Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Neumann NDH30 headphones

Pier

Pier

Senior Member
So I got the NDH30 a couple of weeks ago and I feel I'm ready to write about them.

Official Neumman page

Price $650
Dynamic driver
Impedance 120 Ohms
Weight 352 grams
DAC and amp: Motu M4

TL;DR: Built like a tank. Ok comfort. After EQing to the Harman target they sound hyper detailed. After adding CanOpener for crossfeed it feels like using monitors.

Intro
About 2 years ago I bought some cheap planar headphones on a whim (Fostex T50RP) and loved them. So much so that these became my daily drivers. They weren't perfect but for $150 they were amazing and sounded better than all my other headphones. Since then I've been looking for an improvement for more critical listening and of course I was looking for planar drivers.

My first option were the LCDX but these are difficult to find here in Mexico. I was ready to get some Hifiman but then I started reading glowing reviews of the NDH30. Some people claimed they preferred them over their LCDX... which intrigued me. Neumann has a bit of a reputation in the audio world and the headphones were one click away in Amazon.

I wasn't sure about investing into some dynamic drivers but I decided to give them a try after watching/reading some reviews. Told myself I could always return them to Amazon if I wasn't happy.

Comfort and build quality
These are built like tanks. Other than some rubber in the headband, everything seems to be metal. Built in China but feel like an Apple product with premium materials and low tolerances.

Comfort is ok and I say that as someone who rarely has comfort issues with headphones. It's not bad but don't expect something like the HD600. The earpads are big, my whole ear fits inside. The foam and fabric are soft but somehow after a couple of hours of wearing these I'm starting to get some light pain in my left upper jaw. Not sure why. The clamp is not super strong. I suspect it's because the ring of pressure from the foam against my head is a bit too thin if that makes sense.

I've been using these with glasses and they don't seem to affect the sound much if at all. What does affect the sound is the position of the earcup in relation to the ear so be mindful of this.

Sound
The first hour when I tested the NDH30 right away I could tell there was a resonance in the upper mids and something was lacking in the mids. Also the deep low end was a bit lacking for my taste. So I looked at the Oratory measurements and right there I could see these issues:

1704943662466.png

So I applied the Oratory EQ settings and boom. Perfection. I went through my usual references (Pink Floyd, Massive Attack, film stuff, etc) and was blow away by the clarity of everything. Every nuance of the sound became obvious. This means that mistakes are also very obvious and annoying. This is a good thing for reference headphones but a bad thing for hifi and regular every day headphones. If something sounds like crap it will sound like absolute crap.

Overall I would describe the sound as extremely detailed. Clarity and resolution are phenomenal. The low end goes deep and hits just right. Feels like a well behaved sub but obviously nothing like using a SubPac. Transient response times are the best I've ever heard. The soundstage and depth are good but not massive, perfect for mixing and mastering.

After a couple of days of getting used to the Harman target I then added CanOpener with the Mix Engineer preset and I was blown away again.

1704944783330.png

It really felt like listening to monitors. Of course some detail is lost because the sound is pushed back a little and the details/transients feel a bit softer. OTOH the imaging and depth feel natural unlike all the room simulations I've heard over the years (I've never tried the Slate VSX though). The low end feels more... pumpy and liquid if that makes sense compared to not using CanOpener.

I would say when using these headphones I'm going to alternate between adding and removing CanOpener to go between "studio monitors" and "hyper detailed" modes.

I've been listening to Reamixed tracks (it's a mixing contest that happens every month) and some old mixes I did. Mistakes and mixing decisions are extremely obvious with these headphones. I admit haven't done any mixes yet but a priori I feel confident the translation is going to be good when comparing what I hear with my Atmos setup in a treated room.

I've also been listening to demos of reverbs, string libraries, synths, etc. Feels like I've entered into a whole new world and had to throw away many opinons I had on products.

So obviously, yes, I would 100% recommend these headphones for critical listening.

If anyone else has them I'd be happy to compare notes! 🤓
Click to read more...
 
They are great, I have both the 20 for tracking and 30 for mixing, etc. I used them for more that a year, and I love them. Similar to my genelec monitors, weird, but true. Upgrading from beyerdynamic, I difference is huge. I tryed sonarworks but I prefer without the corrections.
 
Iustin said:
I tryed sonarworks but I prefer without the corrections.
Click to expand...
Have you tried using the Oratory EQ settings?

These might sound weird at first if you're not used to the Harman target but I'd suggest you give them a try for a couple of days.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nabq39xj25m097s/Neumann%20NDH%2020.pdf?dl=0 (NDH20)

NDH30
 
Pier said:
Have you tried using the Oratory EQ settings?

These might sound weird at first if you're not used to the Harman target but I'd suggest you give them a try for a couple of days.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nabq39xj25m097s/Neumann%20NDH%2020.pdf?dl=0 (NDH20)

NDH30
Click to expand...
I didn't, I will try and let you know.
 
Very nice info here! I got the NDH30 a few months ago, and I am getting to know more and more... and I find myself eq'ing better with those on, and then doing final touches on speakers.

Curious about this setting with the Oratory EQ and CanOpener. Couple of questions:
- Do you use any "systemwide" option to insert those plugins on your headphone output only? So it doesn't affect to your general OUT to speakers?
- Which EQ do you use to input the oratory settings? Pro Q3? on linear phase?
- Do they add a lot of latency on the chain with these plugins on?

Thanks @Pier ! :)
 
Interestingly, most folks on Gearspace prefer the NDH30s without any additional correction. But I guess worth trying both on and off. Is CanOpener a room simulation?
 
Garlu said:
Do you use any "systemwide" option to insert those plugins on your headphone output only?
Click to expand...
Hola!

On macOS I use SoundSource. On Windows for a time I tried to use EqualizerAPO but it was super buggy.

Garlu said:
Which EQ do you use to input the oratory settings? Pro Q3? on linear phase?
Click to expand...
I'm using a parametric EQ included by Apple in macOS called AUNBandEQ.

1704988560283.png

Honestly I haven't compared AUNBandEQ with other EQs but it's not linear. Oratory recommends it and writes that:

"You don't want to use a linear phase EQ for this, since we want to correct for both the amplitude and phase frequency response of the headphone. By using a minimum phase EQ ("a normal EQ"), we can do both at the same time."

If you use AUNBandEQ, just be careful that it uses the bandwidth (BW) values instead of Q values.

You can use any parametric EQ but for some reason FF ProQ uses different Q values than the rest of the world. There's a math formula to translate Q values but some people have mentioned the results are not 100% identical.

Garlu said:
Do they add a lot of latency on the chain with these plugins on?
Click to expand...
I haven't noticed any extra latency with the EQ but to be honest I haven't tested this properly since I've just been listening to music.

CanOpener does introduce 50ms! of latency when using the HQ mode. For mixing and mastering this shouldn't pose a problem though.
 
Last edited:
LT said:
Firstly for mix and mastering and secondly for composing (although a close back headphone would be better)
Click to expand...
For mix and mastering yeah the NDH30 are a very good choice.

For composing I'm not sure... personally I would rather use more comfortable headphones and more "benevolent" with the source material.
 
Pier said:
For mix and mastering yeah the NDH30 are a very good choice.

For composing I'm not sure... personally I would rather use more comfortable headphones and more "benevolent" with the source material.
Click to expand...
Ok i see!
 
Thanks for the review Pierre!
Have you tried APL Virtuoso yet? Really liking it for room simulation, probably the best I've tried to date, and it has EQ correction for the NDH30 built in (based on oratory I believe) going to try a long overdue comparison with canopener as well as demo some NDH after your review.
 
method1 said:
Have you tried APL Virtuoso yet?
Click to expand...
Thanks I didn't know this one!

I will give it a try although all room simulations I've tried end up sounding bad to me.

If you try the NDH30 be sure to load the Oratory EQ. It made all the difference to me.
 
Pier said:
So I got the NDH30 a couple of weeks ago and I feel I'm ready to write about them...
If anyone else has them I'd be happy to compare notes! 🤓
Click to expand...

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
 
Last edited:
ozonepaul said:
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
Click to expand...
I imagine you're still happy mixing with your HD800s then (did you return the NDH30s)?
 
ALittleNightMusic said:
I imagine you're still happy mixing with your HD800s then (did you return the NDH30s)?
Click to expand...
As I mentioned in my review, the NDH30 wasn't mine, a friend bought it, that's how I had the chance to compare it to my cans. + Yes, I'm still on my HD800 but I mostly work on monitors (mostly on KH310s, sometimes on KH420s).
As I said in my review, the HD800 is not necessarily better in every single category but for my studio headphone needs I heavily prioritize comfort, detail and soundstage over all other qualities, so with slight EQ the HD800 is still the one that suits me best.

My NDH30 vs HD800 conclusion was:
"- The NDH 30 is a pretty well designed, well tuned, natural sounding, great headphone. If compared to it’s competition it’s very accurately priced (way above the DT880 or the HD650, a bit above the DT1990 but way below the HD800S). For studio/mixing work it’s much better than most headphones. To make an “audible upgrade” from the NDH 30, one would need to spend 2x-3x as much. It’s exactly at the perfect price/performance point where most should just get off the “diminishing returns train” and never look back.
As far as detail, soundstage and it’s overall mixing capabilities it’s clearly above the HD650 and the DT880, it’s roughly in the same-ish league as DT1990 (but it’s better tuned, a bit more natural sounding as far as timbre, it’s soundstage is bigger etc.)
...
- Objectively, the HD800 has got a much bigger soundstage and it presents way more detail. Whether someone wants that soundstage; whether someone needs that insane amount of detail; or whether someone can at all benefit from these “extreme” qualities of the HD800 is a different question.
- Even though the earcups are much bigger on the HD800 and the air space is much bigger inside the earcups of the HD800, the frequency response still doesn’t shift as much when the headphone is moved around on the head. For me this was a noticeable weakness of the NDH 30, it was clearly way more position sensitive on my big head than the HD800. I think this issue has got something to do with the clamping force and the driver angle/positioning, I’m not sure.
- I prefer the comfort of the HD800, but that’s completely subjective.
- As far as it’s overall sound (without EQ) the NDH 30 is better than the HD800. In the low bass region the difference is significant. If someone doesn’t want to use EQ than the NDH 30 is the better choice (+ it’s easier to drive and it’s much cheaper)..."

If you're considering buying the NDH30 and you can't decide between the HD800/HD650/DT1990... than perhaps worth reading my full review, the link is in my previous post.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom