[nanaholic]

Ok I've only listened to the T1 for a total of maybe 10 hours but I can already say this is hands down the best headphone I have and is worth the money, I'll probably never go back to my other cans now however I think if I never bought the other headphones I wouldn't be able to appreciate all the things the T1 does and does so well of.  The learning experience is well worth it to come this far.
 
Like everyone had said already the T1 is very well balanced, saying it does nothing wrong really doesn't do it justice - it is definitely more correct to say it does everything not just well, but very well.  The T1 is probably the first pair of cans where I can say I seriously enjoy listening to the bass in the music - it's full of impact and presence, but it's not bloated, over bearing or intruding into the mids like how some of the cheaper headphones does it which usually what turns me right off and why I tended towards what most people consider "bass-lite" headphones, but the T1 really made me re-discover what nice bass is all about without sacrificing anything in the process.  Separation and imaging is of course superb too.    
 
Awesome headphones. 

  

 

[leng jai]

Dream Theater usually have great recording quality on their discs. Porcupine Tree were excellent in their earlier days, but lately they've really gone downhill. The Incident in particular sounds pretty bad. Lightbulb Sun and In Absentia both sound excellent and would be a good start if you want to get into them.
 
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D@mn, the more i read the more i want it. From all the flaghship threads the T1 is peaking my interest the most. Must be the talk about the sonic balance/neutrality.

 
 
That is some good news. Though i havent heard these songs, i really like DT. Prog metal, DT and Pagans Minds mostly, is getting more and more rotation the last  few months.
A friend of mine and het boyfriend had Porcupine tree running in the background when i was at their place, sounded pretty interesting.
 
Naim, could you do comparison vs the T50RP, not in the same league im sure but still interesting.
 

 

 

[Naim.F.C]

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D@mn, the more i read the more i want it. From all the flaghship threads the T1 is peaking my interest the most. Must be the talk about the sonic balance/neutrality.

 
 
That is some good news. Though i havent heard these songs, i really like DT. Prog metal, DT and Pagans Minds mostly, is getting more and more rotation the last  few months.
A friend of mine and het boyfriend had Porcupine tree running in the background when i was at their place, sounded pretty interesting.
 
Naim, could you do comparison vs the T50RP, not in the same league im sure but still interesting.
 

Sure. I don't have them on me at present (they've been sent to a fellow Head.Fi'er to be modded) but I did do A/B testing with all my cans over the last few days. Without going in to too much detail..
 
D5000 - Smaller soundstage, very clean, nice details, warmer sound, not a huge soundstage but pretty intimate. Huge bass prominence (tonnes of bass quantity) that does take away from some of the clarity and instrumental detailing. Overall quite an engaging and fun headphone. Emphasis is on the low end and mids, making for a very musical, fun can.
 
T50RP - Accurate bass, seemed quite accomplished and attentive, not a lot of quantity mind, but it's controlled. Balance across the board seems great with no real stand out frequencies, maybe a slight mid emphasis. Soundstage is also quite good, nice airiness about the tone, but it's hard to say because there's a sense of congestion, a slight muffle and thick veil across everything that does cloud detailing somewhat. It's no where near as clean sounding as the other two cans, though it has potential and is still very good value for money. Even un-modded.
 
T1 - Very good balance across the board, perhaps with a slight emphasis on highs and instrumental detailing. Fantastic soundstage with excellent instrumental separation. It's not just wide, but has a very good sense of depth as well. I feel I can position the location of sounds in a recording with more three dimensionality with these cans than any of my others, for example, not just horizontally speaking (like with my W4's), but vertically too or with respect to depth too. Bass has sublime punch and brilliant control, however it is lacking in quantity a bit, this might be down to my portable amps as I can't even seem to EQ the bass in to the same degree I can with the other cans and IEM's. From experience, bass is one of those things that can really be helped with good amping, as is smoothening out high's or top end brightness (I do also get some sibilance on rare occasion with the T1's). Once again though, this can is all about balance and detailing. You can pick out so much more in music than you can with the other cans I own. I don't really want to say too much till I've tried more amp combinations.
 
Hope that helps.

 

[baka1969]

Dream Theater usually have great recording quality on their discs. Porcupine Tree were excellent in their earlier days, but lately they've really gone downhill. The Incident in particular sounds pretty bad. Lightbulb Sun and In Absentia both sound excellent and would be a good start if you want to get into them.
 


 

Don't forget to add The Sky Moves Sideways too. One of my favorite early PT albums.

 

[upstateguy]

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I believe that is what others might have experienced.  Just shifting the headphones slightly forward or backward does change the sound, it is very noticeable. 
 
I remember when I had Ultrasone hfi-780s and Pro 900s I had to do the same thing.  That's what made me think of actually moving the headphones.  It was definitely one of those "doh" moments. 

 

My first T-1s were too bright and bass light regardless of what position they were in.  My second T-1s are well balanced with fine bass, regardless of what position they are in.
 
Shifting them forward or backward makes almost no difference in the sound.  The thing is that once you get your ears centered in the ear cups, you're set and the T-1s are almost locked into position.
 


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I think its a myth that the T1's need an OTL amp. That opinion is based on the fact that OTL amps generally work very well with high impedance headphones but in my experience to say that the T1's need an OTL amp to sound there best is misleading.
I use a Woo6se and it sounds superb with the T1's and my Audio-gd Roc sound excellent as well even using single ended output.

Agree completely.  Using GS-1 and M^3 with great results.  I also have a Woo 3, but it is not the best, the GS-1 is.
 


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I've been saying that since January 2010 and still believe it!
 

+1 

   
 

 

[Naim.F.C]

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My first T-1s were too bright and bass light regardless of what position they were in.  My second T-1s are well balanced with fine bass, regardless of what position they are in.
 
Shifting them forward or backward makes almost no difference in the sound.  The thing is that once you get your ears centered in the ear cups, you're set and the T-1s are almost locked into position.
 

 

Sounds like you just didn't give your first pair a chance to burn in properly since the symptoms you discuss are exactly the same I had with my T1's till several hours of burn in. That and sounding much thinner than they do now (fuller and more accurate). Also changing the positioning definitely makes a difference, not a huge one, but enough. Having them further back adds a brighter, louder sound, and having them forward slightly less clear, much less sparkly. Honestly the best position is just perfectly balanced, not too far back or forward.
 
Out of curiosity what is the serial number of your T1's?

 

[Naim.F.C]

Has anyone re-cabled their T1's? I was thinking about going silver, but realised the T1's already have a quite bright top and high emphasised detail, so I'm not sure it'd be a good idea (still mulling over it). Anyone tried better copper cabling or is the stock cable already quite good?

 

[Frank I]

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Has anyone re-cabled their T1's? I was thinking about going silver, but realised the T1's already have a quite bright top and high emphasised detail, so I'm not sure it'd be a good idea (still mulling over it). Anyone tried better copper cabling or is the stock cable already quite good?

The stock cable is fantastic. If you recable it you chance the new cable not as good and you void the warranty. personally I never mod headphones especially flagships.

 

[caracara08]

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The stock cable is fantastic. If you recable it you chance the new cable not as good and you void the warranty. personally I never mod headphones especially flagships.

what makes the stock cable fantastic? how thick it is? the connector? how can one say the stock cable is fantastic without trying the T1 with another cable? is it because it alreayd sounds good? theres always room for improvement
 
if you recable with companies like whiplash or moon audio, you still have your full warranty.  
 
i have a TWAg recable on my T1. cant say if its better or worse than stock because i bought it with the Twag on there and its been too long since i last heard a T1 stock so i dont want to make comparisons. 

 

[Shahrose]

I agree there's room for improvement. I'm having mine recabled with DHC copper cable in a few weeks. Frank does have a point with the warranty, but that's never stopped me from modding anything before.

 

[Alghazanth]

I would recable the T1 just to get that beefy hose cable out of the comfort equation. Copper is probably the way to go. 

 

[caracara08]

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I agree there's room for improvement. I'm having mine recabled with DHC copper cable in a few weeks. Frank does have a point with the warranty, but that's never stopped me from modding anything before.

but i have confirmed the warranty is not an issue with whiplash.  i think the same with moon audio. i doubt DHC will be able to do that though.  so yea, if warranty is an issue, you have other options.  love to hear what you think of the DHC recable. i like their products.

 

[Zombie_X]

Personally I think the stock cable is pretty darned good. It may be thick and bulky but it sounds very nice. I have recabled mine before but there wasn't a noticeable improvement (probably because the stock cable is already very good) so I went back to stock.
 
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Has anyone re-cabled their T1's? I was thinking about going silver, but realised the T1's already have a quite bright top and high emphasised detail, so I'm not sure it'd be a good idea (still mulling over it). Anyone tried better copper cabling or is the stock cable already quite good?

 

[Naim.F.C]

Holy moley...lol.
 
I literally plugged her in, using the ALO Cricket LOD, not even fully burned in...and WOW. Instantly my fave portable amp for the T1's, no question about it. In-fact it's such a good match I'm not nearly as interested in buying the LCD-2's (for now lol). Thinking I might just re-cable the T1's with silver instead. Firstly, volume around half way to get the same volume or louder than what I had on my SR-71A at 80% of the knob. But the sound....the synergy with the T1, it's...it's just gorgeous!
 
That harsh sparkle and ever so slight thinness from before is replaced with smoother highs, slightly more full vocals. The bass....that's where the bulk of the improvement is. A warmer and boomier lower end, more bass presence and quantity, but is it sloppier? No. I can actually hear all the texture in the bass, but just less synthetic and snappy than before, it's highly addictive. Listening to Phantogram - Running From the Cops, the background b-line, the sort of weird reverbial bass like sound, so poignant but still un-obtrusive allowing for everything else to flow in. Then there's the medley of drums early on in an overly busy beginning section of Watch the Throne - Murder to Excellence, it's a lot easier to make out each of the drum taps (they're thicker too) than with the SR-71A which had a slight bit of overt brightness to it.
 
They do give the sound on the T1's a warmer sort of thicker, imo less clinical sound than the SR-71A. It's not as clean, but imo it's more engaging and fun. I always said before that I thought the slight lack of bass quantity and rare sibilance were really my only negatives of the T1, and the great news is the Continental does a good job of correcting most of that (though I need more listening and further burn in to confirm).
 
I won't comment on sound stage yet, all I know is that it's sounds nice and three dimensional on the Continental, allowing a good amount of instrumental separation.
 
In any case, thus far very pleased with both the Continental and the Cricket LOD. Will do a proper thorough and full review later. All I'll say is it's a shame these are out of stock because it is truly a beautiful portable amp. Different sort of warmer thicker, more bass heavy sound to other portable amps I've tried. Tonnes of power as well. I'm literally hitting max 6/10 on the volume knob with the T1's.
 
Looks gorgeous too. Glossy finish with metallic shiny silver fancy typography, looks really plush. Amp is lighter than I expected it to be too. Top marks Ken. So far, so great.
 
 

My initial impressions of the ALO Continental with the T1's.

 

[upstateguy]

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Sounds like you just didn't give your first pair a chance to burn in properly since the symptoms you discuss are exactly the same I had with my T1's till several hours of burn in. That and sounding much thinner than they do now (fuller and more accurate). Also changing the positioning definitely makes a difference, not a huge one, but enough. Having them further back adds a brighter, louder sound, and having them forward slightly less clear, much less sparkly. Honestly the best position is just perfectly balanced, not too far back or forward.
 
Out of curiosity what is the serial number of your T1's?

Luckily, the left driver failed after a few months and Beyer replaced the whole headphone with a new one.  I can't thank them enough.  The new ones 45XX are completely different from the first ones.  Normally I don't believe in burn in, but the 2nd pair were dark like 650s out of the box.  After a while they brightened up to the level of the 880s but didn't loose any bass they had out of the box.   (The 1st ones had very little bass period)
 
If your ears fit inside the earpads,  there's only around an inch of play, forward and backward.  When you move the driver closer to your ear canals the sound gets louder and vice versa.  The best position is with your ears centered in the earpads, which is how I'm going to assume Beyer designed it to be.
 
The "bright" issue is not dependent on serial number, while the new headband is.
 


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Has anyone re-cabled their T1's? I was thinking about going silver, but realised the T1's already have a quite bright top and high emphasised detail, so I'm not sure it'd be a good idea (still mulling over it). Anyone tried better copper cabling or is the stock cable already quite good?

Only my first ones were like that.  The ones I have now are like Macedonianhero's.  Not bright at all.  You may have the "bright" versions.  The good news is that you have a 2 year warranty and Beyer will take care of you.

 
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what makes the stock cable fantastic? how thick it is? the connector?
 
<snip>

 


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I agree there's room for improvement. I'm having mine recabled with DHC copper cable in a few weeks. Frank does have a point with the warranty, but that's never stopped me from modding anything before.

Of course you will. 

 
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Personally I think the stock cable is pretty darned good. It may be thick and bulky but it sounds very nice. I have recabled mine before but there wasn't a noticeable improvement (probably because the stock cable is already very good) so I went back to stock.
 

Wondering if you're talking about the T-1s?