So, I had the T1, 2nd Generation for two weeks now.
What the hell?
I own a ten year old dt990 that sounds WAY better.. The T1 only sounds good and flagship-like on a very selected few kinds of music. Gospel sounds breathtakingly good. Very small jazz ensembles also sound fantasic. As soon as more instruments come into the scene things fall aparat very quickly. Most Beatles-Songs (and not just the bright early ones) are almost unbearable with the T1s. They sound boring, dull, and almost with every song extremely sibliant and overly bright, like a pair of very cheap plasticy cans. Every can I own sounds better, from the DT990ies to the Fidelio X2s to the Grado RS2e.
Yes I know that many of you might love the T1s, and please do not taqke this as an attack on your preferences, but this is my honest opinion. I am very grateful for amazon's policy of letting me return products easily. And I am not the kind of guy who takes advantage of this. I do not order stuff and more stuff just to send it back again. But these cans are so bad I have no choice.
I do not know what happend to german and austrian headphone manufacturers. Okay, Sennheiser is still going strong, allthough I personally never fell in love with their house sound. But Beyerdynamic and AKG really messed up. I also had a pair of AKG K712, and I LOVED how they sounded. Only thing: After two weeks (!) the mini-xlr-connector fell apart. Litereally.
And now this horrible experiance with the T1. Most of the music I listen to (Tidal master, flacs, LPs) is unbearable with these. Most music sounds harsh and distorted even. Only quiet songs with little instrumentation shine. This is not acceptable for a flagship.
And before you ask: No, I did not drive them through an A1 or some other high class DAC: I put them to use on the headphonje jack of my 2.000-Dollar-AVR. And yes, I think that a headphone MUST show it's good side on an expansive Receiver/Amplyfier.
Maybe I got a lemon? Maybe the price Amazon offered was too good to be true (it was 755 Euro). And yeah, maybe I am a baffoon who cannot tell good cans from bad ones. But in my opinion, these are the worst by far that beyerdynamic every made under the tag "flagship".