[treebug]

I love the soundstage of the P with the pad's they came with.....very deep and 3 dimensional....kind of like a more layed susvara soundstage

I only have 13 hours on mine, so not quite run in yet! Just wondered if the Ultra Wide pads made much difference when I spotted them on the T+A website.
Coming from HD800, Abyss Phi and V2 I need to get used to the not so wide soundstage but I am enjoying what I hear with the P, just as detailed as those mentioned and more of a layered, almost 3-D soundstage. When listening to more complex tracks I love how each instrument seems to sit in it’s own space in a totally black background.
Looking forward to reaching the 100 hours!

 

[Newsee]

Recently I visited my favourite HP shop to check the difference between Meze Elite and Empyrean. After going thrugh my list carefully AB-ing, and forming my opinion, I still had some time. The shop now has an Abyss 1366 TC for auditioning, so I went for a ride.
The last time I was there I had time only to put it on my head, that was a horrible feeling. This time I took some time to get familiar with it, played around a bit until I found an acceptable position. To have a starting point I connected it to the same Burson Conductor 3XR I was using for the Meze's, using the same Forza Noir Hybrid cable. Oh my. Deeeeeep bass. On tracks where the Meze gives the impression that the bass track made a step down (Steff la Cheffe - Ha ke Ahnig 0:57) the Abyss makes it clear what step down it was. To check if the myth that the TC needs proper amping is true I changed to the also available XI Audio Formula S amp. Yes, it is true.

But all this beauty comes at a price. The upper mids/treble are earpircing strong. After a few minutes it was enough of the good.

What does it all do with T+A?
Of course I tried the Solitaire P with the same amp. Magic happens, my favourite sound signature is there, deep clean bass without painfully strong upper mids/treble.

This excercise has given some long awaited answers about the direction of the jurney, but also created some question marks about human hearing, my hearing, and the hearing of the people who are tuning these beautiful (sounding) headphones.

 

[DarginMahkum]

The elephant in the room about that TC. Great bass, deep bass, oh bass, good bass, hit me bass, slam me bass... What about the rest of the frequency response? Come on, measurements don't matter, you just need to invest in another 5K$ amp to make it sound acceptable and some more time to trash your ears so you can take that result. But bass is good. (I am not gonna reply to anyone's comments on this topic)

Then there is Solitaire P. And now the Stealth.

 

[Ciggavelli]

The elephant in the room about that TC. Great bass, deep bass, oh bass, good bass, hit me bass, slam me bass... What about the rest of the frequency response? Come on, measurements don't matter, you just need to invest in another 5K$ amp to make it sound acceptable and some more time to trash your ears so you can take that result. But bass is good. (I am not gonna reply to anyone's comments on this topic)

Then there is Solitaire P. And now the Stealth.

Does TC bass hurt your ears? I'm genuinely asking, as others have said that too, and I'm mildly concerned. You can't really measure the bass impact with a decibel reader on your phone because of the way the headphones need to be positioned, but I guess I could try again. Is this all just a guess or have people really hurt their hearing using the TCs?

 

[BassicScience]

Does TC bass hurt your ears? I'm genuinely asking, as others have said that too, and I'm mildly concerned. You can't really measure the bass impact with a decibel reader on your phone because of the way the headphones need to be positioned, but I guess I could try again. Is this all just a guess or have people really hurt their hearing using the TCs?

Probably depends on how loud and for how long you listen. If your ears don't hurt and you're not experiencing ringing afterwards, you're probably OK. I say this as a layman, not as a medical professional, so you might want to consult an audiologist if you listen a lot at high volume.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Does TC bass hurt your ears? I'm genuinely asking, as others have said that too, and I'm mildly concerned. You can't really measure the bass impact with a decibel reader on your phone because of the way the headphones need to be positioned, but I guess I could try again. Is this all just a guess or have people really hurt their hearing using the TCs?

Sorry, I am just joking. But I noticed, because the subbass on Stealth can be really present, I feel like tuning it down, as it becomes tiring for me.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Sorry, I am just joking. But I noticed, because the subbass on Stealth can be really present, I feel like tuning it down, as it becomes tiring for me.

The way you keep describing the stealth it sounds really tempting.

Guess if I ever need a closed back, that will be the one to try first

 

[xxx1313]

Subdued upper mids and lower treble leads to lack of emotional expression of voices imo, especially female voices.

Oratory1990 measured the Solitaire P. Should be no suprise.

https://twitter.com/oratory1990/status/1435259314982334474/photo/1

 

[Ciggavelli]

Oratory1990 measured the Solitaire P. Should be no suprise.

https://twitter.com/oratory1990/status/1435259314982334474/photo/1

That super explains why I was having the sub-bass issue with hip-hop on the Ps

 

[ThanatosVI]

Oratory1990 measured the Solitaire P. Should be no suprise.

https://twitter.com/oratory1990/status/1435259314982334474/photo/1

Very interesting.
Here is a measurement from post 499 of this thread
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/t-a-solitaire-p-planar-magnetostatic.924381/post-16157725

Completely different results.
If there is unit Variation that would explain Ciggavelli having sub bass issues, while I didn't on the same tracks.

Those differences are not subtile and sort of make you Lose all trust in measurements.
One of them severely ****ed up taking them...unless there really are some unit Variation issues

 

[trellus]

I suspect it has more to do with measuring rig issues. It seems that can be tricky and what we see in graphs sometimes deviates substantially from what happens when they're on your ears. I believe @Resolve at least does routinely also do some on-ear measurements, at least to help him adjust how it is being positioned on the rig for the more precise measurements, as I recall.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Very interesting.
Here is a measurement from post 499 of this thread
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/t-a-solitaire-p-planar-magnetostatic.924381/post-16157725

Completely different results.
If there is unit Variation that would explain Ciggavelli having sub bass issues, while I didn't on the same tracks.

Those differences are not subtile and sort of make you Lose all trust in measurements.
One of them severely ****ed up taking them...

If there are significant unit variation like this, I’m going to be pretty mad. I waited 6 months for the Ps to arrive, and I had to sell them at a loss due to the sub-bass issue. If I come to find out I just got one of the low bass variations I might have to get mad at someone at T+A

 

[jlbrach]

I have had absolutely no bass complaint but I do not listen to the same bass heavy music you do...to me the P is about the best balanced HP out there but I get your preferences

 

[Newsee]

Does TC bass hurt your ears? I'm genuinely asking, as others have said that too, and I'm mildly concerned. You can't really measure the bass impact with a decibel reader on your phone because of the way the headphones need to be positioned, but I guess I could try again. Is this all just a guess or have people really hurt their hearing using the TCs?

No, bass does not hurt. Bass is great. What I wrote (and I read @DarginMahkum's post the same way) is if I set the volume to a level that produces enjoyable bass (which also means that the HP is capable to produce it), then on TC I get lower treble that hurts painfully, on P I get enjoyable level on the whole freq range.

Thinking of it, it is completely in line with this:

I have had absolutely no bass complaint but I do not listen to the same bass heavy music you do...to me the P is about the best balanced HP out there but I get your preferences

 

[xxx1313]

Very interesting.
Here is a measurement from post 499 of this thread
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/t-a-solitaire-p-planar-magnetostatic.924381/post-16157725

Completely different results.
If there is unit Variation that would explain Ciggavelli having sub bass issues, while I didn't on the same tracks.

There may be some unit to unit variation, but this should not be at this price tag. Both measurements have in common, that there is much too little energy from 1 - 5 kHz (=from upper mids to lower treble), which was my big issue with the Solitaire P.