Kiats
Headphoneus Supremus
Even though circumstances are not ideal, at least I have the Sol T paired with the wonderful Luxury & Precison LP6 Ti 7th Anniversary.
That pairing definitely deserves an aftermarket cable upgrade (See my wiring diagrams earlier in this thread) ...Even though circumstances are not ideal, at least I have the Sol T paired with the wonderful Luxury & Precison LP6 Ti 7th Anniversary.
Excellent write-up and one I can absolutely concur with … Compliments!!Thought I would do a little writeup after having owned the Solitaire T for a little while. These are diffuse field tuned so they might not be to Harman purists liking, but overall I feel they have a good frequency balance in HQ mode and fairly good in passive mode. It should be noted that I don't mind if a headphone deviates from neutral and can enjoy headphones both on the bright side of neutral and dark with extra bass type headphones. As long as they present the music in a way that I enjoy then I'm fine with different tunings.
The soundstage is good when it comes to the placement and presentation instruments, voices etc. along with separation between them, but it is on the smaller side. Not HD650 small, but smaller than most of my wired closed backs. The size is most likely a compromise due to keeping the size travel friendly (small earcups) and not wanting to compromise other parts of the sound for a larger sound stage. E.g. the Bathys beats the Solitaire T on soundstage size but the definition and separation of instruments, voices etc. is much better on the Solitaire T.
There are essentially three or four voicings of this headphone. You have passive, ANC on/off and HQ mode with some difference between ANC on and off as well. Overall my preferred frequency response on these is in HQ mode. Passive mode is more laidback, HQ mode feels the most neutral while ANC on/off is a bit more laidback than HQ mode, but with a bit more level in the lower treble than passive mode. There is more bass when ANC and less detail in the ANC on/off modes, especially in the treble, compared to HQ mode and passive.
These can be driven hard in passive mode without getting stressed and the drivers feel well controlled and damped. In my experience a major difference between a 400$ headphone and headphones at 800$ is in how the more expensive headphones handle dynamic swings. My experience is that 400$ headphones feel compressed when there are fast swings in the music while the more expensive headphones are faster, capable of larger swings and more precise. These are capable of handling large dynamic swings and dig out the small nuances as well. Detail level is good, timing is spot on and bass is well defined with good thump when required. Timbre is generally good as well, but can sometimes be a bit off due to frequency balance in passive mode. Running these of a good amp shows how much work they spent making a acoustically controlled headphone before adding DSP in the active mode. I might be OK with these as a passive only headphone at the asking price if they had a 30% larger sound stage.
The passive mode seems to dip a bit in the areas between 2.5khz and 6khz. This makes the headphones sound more laid back and causes some fine details from saxophones, voices etc. to be less present in the mix. I'm fine with listening to them without EQ, but I also sometimes EQ that area of the frequency response with most of the EQ being in the 3-5khz area with a few db boost.
Most wired listening was done from a Violectric V226 over balanced output, but also did some listening from RME ADI-2 DAC FS and Mojo 2. They sound good from the latter two, buy these absolutely love the feeling of limitless power from the V226 and sound so clean that I needed to be mindful of the volume. E.g. at 90db there is barely a hint of stress from the drivers, but I prefer to keep my headphone listening at 80db or lower for long listening sessions. These are good enough in passive mode that I find myself reaching for them at home.
My least favorite mode is the ANC on/off as the HQ mode and passive driven as quite far ahead in sound quality, but the sound quality in ANC on is still a notch above the maximum level of PX8 and Bathys and 3 notches above the Bathys for musical enjoyment. Basically the ANC on/off path sounds darker, more closed in and with significantly less detail and dynamics compared to passive and HQ mode. Still good sounding, but not at a level where it is an alternative to wired closed backs.
HQ mode is really good on these. The frequency balance is at it's best in this mode and the passive isolation makes the HQ mode on these surpass the Bathys in silent mode when it comes to keeping noise out. The headphones become more detailed, nuanced and dynamic compared to the other active modes. Timbre is also good overall in this mode. Running USB-C wired does reveal that the aptX-HD codec has some hints of harshness on voices etc. but I do use these at home with aptX-HD instead of wiring them up in passive mode as the HQ mode with is aptX-HD is that good. I would never use the PX8 or Bathys at home unless I absolutely needed the wireless freedom as they aren't good enough on sound quality. While I prefer the Radiance balanced from my V226 over these and find that the V226 brings a bit more out of these over the built in amps, I could live with only having these on aptX-HD and USB-C in HQ mode.
ANC on these is better overall than the PX8, far better than the Bathys outside of low frequencies but a bit behind Sony WH-1000XM3 and quite a bit behind the Sony WH-1000XM5. Passive isolation is a bit behind the XM5, but good enough that you will mainly need ANC if you are on public transpiration or similar and quite a bit ahead of the PX8 and far ahead of the Bathys.
The volume controls drives me nuts as it feels like there are 8 steps or so when using the touch controls. I wish the volume control worked as smooth as the Sony's as I find myself always adjusting the volume on the playback device, never on the headphones with these. At least the forward and backwards between tracks, play/pause and connecting to Bluetooth devices is quite smooth.
The built in amps have some limitation with regards to volume, but not something that would be an issue for most people. They get stressed in the upper 2-3 steps with music that is recorded fairly loud so people wanting to listen at max volume might have issues. The drivers are capable of more when driven passively. Not sure if the max volume would be an issue for people that mostly listen to classical, but for jazz, rock, hip-hop, electronica etc. I never find myself on the upper steps as it is usually loud enough at 50-70% volume.
These are worth the asking price for me due to the HQ mode and having the ability to switch on ANC. The very good passive mode is a bonus which increases value quite a bit for me on top of the active mode. There will most likely be quite a lot of people who find the price to steep, which is fine as well. The only major negative I have is the size of the soundstage, but that is more due to the price range when comparing to wired pairs.
I thought you were serious for a minute!Is a big pity that T+A isn't doing a collaboration like Bowers & Wilkins with the PX8 (McLaren and James Bond) or Bang & Olufsen with the H95 (Ferrari).
I'm ready right now paying a maximum of 3500 EUR if T+A announcing a new Solitaire T McDonald's or Burger King Special Editions (strictly limited to 750,000 numbered units). This ST models, in difference with the standard ST's artificial leather, will having genuine super cheap leather in the headband and earpads with a prominent McDonald's or Burger King logo in the headband and earcups, and a beautiful top quality cardboard carrying case hand-made in Germany.
The 3.5mm cable in fact short-circuits the ground signal between L&R and offers the same ground signal to each channel. The SolT internally has a fully balanced design with separate DACs and AMPs in each cup. Driving it single-ended requires splitting the one ground signal that comes out of the source.I’ve got a question re: the SolT aux jack and would love it if someone could correct my understanding here.
I’ve been using the OIDIO Pellucid Plus cable that I got for my Shure AONICs back in the day, which goes from a 3.5 connector to a 2.5 connector. My understanding is that the 3.5 end takes an unbalanced signal then presents it to the headphones as if it were balanced. Is this correct?
Also, if I were to use the iFi Match built into my Go Bar, which setting would I choose: 2.5 or 3.5?
Would you say the the T+A cable is average or below average as a stock cable? Some headphones have very good stock cables, most are decent and some are outright bad. E.g. the ones I've gotten with my Focal headphones have been very poor and swapping original cables from two different Focal headphones give a noticeable shift in sound on the same headphone while the ones I got with my AH-D7200 is far above the Focal cables and close to good aftermarket cables.Initial observations regarding Wywires platinum headphone cables 4.4mm balanced. Have not burned them in but the difference between these and stock cables connected to an AK SE 300 and Ifi Gryphon connected by USB C cable to the AK SE 300 is simply remarkable. When using the cable directly connected to the SE 300, the 300 was very, very good -- impressive bass with a deep foundation and stage, smooth and wide midrange and great treble range without any harshness or overly bright presentation. Before, when I connected the stock 4.4 cable, I generally preferred the setup with Gryphon with USB C cable to SE 300. Not so with the Wywires cable -- with this cable it is quite evident that that there was a slight edge to the midrange and treble when using Gryphon/SE 300. This cable is immediately revelatory as to both nuance and significant differences in the two dacs. I also purchased a Wywires platinum 3.5mm headphone cable. Have not auditioned the 3.5 mm cable for any length of time but am impressedwith this cable; it is a significant upgrade over the stock cable, but, so far, prefer the overall presentation of the 4.4mm platinum cable. I highly recommend both for your consideration of upgraded headphones cables as compared to the stock cables.
I’d say they’re average at best.Would you say the the T+A cable is average or below average as a stock cable? Some headphones have very good stock cables, most are decent and some are outright bad.
I would like to hear forum members comment on this topic as well.Would you say the the T+A cable is average or below average as a stock cable? Some headphones have very good stock cables, most are decent and some are outright bad. E.g. the ones I've gotten with my Focal headphones have been very poor and swapping original cables from two different Focal headphones give a noticeable shift in sound on the same headphone while the ones I got with my AH-D7200 is far above the Focal cables and close to good aftermarket cables.
Ordered a 4-pin XLR and a 3.5mm cable from audiophile ninja a few weeks ago as they were very reasonably priced. They should a arrive in a few days (easter and chose slow lane shipping). Not sure where they would rank compared to the more upmarket after market cables though.
I would like to hear forum members comment on this topic as well.
i would like to rephase the question a bit differently: On a 100 point scale (100=perfection), how would you rate the supplied T+A cables and the modestly priced Audiophile Ninja cables? Also, if you have had experience with the pricy Noir Hybrid HPC from Forza AudioWorks, how would you rate these on this 100 point scale. I am also interested in upgrading my cables but am not interested in paying an crazy premium to obtain the last 5% of performance.
Thank you!