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This week end, I got a chance to listen for an hour or so to the T1 in comparison with HD800 (both standard cable). The amplifier was the Luxman p-1u and CD player was the Luxman D-06. Not sure about the interconnects / power cables but I believe there was a power conditioner. Listening station was very quiet, actually this was the best listening experience I've had at the store to date.
I was not familiar with the CDs before hand so I can't easily compare to previous listenings. For the gear, I have heard the p-1u a few times before and am more and more impressed with its sound, very natural sounding and realistic imaging. It was the first time I listen to the D-06 SACD/CD player, and not sure how much was due to the source material, but I was very impressed too. In particular, the detail retrieval was just clearly a step up from my home rig (again, it could be due to the quality of the recordings).
Now to the brief comparisons. I listen to three albums, whole song with one headphone, then would repeat the song with the other (not paying too much attention to volume matching but both headphones seem to require about the same volume on the p-1u, i.e. 10am for my taste):
First disc was Bill Evans Trio - Portrait in Jazz. I have a regular CD version but it was an XRCD at the store:
- HD800 were clearly more forward sounding than the T1
- Actually, subjectively, I felt the HD800 were too hot in some part of the treble (in particular the shimmer of cymbals). In fact, it reminded me of HD800 prior to recabling and doing foam mod.
- The T1 sounded very very good, I was quite impressed. Very balanced from low to upper register, very smooth.
Second disc was Diana Krall - Live in Paris (not familiar with that recording before hand):
- This time, I felt the T1 much less convincing that the HD800
- In particular, the room decay and spaciousness were much more apparent/believable with the HD800.
- It's as if the T1 is not an open-type headphone but sounds more like somewhere between open and closed type. Actually, there seems to be an intermediate chamber at the back of the driver which is perforated on both front and back plane. Is that semi-open type design?
- For this disc, although both headphones excelled at reproducing the voice, I clearly preferred the HD800 (T1 sounded 'veiled' in comparison).
Last disc was Dvorak - New Word Symphony (not familiar with that particular version before hand):
- Again, I found the HD800 much more realistic sounding that T1
- In particular the deep and large orchestra was more believable with the HD800
- Also, HD800 gave more fun presentation with subjectively better transients (T1 sounded slow in comparison)
These are too brief and rough impressions to constitute a proper review but it may be useful to some. I can imagine I could prefer the T1 for some types of music (like rock, electronics, stuff where imaging has no relevance) / recordings (hot treble, older not so clean recordings…) / equipment (solid state gear with slight lack of refinement). But for what I listen to and what I am looking for in headphones, the HD800 (in particular after recabling / foam mod) seems to be just right for me. Maybe if I did not have the Edition 9, I could imagine having both HD800 and T1. But in the current setup, there's no justification.
On the other hand, I came out once again very very impressed with the Luxman p-1u. And actually, now got curious about the SACD/CD players Luxman released recently (D-06 and D-08). It's an unfortunate truth, but buying such high end headphones (HD800, T1, …) without investing 3-5x more in the amp and particularly the source is missing a whole lot of what these headphones are truly capable of.
Arnaud
I was not familiar with the CDs before hand so I can't easily compare to previous listenings. For the gear, I have heard the p-1u a few times before and am more and more impressed with its sound, very natural sounding and realistic imaging. It was the first time I listen to the D-06 SACD/CD player, and not sure how much was due to the source material, but I was very impressed too. In particular, the detail retrieval was just clearly a step up from my home rig (again, it could be due to the quality of the recordings).
Now to the brief comparisons. I listen to three albums, whole song with one headphone, then would repeat the song with the other (not paying too much attention to volume matching but both headphones seem to require about the same volume on the p-1u, i.e. 10am for my taste):
First disc was Bill Evans Trio - Portrait in Jazz. I have a regular CD version but it was an XRCD at the store:
- HD800 were clearly more forward sounding than the T1
- Actually, subjectively, I felt the HD800 were too hot in some part of the treble (in particular the shimmer of cymbals). In fact, it reminded me of HD800 prior to recabling and doing foam mod.
- The T1 sounded very very good, I was quite impressed. Very balanced from low to upper register, very smooth.
Second disc was Diana Krall - Live in Paris (not familiar with that recording before hand):
- This time, I felt the T1 much less convincing that the HD800
- In particular, the room decay and spaciousness were much more apparent/believable with the HD800.
- It's as if the T1 is not an open-type headphone but sounds more like somewhere between open and closed type. Actually, there seems to be an intermediate chamber at the back of the driver which is perforated on both front and back plane. Is that semi-open type design?
- For this disc, although both headphones excelled at reproducing the voice, I clearly preferred the HD800 (T1 sounded 'veiled' in comparison).
Last disc was Dvorak - New Word Symphony (not familiar with that particular version before hand):
- Again, I found the HD800 much more realistic sounding that T1
- In particular the deep and large orchestra was more believable with the HD800
- Also, HD800 gave more fun presentation with subjectively better transients (T1 sounded slow in comparison)
These are too brief and rough impressions to constitute a proper review but it may be useful to some. I can imagine I could prefer the T1 for some types of music (like rock, electronics, stuff where imaging has no relevance) / recordings (hot treble, older not so clean recordings…) / equipment (solid state gear with slight lack of refinement). But for what I listen to and what I am looking for in headphones, the HD800 (in particular after recabling / foam mod) seems to be just right for me. Maybe if I did not have the Edition 9, I could imagine having both HD800 and T1. But in the current setup, there's no justification.
On the other hand, I came out once again very very impressed with the Luxman p-1u. And actually, now got curious about the SACD/CD players Luxman released recently (D-06 and D-08). It's an unfortunate truth, but buying such high end headphones (HD800, T1, …) without investing 3-5x more in the amp and particularly the source is missing a whole lot of what these headphones are truly capable of.
Arnaud
