🔶 Beyerdynamic T1 Gen2

[Kierkegaard]

@M0N

So this one really depends. Let’s assume you have a flagship or near flagship headphone you really like and don’t want to change from. Generally with a budget of 2k for your source gear, I would be spending about 50-65% on your amp and the rest on the dac. But with a budget of 5k, I might actually say spending more on the dac (like a 2k amp and 3k DAC is very reasonable), and the higher you go generally I would spend more on the dac. I think in the real high end the dac starts to matter more than the amp, were in the lower end the amp is going to make a bigger difference.

Ok I get your reasoning. Very interesting. Cables and source don’t even come into the picture?

[M0N]

@Kierkegaard

Cables and source don’t even come into the picture?

Oh they so for sure. If you have shitty music then I don’t know what to say besides rip lol. You need good quality music and if you don’t have that then nothing is really good to fix that. Regarding cables, that’s a touchy subject but generally I would say if you have good high quality cables you are well off for the most part

[Kierkegaard]

and would you recommend any of the streaming services in particular? Qobuz, Tidal, Primephonic?

[M0N]

I mean so far the best all rounder I have tried has been quobuz but I really don’t stream so I’m probably not the best person to ask on this lol

[Kierkegaard]

ok, thankyou. Maybe I’ll create a streaming services thread

[M0N]

There are a ton of threads on that here, just search for streaming service and they should pop up

[Kierkegaard]

ok, will do. thanks for all your time today.

[sa11297]

have these on the way. Second beyer (had the 1990 briefly), so should be interesting.

[BoxingRobes]

I’ve tried them all.

I had Tidal the longest. I like Qobuz the most…HiRes sounds a bit…(I suck at describing these things)…cleaner.

I feel Qobuz’s library isn’t ever changing like Tidal. I’d 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 wasn’t for me. While Qobuz isn’t quite as intuitive and deep as Spotify’s 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 adopter…paired it with Roon for years and it was great, but Qobuz was just better for me and also compatible with Roon.

OH – and if you like buying your music – Qobuz’s 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.

[Kierkegaard]

Hey thanks a lot. Qobuz is I think the one I’m 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 it’s only for classical.

[Slaplikenow]

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 won’t really (and will only barely) fulfil the whole potential of the T1, so I wanted to ask 1) do you think it’s true 2) does anyone have any amp/dac recommendations for this headphone?

Many thanks in advance!

[donjklassen]

I think that’s probably true. A balanced 4.4 cable will help but I still think it’ll 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.

What’s your budget?

[Slaplikenow]

I’d say hopefully around the $200-400 mark, but if it makes a substantial difference to jump to the $500 mark I’ll also consider that.

And hopefully has free international shipping on amazon :S

[Falenkor]

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 won’t 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 it’s balanced port.

You still stand to gain a better sound from a better and stronger amp though.

@Slaplikenow

I’d say hopefully around the $200-400 mark, but if it makes a substantial difference to jump to the $500 mark I’ll also consider that.

Sounds like you may be out of country but if you can find it try looking into some dedicated units you don’t 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 power… 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 it’s 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

[Slaplikenow]

Thanks a lot! Yeah I’m from Hong Kong and despite the trying time just trying to get some joy out of audio without spending TOO much :’)

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 that’s selling <$200 so I’ll look into that. What’s with the thing about not getting the DAC modules in the Asgard’s/Jotunheims though?

[Falenkor]

@Slaplikenow

Thanks a lot! Yeah I’m from Hong Kong and despite the trying time just trying to get some joy out of audio without spending TOO much :’)

I try to save money when I can lol this hobby tends to drain the wallet.

@Slaplikenow

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.

It’s really just because of the balanced port honestly. I would definitely recommend the asgard over it it’s 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

@Slaplikenow

There is a second hand Jotunheim that’s selling <$200 so I’ll look into that. What’s with the thing about not getting the DAC modules in the Asgard’s/Jotunheims though?

Haven’t 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 asgard’s dac chip

[donjklassen]

If the Asgard 3 is available to you in Hong Kong then I think it’s a really great option and in terms of power it’ll get you all the way there.

@Slaplikenow

What’s with the thing about not getting the DAC modules in the Asgard’s/Jotunheims though?

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 I’ve heard about the internal akm chip it isn’t 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 haven’t 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. I’ve 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.

[BoxingRobes]

Can someone give me the tl;dr of the version 3s?

How is this one being marketed as different?

[Slaplikenow]

Thanks man and Falenkor for the v detailed explanations. Feeling a bit flabbergasted haha despite watching Z’s videos constantly.

Yeah

@donjklassen

If the Asgard 3 is available to you in Hong Kong then I think it’s a really great option and in terms of power it’ll get you all the way there.

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 it’s the former I’ll just sell my Zen to my friend who I convinced to buy an HD660s just yesterday (I’m a terrible friend hahahaha)

@Falenkor

I try to save money when I can lol this hobby tends to drain the wallet.

Glad to know I’m not alone haha. Also uni isn’t exactly the best place to start the audiophile journey money-wise…unless…?

@donjklassen

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. I’ve owned the darkvoice in the past and mentioning the little dot based on reading and past recommendations.

I know it’s 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?

[Slaplikenow]

Correct me if I’m wrong. But from what I read, basically
600–>32 ohms
More bass
Different logo
Different mesh design
Different logo placement

I just did a brief read so probably not the most informative