Joined in 2023 
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I'm upgrading from an AKG K702. It's a fine headphone, but quite light in the low-end department, which is a big "no-no" for electronic musicians, and causes me to overcompensate the low-end all the time. Yet the more I listened to the NDH 30s, the more I felt that they should displace the Shures at the top of the heap. Perhaps it’s the exceptionally low distortion, but there’s something about the sound that relaxes your ears and makes you feel that you’re listening to music, not to a monitoring system. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I suspect their vestigial softness in the upper midrange might simply represent unaccustomed clarity, rather than a real dip in the frequency response. One final thing I have to touch upon is the excellent sound insulation properties of these headphones. The NDH 20 delivers and then some in this respect. I really appreciated the superb suppression of external noise while there’s very little leakage of audio from the listeners themselves. Areas of Application The NDH 20 uses newly designed drivers (38 mm/1.5”) with high-gauss neodymium magnets to ensure high sensitivity and minimized distortion, thus allowing the user to listen to the pure audio signal without unwanted coloration. The mechanical construction, too, meets the highest standards. The adjustable headband is made of flexible steel while the ear cup covers are machined from lightweight aluminum. For easy transportation the headphone is foldable and can be placed into the supplied soft cloth bag. Two detachable cables (one straight, one coiled) and a 6.3 mm (1/4”) adapter are also included. Applications Ultrasone Signature DXP might also work for you though subjectively sound is closer to slightly less refined version of NDH 20.
Overall Tone of this headphone? > Flat and very clear with ample resolution and a nice soundstage for a closed set of headphones.
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Playing the "Aja" album by Steely Dan is a "go to" to discern if any cans are able to dig out the bass response, as this album does not have an overly projected bass, its quite neutral....nd many headphones are lost trying to find it. In short, as long as your work has the bass response you're after then it should come across, especially since the isolation on NDH 20 is close to anechoic but in a good way.
Transients are reproduced in a powerful way with these headphones, but don’t demonstrate the same level of precision as headphones at a similar level of technical spec. Also, the stereo image suffers a little from the more muted sound character of the NDH 20. The stereo stage comes across a little limited and seems somewhat narrow, even when playing productions that are synonymous with extreme stereo expansion. Think for example current EDM songs. The Neumann's are Interesting headphones that will appeal more to the professional recording musician, first and foremost, and also to the discriminating Audiophile who can appreciate the idea that each (Model) of (good sounding) headphones is a unique experience that is not like any other.I used the Merging Anubis audio interface for sound quality testing because it’s the closest available thing to the just-released Neumann MT48. The Anubis was connected to my PC via the Ravenna AES67 network connection. I used my usual suite of music from many different genres and sources, both lossless and lossy. There are many aspects of audio performance that can be measured, and the idea of manufacturer specifications is to guarantee that what you’re buying will measure a certain way. Some of these specifications are more important than others, and in the case of both microphones and monitoring systems, it’s easy to get hung up on frequency response as the be‑all and end‑all of performance. But is it?
PS My new record that I just finished working on in a professional studio for the last 3 years sounds AWESOME with these phones Note: The measurements you are about to see are made using a standardized Gras 45C. Headphone measurements by definition are approximate and variable so don't be surprised if other measurements even if performed with the same fixtures as mine, differ in end results. Protocols vary such as headband pressure and averaging (which I don't do). As you will see, I confirm the approximate accuracy of the measurements using Equalization and listening tests. Ultimately headphone measurements are less exact than speakers mostly in bass and above a few kilohertz so keep that in mind as you read these tests. If you think you have an exact idea of a headphone performance, you are likely wrong! However, if there's one other part that rivals the microphone in significance, it's the monitoring system. No self‑respecting studio can afford to skimp in this area either, and in 2005, Neumann's parent company Sennheiser acquired German loudspeaker manufacturers Klein+Hummel. Four years later, the studio monitor arm of K+H was folded into the Neumann stable, and since then, there have been numerous loudspeaker releases under the Neumann brand. These have built on K+H's already strong reputation to develop a very highly regarded product portfolio. With many people listening to music on mobile phones and laptop computers, manufacturers these days are careful to ensure that their headphones can be driven effectively by low-powered headphone amps. Broadly speaking, the acoustic level that a pair of headphones will produce in response to a given electrical input is a function of their sensitivity and their impedance. The more sensitive they are, and the lower the impedance they present, the more effectively they'll convert that electrical signal into acoustical energy. Most new headphone models therefore tend to have a nominal impedance of well below 100Ω. That of the NDH 20s is quoted as 150Ω, but they are also more sensitive than most, generating a quoted 114dB SPL for 1V RMS at 1kHz. They went plenty loud enough on every device I tried them with, with no discernible change in overall tonality (in contrast, headphones with very low impedance can be bass-light on low-powered amps). The comfort is surprisingly bad. The headphones are very heavy and the headband is quite hard. After an hour you will feel like taking a break. The ear cups are big enough but I wish they were oval shape, rather than round.Let me tell you exactly the sound of these headphones, as when i first started listening hours ago, i recognized such a similarity with another set of headphones. The NDH 30 was developed with the aim of making the reference sound of a Neumann studio monitor setup, perfectly calibrated via MA-1, available everywhere in the form of an easily transportable headphone. At the same time, the NDH 30 forms its own sound reference in terms of headphone reproduction, which has become a key to success with the consumer. Its superior sound characteristics make the NDH 30 the first choice for mixing and mastering. Thanks to its high long-term comfort, it is just as excellently suited to high-precision editing.
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