I have the 560s and the Aryas and the latter make the 560s sound quite cheap in comparison. I think the 560s sound great and I love them for regular use, but if I'm listening to the Aryas and switch to the 560s, the difference is night and day. Obviously that doesn't happen unless I intentionally want to compare them.

I've been wanting to upgrade mine after I recover from a series of big expenses and the dt 1990 pro is what I have in mind.

Remember to use equalizer APO with Oratory1990's preset, they sound great with it but quite cheap without.

Thanks to all three who replied, I'd like to upgrade my HD560s at some point in the future and these seem like the best candidate but whatever I get should be able to be driven by the iem output of the rme adi-2 so I don't have to switch headphones every time I want to use my main ones or daily drivers, that's why the power requirements is kind of important here.

What DAC/amp are you using? I'm interested in knowing how power-demanding these are.

And selectable output, and the equalizer, and the spectrum analyzer..

I don't have an answer but you should make sure he'd be able to use them at work. Where I work I'm not allowed to even bring my own protectors.

If they do, then you wouldn't be a more skilled player but a player with better headphones.

If you want to get laid, wear your heddphones at the club. Girls can't resist to them.

I don't know how high-end headphones sound but I don't feel I'm missing anything while I'm listening to them.

I don't remember what SB it was since we're talking of six or five years ago, but it wasn't high end. In any case, I'm never going back to a sound card no matter how good they sound since an external dac is always going to sound better and, most importantly, it's fixed inside the PC. You can take the dac to a couch, nightstand or wherever.

For a multiple channel speakers system used with the PC only then yes, a sound card is definitely more practical.

Edit: I just googled the G6 and saw it's a dac, I assumed it was a sound card, which is what I meant in my first comment.

Yes, really big. And that was many years ago when I had a pair of €25 HD220, with better headphones it's probably more noticeable but I can't confirm that. I'd recommend you to get the one I have so you're set for good instead of getting a cheap one, discovering what a difference it makes and then getting a better one leaving the first one obsolete.

And another benefit of having a dac is getting a constant sound quality regardless of what device you use as a source. Maybe your PC produces a decent sound but your phone doesn't so you'll be stuck with the device that sounds good. Which btw is a good reason for not going with one that takes power from the USB like my previous e10k.

I went from a Sound Blaster card to a fiio e10k and then an SMSL c200, the difference between the last two is quite small, but the jump from PC to the e10k was abysmal.

Did you equalize them? My HD560S sound much better, with a lot more bass, when equalized with Oratory1990's suggested filters. Also, I used the fiio e10k for around six years until I recently replaced it with the SMSL C200. Sounds a little bit better but it's infinitely more versatile.