The Beyerdynamic brand has been a company that I definitely put some blame on for getting me so into this hobby. Back when I was working in an audio store in the airport Beyerdynamic was one of the heavy hitters we carried and it was easy to see why and ever since then I’ve continuously heard about their legendary T1 model. Fast forward to my learning about Head-Fi and all the comparisons between the T1, and other heavy hitters like the HD800 etc… always made me yearn to hear them for myself. And finally, thanks to Beyerdynamic and their awesome rep. I have this opportunity. And I am MORE than pleased to share my opinion on these with you. Also, for simplicity sake I may refer to the T1 second generation and the T1.2.
A little about me
I would like to say that first and foremost I am NOT an “audiophile” but rather an audio enthusiast. I listen to music to enjoy it. Do I prefer a lossless source? Yes, of course. But I can still be very happy streaming from Pandora or even YouTube's “My Mix” playlist. I also prefer equipment that sounds the best to me personally regardless of what frequency response it has or rather or not it's “sonically accurate” and I always have and shall continue to encourage others to do the same.
I'm a 26 year old firefighter, for the City of Concord, North Carolina as well as the U.S. Army, North Carolina National Guard. The cliché of wanting to do this since I was born couldn't be more present with me. I've worked hard over the last several years to earn this position and now it's time for me to work even harder to keep it.
My interests/hobbies are fishing and relaxing to audio products and reviewing them to help other decide on what products would work for them. Few things make me as an audio enthusiast/reviewer feel more accomplished than when someone tells me that I helped them find the type of sound they've always been looking for.
Now, the sound signature I personally favor is a relaxing, warm and sensual sound that just drifts me away in the emotional experience of the music being performed. Yes, accuracy is still important but I will happily sacrifice some of that if I'm presented with a clean, warm sound that can wisp me away into an experience that makes me yearn for more.
My ideal signature is that of respectably forward mids and upper bass range with the bass being controlled but with some slight decay. I like my treble to have nice extension and detail reveal with a smooth roll off up top as to not become harsh in the least. Examples of products that have given me chills and keep giving me the yearning for more feels are the (in no particular order) Bowers & Wilkins P7, Oppo PM-1/2, Empire Ears Hermes VI & Zeus XIV, Audeze LCD-XC, Meze Headphones 99 Classics.
I would like to say that first and foremost I am NOT an “audiophile” but rather an audio enthusiast. I listen to music to enjoy it. Do I prefer a lossless source? Yes, of course. But I can still be very happy streaming from Pandora or even YouTube's “My Mix” playlist. I also prefer equipment that sounds the best to me personally regardless of what frequency response it has or rather or not it's “sonically accurate” and I always have and shall continue to encourage others to do the same.
I'm a 26 year old firefighter, for the City of Concord, North Carolina as well as the U.S. Army, North Carolina National Guard. The cliché of wanting to do this since I was born couldn't be more present with me. I've worked hard over the last several years to earn this position and now it's time for me to work even harder to keep it.
My interests/hobbies are fishing and relaxing to audio products and reviewing them to help other decide on what products would work for them. Few things make me as an audio enthusiast/reviewer feel more accomplished than when someone tells me that I helped them find the type of sound they've always been looking for.
Now, the sound signature I personally favor is a relaxing, warm and sensual sound that just drifts me away in the emotional experience of the music being performed. Yes, accuracy is still important but I will happily sacrifice some of that if I'm presented with a clean, warm sound that can wisp me away into an experience that makes me yearn for more.
My ideal signature is that of respectably forward mids and upper bass range with the bass being controlled but with some slight decay. I like my treble to have nice extension and detail reveal with a smooth roll off up top as to not become harsh in the least. Examples of products that have given me chills and keep giving me the yearning for more feels are the (in no particular order) Bowers & Wilkins P7, Oppo PM-1/2, Empire Ears Hermes VI & Zeus XIV, Audeze LCD-XC, Meze Headphones 99 Classics.
Equipment used at least some point during the review
-Amp.
-Beyerdynamic A2
-iFi iCAN Pro
-Sennheiser HDVD800
-Schiit Ragnarok
-D.A.C.
-iFi iDAC2
-PS Audio Digital Link 3 w/ Cullan Stage IV Upgrade
-Schiit Yggdrasil
-Combi
-iFi Nano iDSD Black Label
-Sources
-LG V20
-Playing Pandora, YouTube, and various lossless, FLAC, etc... music
-Shanling Audio
-M3s
-M2s
-M1
-HP Pavilion Laptop
-Misc. Equipment
-Source cleaner
-iFi Nano iUSB3.0
-Amp.
-Beyerdynamic A2
-iFi iCAN Pro
-Sennheiser HDVD800
-Schiit Ragnarok
-D.A.C.
-iFi iDAC2
-PS Audio Digital Link 3 w/ Cullan Stage IV Upgrade
-Schiit Yggdrasil
-Combi
-iFi Nano iDSD Black Label
-Sources
-LG V20
-Playing Pandora, YouTube, and various lossless, FLAC, etc... music
-Shanling Audio
-M3s
-M2s
-M1
-HP Pavilion Laptop
-Misc. Equipment
-Source cleaner
-iFi Nano iUSB3.0
Disclaimer
I am by no means sponsored by this company or any of its affiliates. They were kind enough to send me a product for an arranged amount of time in exchange for my honest opinion. I am making no monetary compensation for this review.
The following is my take on the product being reviewed. It is to be taken “with a grain of salt” per say and as I always tell people, it is YOUR opinion that matters. So regardless of my take or view on said product, I highly recommend you listen to it yourself and gauge your own opinion.
I am by no means sponsored by this company or any of its affiliates. They were kind enough to send me a product for an arranged amount of time in exchange for my honest opinion. I am making no monetary compensation for this review.
The following is my take on the product being reviewed. It is to be taken “with a grain of salt” per say and as I always tell people, it is YOUR opinion that matters. So regardless of my take or view on said product, I highly recommend you listen to it yourself and gauge your own opinion.
The Opening Experience
Why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience
Please allow me to explain why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience with a product. Maybe it’s due to my southern roots in the hills of eastern Kentucky, but I’ve always been raised under the pretense of when you introduce yourself to someone for the first time you present yourself with confidence, class, character, pride, and competence. You greet the other person with a true warm smile, eye contact and a firm handshake. Anything less or short implies to other person that you either don’t care about them, are too full of yourself, too busy to be bothered by the likes of them, or worse, just generally disrespectful.
As a consumer, I take this same belief to when I open a new product. Why? Because think about it this way. How else can a company introduce themselves to their customers? How do they present their products? Are they packaged with pride and presented in such a way that makes the listener eager to listen to them? Or maybe they’re just wrapped up and placed in an available space. How about the box itself? Is it bogged down with jargon that says look at this, look what I can do. I’m better than anything on the market and here’s why read this and check out that. Or, is the package clean, simplistic and classy? As if saying to the customer ‘Good day, pleasure to meet your acquaintance. Please give me a listen and allow me to show you what I can do and allow my actions to speak louder than my words.’
This is why I feel so strongly about the initial presentation of a product, and I feel it’s truly a shame more people don’t. But with all that aside, let’s discuss how this products introduced itself shall we?
Please allow me to explain why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience with a product. Maybe it’s due to my southern roots in the hills of eastern Kentucky, but I’ve always been raised under the pretense of when you introduce yourself to someone for the first time you present yourself with confidence, class, character, pride, and competence. You greet the other person with a true warm smile, eye contact and a firm handshake. Anything less or short implies to other person that you either don’t care about them, are too full of yourself, too busy to be bothered by the likes of them, or worse, just generally disrespectful.
As a consumer, I take this same belief to when I open a new product. Why? Because think about it this way. How else can a company introduce themselves to their customers? How do they present their products? Are they packaged with pride and presented in such a way that makes the listener eager to listen to them? Or maybe they’re just wrapped up and placed in an available space. How about the box itself? Is it bogged down with jargon that says look at this, look what I can do. I’m better than anything on the market and here’s why read this and check out that. Or, is the package clean, simplistic and classy? As if saying to the customer ‘Good day, pleasure to meet your acquaintance. Please give me a listen and allow me to show you what I can do and allow my actions to speak louder than my words.’
This is why I feel so strongly about the initial presentation of a product, and I feel it’s truly a shame more people don’t. But with all that aside, let’s discuss how this products introduced itself shall we?
Something I’ve grown to like and enjoy about Beyerdynamic is the consistency of their unboxing experience. Almost all their products, regardless of price point, keeps to the simple style of basic box with a couple pictures of the product itself and it being worn by someone and usually their general specifications. I really enjoy that. It lets me know that no matter what product I get from them, I get a nice respectful presentation of the product I’ve purchased. And the T1 is no different. As you open the box you’re greeted with a really nice felt feeling case that I feel most would really appreciate but for me, and this is only a personal thing, I really liked the old aluminum case the original T1 and T5p came with. But the felt case is still very nice and I will most certainly say it is MUCH easy to carry around when you’re wanting to travel with it.
Upon opening the case you’re greeted with the T1 second generation very nicely placed centered in its own cut out foam with its DETACHED and sheathed cable inside a plastic bag in between the headband and ear cups. OH, how silly of me. I forgot to mention that when you open the box to first get to the case you have to cut a seal that guarantees Beyerdynamic quality and upon opening that you’re greeted by a pamphlet that says congratulations on your purchase or the Beyerdynamic T1. That’s um, kinda cool but I feel that a company should be thanking their customers for spending so much of their hard earned money and entrusting them to provide them with a product worth such an expense over congratulating them on doing so, but that’s just me. But overall, Beyerdynamic did a wonderful job in presenting their T1 as the premier product it’s renowned to be.
Construction
So the T1 costs over $1,000. For a product costing this much, it’s to be expected that it would be built out of equally premium materials. Lately it seems that this piece of detail has been an afterthought in order to maximize money for the company. Well, Beyerdynamic went an entirely different route with their flagship headphone, the T1 second gen. The T1 is handcrafted in Germany using very premium lightweight aluminum throughout its construction.
The headband, as well as the earcups, use an amazingly comfortable cloth like material that I’ll discuss further in the next section but my goodness do I love it. The headband arms not only feel nice, but Beyerdynamic has laser etched some nice designs as well as its T1 name on it. Small touch sure, but to me it’s the attention to the small details that I really appreciate. The arm also has a lot of adjustment from smaller than average heads up to rather impressively large heads.
The cups themselves are either aluminum as well or really high grade plastic (I’m siding more with the latter) that has plenty of up and down movement but just enough side to side to get a good seal. What is a great feature that Beyerdynamic implemented in their T1 model (as well as many of their others), is to angle their drivers. This greatly improved the positional awareness and accuracy of the soundstage to the listener and thankfully is something that I’m seeing more and more products implement.
The cable is DETACHABLE!!! This is a huge upside for me because a headphone that doesn’t offer detachable cables is a major aggravation for me especially after having to pay the ridiculous repair costs after Phoenix (my German Shepard) got a hold of one. So seeing a company offer this, to me, should be standard at this point in technology. But the headphone end is terminated with 2 2.5mm jacks that are each color coded (red for right, white for left) while the amp end is terminated into a standard ⅛” jack and has a ¼” adaptor jack that screws right onto it. The cable itself is the original cable (I believe) that has been covered by a really firm feeling sheath. This, imo, does a great job of protecting the cable from both outside interference, and potential damage. One thing to note however is that this new sheath is very rigid. Like, rigid as a garden hose. You have to twist the entire cable with every turn as you put it away and/or take it out.
So my overall thoughts on the T1’s construction is that it’s exactly what I’m wanting a headphone of this caliber to be. The hand crafted part really speaks to me personally because that’s what makes something personal. Everything being machine mass produced there not as much pride anymore. But when someone puts their own hands on a product and whatever small touch it was makes me extremely happy.
Comfort
Quite satisfied in the T1 second generation’s construction I am. But now I really gotta gloat about how comfortable these headphones are to put on. As I mentioned in the previous section, Beyerdynamic decided to go with a cloth like material (soft velour to be specific and according to the website) that, to me, is reminiscent of my favorite winter coat; soft, comfortable, and covers all the right spots. I’ve worn these headphones from long durations to short commute to work in the mornings and the only relative irritant I have is that the lobes of my ears are pushed up by the walls of the cups. And as you’ve guessed, that’s entirely a personal thing. For those who keep up with me rather on here or YouTube know I’ve larger ears and no one else that listened to the T1’s had any issue with the cup sizes (at least no one mentioned it to me). Throughout the time I listened I can’t recount any of it that was ended early by ear fatigue or warmth. This is a pretty short section I’m aware but I personally found no issues with the comfort levels of the T1. There’s plenty of adjustments, super soft, comfortable, and breathable padding. What’s not to love?
Sound
Thus far I have been overly impressed by Beyerdynamics newest rendition of their flagship T1. But all that’s for naught if the sound doesn’t follow suite. For the longest time while browsing through the forums I would see the T1 vs HD800 comparisons and which to get discussions. So after FINALLY being able to listen to a pair myself I can completely understand why the T1 is has always been a titan in the audio world. The T1 has a very relaxed but yet musical sound that is so, non fatiguing that I find myself listening for several hours with no intention of stopping. Beyerdynamic, in the entirety of the T1’s design, just hits all the right spots. As I’m writing this review I have listened to the T1’s without stop for 3 hours and still counting (I write a little and then play some Destiny and then write a little more) and that’s EXACTLY what a well designed headphone should do.
The imaging on the Beyerdynamic T1 second generation is incredible. It has that type of presence that forces me to close my eyes and visualize whatever it is that I’m listening to. The detail retrieval is also on par. The T1.2, when properly powered and sourced, will not let a single spec of detail be lost but at the same time it’s very forgiving. I sure that the previous sentence contradicts itself but it’s so very true. It doesn’t matter if I’m listening to YouTube playlist (as I’m actually doing right now) or lossless .wav files (I’d really hope those wouldn’t sound bad but you get the idea), the T1.2 is such a treat to listen to and it’s always leaving me yearning for more. The soundstage is not a very large one but it’s most certainly not in your face either, I can’t really give an example of placing you in a seat somewhere but I will say that it’s a very comfortable distance from the main performance.
When listening to the T1.2 they really don’t perform any different regardless of what genre of music you’re listening to, they really are a musically neutral headphone. But let me discuss the individual aspects of the sound so that I may better describe what I’m wanting to portray.
Treble
The highs on the Beyerdynamic T1 second gen has wonderful extension and a smooth roll of right before it starts getting painful. The tesla drivers produce the treble to cleanly that, for example, symbols sound so realistic that you can almost swear that you were there. And my goodness trumpets, oh how they sound so breathtakingly vivid. Please listen to the piece “For All Seasons” by Yanni. The entire piece is stunning to listen to on the T1.2 but the trumpet solo, just shines on the T1 second gen. So in short. Beyerdynamic hit home with their treble presentation.
Mids
The mids, to my ears, didn’t show any forwardness of recession. The mids come through so clean and accurate that it sounds like the artist, rather it be male or female, is singing a personal concert for me. One of my favorite songs “The Sound Of Silence” by Disturbed (live recording) is a very mid, or rather vocal, focused song and being played through the T1.2 everything just becomes so personal. When the singer inhales, the emotion behind his words, every note is just so full of body and so real sounding. Another piece is “The Last Of The Mohicans” by Luca Stricagnoli. When played through the Beyerdynamic T1.2 the reverb of the guitar string doesn’t just resonate in the music, it resonates in you. At least when I listen to this piece, I can’t help but unconsciously start to lay back, close my eyes, and relax. It takes a very stellar piece of equipment to do that, and the Beyerdynamic T1 second generation, certainly meets that criteria.
Bass
The heartbeat of the music. A term that describes the bass on the Beyerdynamic T1 second gen. The bass is very controlled, perhaps more so than any dynamic driver I’ve ever heard. When properly powered the tesla drivers present bass so cleanly and without distortion that it just sounds accurate. To my ears I think there is a very slight forwardness to the bass but absolutely not to the degree that it takes away from the presentation of the rest of the music. The bass isn’t heavy either. It hits with a purpose and then releases its grip. To conclude, I see the bass as a heartbeat of the music. It must keep the rest of the music in pace and in order. If it’s too fast or hard then music gets fatigued and imbalanced, too light and it’s left unfulfilling and empty. The Beyerdynamic T1 second generation finds this beautiful balance and commands it.
Conclusion
I truly loved my time with the Beyerdynamic T1 second generation. It is absolutely worth having the title of flagship from one of the industries oldest company’s. What more, Beyerdynamic offers these headphones at a very reasonable and respectable price in respect to their sonic performance and build quality in comparison to other totl headphones. For those considering the T1.2, fret not what gear you have, the breathtaking sound will envelope you regardless of your equipment used but it will scale and really shine when given power. There’s really not much negative I can say. Beyerdynamic, to my ears and taste, did everything I look for when it comes to headphones and I honestly can’t speak highly enough of the T1 second generation.
Also, make sure to check out my unboxing and review videos. They’re pretty awesome AND you getta put a face to the Army-Firedawg name. If this review helped you out at all please hit that thumbs up button for it really helps me out a lot. Till next time my friends, stay safe.