Beyerdynamic T90 Discussion and Support Thread

[MiRaCL]

Recently i bough a pair of B&O H6 Dj Khaled edition to use with my phone. Works great and the sound is good.
Last week i bought a Creative E5 dac / amp to use with these. Streaming Tidal Hifi from my laptop.
 
Just for the fun of it i tried my old DT-880 Pro with the dac / amp and the 880's are still really good. Lacking bass but the soundstage is much better.
I've had the 880's for years and it pairs well with the LittleDot MKv amp i have on my desk.
 
Read about the T90 today and maybe buying a pair.
 
I have some questions:
 
1. How does the T90 pair with solid state amps / portable dac-amp?
2. I get fatigue with my Shure SE535 iem's real fast because of the highs, will i have the same issue with T90?
3. How does the T90 compare to DT-880(250ohm) or H6?

 

[genclaymore]

Depends on the dac and amp in question as they can be Bright,Neutral,warm sounding. I will tell you this using a Bifrost uber and Asgard 2 together with the T90 will make your ears scream and won't be a good combination with the T90 unless you like your highs to be very bright and if you have HF tinnitus that isn't fun. T90 wouldn't be a good choice for portable usage if your planning on taking these outside your home, As they leak a lot of sound. Any one that gets near you or in the range of the sound leak, will hear whatever music that you are listening to. Unless being a walking Stereo with people following you just to listen to the music your playing is your plan, then these will do that perfectly.Other wise for on the Go usage you might wanna use closed back headphones.
 
Depending on what your dac will be a warm sounding amp would tone down their highs enough for you to enjoy them or atleast a setup thats a good match for them which doesn't cause their highs to be too much for you. Your Little dot MKV that you already have would be a perfect match for them. I don't know how they compair to your H6 and I haven't had the DT880 pro-250 in a very long time to even compair them to, The only other headphone that I compared them to was the HE-500's.  I found I liked the HE-500 more but only because at the time the Bifrost and asgard 2 matched very well with them unlike the T90. The only setup I enjoyed the T90 with was a little dot MK2 amp with Warm sounding tubes which I had prior to the Asgard 2 and HE-500.

 

[adydula]

If you try a Crack from Bottlehead the bass will hit very hard and its really wonderful....this is a great amp for these cans!
 
Alex

 

[mkrzych]

My T90s finally arrived. Around 10h of playing and these cans are amazing! Source used in Beresford Caiman II powered by battery pack. Comparing to my beloved Grado 325is's it is night and day. Much deeper soundstage, much more bass impact with breathing aura not saying about comfort. Superb pair true hifi cans. Highly recommended! Two small drawbacks found so far: microphonics ear cushions - when turning or moving head I hear squick sound and cable - could be more sophisticated.

 

[Gilly87]

My T90s finally arrived. Around 10h of playing and these cans are amazing! Source used in Beresford Caiman II powered by battery pack. Comparing to my beloved Grado 325is's it is night and day. Much deeper soundstage, much more bass impact with breathing aura not saying about comfort. Superb pair true hifi cans. Highly recommended! Two small drawbacks found so far: microphonics ear cushions - when turning or moving head I hear squick sound and cable - could be more sophisticated.

 
IMO T90 is a great transition from Grados - they're what would happen if a DT880 had a baby with an RS2 

 

[mkrzych]

   
IMO T90 is a great transition from Grados - they're what would happen if a DT880 had a baby with an RS2 

Well, it seems to be. Sonically, with my source very similar, but bass has more impact with that air blast to your ears and soundstage - different league. I need more time with them, got it only one day so far with around 7 hours of listening. Definitely very good pair of cans.

 

[bracko]

I have been listening to a loan T90 whole day using Marantz SA-KI Pearl Lite as a source and Matrix M-Stage as amp. I really like it. Compared to my HD650 and HD600, T90 is a cleaner and more resolving and at the same time more fun and emotionally involving. I wonder now how T1 sounds and if it is worth $500 extra here in Sweden

 

[mkrzych]

I have been listening to a loan T90 whole day using Marantz SA-KI Pearl Lite as a source and Matrix M-Stage as amp. I really like it. Compared to my HD650 and HD600, T90 is a cleaner and more resolving and at the same time more fun and emotionally involving. I wonder now how T1 sounds and if it is worth $500 extra here in Sweden

I've been wondering the same now. T1's are semi-open, but have angled drivers AFAIK. They are also 600 ohm, so need really good HPA. On T90 they could have done better cable or make it detachable, the rest is premium indeed. 

 

[bracko]

  I've been wondering the same now. T1's are semi-open, but have angled drivers AFAIK. They are also 600 ohm, so need really good HPA. On T90 they could have done better cable or make it detachable, the rest is premium indeed. 

I guess T1 is also a little bit harder to drive, at least according to the impedance curve shown on goldenears.net.

 

[mkrzych]

 I've been wondering the same now. T1's are semi-open, but have angled drivers AFAIK. They are also 600 ohm, so need really good HPA. On T90 they could have done better cable or make it detachable, the rest is premium indeed. 

I guess T1 is also a little bit harder to drive, at least according to the impedance curve shown on goldenears.net.

Yes, T1's for sure are much harder to drive!

 

[adydula]

I really don't think the T1's are worth the extra bucks, that said I would not mind having a set. My T-90s are perfect to me... after many others, to include AKGs, Audio Technical, Grade, Audeze, etc. The T90's are IMO one of the best all around cans out there period.
 
Alex

 

[MiRaCL]

So i tried the T90's today for about 30 minutes. These where brand new.
I'm still not sure if i'll buy them or not.
 
I used them with my Creative E5 dac/amp and compared them to DT-880 and B&O H6.
The sound was clearly better, but the sound in the higher areas was killing my ears.
 
Was using Tidal Hifi as source. Most songs i tried where ok, but some where totally rubish.
I wasn't able to listen to Dark side of the moon at high volumes without my ears hurting.
 
Was very warm on the ears after 30 mins as well.
 
I swapped between T90 and DT-880 and i'm still not sure how much better it was(only 30 minutes listen).
 
Will the T90 be better after 150hours of use or is it vital to pair these with the perfect amp/dac?

 

[Kozic]

So i tried the T90's today for about 30 minutes. These where brand new.
I'm still not sure if i'll buy them or not.

I used them with my Creative E5 dac/amp and compared them to DT-880 and B&O H6.
The sound was clearly better, but the sound in the higher areas was killing my ears.

Was using Tidal Hifi as source. Most songs i tried where ok, but some where totally rubish.
I wasn't able to listen to Dark side of the moon at high volumes without my ears hurting.

Was very warm on the ears after 30 mins as well.

I swapped between T90 and DT-880 and i'm still not sure how much better it was(only 30 minutes listen).

Will the T90 be better after 150hours of use or is it vital to pair these with the perfect amp/dac?

The T90 will get better after burn in and in the first 20 hours you can hear it. With that said you still need the right DAC/Amp combo to go with them something on the warmer side works best. I use a NAD DAC and Gastard H10 amp or T1 DAC with a Holland tube and Asgard 2 amp both set up sound great and smooth out the treble nicely. Others say tube amps are the way to go with them but I like a warm SS amp either way most all say it needs to be warm to dark sounding set up.

 

[adydula]

Some ok ...some rubbish.....
 
The way material is recorded and mastered is very important.... garbage in garbage out...
 
No set of decent headphones will correct a crappy recording.
 
I have several reference recordings I use to objectively tell me how well something is in the chain of audio reproduction.
 
The 90's with good material and a good amp and dad can be absolutely off the charts.
 
I was listening to Eva Cassidy Live a few minutes ago and was blown away at the sound, even my really bright recordings like the old Chicago CD;s etch that are really harsh
sound decent to me.
 
I have 200 hours on my cans, I don't think they get really any better over time.... but that may be something that does happen..just not to my ears.
 
If there not for you there are lots of other great headphones out there.
 
Alex

 

[ZekeAdebayo]

Does anyone know a place in the Minneapolis area I could take my T90s to have them check to make sure they are working as they should? I just have the sneaking suspicion that they aren't sounding the way they should. People are blown away by the amazing clarity & my pair doesn't seem to do that. The fact that the treble isn't even close to being sibilant on my pair and the hinge mechanism becoming a bit loose is having me think that I may have a connection problem somewhere. Hopefully I can find a place because I don't have enough confidence in myself to want to take them apart. I want to give this headphone ever bit of chance which includes making final judgments after listening to them the way they were intended with no flaws on my end.