[asmoday]

Quote:

 
That's a big reason why I always suggest the Meier combo. A brand new shiny T1 plus any of Jan's amps for a steal. Even his little Rock amp will drive the T1s just fine. 

 
Quote:

This is true.  Also,  my T1s run really well on all my DIY amps.  

 
 
That's nice to know, I have been spending more and more time with my sons DT880 and have been thinking of maybe getting myself a pair of the T1's but was worried about amping them. 
 
O.T.
Call me crazy but I think I prefer the newly acquired Rock over the Jazz for the DT880!!

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

So my friend is going to purchase the T1. However he has told me that he won't be buying an amp because he's sure that the sound card that he uses will be enough to drive the T1's. I'm not sure and I've never heard the card that he got with the T1's so I'm asking you experts here will my friend be able to enjoy these cans with the Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card?
 
I would let him try mine with his sound card but that's not possible at the moment as he's in a different country..

Your friend will be losing out on what the T1 really has to offer. That sound card will play them "ok", but critical judgements what the headphone has to offer will be limited by the bottleneck feeding his T1s. By a long shot!

 

[Dark Wizard]

Quote:

Your friend will be losing out on what the T1 really has to offer. That sound card will play them "ok", but critical judgements what the headphone has to offer will be limited by the bottleneck feeding his T1s. By a long shot!

 
Aight, thank you I will tell him that. That's basically what I thought myself when he told me he was only going to use that sound card to amp them. Do you have a recommendation to which "cheap" amp he could use instead? I don't know if he will listen but I sure would like to recommend something that runs them good and don't cost too much money. Feels like a waste if he's going to pay that much money for a pair of headphones and not being able to use them to their full capacity. But yeah, in the end it's up to him..
 
I myself went with the A-1 amp and I'm loving each time I put the headphones on and just enjoy the music as well as movies. Sure it was quite expensive but I don't regret it. I've never heard better sound with a headphone in my whole life.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

 
Aight, thank you I will tell him that. That's basically what I thought myself when he told me he was only going to use that sound card to amp them. Do you have a recommendation to which "cheap" amp he could use instead? I don't know if he will listen but I sure would like to recommend something that runs them good and don't cost too much money. Feels like a waste if he's going to pay that much money for a pair of headphones and not being able to use them to their full capacity. But yeah, in the end it's up to him..
 
I myself went with the A-1 amp and I'm loving each time I put the headphones on and just enjoy the music as well as movies. Sure it was quite expensive but I don't regret it. I've never heard better sound with a headphone in my whole life.

 
IME, the best T1 amp for the $ was the Woo Audio WA2. Simply magical pairing when I owned them both. I haven't heard the A-1 though.
 
Cheers!

 

[preproman]

My βeta-22 and the T1 is a great match.  The βeta-22 really brings out the bass in the T1.

 

[Focker]

Quote:

 
IME, the best T1 amp for the $ was the Woo Audio WA2. Simply magical pairing when I owned them both.

And the Woo amp isn't hard on the eyes, either! I don't know what it is, but I love the styling of the Woo gear. 

 

[Timmyw]

Hey Dark Wizard.
 
I know what the other guys are saying and it's true. However I have been listening all morning with the STX and honestly, if your friend doesn't have the cash or doesn't want to spend that kind of money right away it's an excellent place to start. I assumed he was getting this because he was strapped for cash.
 
I can't think of anything else at this price range that would be as good. You have to remember the WA2 costs 7 times as much as the STX. The A1 costs ten times. Well, they do in Australia anyway. As far as power goes I had the volume at 11% before it started to get too loud for me. When your friend has the money he can upgrade if he wants.
 
I cranked the T1s with some pretty seriously bass heavy music and the STX handled it all with aplomb. So unless it's not set up properly or your friend is using sub par music files there will not be a problem there.
 
If he has the cash though and is buying the T1.... buy something nicer.
 
Some food for thought

 

[Zombie_X]

Dark Wizard,
 
I recommend the PHENIX G3. It's under $200 and is quite powerful. It's a OTL tube amp and has a nice smooth tone that is very warm. Plus it's quite small and is no bigger than a pack of smokes (no I don't smoke).

 

[zenpmd]

I could hear no sonic difference between the A1 and the HDP....

 

[voyager123]

When I had my DT880s (250 Ohms), initially I was listening to them off an ASUS D2X, which is almost as good in sonic performance as your friend's STX.
It was quiet mediocre IMO. They didn't sound nearly as good as they could, and I had known that before I purchased an external DAC/AMP combo , the Essence One, which is a very good sounding piece of kit for the money IMHO.
When I first connected the Essence One to my computer via SPDIF (the USB sucked on it), I was astonished by the improvement. It was a night and day difference. And we're only talking about the 250 Ohm version of the DT880s, not a T1.
Driving a T1 off an STX is like watching DivX movies on a projector set up to a 300x220 cm screen.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

When I had my DT880s (250 Ohms), initially I was listening to them off an ASUS D2X, which is almost as good in sonic performance as your friend's STX.

 
Only if you use it with an external amplifier as a line level source. The front channel output jack of the Xonar D1/DX/D2/D2X has the same specs with respect to driving headphones as the RCA line outputs on the STX, and is not comparable to the amplified headphone jack of the latter at all, which has nearly 10 times lower output impedance, and 22 times as much power driving your DT880s.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by voyager123 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Driving a T1 off an STX is like watching DivX movies on a projector set up to a 300x220 cm screen.

 
This is a flawed analogy that is randomly made up, and is not based on any real data (especially if you do not even have the STX, nor know its specifications well enough). The Xonar STX performs comparably to the Essence One driving high impedance headphones, and is not bottlenecking the DT880 or T1 (which is an overpriced headphone, by the way, like most of the other "Tesla" models).

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

I could hear no sonic difference between the A1 and the HDP....

Then look at your source and DAC. 

 

[ericfarrell85]

T1's just arrived and running them through a CSP2+ using a Sylvania 5u4g rectifier and [size=small]3 Genelax 6922 Gold Lions. The details are phenomenal, the energy addicting and the imaging is first-rate (not up to par with my Stax, but very good). I am, however, thrown by the forwardness. Elliot Smith (vinyl recording) is all boxed up in the center of my brain and doesn't have a great deal of breathing room. This is well suited to some of his slower balladry, but distracting for some of the edgier stuff. Also, they're quite revealing. Anyway, quite the variance between albums so far. Acoustic, binaural album "Up Close" (Ottmar Leibert) was tonally wonderful and fascinatingly expansive - Elliot Smith - enjoyable, but a little on the boring side, and at times irritatingly forward. Their job was to replace the RS1's (which I ranked the weakest of my headphones and not competitive with the AD2000 for the same music) and they do in spades from a technicalities vantage. We'll see as to the rest. [/size]

 

[voyager123]

What is the serial number of your T1s?
The older numbered models were quite forward an edgy. (<3500)
The newer ones are much smoother across the entire frequency range, but still a bit bright compared to an HD600 for example.

 

[ericfarrell85]

4560
 
I'm starting to think that it was an anomalous track and specific to it. Actually they're surprisingly unedgy, and being very tolerant of spiky upper frequencies, I'm surprised so far at 1) their buttery smoothness (any more and it would be overdone considering its sonic signature) 2) their punchy, dare I even say "weighty" bass that is neither eclipsed by the mids nor lies low in the shelter of a basement vent (ala HD800 at times). 
 
I certainly need more time with these wonderful headphones to get a read of their signature. They passed the treble aglow test (Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca), with marks of comfortably splashy and detailed. I'm not yet seeing (feeling?) their supposed cheetah speed, as I don't find that peculiar green light/launch-yourself quality so apparent in an AD2000. Also the sound is not pot-bellied and syrupy as in LCD/HD650 - though slightly more full-figured than the slender HD800. Frustratingly balanced is what I'd call them at the moment, which is just another way of saying they still have me duped. I've never really had an all-rounder, except maybe somewhere in the early, mid-fi days (but who remembers all those tried-and-peddled headphones anyway?). Maybe HE6 is an all-rounder? Hell, those may be the all-round-greatest-headphones-ever-when-amped-dangerously pair and if these approach within walking distance of those without the 75 pound Marantz beast leaking detonative wattage, I'll be more than happy to pay the freight.