Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
On paper, these Neumann headphones promise a relatively high impedance. In practice, a high sensitivity ensures this is fit for task even with lower spec headphone amplifiers such as the tech found within your favourite smartphone.
The sound is nowhere near flat. The bass is super hyped and there is a weird peak around 3-4k. These factors make the headphones unsuitable for mixing/mastering purposes, and also a little bit fatiguing. I personally don't find them enjoyable either, even just for sitting down and listening to music. They are good but for the price, I definitely expected more. My favorite headphones (Sennheiser HD600s) cost half the price and deliver better in almost every aspect. Neumanns have better imaging and lower bass extension (which is too much for my taste). So if you're a bass head go for it, but if you listen to music with distorted guitars, be aware. PS My new record that I just finished working on in a professional studio for the last 3 years sounds AWESOME with these phones I had to play a lot with these dials as the sound wound up being too bright after my initial correction. I was mostly happy with it but not quite there. It is possible some would prefer the heavier bass response. 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.The NDH 20 itself is a closed over-ear headphone which, according to the information provided by the manufacturer, offers a high level of sound insulation to keep the distractions of the outside world at bay. There’s also the promise of exceptional wearing comfort, while the manufacturing finish and materials utilised in production are also of a high standard. The headphones are equipped with two specially developed dynamic 38 mm drivers, delivering an impressive 1,000 mW of power, along with a max sound pressure level that exceeds 100 dB SPL.
For somewhat useful information on the NDH 20, I suggest looking at the dedicated thread below, started by @FullBright1, who can also give you a better rundown on both headphones. In the case of these headphones, you have a very (perceived) flat response, yet, the clarity is almost hyped. Neumann don’t publish frequency response plots for either model, but quote upper and lower limits of 34kHz and 12Hz for the NDH 30s. Without any tolerances, these figures are of limited value, and I doubt anyone will notice the differences compared with the NDH 20s’ alleged 7Hz‑30kHz bandwidth. What may be more noticeable is that the NDH 30s improve significantly on the NDH 20s’ already impressive distortion figures, taking THD from below 0.1 percent for a 1kHz input at 100dB SPL, to less than 0.03 percent. Whatever they’ve done, it’s worked, because these headphones sound really, really good. Drawing A Line It’s not the “feels like I’m wearing nothing” act the Sennheiser HD800 pull off, but I could wear the NDH 30 for a full day. The pads are circular, huge, and cushy. These headphones use clamping force to stay on your head, but it’s never annoying. There are no pressure hotspots and no HD650 cheekbone death grip. The pads on the NDH 30 are plush and let me listen to music for hours without discomfort. InternalsSie haben einen sehr linearen Klang, manch einer würde sagen, Sie wummern sehr, weil sie untenrum ebenso stark klingen, wie obenrum präzise. Aber bei aller Stärke sind sie nie ungenau, ich kann immer genau hören, wo etwas brummt, überschneidet oder unsauber klingt. I suspect that once again, this is totally related to the gear being used, with the "treble enhanced" reviewer using something that is SS and bass lean. 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. Not so with the Neumann's, as the bass is crystal clear, yet small, as that is the sound of this Album, regarding the bass.
Having headphones tonally sound like calibrated speakers in a decent room has been the gold standard for developing target curves. However, as I used the NDH 20s more for mixing and editing as well as for music listening, it began to dawn on me that there is a reason for all of this. What Neumann's engineers have done is to take seriously the goal of creating headphones specifically for studio use. This is absolutely not a hi-fi design repurposed with a new paint job and a different model number, but a tool designed from the ground up to meet the needs of recording engineers. Thus, as we've already seen, they've clearly put a lot of work into achieving the best possible isolation, even if that comes somewhat at the expense of comfort: and they've also put a lot of work into making them the most revealing monitoring system they can be, even if that doesn't maximise superficial listening pleasure.
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.
Ultrasone Signature DXP might also work for you though subjectively sound is closer to slightly less refined version of NDH 20. There is less roll-off than on the HD6XX series headphones, and deep notes carry almost no distortion or noise. Just like with the NDH 20, Neumann engineers are doing wonders with the Sennheiser 40mm (or 38mm?) driver. The NDH 30 owes its superior linearity, among other things, to frequency-selective absorbers that eliminate the overemphasis in the high frequencies that leads to incorrect mixing decisions in many other headphones. For example, the NDH 30 will accurately reveal whether a voice sounds muffled or needs a de-esser. 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. As with many things, your opinion of the NDH 30 will depend on your expectations. No, they aren’t the second coming of HD650. We can all settle down and resume dreaming. They are, however, a pair of decently proficient modern headphones – with one serious flaw.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 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? 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). Cost of return – The costs of returning goods to Raycom shall be borne by you, the customer, in all circumstances without exception, unless otherwise agreed upon with Raycom. It’s not an understatement to call Neumann a legendary pro audio company. Their microphones have been used by all kinds of celebrities – starting from a certain controversial Austria-born politician in the 1930s all the way up to now with Billie Eilish and others looking to make their mark upon the world with sound.
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