beyerdynamic T1 vs he-5le

I just spent significant time A/B testing Byerdynamic Tesla T1's and HE-5 LE (with the HE-5 LE's cloth screens removed to remove any perceived "veil")

Both headphones were burned in over 100 hours..

My equipment was a Hifiman EF-5 hybrid solid state/tube amplifier burned in for 60 hours.

The sound sources were:

CD's were on played on a Meridian 588  24 bit CD player and

Apple lossless files on a Windows laptop using an Ayre acoustics QB9 DAC.

My music source were remastered Beatles, Cat Stevens, Eagles, Kenny Loggins and a superbly recorded highly dynamic CD "Le Tempe passe", by Michel Jonasz (This popular CD now used at Tri-State area Audiophile stores for demonstating the full range of high end music systems)

I am highly familar with specific sections of these music sources to make comparisons. 

I am not an engineer, but I have been an audiphile for over twenty five years and found very consistent differences during my hours of testing of these two headphones.

The HE 5 LE had overall more realistic, palpable sound wiith more detail and slightly more weight toward the lower mid range.

The HE-5 LE soundstage was wider and more dimensional. It eliminated the analytic detail concerns I previously had with the Sennheiser 800's..

The Beyerdynamic T1 had a slightly brighter, thinner sound than the HE5 LEs .Cymbals and were slightly more pronounced and had more realistic shimmer to them. High end vocals were also slightly more pronounced than the HE 5LEs. 

The T1 soundstage was more compact than the HE-5LE's.

Both had excellent bass. The T1's bass had slightly faster snap, while the HE 5LE bass was more enveloping.

Both were comfortable on my medium to small sized head.

The ideal phone would marry the strengths of each phone.

In the end, I kept the HE-5LE's because of their overall more realistic, more tangible, more detailed sound but still wished they just a tad bit more of the slightly high end of the T1.

^^^

You might want to try the T1s again with a different amp. I (and many others) have described them as on the warm/lush side of neutral and pretty far from thin!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacedonianHero 

^^^

 

You might want to try the T1s again with a different amp. I (and many others) have described them as on the warm/lush side of neutral and pretty far from thin!

Agreed, when I had my T1's paired with a Woo WA6SE they were warm, fast and detailed.  Far from thin.  I'm not saying that it isn't possible that the HE5-LE is warmer, since I haven't had the pleasure of hearing them, just saying that using a word like "thin" to describe the T1 is doing an injustice to anyone considering them, as they certainly are not thin IMHO. 

Sounds like the HE5-LE's are living up to the hype.  Congrats.

Thanks for taking the time to write up your experiences. Both are excellent headphones, but like you, I also have made a better connection with the HE-5LEs than I did with the T1s when I had them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NaturalMusic 

The Beyerdynamic T1 had a slightly brighter, thinner sound than the HE5 LEs .

 

Seems to me he just made a relative comparison (coupled with a 'slightly' as well). I did not read it as describing the T1s as thin.

Id mention that the amp used might be better suited to low impedance cans like the HE5LE and not so perfect for the 600 ohm beyers.  The comparison is interesting but not really too helpful unless you hear both headphones at their best.

I suspect the HE-5 (edit: meant EF-5) can handle the T1s just fine, and both headphones would probably benefit from moving up to a better amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by angle_sh00ter 

Id mention that the amp used might be better suited to low impedance cans like the HE5LE and not so perfect for the 600 ohm beyers.  The comparison is interesting but not really too helpful unless you hear both headphones at their best.