There are a ton of threads on that here, just search for streaming service and they should pop up
1 Like
ok, will do. thanks for all your time today.
1 Like
have these on the way. Second beyer (had the 1990 briefly), so should be interesting.
4 Likes
Iāve tried them all.
I had Tidal the longest. I like Qobuz the mostā¦HiRes sounds a bitā¦(I suck at describing these things)ā¦cleaner.
I feel Qobuzās library isnāt ever changing like Tidal. Iād constantly have albums in my library unavailable in Tidal then return. Also felt the interface for Tidal - leaning more toward the ownership and friends + hip hop wasnāt for me. While Qobuz isnāt quite as intuitive and deep as Spotifyās interface, I find its at least more sterile in a good way, especially for new releases. Qobuz is also cheaper.
With that said, I did enjoy my time with Tidal, was a very early adopterā¦paired it with Roon for years and it was great, but Qobuz was just better for me and also compatible with Roon.
OH ā and if you like buying your music ā Qobuzās ever-rolling sales and FREE offerings are an extra bonus. If you sign up at the highest level (forget the sales point) you get a pretty significant sale price on HiRes purchases, too.
2 Likes
Hey thanks a lot. Qobuz is I think the one Iām leaning towards now, especially after your comment. Tidal want right for me either, I cancelled it. Primephonic is the other one in my sights, but itās only for classical.
So I just jumped ship from iems to Headphones and bought a Beyerdynamic T1 2nd, which I bought a Zen DAC to power it with.
Apparently according to the store owner I bought the Zen from, the Zen wonāt really (and will only barely) fulfil the whole potential of the T1, so I wanted to ask 1) do you think itās true 2) does anyone have any amp/dac recommendations for this headphone?
Many thanks in advance!
I think thatās probably true. A balanced 4.4 cable will help but I still think itāll come up short of its potential. This is based on listening to it on the hip dac (balanced) which if I remember correctly is slightly more powerful than the zen dac.
Whatās your budget?
1 Like
Iād say hopefully around the $200-400 mark, but if it makes a substantial difference to jump to the $500 mark Iāll also consider that.
And hopefully has free international shipping on amazon :S
Can actually speak on this one as I tried this recently. So the zen dac can technically power it with the single ended port but you have to crank the zen dac to maximum and even then it wonāt be at full potential. You will need to get some alternative balanced cables after that the zen dac can power the T1 as all the power is in itās balanced port.
You still stand to gain a better sound from a better and stronger amp though.
Sounds like you may be out of country but if you can find it try looking into some dedicated units you donāt really have to break the bank though. Personally I would recommend the Asgard 3 amp and you can use the ifi zen dac as the Dac unit by just plugging some RCA cables from the amp to the zen dac. You can also just go buy the new Ifi Zen Can which pairs well with your zen dac giving you more power and a balanced port again for the amp
Otherwise something like a JDS ATOM, Schit Magni 3+, Monoprice Liquid Spark, or maybe an archel pro should work for you just fine and have enough powerā¦ If you want it balanced however well it may cost you a bit more though not really necessary less you want to spend more money on the cabling and amp
Hope that helps, I love my T1 but it can be pretty fussy on what you plug it into. Do keep in mind though that better equipment seems to have quite a bit of an effect on the T1 as it has some pretty fair scaling on itās sound quality. I use a monoprice Liquid platinum on mine and the comparison between the Asgard 3 to the liquid platinum is very noticeable even more so from my ifi zen dac
1 Like
Thanks a lot! Yeah Iām from Hong Kong and despite the trying time just trying to get some joy out of audio without spending TOO much :ā)
Would you recommend the Asgard over the Can? The same store owner (I chatted with him for a while on facebook) said the can can barely churn out enough for the T1 as well.
There is a second hand Jotunheim thatās selling <$200 so Iāll look into that. Whatās with the thing about not getting the DAC modules in the Asgardās/Jotunheims though?
I try to save money when I can lol this hobby tends to drain the wallet.
Itās really just because of the balanced port honestly. I would definitely recommend the asgard over it itās potentially more budget friendly and has a lot of power backing it. Zen dac and Can are balanced ported amps meaning their main power comes from the balanced port which requires a cable purchase and those are generally like $60+. Both amps can run the T1 if you are using the balanced cabling
Havenāt tried the Jot so maybe someone else can chime in here on that one for you. I have tried the Dac in the asgard 3 not the multibit one though. It was alright nothing all that special but worked well enough in my opinion. I liked the quality from something like an asgard 3 + topping E30 more than I did from the asgardās dac chip
1 Like
If the Asgard 3 is available to you in Hong Kong then I think itās a really great option and in terms of power itāll get you all the way there.
You can get the Asgard 3 with or without a dac chip. I have mine with the multibit card and I do prefer it to the zen dac. But both are pretty excellent DACs imo. From what Iāve heard about the internal akm chip it isnāt really worth it.
Regarding the Jotunheim the Asgard 3 actually receives more praise here than the Jot. Schiit has been a little hit and miss over the years but the Asgard 3 is solidly in the hit category while there is some debate over the Jot. I havenāt personally heard it though.
The t1 also takes really well to a tube amp so something like a darkvoice 336 or little dot mkii could be pretty nice nice too. Iāve owned the darkvoice in the past and mentioning the little dot based on reading and past recommendations.
If you can acquire a bottlehead crack with speedball for under your $500 mark and are handy enough the built it I do think the extra cost is worth it over the above options. The majority of my t1 listening is with this amp.
1 Like
Can someone give me the tl;dr of the version 3s?
How is this one being marketed as different?
Thanks man and Falenkor for the v detailed explanations. Feeling a bit flabbergasted haha despite watching Zās videos constantly.
Yeah
I just found a second hand listing of the Asgard 3 with Multidac for only $250! I might try and get my hands on that and see whether I prefer that or the Zen, if itās the former Iāll just sell my Zen to my friend who I convinced to buy an HD660s just yesterday (Iām a terrible friend hahahaha)
Glad to know Iām not alone haha. Also uni isnāt exactly the best place to start the audiophile journey money-wiseā¦unlessā¦?
I know itās a bit off-topic here, but would you mind explaining how tubes are set-up? Is it connected at the very end of the dac + amp combo? Like do I connect the RCAs from the preamp of the (hopefully to be mine) Asgard to the whatever tube amp I might have in the future?
Correct me if Iām wrong. But from what I read, basically
600ā>32 ohms
More bass
Different logo
Different mesh design
Different logo placement
I just did a brief read so probably not the most informative
Thatās a pretty nice price 
So in the case of the darkvoice and little dot, they are the headphone amp. So just source > dac > tube amp. The darkvoice can also be used as a pre amp, not sure about the little dot though.
1 Like
considering the dac jumps the price usually by $200 I would snag that one as I see it as a good deal and worthwhile over the zen.
not sure what your getting at with that one honestly lol. I wouldnāt particularly call the T1 a entry level though itās definitely more into the Hifi level. Expensive or reasons. Granted depending on the person I have had shockingly another tell me he thought the DT 880 was extremely similar to the T1 and preferred the cheaper 880 just some food for thought. Price does not dictate your enjoyment or quality of the product.
if you mean the 3rd gen? Unknown. It has additional foam and build materialsā¦ it could be a seperate signature. Just like the original T1 and the 2nd gen are of a different signature the 3rd gen is sounding more to be like a V signature which is rather commonplace amongst beyerdynamic signature headphones. I think itās too soon to call on the 3rd gen right now completelyā¦ Would wait for some honest reviews ignoring the commonplace people gushing per the norm over some items.
agreed thats quite nice.
Yeah I completely get it. I must admit that my purchases are not entirely conventional, skipping several steps from an HD559 and then straight into the T1s arenāt exactly the right choice to make. Since Iāve heard you know spend the $600 on 3 headphones rather than 1 and also I nearly completely ignored the ādonāt buy if youāre a noob with cashā on Zās Reddit guide.
I guess the reason I bought the T1s is I got a bit hyped, seeing itās still sold at $1100 here in HK and then seeing it on Amazon for nearly half the price. I also asked another local forum and saw comments saying that T1 is kind of the endgame headphone for someādespite owning multiple theyād go back to listening on the T1 most. So instead of buying a few headphones and being left wanting more, I suppose I wanted to just skip straight to it? In hindsight, totally underestimated the Dac/amp bit. Also I finally pulled the trigger when I saw the T1 silvers go unavailable for intāl shipping and then the black ninja colour dropped to $644 with shipping.
That and also I really donāt want to repeat my iem purchasing experiences. In HK since most of us donāt have personal spaces at home or have v little, itās more popular to purchase high end iems, which is not worth the price tbh. So a part of me just wants to get the T1s and hopefully not feeling the need for purchase (at least for some time).
Part of me wishes I had tbh lol. I wouldnāt sweat it too much I mean theyāre going to decent enough on the Zen and if you pick up that A3 multibit youāre in a pretty fantastic place imo. The t1.2 plays nice with so many genres and use cases (music, games, movies) that honestly I think youāll find yourself very pleased for a very long time. Super solid all rounder
1 Like
Pretty commonplace and can be a very bad habit and the worst enemy to your wallet. Definitely best to pace yourself itās a journey not a race and just going to the very end can spell disaster pretty fast. Especially considering there are people who canāt tell the different in sound as much as others so everyones experience will vary.
Thatās a little over Full price for here in the USA actually. I got my T1.2 for $475. More reasons to wait on them and never jump the hype train.
I have been seeing a few make this mistake of late or they want a great headphone but they donāt want the amp lol. T1 is 600 ohms and demanding definitely have to make sure you have the power to back it up.
Hmm, I suppose this may work. Granted I would have a world of other recommendations before jumping so high up in the price brackets lol. Still T1 is a spectacular headphone for sure. I personally find it one step short of the HD800S which is like $1,600.
I would however recommend you to take a step back if you decide to look into alternative headphones though and check out more sound signatures see what suits you better. There is plenty of great sounding headphones within the $300 range that donāt have such insane power requirements