Happy New Year! 
Hope you all had an enjoyable holiday and New Years with your family, friends, and fav audio gear!
Just wanted to recap the last few weeks as a summary, and provide another mini-impressions review between my existing systems and my newly acquired and upgraded laptop*.
I have been enjoying my new T+A Solitaire T headphones, passively wired (single-ended) and wireless Bluetooth since arriving on 14th Dec '22; I love these cans so much that I am likely to sell/trade off my old AKG K 712 Pro, Audeze EL8 Ti, and Focal Elear headphones!
Hopefully, in the next few months, I could try and acquire the FiiO M17 as my new all-in-one streamer, source DAC, and amp, to pair with the Solitaire T (wired balanced, single-ended, Bluetooth), whilst using my Android phone for wireless use when I am commuting to and in the office at work!
Cannot believe how the core sound signature of the Solitaire T matches so closely between each mode, wireless and passive, and continue to be a highly engaging neutral voicing that is utterly engrossing!
Purpose of Test:
Though I have spoken before on this in parts, I really wanted to identify on how serious I am at trading away or selling three of my current headphones in collection, simply because the T+A Solitaire T have been a transformative experience. I do not think I have heard a better system in years, and I consider these to be crazy affordable for what these headphones can do. I am not joking.
I may not have as much experience with multiple high-end headphones or gear at hand as other peeps, so please take the above with that in mind, but based upon my current gear and lifelong experience of audiophile gear (including demo'ing gear or going to audio events), I believe my thoughts are as honest as they can be.
Two are almost certain to leave my collection, simply because I have not used either in many years: AKG K 712 Pro and Audeze EL8 Ti. The Solitaire T essentially rendered both obsolete in my honest opinion.
My much older legacy AKG K 701 Pro's will never leave, as these are my nostalgic cans and first major over-the-head audiophile headphone purchase, even if unused. Likewise, I will almost never sell or get rid of my Meze 99 Classics in walnut/silver, as these are much too nice and lovingly adored, as well as used on occasion when I want a bit of soulful sweetness to my music listening.
Also, my Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 1 earphones died earlier in December 2022, and instead of going for the MTW3, went all out for the Solitaire T (what a crazy upgrade
).
This left the remainder headphone, Focal Elear, and it is this that I have had the biggest argument within myself, as I tried to rationalise and justify it's purpose in my active collection alongside the Meze 99 Classics and T+A Solitaire T. Was my emotional nostalgic connection to the Elear's clouding my logical mind?
Time to check, and I did so via a very unfair test simply based upon my internal rational that the Solitaire T's sonics traits are that good.
My Focal Elear's are hooked up, via an unnecessarily expensive pure silver balanced cabling system, to two Class A monoblock amps connected to an old DAP.
My T+A Solitaire T will compete with the above in both USB-C DAC mode via my laptop, and via single-ended mode with my DAP.
Yes, this does sound unfair, but my hypothesis is this:
Hypothesis #1: If the sound signature of the Solitaire T has subjectively identifiable appealing qualities, in either single-ended or USB-C DAC mode, that, whether in small or large degrees, present a superior listening experience to my Elear headphones in balanced mode, then the Elear's are no longer reasonable to keep, as the Solitaire T has potential to go further.
I can then adopt new cables, or adapters, to work with my existing pure silver balanced cables with the Solitaire Tm, in order to maximise it's potential at home, or start a new home system (such as new cables and a new DAP: Atlas Zeno 1:1 and FiiO M17). Here, the Focal Elear can be traded-in alongside AKG K 712 Pro and Audeze EL8 Ti for the various upgrade paths mentioned above.
Or:
Hypothesis #2: If the Focal Elear can present a unique experience that I consider entertaining (and does not make me wish to switch to the Solitaire T), then it will remain in current collection.
Headphone, app, and device system info:
T+A Solitaire T Headset-Version: 4.0.5
For context, the T+A Companion App was not used in any of the testing as this is not available on either my old Onkyo DP-X1 DAP nor Microsoft Windows 11.
All audio was conducted via the following setups:
System 1:
- Onkyo DP-X1 Gen 1 (Android 5.1.1)- streaming from Tidal HiFi, via the frontend USB Audio Player PRO (v6.0.9.2) in bit-perfect mode. DAP set to Balanced Output and High Gain mode, with digital filter set at Short, and Lock range Adjust set to Normal.
- NuForce HA-200 Class A monoblock amps x2 (discontinued). DP-X1 source connected to monoblock amps via Double Helix Cables pure silver 2.5mm to dual 3-Pin XLR balanced interconnect.
- DHC Complement4 pure silver dual 3-Pin XLR balanced adapter from each HA-200 monoblock's 3-Pin XLR output.
- Focal Elear connected to above adapter via DHC Prion4 pure silver 3.5mm TRRS x2 to 4-Pin XLR balanced cable.
System 2:
- Onkyo DP-X1 Gen 1 (Android 5.1.1)- streaming from Tidal HiFi, via the frontend USB Audio Player PRO (v6.0.9.2) in bit-perfect mode. DAP set to Single-Ended Output and High Gain mode, with digital filter set at Short, and Lock range Adjust set to Normal.
- T+A Solitaire T headphones in single-ended mode with 2.5mm TRRS to 3.5mm TRS cable connected to DAP.
System 3:
Album:
Profound Mysteries II, by
Röyksopp (16 bit/44.1 kHz).
Album was streamed via Tidal HiFi, whether Android (not pictured from Onkyo DP-X1 DAP) or Windows 11 (screenshots below).
Windows 11 KoordASIO T+A Solitaire T settings:
T+A Solitaire T Settings within Tidal HiFi:
Song #1:
Let's Get It Right feat. Astrid S, by
Röyksopp.
Tidal HiFi
Spotify
YouTube Music
YouTube (Official music videos)
System 1 (Focal Elear, Balanced):
Sound was thick with lots of impact almost universally across the frequency spectrum, and the soundstage was wide and deep.
There is lovely air from the ethereal ambience of the song, and a warmish club presence.
The synthesised drum hits have a soft thwack sound that sounds almost un-drum like.
The finger snaps are clearly loud: the mid-tone of the snaps are clear and echo, but the bass and high tones of the snaps are a little soft. The snaps are bodied but a little one-dimensional.
I was surprised that the Elear had as much top-end as it did, but not sparkly or as present as the thicker low and mid-ranges. The decay of the treble synthesised notes were disappointing, almost just phasing out with no musicality.
System 2 (T+A Solitaire T, Single-Ended):
Sound had less meat-on-the-bones than the Elear, until one realises that the overall sound is much less fluffy.
Soundstage is more intimate, and much smaller than the Elear's, yet the experience is far more engrossing than
System 1. I felt like I was listening to the song in a studio, and it was eerie and amazing.
The drum, though still synthesised, sounded instead as if they were live recorded then later heavily processed; the realism of the drum thwacks, even if crushed with effects, was present.
Finger snaps were not as loud as the Elear's in
System 1, but now sounded truly real, with proper ASDR. More so, the snaps were organic too, where you can hear the body and texture of each snap within the mix. I do find it strange that the Elear presented these snaps more pointedly than
System 2 Solitaire T SE, but the latter was not distracting as the former (when comparing that section repeatedly).
Treble here was very, very present, having it's own presence to harmonically interlock with the muscular bass response in order to create the song's atmosphere. No sibilance, but lots of sparkle, albeit a little a tad (and I mean
a tad) fuzzier than
System 3.
System 3 (T+A Solitaire T, USB-C DAC):
Very unusual. I expected
System 2 to be superior to
System 3.
My first long testing proved an eye-opener;
System 3 rendered bass with more nuance than the Solitaire T in SE mode.
The bass had a tighter focus, faster snap and twang, but more importantly, lifted the presentation of the track.
Soundstage sounded marginally wider, more expansive, but now the studio-feel felt closer to an experience where you listen to a mastered track on an amazing speaker system in a well built room, rather than a studio.
The drums had an attack velocity that neither
System 1 or
System 2 replicated, and, and further convinced me that the drums were indeed recorded, but the effects I mentioned above are far less profound, perhaps much less edited than I had realised! I was gobsmacked at this revelation; I have heard this track, since the album dropped in August 2022, via both my Elear's and (mostly) Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 1, and I feel robbed that neither rendered the processed drums accurately as the Solitaire T do.
The finger snaps also took me aback as well, I now notice that the two snaps are repeated, but each are different; I thought it was one finger snap repeated over an over!
Ah, now, the treble reproduced in this system is what I wanted; that added extra clarity that
System 2 got close to, but did not match. Now the treble snapped as fast as how the bass notes snap; toned top-end?! Crazy good! There is more treble pressure here, almost piercing, but again, no sibilance.
---
Song #2:
Unity feat Karen Harding, by
Röyksopp.
Tidal HiFi
Spotify
YouTube Music
YouTube (Official music videos)
System 1:
Soundstage was, expectedly, wider and deeper, but felt a little...artificial? No, that's not right, but the soundstage had a lack of sincerity (when compared to
System 2 and
System 3).
Bass had a little bit of texture, but mostly flatter with high-impact; very monotonous.
Treble was...airy yes, but fluffy, and a little indistinct (again, when compared to
System 2 and
System 3). Bass was more sustained, longer than I think was intended by the song, as now the upper-bass and lower-midrange started to sound muffled.
Where this really presented issues was the reproduction of the piano. Under the Elear, it was very in your face, but just did not sound real. It sounded almost synthesised. That is because
System 2 and
System 3 were better at presenting the hammer strikes on the piano note strings better. Until these tests, I thought the Elear's in balanced were grand, and now I feel that these cans in this system left me wanting.
Harding's voice was very bodied, but blurry from the thumping bass mid-tones (not bloomy, just too much bass impact). This impacted Harding's treble, as these were much less distinct and a bit more abstract compared to
System 2 and
System 3. Still lovely, but now that I have heard better, very hard to come back to the Elear's representation of vocals (as per this test).
System 2:
Immediately the soundstage woke up; as before with
Lets Get it Right song above, the soundstage is juts more expansive despite it's smaller space. A
clearer window, though I sort of dislike that analogy...
Bass was detailed, had nuances and bounce that was (almost) not apparent on
System 1 Focal Elear setup, but also did not linger either. The mid-range...sigh...breathtakingly accurate and almost flawless
. Nothing sounded artificial, just natural.
Harding's voice here had a remarkable quality of sincerity and focused body, whilst flowing between the vocal ranges she displays (alongside some of the intentional trailing effects as part of the song's identity).
More so, Harding's treble matched the energy of the song's high-frequency acrobatics; sparkly and tuneful, but not
System 3:
I am really unsure at how many times I can be shocked at this system testing. I had to repeat this track over all three systems over and over, on sections and full length, because I still could not believe the differences.
In short, however T+A have tuned and implemented the ES9218 DAC* with Class A amplification is astonishing, and superior to the Solitaire T in SE as per
System 2 (and lets not forget that the ES9218 is likely superior to the two ES9018K2M DAC's in my Onkyo DP-X1 DAP as well).
Alive is the operative word here, I felt like I was at a live event for one audience, me, and I was just giddy! The Solitaire T still have a small soundstage, but it is also expansive as a canvass on how much music can be represented; rich, accurate, detailed, with a little bit of flair from the strong and precise bass.
The piano sounded real, and just like the song
Lets Get it Right with the drums,
Unity with the piano sounded like a
real piano, with minimal (if any) effects applied. Even if this is still a synthesised piece of the song, the notes and replication of the hammers on the piano strings are well defined, meaning if this is not a real piano, then the software designers behind the synthesised piano (in whatever DAW was used) deserve recognition.
The bass was very, very well defined, highly textured, the headphones had powerful grip on each bass note, and the energy here was, even with a small soundstage, almost atmospheric unto itself (never experienced bass do that!).
The mid-range on the vocals was breathy, musical, ghostly, smoky, and you can truly hear the movements of the mouth and vocal chords as singer- Karen Harding- sings. Just hearing the moments of her breathing the split-second she sings a note is wondrous, adding the right amount of anticipation to hear her move in the song. The panning is very nice too, but unfortunately due to the smaller soundstage is a little less obvious, however, almost not obvious in either
System 1 or
System 2! The extra sparkle from
System 3 and extra refinement nailed Harding's voice, grounding it beautifully as if she were singing live.
Conclusion:
Erm...if not obvious, my
Hypothesis #1 was correct
I have much enjoyed the Focal Elear in my system since 2015/2016, and I have pushed it mostly as far as it can go. Sure, a much better source to my monoblock amps, or a new system (starring with the FiiO M17 or better) may enhance my
System 1, but this won't change the core sonic signature of the Elear's.
The T+A Solitaire T, in single-ended or USB-C DAC mode, presented a fantastic experience I do not think the Elear's can match.
I believe it is time to move on my old Elear's onto someone who may enjoy them (or trade them in for upgrades!), but I wanted to also make a case for the Elear's too. The Elear's are still unique in terms of pure ferocity and intensity of musical playback, and are very impactful. I consider these attractive qualities. They are good at representing a body of a song too, and can hit with authority.
However, in direct comparison to the T+A Solitaire T (which I intentionally handicapped), the sonic traits of the Solitaire T cannot be denied. The finesse, instrument separation, detail retrieval, exquisite realism of vocals and instruments (even if synthesised or modified), sheer accuracy of notes and space within a smaller soundstage, just make me want to listen to the Solitaire T almost exclusively.
Only my Meze 99 Classics interrupt the honeymoon, as I still adore their soulful tuning with clarity. Nothing like the Solitaire T, yet just as engrossing.
Anyway, lengthy read, and yes, will start to get the old boxes, tidy up, and photoshoot three headphones that I will part with: AKG K 701 Pro, Audeze EL8 Ti, and Focal Elear.
Cheers for reading!
