T+A Solitaire T Wireless Headphone
- Thread starter frdtitan
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Thank you. How would you compare the quality of the Lavricables cables versus the Forza AudioWorks cables? They seem to be about the same price.
Lol I can't remember if I did this!!
Maukey
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I tried to stay away but ended up coming home. I've spent the last few days digging in to the SolT for a second time. These are amazing headphones. I stand by what I said in my comparison thread. If money is no object, these are the closest you're going to get to a one stop shop of a headphone. Wireless? Check. ANC? Check. Great battery life? Check. Comfortable for me? Check. Good size/Compact for commuting and traveling? Check. Wired, Passive Listening that rivals other wired headphones at this price point? Check. To me, these are the overall champs in the wireless headphone market. Compared to the Dali iO-12, I can't pick a winner when it comes to sound quality. I love them both. They're different enough in sound quality that they actually complement each other. The iO-12 with its musical, addicting, spacious, dynamic sound, and the SolT with its cleaner, clearer midrange, and slightly more neutral and natural profile. I just can't see myself returning the SolT again. I just know if I do I'm going to want it again. Then there's the problem of the iO-12. I feel the same way when it comes to selling it. I think I'm stuck with both LOL. Going to give it a few more days to be sure.
Last edited:
avkauppi
New Head-Fier
I upgraded my dap to Sony wm1am2 and it sounds exquisite with ST in passive mode. However, Sony is an EU-capped version and I would prefer a little bit more maximum volume. What is your experience on the Forza and Lavricables cables - do they make ST easier to drive even a little bit?
No, cables do not influence the volume or drivability .. They only "color" the sound a little bit based on the conductive characteristics of copper, silver, rhodium etc ...
evhvis
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Is it that severely volume limited? I have an old NW-A45 that I only use for BT transmission, but it can go loud enough in pure volume. It does lack the ability to properly drive the headphones, but the max volume goes high enough. I would put the Solitaire T as a medium sensitivity headphone, but pretty much any dongle DAC will go loud enough for most people. Would have expected the upscale models to go loud enough on the Solitaire T even with the EU limiter in place.
angelom
Headphoneus Supremus
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Is now 25 days with my third pair of ST. No comparisons with other headphones all this time, and this is great. Just enjoying immensely a lot of music.
What excellent tonal balance the ST have --- wonderful 'boring' sound with practically no enhancements but a very realistic, cohesive and clean sound.
Is so very nice having the ST again...
What excellent tonal balance the ST have --- wonderful 'boring' sound with practically no enhancements but a very realistic, cohesive and clean sound.
Is so very nice having the ST again...
avkauppi
New Head-Fier
Wm1am2 is that severely volume limited, when capped. No problem through bluetooth, only passive. I enjoy it though with full volume, but sometimes would like to have a little bit more volume.
angelom
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Here is a Solitaire T review from Germany from 3 weeks ago: https://hifi.de/test/ta-solitaire-t-test-192831
And here is the English translation:
T+A enters highly competitive terrain with the Solitaire T Bluetooth headphones. You set yourself away from the strong competition by the price alone, but also promises a unique quality in terms of workmanship and sound.
Andreas Eichelsdörfer 5.6.2024
Advantages
At T+A, there is nothing less than 1,000 euros. Cheap hi-fi is left to others by the Herforders. For example, the T+A Solitaire T also costs just under 1,400 euros. For a Bluetooth headphone, this price is quite an announcement. When we look at the wired brother T+A Solitaire P, the scenario is quickly put into perspective. It costs four times as much. But how does the T+A headphones compare to the mainstream competition, which partly costs only a fraction? In our test we find out.
Leather is anti-allergenic artificial leather, both on the ear cups and on the headband. This is particularly pleasing to vegans and allergy sufferers, but it also feels great for everyone else. The workmanship is typical of the brand at the highest level. We try to use superlatives sparingly, but this is sometimes difficult with the devices from T+A. The small buttons with a clearly defined pressure point and the finely snap-in slide switches can be operated very well.
A second button activates the voice control on the smartphone. A slide switch activates or deactivates the Bluetooth functions or puts the Bluetooth headphones into pairing mode. The outside of the ear cup has touch functions for the title jump and for the volume. You can also activate the transparency mode here.
On the right shell you will find a USB-C socket that is not only used for charging. Here you can also connect the Solitaire T directly to a notebook. The headphones also convert signals into highres with a DAC from ESS. Next to it is an analog jack socket for 2.5 mm Pentaconn plugs. Pentaconn cables are four-pin and allow symmetrical signal transmission. The corresponding cable ends in a 4.4 mm Pentaconn plug. You can find it in the chic transport box.
Another analog cable with 3.5 mm jack plug for the classic unbalanced signal routing is included as well as a screw-on adapter to 6.3 millimeters and an adapter for the aircraft. For the cables, T+A has included a small transport box, which you can fix in the large transport box with Velcro.
We eagerly listen to the virtuoso guitar playing, which is drawn in a contrasting way, but does not tend to sharpen. The T+A works very precisely, but does not fall into the analysis. The spatiality is amazing, the percussive blows on the resonance corpus are well located in the room. We listen in Quality Mode, one of the three playback modes. The Sony chip, which is responsible for the ANC, is bypassed.
We dig deep into the Tidal box and get Rockit by Herbie Hancock out of the album Future Shock. The classic from 1983 is somewhere between jazz rock and fusion and has lost none of its groove in the past four decades. The Solitaire T not only proves an exact sense of rhythm here, but also convinced us with a very good audibleness of the recording. We listen to each other through all genres and can almost only give the ANC headphones top marks. He is tonally balanced, but never boring.
Only when the tuning as passive headphones was finished, they set about electrification. Due to this approach, the Solitaire T is also a high-quality hi-fi headphone. Even when switched off, driven by an external headphone amplifier, it does not give itself any sonic nabluity. In this respect, it is very similar to the Dali IO-12, which plays in a similar prize league.
With other manufacturers, operation with an empty battery is often not intended in the first place. And the models, which can be operated passively even without electricity, then sound audibly worse without the active electronics. From this point of view, the Solitaire T is a classic, wired headphone and a fully equipped Bluetooth headphone combined in one model.
He can also do ANC and works as a DAC, but these are not his strengths. The active noise cancellation is therefore carried over by a Sony chip. This is certainly a good, if not the best choice when it comes to ANC. It is not for nothing that the best noise cancelling we have tested so far is in the Sony WH-1000XM5. The third in the bunch is an ES9218 Sabre D/A converter, which takes over the musical part. This solution with three chips sounds ingeniously simple, but is expensive and the circuits required for it are complex. But you can rely on the engineering from Herford.
The Solitaire T does not offer wear detection, so when you take off the headphones, the music continues. This is not bad, but we would have liked a wear detection that also switches off the touch field on the right ear cup to rule out incorrect operation when removing the listeners at short notice. For this, there is an automatic shutdown that turns off the headphones after 5 minutes if no music signal comes from the source. If the ANC is activated, the automatic shutdown is deactivated. Thus, the T+A takes into account scenarios in which you are sitting on the plane and simply want to enjoy the silence provided by the ANC.
The transparency mode works even better than the ANC, it almost sounds like you don't have headphones on. This can be particularly advantageous when making phone calls, for which the Solitaire T is very suitable. However, the activation is a bit fiddly. It can be activated by double tapping on the small, detached touch field in the lower area of the right earcup. Hitting this spot blindly requires some practice.
The missing custom EQ, the lack of wear recognition and the touch fumbling when activating the transparency mode give rise to quiet complaining. Here, the mainstream competitors from Sony or Bose are a tick better.
But the processing of the T+A Solitaire T is at the highest level and seemingly made for eternity. Construction and elaborate electronics testify to a high level of engineering. In terms of sound, the Solitaire T therefore clearly places itself at the top of all Bluetooth headphones tested so far. And also as a passive headphones at home at the system, the T+A can keep up with the best in its price range.
And here is the English translation:
T+A Solitaire T in the test: Luxury headphones with Bluetooth and ingenious sound
T+A enters highly competitive terrain with the Solitaire T Bluetooth headphones. You set yourself away from the strong competition by the price alone, but also promises a unique quality in terms of workmanship and sound.
Andreas Eichelsdörfer 5.6.2024
Advantages
- Detailed and spatial reproduction
- Good control in the bass
- Also sounds passively excellent
- Top-level processing
- Costly pleasure
- No custom EQ
At T+A, there is nothing less than 1,000 euros. Cheap hi-fi is left to others by the Herforders. For example, the T+A Solitaire T also costs just under 1,400 euros. For a Bluetooth headphone, this price is quite an announcement. When we look at the wired brother T+A Solitaire P, the scenario is quickly put into perspective. It costs four times as much. But how does the T+A headphones compare to the mainstream competition, which partly costs only a fraction? In our test we find out.
The T+A Solitaire T in detail
The finely milled and bead-blasted aluminum parts are a trademark of T+A. Just recently, the trio of amplifier T+A PA 2000 R, matching network player MP 2000 R and turntable G 2000 R with matching housings visited us. With the T+A Solitaire T we see black plastic, a lot of metal and fine [vegan] leather.Leather is anti-allergenic artificial leather, both on the ear cups and on the headband. This is particularly pleasing to vegans and allergy sufferers, but it also feels great for everyone else. The workmanship is typical of the brand at the highest level. We try to use superlatives sparingly, but this is sometimes difficult with the devices from T+A. The small buttons with a clearly defined pressure point and the finely snap-in slide switches can be operated very well.
Many buttons, large touch field
On the left shell is the slide switch for on and off. No multiple occupancy, no double function. This makes the operation easy. In addition, there are four small, green glowing LEDs that show how full the battery is when switched on or when charging. During operation, only one of these LEDs lights up. On the right shell there is a button with which you can switch between ANC on, ANC off and the high-quality mode.A second button activates the voice control on the smartphone. A slide switch activates or deactivates the Bluetooth functions or puts the Bluetooth headphones into pairing mode. The outside of the ear cup has touch functions for the title jump and for the volume. You can also activate the transparency mode here.
On the right shell you will find a USB-C socket that is not only used for charging. Here you can also connect the Solitaire T directly to a notebook. The headphones also convert signals into highres with a DAC from ESS. Next to it is an analog jack socket for 2.5 mm Pentaconn plugs. Pentaconn cables are four-pin and allow symmetrical signal transmission. The corresponding cable ends in a 4.4 mm Pentaconn plug. You can find it in the chic transport box.
Another analog cable with 3.5 mm jack plug for the classic unbalanced signal routing is included as well as a screw-on adapter to 6.3 millimeters and an adapter for the aircraft. For the cables, T+A has included a small transport box, which you can fix in the large transport box with Velcro.
This is what the T+A Solitaire T sounds like
We start the hearing test with Keith Don't Go by guitar grandmaster Nils Lofgren in the live version from the album Live Acoustic. The song suddenly starts with the typical hard attack of Mr. Lofgren, the applause fades very quickly. We see a dark stage, the artist in the spotlight. From the audience come isolated calls of enthusiasm, a timid clapping comes up, the Solitaire T depicts a fantastic space, here the club atmosphere is authentic and rousing.We eagerly listen to the virtuoso guitar playing, which is drawn in a contrasting way, but does not tend to sharpen. The T+A works very precisely, but does not fall into the analysis. The spatiality is amazing, the percussive blows on the resonance corpus are well located in the room. We listen in Quality Mode, one of the three playback modes. The Sony chip, which is responsible for the ANC, is bypassed.
We dig deep into the Tidal box and get Rockit by Herbie Hancock out of the album Future Shock. The classic from 1983 is somewhere between jazz rock and fusion and has lost none of its groove in the past four decades. The Solitaire T not only proves an exact sense of rhythm here, but also convinced us with a very good audibleness of the recording. We listen to each other through all genres and can almost only give the ANC headphones top marks. He is tonally balanced, but never boring.
First think passively, then act actively
T+A has taken a different path in development like most other manufacturers of Bluetooth headphones. The Solitaire T was only developed and tuned as a passive headphone. The 42-millimeter membrane is made of cellulose, a material that is well suited for this purpose due to its low weight and high stiffness. There is a damping on the edge of the membrane, which is supposed to suppress unwanted influences of the coil.Only when the tuning as passive headphones was finished, they set about electrification. Due to this approach, the Solitaire T is also a high-quality hi-fi headphone. Even when switched off, driven by an external headphone amplifier, it does not give itself any sonic nabluity. In this respect, it is very similar to the Dali IO-12, which plays in a similar prize league.
With other manufacturers, operation with an empty battery is often not intended in the first place. And the models, which can be operated passively even without electricity, then sound audibly worse without the active electronics. From this point of view, the Solitaire T is a classic, wired headphone and a fully equipped Bluetooth headphone combined in one model.
The power of the three hearts
T+A has implanted not one, not two, but three chips into his Solitaire T. The reason is simple: Each of these chips is particularly strong in one category. Let's start with the QCC 5127 from market leader Qualcomm. He is responsible for the Bluetooth connection and is considered a measure of all things when it comes to codecs, BT protocols and energy consumption.He can also do ANC and works as a DAC, but these are not his strengths. The active noise cancellation is therefore carried over by a Sony chip. This is certainly a good, if not the best choice when it comes to ANC. It is not for nothing that the best noise cancelling we have tested so far is in the Sony WH-1000XM5. The third in the bunch is an ES9218 Sabre D/A converter, which takes over the musical part. This solution with three chips sounds ingeniously simple, but is expensive and the circuits required for it are complex. But you can rely on the engineering from Herford.
The Solitaire T in practice
In addition to the slide switch for the Bluetooth function, there is an LED that not only indicates whether the headphones are paired via Bluetooth, but also which codec is used. Blue for SBC, white for AAC, red for aptX and yellow for aptX HD. This feature gives you control that the right and best possible codec is also in place.The Solitaire T does not offer wear detection, so when you take off the headphones, the music continues. This is not bad, but we would have liked a wear detection that also switches off the touch field on the right ear cup to rule out incorrect operation when removing the listeners at short notice. For this, there is an automatic shutdown that turns off the headphones after 5 minutes if no music signal comes from the source. If the ANC is activated, the automatic shutdown is deactivated. Thus, the T+A takes into account scenarios in which you are sitting on the plane and simply want to enjoy the silence provided by the ANC.
Effective ANC
The Solitaire T already passively isolates very well. Activated, noise cancelling effectively reduces the ambient noise. On the headphones, you can activate the ANC, switch it off or activate the transparency mode. There are three different settings for the ANC via the app. The "Office" mode mainly suppresses voices and step noises, with "Outdoor" the ANC focuses on wind noise and leaf noise. The maximum mode stands for itself.The transparency mode works even better than the ANC, it almost sounds like you don't have headphones on. This can be particularly advantageous when making phone calls, for which the Solitaire T is very suitable. However, the activation is a bit fiddly. It can be activated by double tapping on the small, detached touch field in the lower area of the right earcup. Hitting this spot blindly requires some practice.
The app: Clear, limited EQ function
The app is very clear. Via the home screen, you can control the ANC, deactivate the Bluetooth connection and read the state of charge of the battery. In the menu item Sound there is an equalizer, where you can choose from six presets. Strangely enough, a custom setting of the EQ is not provided. The third point offers a list of small tutorials, where all functions of the Solitaire T are explained briefly and very clearly.Our test conclusion about the Solitaire T
At first, we were admittedly a little frightened by the price of 1,390 euros. But a look at the T+A Solitaire T quickly relativizes the price. Already when unpacking, you will notice that it is a noble and high-quality product from a German high-end forge.The missing custom EQ, the lack of wear recognition and the touch fumbling when activating the transparency mode give rise to quiet complaining. Here, the mainstream competitors from Sony or Bose are a tick better.
But the processing of the T+A Solitaire T is at the highest level and seemingly made for eternity. Construction and elaborate electronics testify to a high level of engineering. In terms of sound, the Solitaire T therefore clearly places itself at the top of all Bluetooth headphones tested so far. And also as a passive headphones at home at the system, the T+A can keep up with the best in its price range.
I sent in this information to T+A two weeks ago to receive confirmation of this extra year of warranty. However, I have not yet received any response regarding, or confirmation of, this extra year of warranty from T+ A yet. It seems customer service, even with luxury goods, is equally bad in Germany as it is in the US these days.
Does anyone have any suggestions who I could contact at T+A to process my request?
Thank you!
angelom
Headphoneus Supremus
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Send one more email again, but this time to Claudia Brokmeier at C.Brokmeier@ta-hifi.de, she's the person that will directly doing this for you. Is possible that the warranty certificate is sending already to you (even if you don't receiving a reply before), but I think she will confirming this for you.
Thank you! I just sent the email again to Claudia Brokmeier.
angelom
Headphoneus Supremus
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