Neumann NDH 20 Studio Headphone Review

Despite the high-ish impedance of 150 Ohms, the NDH 20 is a gentle load for just about any headphone output out there. High sensitivity coupled with high-ish impedance will make sure that your amplifier stage works at its most linear. 150 Ohms also mean that these headphones are fairly resistant to tonality changes due to the output impedance of your audio interface or headphone amp.

Built like a [German] tank! Almost all parts that are not padded are made out of cast aluminum with most surfaces being matte, thus fingerprints are not a problem. Most parts can be taken apart with a Torx driver and all padded surfaces seem to be swappable. Knowing Neumann, all parts for the NDH 20 should be readily buyable should they need replacement. Cables seem to be built well, however, their connection to the earcup uses a custom-molded plastic 2.5mm TRS jack. A more common connector would’ve been better as it would allow the user to easily repair and craft their own cables.

I own a pair of Neumann KH310 monitors, so I was a bit biased to what their headphones could sound like. My expectation was neutral, even boringly so with a scary good resolution that reveals itself once your ears get accustomed. Once I tried the NDH 20, I was surprised! Bottomless low-end extension with some “belly” and no trace of the usual “pro” hyped highs. The measurements partially confirmed my impressions. Highs are accentuated, but no mt. Beyer. While fun to listen to, the bass emphasis on the Neumann NDH 20 will force your hand to do thin-sounding mixes. Upper mids are scooped which usually robs distorted e-guitars of their bite, again biasing the engineer (or guitarist) to add too much crunch. Low THD throughout the frequency range means the NDH 20 has a terrific resolution, but bass boost muddies up the mids a bit. Overall the signature is a bit too scooped to be used for mixing without reservations or calibration.

Overall very good with around 1.5 dB imbalance in mids which can mess with some surgical positioning, but you can meet worse in other more popular headphones. The imbalanced low-end extension looks worse than it really is. You’re probably doing everything in mono under 100 Hz and even then the ear isn’t too sensitive to position changes this low.

The all-aluminum chassis on this Neumann headphone is not light, but a far cry away from the heavyweights like Audeze which go over half a kilo. The fit is well done with no pressure hot-spots due to weight or clamping. Cable microphonics on the NDH 20 can be troublesome at times, but that’s more of an on-the-go issue.

This is a tough one, as the Neumann NDH 20 isn’t exactly affordable. There are less costly options with better overall tonal balance, but worse THD performance. These aren’t the closed-back Sennheiser HD 650, everyone probably was expecting, but with some frequency correction, the NDH 20 can be a solid 8.