[BearMonster]

Inexpensive OTL I had my T1 paired with and results were amazing was Bottlehead Crack..bone stock with RCA 6080 power tube and Baldwin drive tube.  Perfect sound with deep punchy powerful bass. Best $280 you will spend for T1s.

 


I did look at that but i would have to add import fee which i rather not deal with. Been thinking about getting myself Icon Audio Hp 8.

 

[hanselmann]

Sorry for that newb question, but what does OTL mean? On the level?

 

[raypin]

mmm......output transformerless. It is a type of tube amplifier.

 

[hanselmann]

Ok, got it. Thanks.

 

[supersonic395]

  Well, I've received my T1.2 last Thursday and have been spending as much time as possible listening.
 
Coming from the DT 880 Pro, these are a clear upgrade and very enjoyable to listen to. The upper mid-range is particularly beautiful in how it renders vocals. And I'm really liking the increased bass impact and extension. I could go on, but I don't think it's any mystery that the T1 is superior to the DT 880. One other thing that does bear mentioning is how comfortable these cans are. The new ear pads are a huge improvement over the stock DT 880 pads.
 
However, things aren't quite perfect, at least to my ears. I've noticed that the mids sound a little bloated or boxy around 250-500Hz, especially on piano music with a lot of activity in that range. A good example would be the middle section of Chopin's Etude Op. 25 No. 5.
 
I did a couple experiments, the simplest being to apply -3dB of EQ at 500Hz. Pretty much took care of the problem. The other was swapping in my DT 880 pads. This cut the apparent mid-range boost but also killed the bass and lost some treble smoothness, so not really a viable solution.
 
I'd like to know if anyone else here as noticed this aspect of the frequency response on their T1.2. Maybe hanselmann can comment as to whether this sounds normal?
 
The big caveat here is that I am only currently running from a Fiio E10. Yeah, I know, I'm pairing a $1k+ flagship headphone with a $75 entry-level amp+DAC. The horror. I do intend to upgrade significantly before too long. Is what I'm hearing in the mid-range just an indication that I need to get a better source sooner rather than later?

 
 
Can I just say your mini review on here seems to contradict what you've posted on another forum which seems less like a review and more of an anti-Beyerdynamic rant.
 
In fact you didn't mention that you were testing 600ohm headphones with an awful $75 amp+DAC either which comes across as misleading. Additionally, you praised the headphones on here and slated them on this other site:
 

  I was going to do a full review on these headphones, including a head-to-head comparison with the DT 880 but I'm not sure there's any point.
 
Immediately after putting music through this headphone, I could hear something was off. The midrange on this headphone can only be described as "boxy", meaning an overemphasis in the 250-500Hz band.
 
My first thought was that I just needed to get used to the sound of a new headphone, having been using the DT 880 almost exclusively for over a year. Unfortunately, my impression of the headphone didn't improve with time; in fact it got worse. While the boxy midrange was apparent with just about any kind of musical program, it was shockingly apparent when listening to solo piano or cello, both of which have a lot of tonal character in the lower mid-range. These instruments sound nasally and closed-in from the T1.
 
What I am hearing is so strikingly awful, it's as if the T1 was made from two headphones, shoved together into a single perplexing mess. The upper mid-range is exceptionally sweet and clear, with an airy treble and expansive, layered soundstage. The bass digs deep and hits hard without losing control. Then in the middle you've got this ****ty low mid-range showing it's lumbering ass, completely ruining the otherwise exceptional sonic presentation.
 
Now, you're probably thinking that I didn't have a good enough amplifier or needed to burn in the headphones with brown noise for like 200 hours (the ding dongs on head-fi certainly thought so). Well, as an experiment, I swapped the stock T1 pads with my DT 880 pads. The sickening, bloated midrange was completely gone. Of course, so was a lot of the bass, and the treble was now rather painful. But the point is that what I heard from these headphones out of the box is just how they were designed. In an attempt to rectify the lean bass of the original T1, beyerdynamic went and totally dicked up the mid-range. Apparently the people who knew what they were doing when they designed the DT 880 left and were replaced by a bunch of hacks who've never heard real music.
 
I guess the conclusion is that I should take my own advice and not buy expensive headphones without hearing them first. Also, I have to seriously wonder about beyerdynamic; this was their second official attempt to get the T1 right after a whole slew of issues, and this was the result? And why has no one else noticed this? I have to wonder if this isn't a case of "the emperor has no clothes". No one wants to admit that a $1k+ flagship headphone sounds like a piece of crap that was designed in an afternoon before being rushed out the door so idiots could throw money at it.
 
Maybe I'm being unfair here. Maybe I just got a lemon and should go through the process of exchanging it through Amazon in the hopes that this was just a weird manufacturing fluke with the pads or the driver or something. I'll explain why I'm not going to do that, and instead will be returning them and writing this nasty, negative review.
 
First, this is a flagship headphone positioned at $1100. At that price point, no headphone with such an obvious and glaring flaw should get out of the factory. All it would take is for some chump to put these on their head for like a minute to detect the problem. Second, I was assured by the beyerdynamic T1 product manager on head-fi that every T1 actually does go through a "100% quality control incl. extensive quality assurance of electrical and acoustic properties." So again, a very obvious flaw like this should have been caught in testing. Third, beyerdynamic has not had a great track record for designing amazing headphones in the past 10 years. The current DT line of headphones came out way back in 2005. Since then, beyerdynamic has treated us to a series of turds, in the form of the T70 and T90 (both ear-destroying treble-cannons), T5p (described by Tyll Herstens of innerfideltiy.com as "an abomination of harshness") and the original T1, which suffered from insane levels of quality control problems - mismatched drivers, wildly varying frequency response from unit to unit, and multiple silent revisions. At this point I feel like I already gave beyerdynamic enough of a chance, just by buying their overpriced "flagship". I've wasted even more time writing this stupid review.
 
So if anyone's still wondering, I don't recommend these headphones, despite their obvious technical prowess and superiority to the DT 880 in numerous other areas. I guess if anyone wants to try them and contradict what I've laid out here, and do it in a constructive manner, they can go ahead. Otherwise, avoid the T1 "2. Generation". Thanks for reading.

 

[socks mk2]

[redacted]

 

[Youth]

I agree with him that Beyerdynamic has a very bad habit of making sibilant headphones because they insist on boosting the treble with every single headphone they make. However I find it very odd that he drives a flagship with a $75 DAC/amp and expects it to sound good. Pointless rant he made.  

 

[jhljhl]

 

 
Inexpensive OTL I had my T1 paired with and results were amazing was Bottlehead Crack..bone stock with RCA 6080 power tube and Baldwin drive tube.  Perfect sound with deep punchy powerful bass. Best $280 you will spend for T1s.

 


I did look at that but i would have to add import fee which i rather not deal with. Been thinking about getting myself Icon Audio Hp 8.

Woo Audio WA2 has been reported to have great synergy with T1 first generation. 

 

[SSL443]

 
Can I just say your mini review on here seems to contradict what you've posted on another forum which seems less like a review and more of an anti-Beyerdynamic rant.
 
In fact you didn't mention that you were testing 600ohm headphones with an awful $75 amp+DAC either which comes across as misleading. Additionally, you praised the headphones on here and slated them on this other site:

 
Quote:

Can the E10/E10K even put out the proper amount of power to drive the T1 Gen. 2? I don't think so (can't do the measurements from my phone). Underamping any headphone will make for a sub-par experience.

 

  I agree with him that Beyerdynamic has a very bad habit of making sibilant headphones because they insist on boosting the treble with every single headphone they make. However I find it very odd that he drives a flagship with a $75 DAC/amp and expects it to sound good. Pointless rant he made.  

 
Allow me to clarify things for you. As I said both here and in my other review, the T1 sounds exceptionally good, way better than my DT 880, except for the mid-range issue. Even from the Fiio E10 $75 garbage amp. Does that make it clear enough? My source has nothing to do with what I am hearing; switching the pads is proof enough that the problem sits squarely with the design of the headphone and nothing else.
 
When I first posted here, I was still at the stage where I was trying to live with the sound of this headphone. Because I really wanted to like them. They're really comfortable, well built, and get a lot of things right with the sound. That's the real kicker; it's obvious how good the T1 could be if not for this one problem. Which makes them all the more disappointing, and that is what I attempted to convey in my more thorough write-up on the other forum. Initially I was happy with the things this headphone gets right. But, having come to terms that the mid-range makes them unlistenable, I'm ultimately very disappointed.
 
 
 

 

[socks mk2]

[redacted]

 

[Svatopluk]

I find the T1-Gen.2 to be an especially good all rounder when used with a decent amp, so much that I will be selling the HE-560 soon.

 

[masterfuu]

For me rule of thumb. 1:1 amp and headphone ratio. If you can afford a Benz go service your fancy ride at dealership. $1000 headphone deserves a $1000 amp. Pairing high end headphone with a $75 amp is ridiculous.

 

[SSL443]

Sorry if my comment came across as snide. It was a sincere question and not sarcastic. I got a chance to look it up and had forgotten how much more efficient the T1/Gen. 2 is compared to my DT990/600. Off the top of my head I didn't think the E10 would deliver enough current/voltage as my old E11 and E18 didn't for my old DT770 Pro or my DT990/600 iirc. There are obviously some better offerings with regard to power delivery from different amps; as long as your listening volume is within reason the E10 should be fine.

 
No worries. The E10 gets plenty loud enough. Doubtless a better amp would improve the sound, but that isn't really relevant to the issue I brought up.
 

For me rule of thumb. 1:1 amp and headphone ratio. If you can afford a Benz go service your fancy ride at dealership. $1000 headphone deserves a $1000 amp. Pairing high end headphone with a $75 amp is ridiculous.

 
I'll say it again for the sake of talking to myself, but the issue here was a coloration problem of the headphones themselves, not an under-amping problem.

 

[HiAudio]

This is my next Dynamic phone.

 

[abhinit90]

 
I don't belivee something is wrong with your T 1 (2. Generation). These headphones pass a 100% quality control incl. extensive quality assurance of electrical and acoustic properties. (Still, somebody may like or not like this headphone for sure.)

There can be something wrong. I myself got a T1 (v1) new 2 weeks ago that was DOA.