Alypius
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2011
- Posts
- 93
- Likes
- 26
So my shiny new cans arrived! I gotta say the T1.2 is the best headphone I've heard. That's not saying a lot, mind, since I've only really listened to the DT990/600, HE560, HE440i, and HD-650. The best description that I can come up with is a "grown-up DT990." The resolution and staging is better, the bass is tighter (it still rocks though), and I don't hear any harshness in the treble (didn't hear it in the 990 either. YMMV.)
I've listened to my favorites and even found a new bass test track: "The Greatest Show on Earth" on Nightwish's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" CD. Opens with a solo piano followed by what sounds like the broadside of an Iowa-class battleship. Fantastic. The 990 performed as expected: rich, Richter-scale bass. The T1.2 had a different presentation with a faster decay but reaching a lot further down the register and with a lot more detail than the 990.
I've done all the mods on the 650 and I still don't like them. I like bright-sounding speakers (Klipsch) and BD headphones; the HE560s were also excellent, but they don't play nice with my Crack. The 560 and 650 will be on the "For Sale" forum shortly, alas.
The T1.2 displaces my beloved DT990 as my favorite 'phone. The bigger question, though, is the price delta worth it? The 990's go for about $250 on Amazon while the T1.2 is more than four times that at $1100. My setup is JRiver > Modi 2 Uber > Bottlehead Crack. The Crack is modified with a choke and bypass cap in the power supply and Mundorf film output caps. It's also running a Tung-Sol 5998 and Gold Lion 12AU7. I can see myself maybe upgrading to a Bifrost multibit, but that won't happen for a while. I'll have to listen to the T1.2 some more, but I'm not yet convinced they're worth the price.
I've listened to my favorites and even found a new bass test track: "The Greatest Show on Earth" on Nightwish's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" CD. Opens with a solo piano followed by what sounds like the broadside of an Iowa-class battleship. Fantastic. The 990 performed as expected: rich, Richter-scale bass. The T1.2 had a different presentation with a faster decay but reaching a lot further down the register and with a lot more detail than the 990.
I've done all the mods on the 650 and I still don't like them. I like bright-sounding speakers (Klipsch) and BD headphones; the HE560s were also excellent, but they don't play nice with my Crack. The 560 and 650 will be on the "For Sale" forum shortly, alas.
The T1.2 displaces my beloved DT990 as my favorite 'phone. The bigger question, though, is the price delta worth it? The 990's go for about $250 on Amazon while the T1.2 is more than four times that at $1100. My setup is JRiver > Modi 2 Uber > Bottlehead Crack. The Crack is modified with a choke and bypass cap in the power supply and Mundorf film output caps. It's also running a Tung-Sol 5998 and Gold Lion 12AU7. I can see myself maybe upgrading to a Bifrost multibit, but that won't happen for a while. I'll have to listen to the T1.2 some more, but I'm not yet convinced they're worth the price.