New headphones?

[PaulyT]

I HIGHLY recommend the Beyer T1 if you can swing it. Pretty pricey, but you can often find it around $600 on Head-Fi, e.g.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/767899/beyerdynamic-t1

The T1 is my current regular headphone. It is an open design though so ambient noise is an issue. (They call it semi-open but really it doesn't sound that way, esp. compared to the fully closed Denon D5000 which I also own.)

 

[Rope]

If you're going to be a snake...be a big poisoness snake.
Audeze LCD-XC

Rope

 

[goaliechris]

LCD-X? T1? You got me creepin' up my budget! :music-listening: So those are pretty awesome HPs. However, pretty much everything I read says you must have a dedicated amp for these upper end headphones. Will they sound good being driven by nothing more than an iPod or straight into a MacBook Pro?

I am not against buying an amp later but it will be pretty simple to start. If I've learned nothing else on here, it's spend the money on the speakers and then on amps and sources.

And these will be for home use only. No portable rigs. While I'd like to spend $1500 on these, I'm thinking more in the range of $500-$700.

 

[Flint]

They will sound great with your MacBook Pro and iPad which both have good headphone outputs, better than their competitors.

I refuse to accept the nonsense about expensive headphones (or speakers) sounding bad without an equally expensive amp. While they may reach their greatest potential with a great amp, they still sound much better than lesser headphones with common device amps.

 

[goaliechris]

Thank you - good points.

I think I'm going to try open-backed this time. I will use these at my home office and no one is really around me to complain about noise. The T1s look great.

 

[Flint]

I am sure you will love them.

 

[PaulyT]

Yeah, Flint's advice is good - spend the $$ on headphones first, try it without a separate amp at least for a while, and then maybe explore amps later on if you decide there's anything missing. The T1 is a little weird though because of its extremely high impedance (600 ohm). It actually sounds really bad with my fancy solid state amp (Yulong A18), which sounds terrific with the (low impedance) D5000... so it's not straightforward.

 

[goaliechris]

Interesting - you would think it would be pretty straightforward. If and when I get into amps, I will reach out for sure because I'm a babe in the woods there in terms of what could be needed depending on the source. But first, and maybe only, the headphones.

Meant to post a couple of pics from my pulled pork but having trouble with my photo service. Gotta get that fixed and then post pics of that and new HPs.

 

[Rope]

I know zero about Macbook Pro or any "i" products, however if the T1's (600 Ohm) perform any where near their potential
with the Macbook (no, I'm not saying you have to drop big bank on a dedicated HP amp) I'm purchasing all new "i" equipment.

Rope

 

[Rope]

A great budget OTL amp for the 600 Ohm T1's would be the Schiit Valhalla.
Schiit Valhalla

Rope

 

[goaliechris]

A great budget OTL amp for the 600 Ohm T1's would be the Schiit Valhalla.
Schiit Valhalla

Rope

Thanks, Rope. Schiit seems to be a common answer for amps. That one looks it could do the job if I ever decide to go that way. There's a guy on head fi who has a Lyr 2 for sale. I guess that's a hybrid approach. Think that would match well with the T1s?

Deacon looks like he has/had the T1s paired with the Woo WA3 and loved it.

 

[PaulyT]

^--- I think you mean GreatDane? Yes, I believe that's what he's doing. Walls has the T1 + Woo WA2. I have the T1 + Woo WA6. See a pattern?

 

[Rope]

A great budget OTL amp for the 600 Ohm T1's would be the Schiit Valhalla.
Schiit Valhalla

Rope

Thanks, Rope. Schiit seems to be a common answer for amps. That one looks it could do the job if I ever decide to go that way. There's a guy on head fi who has a Lyr 2 for sale. I guess that's a hybrid approach. Think that would match well with the T1s?

Deacon looks like he has/had the T1s paired with the Woo WA3 and loved it.

LYR is a hybrid (tube input,SS output=transformer) amp. Valhalla (tube input, tube output=NO transformer=OTL) amp which would be a much better pairing for the 600 Ohm T1's and less expensive than the LYR.

 

[goaliechris]

So Schiit or Woo? Wa2 is nice because of the 4 inputs. But pricey.

Ordering T1 this weekend.

 

[Rope]

The Schiit won't perform with the Woo, but considering cost the Valhalla will perform with amps costing twice as much.
I'm not knocking Woo products, although cost doesn't equate to triple performance of Woo. However you can always tell everyone you own Woo amp.

Rope

 

[goaliechris]

It's hard though not to take the Schiit. But that Woo...

 

[PaulyT]

Well again, don't worry about the amp yet. And you can always cruise head-fi for used tube amps to save some $$ later. IMHO the WA2 is probably overkill, although I haven't heard one personally; I'm very happy with my WA6 with the T1.

 

[goaliechris]

Yep, amp comes later. Amp shopping is fun though.

 

[goaliechris]

Having trouble pulling trigger on a new one so I sent an email to the guy on head fi who has the listing that's linked in the this thread. Nervous about buying used. In one of the pics that shows the inside of the ear cup, there looks to be some exposed wiring in the bottom corner. Is that normal for t1s?

 

[PaulyT]

I wouldn't worry about it. From what I can tell looking at mine, the liner/cover over the driver is a separate piece of material from what's on the inside of the rest of the cup. I think the camera angle in that pic is just showing the tiny gap between them. Even if there is a space there, I'm sure it's 100% inconsequential to the sound.

I got my T1 (and a LOT of other gear over the past years) used on Head-Fi; these people take good, almost obsessive, care of their stuff in general, and I've found them to be trustworthy. This seller has a huge positive feedback. You can use paypal which will give you buyer protection. I really don't think you'd have any reason to worry.