The Beyerdynamic Tesla T1

[h264]

 

@Lyons requested this review about six months ago.  Well, he requested the T90p, not exactly the same headphone.  However, given the steep discounts, this seemed like the better option to try out.  It’s the best of the best, right?  Well, @MayflowerElectronics happened to get a pair and decided in 10 minutes he didn’t like them.  I thought he was smoking crack so I offered to buy them off him.  Finally, I was going to get my hands on a headphone I’d wanted since I first bought my DT990pros back in 2010.  So how much better does it sound?

 

Somewhat better.  I’d say it’s about 3% better than the DT990.  The major added sonic nuance is the sound staging which feels much wider.  The bass is much more controlled and the treble is much smoother.  However, I wouldn’t say it’s a $1000 better.  There's definitely some details that are softer in the higher frequencies.  The bass isn't as good as a planar magnetic headphone, but it's not a planar and nowhere near as heavy - so deal with it. We'll go ahead and call it "forgiving".  Some have described it as a “DT880 on steroids” and I would agree.

 

It’s also on visual steroids since the finish on the cups is immaculate.  Well, it’s not finish, so much as weaved metal wires, sewn together.  It’s so fancy.  And so unnecessary.

 

Comfort? ZOMG I’M IN HEAVEN IT’S AMAZING ZOMG </beyerfanboy>.  Between the headband and the earpads, it’s insanely comfortable.  This should be illegal.  Holy crap.

 

Build quality? Weight is greatly reduced with cuts into the forks, but other than that it’s exactly the same as every other Beyerdynamic headphone, except we’ve bowed the audiophile myth about balanced cabling, so the wires come from both cups instead of one.  Other bows to audiophile myths include the ¼” Neutrik connector with the super thick cable and the 600 Ohm impedance on the drivers to keep them from interacting poorly on tube amps.  On a side note about the drivers, I’d bet money that the “Tesla” drivers and the “velocity” drivers on the custom one pros are related in design, only the total circuit resistance was cranked up to deal with the sort of nonsense to which these poor headphones would be subjected.

 

Overall, I like this headphone, but it’s not really worth $1300 (maybe $700 based on the design, I guess).  It IS however incredibly light and I’m a giant Beyerdynamic fanboy, so I’ll keep it for the sheer ownership aspect.

 

Oh, did I also mention it comes with a SWEET metal case? It’s a good thing too because you won’t want a $1300 headphone to get damaged when you’re not either showing it off to your friends in the box or actually listening to music with it.  HA!  Like you’d ever store a headphone like this in a case.  Good one, Beyerdynamic!

 

 

[MrSuperb]

 Well, @MayflowerElectronics happened to get a pair and decided in 10 minutes he didn’t like them.

 that doesn't really help to strengthen his credibility ...

[h264]

 that doesn't really help to strengthen his credibility ...

 

but it's strengthened my headphone collection.

[Lyons]

TL;DR get 990's (or 880's)?

[Mo5]

This just proves that you don't need to spend crazy amounts of money on headphones. Once you get above the 300$ range you really don't see massive improvements.

[MayflowerElectronics]

that doesn't really help to strengthen his credibility ...

If you read maybe 10 more words into his sentence you would know why. It's maybe 5% better for $600 more than my dt 990's. Has nothing to do with my "credibility".

Good review mr. H264.