[adydula]

Yup we all have listening tastes ....

I was listening to actual real musical instruments being played individual without any eq'ing or amping....just raw musical sounds...and in a small band, its amazing how bright, crisp, brash, hard stuff can sound.

If its recorded that way this is what you will hear if the headphones are fairly flat etc but if they roll up a but on the high end it an sound well not so good....

The listening experience is indeed different depending on the what your listening to!

For the most part much of the material is indeed compressed and the T90's can help on the high end on some and not so well on other sources.

Just goes to show nothing is perfect with so many variables!

A.

 

[Wilashort]

Completelly agree about the comparisson about the DT990 to T90
Quote:

 
I did, and once I heard the T90 compared to my DT 990, I sold the 990 and got the T90. The bass is tighter, better defined. The T90s are a bit more lush. Of course once I heard the T1 (gen 1), I felt the same way about the T90. I'm not a big fan of the T1 gen 2.
 
Once you have a DT990, improvements are incremental. If you never hear a T90 or a T1, you will be perfectly happy with the 990. Your problems start once you hear something better, even if only a little better. Then you end up having to have everything!
 
You have a few choices (as I see it).

• Delete your head-fi account and be happy with what you have
• decide you are insane (like the rest of here) and either upgrade to mid-fi, then to upper-mid-fi, then to summit-fi
• just upgrade now to summit-fi

 

[Deni5]

Has anyone tried connecting impedance adapters to the T90? Classic example is turning an Etymotic ER4PT to an ER4S by adding a 75 ohm adapter. I have two at hand - one 75 ohm and one 120 ohm adapter. They seems to change the sound a little. Using the 120 ohm bass seems more forward and treble energy slightly dampened. But I don't know - it might be all placebo. I'll probably buy some more on eBay for testing because I'm liking the change so far.
 
Here's a little info on impedance:
http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/tipstricks.htm

 

[Storydog]

The hearing experience can be very true.
 
I connecting my T 90 with old hifi amps and I guess the higher Resistances(often so 200 - 300 Ohm) make the bass slightly stronger and dampened the high peak.
With Headphoneamp Beyerdynamic A 20 the highs are not so sharp too, as known.
 
I tested this combination(T 90 + A 20) in a music equpment shop, before buying in December.
 
For a while I use the T 90 on my Hifi amplifier that between 20 and 40 Years old.
Still undecided, if I want to experimenting with Headphone amplifier, someday.  

 

[MonsieurNiceGuy]

So this past weekend I got to use the T90s with my X7, and it seemed to help with the highs a lot. They weren't nearly as piercing as it was before. Tomorrow I'll be testing with my Schiit stack at work, but I got another X7 to replace that setup there as I'm really enjoying how the X7 sounds with both my T90 and K712.
My only thing is still the soundstage, but I think I can live with that.
It's looking like they might not be going on sale after all .

 

[MonsieurNiceGuy]

So quick update on using this guy with the Schiit Stack... The highs are extremely sharp. Listening to Dashboard Confessional's Heaven Here was way too much, to the point where I had to take of the headphones halfway through the song. 

Kind of my fault for pairing an already extremely bright headphone with another bright dac/amp set-up. Hopefuly my other X7 gets here soon.

 

[PixelSquish]

I run my T90's through a Schiit Bifrost Multibit to a Burson Soloist SL Mk II and find the highs to be smoothed out nicely. 

 

[leggy]

Pixel, what did you have before Bimby and how much difference did you notice?

 

[Deni5]

Have tried more dac/amp combinations and have come to the following conclusion:
* T90 seem to benefit from receivers/amps with higher output impedance
 
Even their own amps like Beyerdynamic A20 has an output impedance of 100 ohms. Almost no one uses that high output impedance on an design nowadays (only if your trying to get a certain sound out of it). Their newer A2 amp has variable output impedance so you can choose between 0-100 ohms.
 
This effect can be emulated with impedance adapters as I've mentioned earlier. Even if the highs seems tamed there is a downside to using high output impedance and that is the damping factor. Normally you try to at least have a damping factor of 8 or more. So if the output impedance is 100 ohm and you use a headphone like the T90 which is 250 ohm the damping factor will be 250 / 100 = 2.5
That value should be higher because the more you deviate from 8+ the looser the bass will be (as in not controlled and tight which is many times considered as 'quality bass')
 
I don't know if Beyerdynamic tuned the T90 for use with higher impedance - it almost seems like that and that nowadays I would consider as a poor design choice.
 
Many amps nowadays have output impedances of less than 2 ohms. Many are less than 1 ohm also so they can handle IEM's as well.
 
Neutral amps like the o2 which has an output impedance of less than 1 aren't a good choice for the T90. The treble will be too piercing.
Even out of higher quality sources like the Chord Mojo or Resonessence Labs HERUS+ the T90 sounds 'meh nothing special' (and those take many headphones to the 'next level')
 
There are exceptions to this. I found the Fiio E12A to sound decent with the T90 (I'm sure there are other Fiio amps as well that might work fine with T90). Other Solid State amps that go for a musical / warmer character (aka some treble roll off) should work fine also.
 
Also tried the T90 with two smaller tube amps I have (Hifiman EF2A and Schiit Vali) and they were fine. Personally I'm not a fan of tube amps and usually mostly go with Solid State amps.
 
It's mostly the treble peaks that make the T90 become very amp picky (as is other headphones that have high/extreme treble peaks).

 

[PixelSquish]

Pixel, what did you have before Bimby and how much difference did you notice?

Oppo HA-2 and the Burson didn't make too much of a difference as far as warmness, but it did slightly -  but the Bimby did noticeably. I do value the overhead the Burson provides though.

 

[leggy]

Oppo HA-2 and the Burson didn't make too much of a difference as far as warmness, but it did slightly -  but the Bimby did noticeably. I do value the overhead the Burson provides though.

Nice.
I am currently debating between bifrost multibit and Gustard X12. Can't find useful comparison between both.
I returned my Asgard2 and planning to order Gustard's H10 but not sure about the dac yet and have to decide before the drop for X12 expires tomorrow

 

[NoOneLt]

Hi everyone, wanted to share my impressions in comparisson. I gone on some freaking buying spree.. But at last i was able to A/B T90 with some other mid fi. A dont know if a can call it true A/B, i tried to match levels with my antlion mic to the same dB reported by software, so it should have been at more or less the same level, i hope.

And what i have is HE-400S (and waiting for 400i to arrive), what i can say now is that T90 definately has bass, and pretty good one, it has hell lot of details, a lot, every string is heard, everything come to light. And maybe it is like RAW photos, not so pretty sometimes if photographer was so so.. While 400s just lets you go louder, maybe even asks to go louder sometimes. Honestly it is pretty hard to choose now, i'll wait for 400i to build some more impressions, but after that two of this babies will have to go, witch ones, that is the question...

 

[Deni5]

More testing/impressions:
Had a 1st gen Meridian Explorer I wasn't using much. It's the first version which has output impedance of 47 ohm - which later on was substituted with a 5 ohm version. I never bother to send mine in and have it exchanged for the fixed version with lower output impedance. Anyway since the T90 sometimes likes higher output impedance I figured maybe it's an ok match worth trying out. Must say it works quite nice. I'm not bothered by the treble as much and the bass has a nice warm character to it although lacking some in tightness, but all in all a nice signature.
 
Tried a impedance adapter on my odac/o2 combo and it sounded a little better, but bass sounded wimpy so I was not fond of this, but anyway the treble was nicer.
 
Next up - pairing the Meridian Explorer (as a dac) to Violectric HPA V100 (amp). This amp has low output impedance but it is very powerful. Haven't heard bass like this on the T90. Like it has been sleeping and woke up to say hello. Seems like the T90 likes a lot of power at least to get its bass pumping (not basshead levels but better in line with the rest of the spectrum, much better controll).
 
Finally pairing HERUS+ (dac) to Violectric V100. I like the HERUS+ very much. It renders a special soundstage that is very 3d like(not only width but depth also) it's really fun to listening to music when you experience this.
 
Treble could still be better. Still notice harshness/sibilance sometimes but it's less now. More burn in might provide benefits.

 

[MonsieurNiceGuy]

Like everyone has been saying, it's all on how you amp these guys. I ran them on my X7 all day and they sounded great. 

 

[dakanao]

How do they compare to the Hifiman HE400i soundwise?