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Neumann NDH30 headphones

Great review. I mostly agree with your observations. It is definitively one of the better cans for work/analytical/critical listening. One thing I would add though, is that in my experience it's not just the "position of the earcup in relation to the ear" that wildly affects the frequency response but also the head size/width. With wider/bigger heads obviously there is more clamping force. That's completely normal, but as a result of this, the NDH 30’s padding squashes more than eg. the padding of the DT880, DT1990, HD650 or HD800. In the case of the NDH30 this "earpad compression" creates unusually big frequency response deviations, way bigger than how big deviations I heard on the above mentioned other cans.

I talk about this issue in detail in my pretty lengthy review I posted on GearSlutz a good year ago. It is an NDH30 vs Sennheiser HD800 (and DT880, HD650, DT1990) direct comparison. If anyone is interested, here is the link:

https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.php?p=16257434&postcount=324
For over half a year I have been preparing to spend the cash on the NDH 30s, and when they announced the black edition recently, I was even more sold. Afterall, the marketing says they are the best in class, right? Your review is phenomenal, I found it recently, and it solidified my devotion to getting the NDH 30s especially to go with my Neumann 2.1 KH80/750 monitors. And, glad to know you're on VI-C as well! I just sold my HD650s on eBay and added that to Christmas Amazon gift cards, and I was just ready to purchase. And I DID just that 3 days ago:

I bought DT 1990s.

There are a BUNCH of reasons why I jumped ship last minute, I am totally happy, and now that @Pier did this excellent review (which ALMOST made me think again) for the NDH 30 team, and your review is perfect for the HD800 team, I will get some thoughts together on the DT 1990s, to coincide with these two excellent reviews, because I know there are some out there loving on the 1990s and wondering what the deal really is (much you covered but I have some 1990 tests to add).

I'll say this: if I was forced to plunk down about $600 and was told at gunpoint to flip a coin for 1990s or NDH 30s, it'd be win-win because I'd be perfectly happy with either. Given that, I want to expound a bit more on the 1990s. More to come.
 
- Do you use any "systemwide" option to insert those plugins on your headphone output only?
On windows 10, I'm using Equalizer APO.

Couldn't make it work under Windows 11.
So there I'm using Light Host + UVI Shade (any good eq will do) with own retranscription of Oratory config.

For monitor correction, I'm using HiFi Cable, VSTHost and IKM Arc 3.
Not trivial, can write a description if any interest.
 
Have you tried Realphones? The new V2 is a big improvement and there is a free demo. (Also the dev really rates the NDH30s.)
I tried the web demo but wasn't impressed to be honest.

Maybe there's something weird with my brain but all these room simulators just end up sounding like cheap reverbs.

Not with CanOpener but it's not really a room simulator.
 
+1 for canopener on on "low-Q". Just sounds more infront and less superficial when working with HP.

Has anybody something to say about the MM-500 or MM-100 in comparison to the above mentioned?
I have the MM-500 and should hopefullyget a demo of the NDH30 soon, will drop my impressions here.
RE: Canopener, what do you mean by "low-q" ?

And an observation, when using soundsource, the built in EQ doesn't sound that great to me, after trying oratory settings in CraveEQ I was convinced to rather use a 3rd party eq instead of the built in soundscource eq profiles, which afaik are actually based on autoeq versions of oratory.
 
"Low-Q" meaning high quality mode off so it doesn't affect latency.
I have the MM-500 and should hopefullyget a demo of the NDH30 soon, will drop my impressions here.
That'd be nice! So you're not very happy with the MM-500 or just curious of the NDH30?
 
"Low-Q" meaning high quality mode off so it doesn't affect latency.

That'd be nice! So you're not very happy with the MM-500 or just curious of the NDH30?
Really happy with the mm-500, interested in having a cheaper alternative for travelling with, so the NDH might fit the bill, or the mm-100, will be demoing a few models as and when I can.
 
Really happy with the mm-500, interested in having a cheaper alternative for travelling with, so the NDH might fit the bill, or the mm-100, will be demoing a few models as and when I can.
I'm very curious to know more about how the MM500, MM100, and the NDH30 compare. Please share your findings!
 
Re. EQing to the Harmon curve, I received the NDH30s today and was using this site to get a sense of what the oratory EQ would do https://autoeq.app/ - honestly, it sounded worse to me on each sound example. Makes the headphones very high-fi-ish in the upper mid-range. I think I'm with the folks on Gearspace who suggested not EQing the phones at all.
 
Re. EQing to the Harmon curve, I received the NDH30s today and was using this site to get a sense of what the oratory EQ would do https://autoeq.app/ - honestly, it sounded worse to me on each sound example. Makes the headphones very high-fi-ish in the upper mid-range. I think I'm with the folks on Gearspace who suggested not EQing the phones at all.
Try the measurements and eq I linked direct from Oratory in my first post. He remeasured all the headphones recently and that site might not have the latest data.

At least with my NDH30 in my ears (ears shapes change the response) I couldn't use them without that eq.
 
Try the measurements and eq I linked direct from Oratory in my first post. He remeasured all the headphones recently and that site might not have the latest data.

At least with my NDH30 in my ears (ears shapes change the response) I couldn't use them without that eq.
You were right - that site doesn't match the Dropbox settings. I created a custom Pro-Q3 preset based on the Dropbox. It still sounds too bright to me (that 4.1db 2.2k bump is the one that sticks out specifically for me. If I disable it, I can accept that the other settings are maybe improving clarity and bass extension. Maybe.), but there is the aspect of getting accustomed to it as well. The Harmon curve though is more of a general average, but doesn't sound right to all people. If your references sound better to you with or without the EQ, that's the setting to go with.

I'm attaching my Q3 preset here in case anybody in the future wants it.
 

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You were right - that site doesn't match the Dropbox settings. I created a custom Pro-Q3 preset based on the Dropbox. It still sounds too bright to me (that 4.1db 2.2k bump is the one that sticks out specifically for me. If I disable it, I can accept that the other settings are maybe improving clarity and bass extension. Maybe.), but there is the aspect of getting accustomed to it as well. The Harmon curve though is more of a general average, but doesn't sound right to all people. If your references sound better to you with or without the EQ, that's the setting to go with.

I'm attaching my Q3 preset here in case anybody in the future wants it.
Did you take into account that ProQ uses different Q values?
 
Hmm I did not. Which EQ are you utilizing?
You can use any parametric EQ but FF ProQ for some reason calculates Q differently. If you want to use that you need to convert the values.

See this previous post with more info:

 
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I demo'd the NDH-30's before settling on the MM-500s for my open ear monitoring cans. I already had a pair of NDH-20's, which while very different from 30s, still had some of the same dynamic driver qualities, which made me want to to shell out for the MM-500s. I did like the 30s very much, and I had I not owned the 20s, I would've probably picked them up.
 
You can use any parametric EQ but FF ProQ for some reason calculates Q differently. If you want to use that you need to convert the values.

See previous post with more info:

So I changed to using Sonnox Claro and now it doesn't sound overly hi-fi / bright. More of a subtle clarity and openness boost, but I need to listen some more. Claro also has an Auto Gain feature which is nice for keeping levels consistent with the EQ on vs off.

I'll have to try CanOpener as well.
 
Just received the NDH 30 a couple of days ago.

Up until this point I was using HD650 for a number of years. I was happy with them. They are great phones, but every 6 months or so, I would be scanning the different forums and review sites, to see if anything could pull me away from them. As, I say, they are great phones, but I was never 100% happy with the bass extension and clarity in certain areas. It bothered me enough, to check out if anything would grab me enough to cheat on them.

I looked at all the usual suspects from Audeze, Hifiman, Beyerdynamic, Austrian Audio etc. Anyway, long story short, I pulled the trigger on the NDH 30, just based on reviews and graphs 🤔. TBH, although nearly twice the price of the HD 650's (current prices), I didn't expect much "wow" factor comparing them to the HD 650'S.

Its early days, but I'm impressed. So far they suitably address the "issues" I felt needed addressing on the HD 650's. Bass extension is solid and overall clarity seem to be another level. At some point I may start to eq to fine tune them to my taste, but as @ozonepaul explains, they are fine out of the box and you really are not going to get anything better in this price range. Are they worth $300 more than the HD650's? For me yes, there is enough of that "wow" to feel they are worth it. Are they perfect? No, but I really do think to find fault with them you would have to start comparing them to phones 2-3x the cost.
 
Really happy with the mm-500, interested in having a cheaper alternative for travelling with, so the NDH might fit the bill, or the mm-100, will be demoing a few models as and when I can.
Did you end up getting the NDH30s? Curious to hear your thoughts on how they compare to the MM-500s.
 
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