T+A Solitaire T

[dridel]

Hello all. After enjoying my B&W P7 for a few years, I decided it's time to move on and upgrade. The Px8 were the natural upgrade and have fairly good reviews (I particularly dig the looks of the McLaren edition), but after learning they no longer allow for passive mode (90% of my use), I was disappointed and started looking elsewhere. As often happens, my budget grew proportionately to the time I spent reading reviews online... So after catching myself reading reviews of the DCA Stealths, I internally slapped myself a couple times and turned my attention to the T+A Solitaire T, a bluetooth headphone that was designed as a wired, passive one first. The reviews are scarce but extremely positive. I was unable to find any measurements online, and there are no dealers around me (Michigan).

Here are the few reviews/threads I have found so far:

• Official page: https://www.ta-hifi.de/en/headphones/solitaire-t/
• PDF Manual: https://www.ta-hifi.de/wp-content/uploads/solitaire-_t_catalog_DE_EN_web_2.pdf
• https://www.head-fi.org/threads/t-a-solitaire-t-wireless-headphone.964925/
• https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/t-a-solitaire-t.26219/
• https://www.homecinemachoice.com/content/ta-solitaire-t-headphones-review
• https://futureaudiophile.com/ta-solitaire-wireless-bluetooth-headphones-reviewed/
• https://audio46.com/blogs/headphones/t-a-solitaire-t-wireless-headphones-review
• https://theluxereview.com/2022/06/07/ta-solitaire-t-wireless-headphones-preview/
• https://musicphotolife.com/2023/01/ta-solitaire-t-review-audiophile-wireless-headphones/
• https://www.avforums.com/reviews/t-and-a-solitaire-t-wireless-headphone-review.20364/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/marksp...ireless-performance-with-anc/?sh=7060964ab121
• https://majorhifi.com/ta-solitaire-t-review/

If anyone has experience with / thoughts on these, I would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, I will probably get a pair soon and report back with my thoughts!

 

[dridel]

Couple more reviews:

• https://www.tech360.tv/t-a-solitaire-t-review
• https://www.hifi-voice.com/testy-a-recenze/sluchatka/4257-t-a-solitaire-t

 

[Benesyed]

I own a pair and they have an excellent sound profile.

The ANC off and passive mode FRC:

The High quality mode decreases the bass frequencies and lower mids for a more neutral tuning

ANC does not dramatically effect the signal

Do you have any other questions? Ive had them for a relatively short period of time and currently am comparing them to my favorite pair; the ML 5909

 

[mmmdc]

I own a pair and they have an excellent sound profile.

The ANC off and passive mode FRC:

The High quality mode decreases the bass frequencies and lower mids for a more neutral tuning

ANC does not dramatically effect the signal

Do you have any other questions? Ive had them for a relatively short period of time and currently am comparing them to my favorite pair; the ML 5909

What did you measure them on? The dip in the upper bass and the treble, especially the sharp dip around 5khz don't look too great tbh.

 

[Benesyed]

What did you measure them on? The dip in the upper bass and the treble, especially the sharp dip around 5khz don't look too great tbh.

These are not my measurements unfortunately so I am not sure. The review is here:

T+A Solitaire T - Reviews

www.head-fi.org

I wills say these respond very well to EQ as opposed to my ML5909 that distort very easily

 

[monochiro]

Hi there,

I heard all 3 of the T+A headphones and the Solitaire T in particular is not really special in my opinion, its a bit better than other offerings in the ANC headphone space but that is not a bar that is difficult to overcome. The Solitaire P have perfect balance (tonal and between the left and right drivers, the latter which I find to be the most important thing in a headphone) and sound incredible, but are quite heavy. The version below that one, the Solitaire P-SE sounds even better in my opinion (has the same attributes as the P, perfect balance etc. but sound better to me for some reason) and is more comfortable. It is also 2k cheaper which is great. If I were to buy a headphone to keep for the rest of my life without ever touching any EQ I would probably get the P-SE.

 

[Dazerdoreal]

I havent had the chance to listen to these but I think I can tell you where this comes from.
They are just tuned differently.

This is the frequency response of the Solitaire P: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hosd5bqjqd726nf/T+A Solitaire P.pdf?dl=0
And this is the frequency response of the P-SE: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uqbi59ep7vd1p2r/T+A Solitaire P SE.pdf?dl=0

The Solitaire P goes for a mid-centric, neutral sound.
The P-SE is warm but with boosted upper treble. This is likely what you prefer then.

(Personally, I would most likely prefer the Non-SE.)

 

[monochiro]

Some great graphs I have not seen before, thanks for your great post. Maybe you are right about my preferences based on these graphs, but usually I am very wary about boosted treble because at some point it just pierces the eardrums and hurts really bad (like the HD800S that is completely unusable out of the box). Both headphones do not have this problem fortunately.

I had the chance to also test them with EQ and tried to adjust some values to see if it would make any positive difference. However it did not seem, at least to my ears, that it needed any adjustment (in the end I increased all frequency ranges by +1 dB, since I did not have enough time for a more refined EQ, but it is not as if that improved things substantially or maybe at all) and they do not sound completely different than the Solitaire P. I was also able to use it with a software that introduces a room simulation kind of thing, which increases the overall auditory spaciousness and for some reason the P was not able to handle it at all whereas the P-SE had no problems, I found that to be quite interesting as well and have no explanation for that.

 

[Dazerdoreal]

Oh, I dont want to take credit for the graphs. These are made by @oratory1990 . He measured a lot of popular headphones in order to build EQ profiles for them.

This is the complete list:

index/list_of_presets - oratory1990

r/oratory1990: Mostly covering topics like headphones, in-ear headphones, acoustics, electroacoustics, acoustic tuning, headphone design …

www.reddit.com

There are also other people who did measurements, but his measurements are considered to be among the most reliable and his pdfs make them easy to share.

 

[oratory1990]

The T+A Solitaire headphones change sound quite a bit depending on how hard they are pressed against your head.
Meaning it'll be different for narrow heads and large heads.

This is of course true for every headphone, but on the Solitaire P this was much more pronounced than on most other headphones I've ever measured.
An example:

 

[pogo]

 

[ScepticMatt]

Does anyone know what the inside dimensions of the ear pads are? I hear these act more like on-ears.

 

[ScepticMatt]

For anyone else who is wondering, I received a reply from T+A showing that the inside dimensions of the ear pads are 3.5cm wide and 6cm long. They curve inwards at the back to 4.7cm and 7.2cm. My ears wont fit through that so some level of squishing is inevitable. It seems despite this that most people find them comfortable.

 

[ScepticMatt]

I've owned a pair for a few weeks so I can share my subjective impressions.

There was a strong chemical smell upon first opening but that has largely dissipated. I hope that will continue to become weaker over time. I imagine that's in part due to the synthetic leather though the case also had a smell. I know it's common for many headphones to have a smell.

The earcups fit better than expected and the pads are soft but they can tug around the sides of my ears causing slight discomfort over time. I imagine it depends largely on the individual how comfortable they will be. Personally I'd still rather have these than in-ears.

The passive sound isolation is good even without ANC. The ANC does a good job cutting bass frequencies but I have little to compare it to. The transparency mode is good.

The sound quality is very good and highly detailed. Compared to my HD 6XXs there is more sub-bass and substantially more treble. The upper-bass appears slightly recessed in comparison. The HQ mode has less bass than the non-HQ or wired mode which is preferable to me but otherwise there isn't a massive difference to my ears. Personally I'm happy with the bluetooth HQ mode for almost all listening. It gets just loud enough with bluetooth for me. The USB-C connection is too quiet.

The flat EQ setting sounds overly bright to my ears, perhaps because I'm used to the darker sounding HD 6XXs or/and because I'm sensitive to treble. I wasn't sure if I liked the tonality at first but I tried the "Relax" EQ setting in the app and I found the sound to be much more to my liking. This draws back on the brightness and increases my perception of clarity. The flat EQ sounds hazy by comparison. The relax EQ setting still provides more treble presence than the HD 6XXs.

So whilst I was uncertain if I'd like to keep them at first, the relax EQ setting has made them worthwhile. I'd like to see a custom EQ feature to tweak some more. They are a treat for portable listening. No need to sacrifice on sound quality when out and about and untethered. I guess wired in-ears are perhaps a better and cheaper portable option for many, though not everyone likes them.