Beyerdynamic DT 48 E User Reviews

Ownership period: more than 1 year.

The current DT-48E sounds much different than the DT-48 of the mid-1970's, which had the same oval circumaural cushions. The difference in the lower midrange and bass I attribute to the thicker cushions on the current model, and the fact that the cushions are sealed onto the driver units. With the 1970's model, the cushions could be rotated 360 degrees and were easy to remove, and I suspect that the low frequencies leaked accordingly. In fact, I can make the current model sound much like the 1970's model just by yawning, and thus compromising the seal between the cushions and my head. The difference in the high frequencies is more difficult to account for, and my best guess there (aside from whatever contribution the better seal might make) is that Beyer may now have superior manufacturing technology for the DT-48 diaphragms.

After listening to the DT-48E for about three hours, I put the Sennheiser 800's on in the middle of a track, and my immediate impression was that of a shift to a lower register, tonal-wise. I don't have a good explanation for that, since both headphones reproduce the same music at the same pitch, albeit with different emphases in different octaves. I didn't have any other strong impressions of differences, and no negatives. So for me, the significant difference between the DT-48 and the HD-800 was as if I could take just the midrange between, say, 130 hz and one to two octaves above that and tilt it to the right for the HD-800 (warmer or more distant), or to the left for the DT-48 (cooler or closer).

The bass with the DT-48E is not as strong as the Sennheiser 800, even though the HD-800 does not have a pronounced bass, or "bassiness". I was inclined to think that the DT-48's bass rolled off below 100 hz, and was probably near-nonexistent at 30 hz or thereabouts. But such is not the case. The bass is lower in level than the HD-800's below 100 hz, but does not fall off that much, so depending on how good of a seal you get with the oval cushions, what you hear could vary from "tight and well-defined" to very weak if the seal is inadequate.

The midrange of the DT-48E is marvelous, to put it very simply. Compared to the Sennheiser 800, the DT-48's midrange is more forward or pronounced, but has none of the "nasal" or "honky" effect I've experienced with other headphones. It simply sounds "there" and very clean, with one possible undesirable effect for some applications: Playing "Day In The Life" from Sgt. Pepper - the acid-trip "Ahhhhhhh...." following "Somebody spoke and I went into a dream", the DT-48 makes the soundstage narrower than some other headphones, which was a little disappointing. In exchange for that, you get that fabulous clear midrange that's rare even with headphones costing twice as much as the DT-48.