Beyerdynamic DT990 PRO Headphones

116
Mini Reviews
Beyerdynamic DT990 PRO
Headphones | £183
beyerdynamic.com
Sample Magic have teamed up with
Future Music’s own Marc ‘01’ Adamo to
provide aglossy paperback reference
manual to all things House production.
Starting with kicks and bass and following
all the way through to arrangement and
mastering, The Secrets of House
Production is very useful for beginners
with its clear explanations and clean cut
design, while its charts and diagrams will
come in handy for professionals too.
It would have been useful for the
included CD to provide audio examples of
each tutorial, but nevertheless, it’s modern
approach makes it fairly unique as an all
round package. I can see it thriving in the
DJ-to-producer world, one which continues
to grow. Declan McGlynn
8/10
T
he name Beyerdynamic has
been synonymous with
studio cans for decades,
with their DT100s being a
staple recording tool since the dawn
of time itself.
The 990 PROs feel a lot more
expensive than their price tag would
suggest, with a very comfortable
headband and earpieces that engulf
your ears with a very open and vast
sound. In terms of response,
everything is as it should be with the
exception of sub bass being rounded
off, very common in headphones this
open. At lower levels you might
struggle to dissect sounds but at the
right volume, there is almost no
compression, with the stereo field
remaining intact and the crisp highs
and thick mids happily coexisting
and never fighting for
attention. Though
the price
may
seem
high at first, when you consider the
competition, these cans stretch way
beyond their outlay. A must try for
your new studio headphones.
Chris Barker
9/10
The Secrets
of House
Production | £35
samplemagic.com
T
he Audio 2 DJ weighs in at
just over 80 grams and just
under 80 bucks, making it
easily NI’smost affordable
option for digital DJing, and the
world’s smallest interface. It’s hard
not to be taken aback by the tiny size
of the A2DJ. Unsurprisingly, there’s
not a lot to the specs – two
quarter-inch outs, two volume
controls and aUSB port make up the
hardware but Native are adamant that
the sound quality doesn’t suffer, and
I’d have to agree –it’s crystal clear
and delivers a huge punch across the
board. Impressive. The channel A and
Boutput LEDs light up green when a
signal is present, but they don’t turn
red when the signal is peaking.
Without any real level reference on
the hardware there’snoway to know
if the signal is peaking from the
interface itself.
A quick glance at the chart
comparing the 2 DJ with Native’s
more expensive interfaces really does
say a lot in the 2’s favour. If you don’t
need timecode and are happy either
DJing in-the-box or have amixer to
cue with, it’salmost anobrainer to
go for the Audio 2DJ. Aseparate
headphone out would seal the deal,
but for what it is, it’shard to fault.
Declan McGlynn
8/10
Native
Instruments
Audio 2 DJ | £79
nativeinstruments.com
The latest musical bits and pieces racked and rated
FMU230.rev_mini 116 7/21/10 4:13:41 PM