Beyerdynamic T1 Review (V2 headphone)

[solderdude]

blowing up 2 drivers requires excessive power (really really loud for longer periods with considerable sub-bass boost perhaps ) or DC on the output of the amp.
I would suggest checking for that first before hooking up other headphones.
For DC to demolish the DT1990 drivers there needs to be at least 3V DC on it.

Maybe blowing compressed air on the driver could kill drivers but other than that I don't see how one can demolish 2 drivers by just cleaning headphones.
The wires inside won't be moving anyway unless you touch them (opening them up)
When after resoldering the wires nothing changed and the wires only broke off after you wiggled the wires then it stands to reason that the wires will still soldered when you opened them and is not the culprit.

 

[iec 60318-4]

Headphones with higher nominal impedance require higher voltage to drive, which might mean "bad thing". Right.

Does higher impedance at certain frequency (aka. "impedance peak") also mean "bad thing" and will even higher voltage be required because of it?

No! It's wrong! Just plain wrong!
(These words are the last words I want to yell at anyone on- or offline. but... sorry...)

Unless there is SPL dip at same frequency(@96.4920Hz in this case), impedance peak does not mean higher voltage need. Same SPL will be produced from same voltage input and impedance peak will only result in lower current input at that frequency, which leads to higher power efficiency. Should impedance peak led to higher voltage need, we should be able to see SPL dip on FR graph because this measurement should show SPL response at various frequency against same voltage input, not against same wattage input.

Uneven impedance at different frequency may mean bad, only because it makes headphones sound different from amps with different output impedance. Not because it needs higher or lower voltage at certain frequency range.

Never expected to see such unscientific interpretation of impedance graph on this forum, especially from Amirm.

I'm not sure if amirm is simply saying that it needs a high voltage corresponding to the nominal impeadance(910 ohm), or if it is saying that it requires a high voltage overall, including the nominal impeadance(>600 ohm).

 

[respice finem]

You are confusing peak SPL with average A-weighted Phons (shown in post #173)
Listening at 80dB average SPL can easily have 94dB peaks which you need to reach < 0.5% between 200Hz and 8kHz.

Ah thanks a lot, would be nice to state "peak SPL" then to avoid confusion.

 

[respice finem]

...According to Beyerdynamics support they will not replace nor repair them without additional costs due to expired warranty.
...seems that the only option would be to buy a new ones.

Sorry to hear this. I have the same model (apart from the T1 Mk2 and others), so far all is well but who knows... It seems, "made in Germany" is not a guarantee for quality any more. Sad. Who knows, maybe "made in China" will become the next "made in Germany" one day, panta rhei...
That said, I would be relatively demotivated to buy the same again, with this behaviour of the BD service. I'm sure there are electronics services near you that can solder properly and have the gear to do this - after checking the drivers of course. I would then completely exchange the wiring, which is the cheapest part of it all.

 

[Saffuria]

I don't have any IEM's, I really dislike the idea of shoving something deep inside my ear. Not only the comfort issue, but I reckon it would push wax back into my ears and block them up......OE headphones for me!

Nothing isolates better than a deep insertion iem like Etys, they are comfortable to me, they sound great and I have very little wax in my ears because I swim and shower every day.

 

[Robbo99999]

Nothing isolates better than a deep insertion iem like Etys, they are comfortable to me, they sound great and I have very little wax in my ears because I swim and shower every day.

Do you clean your ears out in the shower with the nossle?? Maybe my ear health regime is wrong....I let them do their own thing.

EDIT: one science fact I learned quite a while back, the skin in our ears grows from the eardrum and migrates out through the ear canal and ends up at the ear lobe - it's a purposeful "conveyor belt" to transport grime & wax from the inside of the ear to the outside so they don't get blocked up. They determined this by marking the skin of the ear drum, then months? later the tattooed mark made it's way to the earlobe. So we got our own cleaning system, pushing stuff into our ears probably works against this.

 

[respice finem]

...we got our own cleaning system, pushing stuff into our ears probably works against this.

I can confirm this, however, unless you use in-ears (or hearing protection at work) for hours every day, this shouldn't be a big problem. It largely depends on the climate in your area, if it's rather wet, you may have more such problems. Cleaning with a shower head should be OK once a week or so, only don't try to get the wax out with sticks, this may end with puncturing the eardrum, or at best with an ear blocked by earwax.

The idea of IEMs is tempting, because the potential FR errors would be "out of the equation", but I'm also having my problems with them, somehow I can't forget they're there, and I need really big "gaskets" for them to stay put. Maybe they should have inflatable or liquid-fillable ones (wouldn't even be difficult to make).

BTW @Amir: I could send in a Beyerdynamic Soul Byrd for testing if you're interested, bought it for tryout and for now it's mostly lying around. https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07JY8SSVD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[escalibur]

Sorry to hear this. I have the same model (apart from the T1 Mk2 and others), so far all is well but who knows... It seems, "made in Germany" is not a guarantee for quality any more. Sad. Who knows, maybe "made in China" will become the next "made in Germany" one day, panta rhei...
That said, I would be relatively demotivated to buy the same again, with this behaviour of the BD service. I'm sure there are electronics services near you that can solder properly and have the gear to do this - after checking the drivers of course. I would then completely exchange the wiring, which is the cheapest part of it all.

Yeah. I have lost faith in any 'made in wherever". To me it's just unfair to pretty much admit the poor quality and treat your paying consumers by replying 'Sorry. Better luck next time.". We are talking about Beyerdynamic here, not a small start-up company.

 

[respice finem]

Yeah. I have lost faith in any 'made in wherever". To me it's just unfair to pretty much admit the poor quality and treat your paying consumers by replying 'Sorry. Better luck next time.". We are talking about Beyerdynamic here, not a small start-up company.

If this becomes the "new normal", the companies doing it will either not survive or "descend into plankton" IMHO. We are living in Internet age, it doesn't take years until it's noticed. On the other hand, what are our options, if everybody does this?

 

[escalibur]

If this becomes the "new normal", the companies doing it will either not survive or "descend into plankton" IMHO. We are living in Internet age, it doesn't take years until it's noticed. On the other hand, what are our options, if everybody does this?

I think we have no options now, unless companies like Topping enter the headphone market. Ironically DT 1990 Pros look like they were made to last forever. In my case that meant a bit longer than 2 years. Two years!

 

[respice finem]

A major reason for this in Germany is the level of taxation. I have to "shell out" 4.000-5.000 € to pay an employee 2.000€ (approximately). This is not "healthy" any more, making manufacturers unable to go on competing with the low-cost Far East. One possible technical factor in your headphones: unleaded solder. It requires higher temperatures, or the joint will be fragile. And try to solder hair-thin wire using high temp - automatized soldering (like in mainboard production) OK, but manually, it's "an Art".

 

[Vini darko]

Chinese brands have mostly cornered the iem market. Over ear headphones are the next thing I suspect , goldplanar are leading that charge now.

 

[respice finem]

For me it's a case of "Made in Japan ver. 2.0", we've been there before... Like TVs, From Zenith (USA), Philips (NL), Grundig (D), ... to Sony (Japan), Sony (UK), Sony (China), etc.
"Evolution, Mr. Anderson, evolution..." (Matrix)

 

[Feelas]

Chinese brands have mostly cornered the iem market. Over ear headphones are the next thing I suspect , goldplanar are leading that charge now.

But... HifiMan is also chinese, so it's a stretch to call GoldPlanar a novelty. Takstar, Superlux, etc...

 

[Vini darko]

But... HifiMan is also chinese, so it's a stretch to call GoldPlanar a novelty. Takstar, Superlux, etc...

Yeah i forgot about hifiman

 

[Africanman]

Indeed, they can be had reasonably cheap used, I think I paid about 150€ for my T90.
The old Beyers (seeing the 1990 that doesn't go for the new ones, oh well) are solidly made and easily repairable. Plus the T90 at least (doesn't really apply the the DT XX0 Pro versions with their high clamping force) is one of the most comfortable headphones I've ever had.

I bought my T90 for $250 second-hand last year. It is quite a remarkable headphone. I concur, the T90 is by far the most comfy can I own. Ken Rockwell compared the T90 sound signature to the Stax SR-Lambda Professional:

https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/beyer/t90.htm

 

[IdleTalk]

I'm not sure if amirm is simply saying that it needs a high voltage corresponding to the nominal impeadance(910 ohm), or if it is saying that it requires a high voltage overall, including the nominal impeadance(>600 ohm).

The nominal impedance is 600 ohm, not 910 ohm.

Amirm wrote this:

The T1 is stated to have 600 ohm impedance which is already high. Turns out that the real impedance can be much worse:

However, there is no such thing like "real impedance" hidden behind the nominal impedance.

Despite the scary looking peak in the impedance graph, we are getting same SPL out of same voltage input at that peak frequency. Thanks to higher impedance at that frequency, amount of current at that frequency is even lower.

Result: T1v2 works more power efficient at bass region.
(same voltage x less current = less power)

 

[solderdude]

Not entirely true.
Most of music's energy is in the bass area.
As an amp is a voltage source this means most of the energy is into the freq range where the impedance is between 600 and 900 Ohm.
Effectively the current consumption using music is lower than one would expect based on the voltage/nominal impedance.
Effectively the impedance thus is higher than 600 Ohm.
Power wise the efficiency of the headphone using music is higher than at 1kHz and easier to drive as less current is needed.

I would not call it 'worse' impedance. Instead a higher impedance or higher power efficiency. Sounds more positive than worse impedance.
To me 16 Ohm is a worse impedance than 2kohm. The reason is that amps usually have higher distortion at lower impedances and less distortion in higher impedances. Based on that a higher impedance is 'better' rather than worse.

 

[iec 60318-4]

The nominal impedance is 600 ohm, not 910 ohm.

Amirm wrote this:



However, there is no such thing like "real impedance" hidden behind the nominal impedance.

Despite the scary looking peak in the impedance graph, we are getting same SPL out of same voltage input at that peak frequency. Thanks to higher impedance at that frequency, amount of current at that frequency is even lower.

Result: T1v2 works more power efficient at bass region.
(same voltage x less current = less power)

Sorry, the word was confused and I swapped peak impeadance and nominal impeadance.

 

[bb8]

I own the V1's, and I'm sure they share some of the same pitfalls but I wonder if they would measure a little better than V2 or V3. They were purchased quite a while ago and having listened to the HD800, I preferred the sound at the time. I built a Bottlehead Crack and paired with a little bit of EQ or damping to tame the upper fr peaks they can be decent. I think the openness and imaging is my favorite part about them. I know the Crack probably measures like crap as well but with the right pairing they can have a pleasant sound and an acceptable amount of bass.