[wingmylife]

Good. Hope someone can come out with T1 vs hd 800 vs denon d7k

 

[nicoguy]

I know it's a bit of an old thread, but I suspect some might still be interested. I own both the DT880/600 and the T1 which I recabled with the greatly appreciated Toxic Cables Silver Widow. Driving the headphone I have custom made hardware, made by my father with 40 years of hobby high end audio design experience. And I like to show it off

 

Some technical stuff

The DAC is based on the Doede Douma Dac 1794, which you can find on Doede's website. Basically it's a stacked DAC design of 4 * 2 PCM1794 NOS DAC chips that together not only drastically improve the sound but brings enough power to not need any amping for the next stage or even headphones, though I find on the T1 and DT880 that sometimes I desire a little more volume still. The only thing in between the DACs and the next stage is

(decoupling) a high resolution 1:1 step up transformer from Cinemag.

 

The headphone amplifier is based on a very high end power supply, 2*2 EC903 tubes and 2 famous 6n30p 'supertubes', all audio stages and paths are connected with pure silver. And USB also a high end cable, although I keep wondering about how much that really matters.

 

Photo: http://puu.sh/8V6Ge.jpg

 

 

The important part

How does the T1 compare to the DT880/600 on this rig? My finding is that the T1 has higher resolution. All the components in the music are more subtly defined and contoured, there is more space in between everything. Airy, playful..

and from soft to loud the T1 seems to be a little more dynamical. Also I find that the higher frequency range is more behaved and refined. Personally I find the overall characters of the 2 rather similar, the T1 just does everything more refined with a little less focus on the particular treble range, and has a little more expansion in soundstage. On top of that, the T1 is more sensitive and needs less amping.

Another positive note on the T1 is the headband. The DT880's is made of a certain rubber that after enough wear starts to become sticky. The T1's is made of leather I think, and won't have that effect.

 

Having said this, I will say that the DT880 stands pretty strong, and for the price has stunningly good sound.

 

 

[pp312]

An interesting and helpful comparison, nicoguy. Your findings reflect what one would logically expect comparing the DT880 (600 or 250, as I don't believe there are huge differences) and T1, especially based on the FR: greater refinment, better resolution but basically the same flavour. I wish all reviews left us with such a logical conclusion, but unfortunately they don't, to the point sometimes where one begins to wonder about Beyer's consistency and quality control. If I were buying a T1, which is not likely, I would want to hear the very one, not a demonstrator.
 
Actually my main interest in this thread concerns the OPs disappointment with the post-2003 DT880 Pro compared to the pre. I've heard others express preference for the pre , but never to that degree; the OP makes them sound like two completely different phones. I'm very happy with the 880 Pro and can't imagine the previous model was a huge improvement, so I'm interested to hear what others who might have owned both have to say.