherent with the audio signal that you get from the reference monitors and in my opinion this is the optimal function of a studio headset, amateur and professional.

Listen, I've had a good deal of headphones in my life. In addition to being a musician on my off time, I work at the computer for sometimes 4 or 5 hours straight. During that time, I am almost always with headphones on listening to music. I've never found headphones as comfortable as these. And I have quite a big head, mind you. Even still, I can almost forget I have them on.

Additionally, they sound amazing (which I hear is quite valued by headphone enthusiasts) and they look straight out of a Beatles studio session.

Only downside is the connector is a proprietary one, so even though the cable is detachable, it attaches to the headphone via some pins and a small screw. That can be a nuissance if, like me, you're used to forgetting you have headphones on and take off from your desk. If you do that with these, chances are you might drag the mixer along with you. And that sucks. Also, the fact they use a proprietary connector limits your choice of cables for instance. So forget about getting a telephone wire cable. You get this cable and this cable alone. Those are small downsides. These are perfect otherwise. At least for big headed giants like me that love retro-looking things.