T+A Solitaire P Over Ear Headphone Review & Comments

In fairness, they should be amazing. They cost more than 15x what 600HD do. If we use cars as an analogy, i think we can safely say that we're talking Lamborghini money for these.
 
Wow
 
I'll stick to my 660's, but boy oh boy I'd love to hear what a £5000 set of cans sounds like. Bet it's not £4600 better
 
I remember being in quite a sweat when I laid out the money on a pair of Sennheiser HD 800S and I got it on a discount!

I could never envisage spending that amount of money on headphones, but it's small change compared to these:


So, thinking about it, the Solitaire is a bit of a bargain!;)
 
Cost and value are different things. The review says it... for the asking price one can put together the source, amplifier, transducers, annual subscription to a lossless streaming service or a heck of a lot of physical media and still come out with change
 
Better come with some busty T & A with loose morals for that price.
 
On a slightly different point, it must be a real joy for someone like Ed to actually get to hear these products.

Possibly only balanced out by having to send them back at the end of the review period.

I agree with Steven, it's simply not possible to quantify price vs value.

If you have the money, good luck. To many of us £5,000 vs £400 is a huge amount of money. But there are people out there well-off enough to not notice the difference between £400 & £5,000 going out of their bank account. They have to spend their money on something, so if they like hi-fi, why not.
 
If anyone has a £5k budget for an end game headphone listening station, I can genuinely put together alternative suggestions for the source, amplifier and headphones if you ask rather than splurge it all on this one headphone
 
If anyone has a £5k budget for an end game headphone listening station, I can genuinely put together alternative suggestions for the source, amplifier and headphones if you ask rather than splurge it all on this one headphone
It's an interesting budget. You could put together a genuinly superb headphone rig + full hifi for £5k.
 
You could put together a genuinly superb headphone rig + full hifi for £5k.

I went so far as to suggest one in the review.

Possibly only balanced out by having to send them back at the end of the review period.

Parting with these was sad but with reviewing, there's always something coming next which softens the blow.
 
I went so far as to suggest one in the review.
Yup, but i mean with speakers and a stereo amp as well as the phones and HA amp. Not many of us get to that level without multiple upgrades, but it would be nice!
 
For example:
1k for source/s
1k for headphones and amplification
3k for speakers and amplification

I'd suggest that this or similar, depending on taste, would do the majority of people very well indeed
 
I'll stick to my 660's, but boy oh boy I'd love to hear what a £5000 set of cans sounds like. Bet it's not £4600 better

I actually bought a pair of 660S last Saturday & they literally haven't been off my head since then, other than to sleep of course !
I own various pairs of headphones, the Sony MDR-Z1R's being my most expensive & was recently considering buying Focal Utopia's or Focal Stellia's which cost £4.000 & £3.000 respectively. I've also considered buying the Abyss Diana Phi's, that also cost £4.000.
It's a huge investment, but there's many that do go to this expense & of course not just on headphones. Audio gear is a hobby for many.
I have to say though that i'm absolutely happy with my £429 spend on my Sennheiser HD660S. They're the best headphones i've heard. Cost should play a cost in sound quality, but it shows you can spend a little less & still get great sound quality....but i do own an expensive headphone amp / dac....which is an important part of the chain.
You don't buy a top of the range TV, without all the other stuff. The same applies to audio enthusiasts.
 
Let's be fair. My wife and I spent twice this amount on our electrostatic speakers (and yes, they are worth the price), and many people spend much more on speakers. Reading some of the forum posts here, people spend even more on amplifiers, even doubling them to bi-amplify bookshelf speakers o_O .

Yes, it's a lot of money, but for people who do their main listening with headphones rather than loudspeakers, the price per se is hardly ridiculous. I was going to say "and you don't need a power amplifier either", but...

T&A recommend pairing the €4,800 RRP Solitaire P with their €6,600 RRP HA headphone amplifier and list them as a pair in their brochures. So we should probably be talking about their €11,400 headphone system.

BTW, I don't know how €4,800 gets to be £5,000 (£4,800 per StereoNet); VAT in Germany is currently 16%. Has the £ dropped that much since Brexit?
 
I actually bought a pair of 660S last Saturday & they literally haven't been off my head since then, other than to sleep of course !
I own various pairs of headphones, the Sony MDR-Z1R's being my most expensive & was recently considering buying Focal Utopia's or Focal Stellia's which cost £4.000 & £3.000 respectively. I've also considered buying the Abyss Diana Phi's, that also cost £4.000.
It's a huge investment, but there's many that do go to this expense & of course not just on headphones. Audio gear is a hobby for many.
I have to say though that i'm absolutely happy with my £429 spend on my Sennheiser HD660S. They're the best headphones i've heard. Cost should play a cost in sound quality, but it shows you can spend a little less & still get great sound quality....but i do own an expensive headphone amp / dac....which is an important part of the chain.
You don't buy a top of the range TV, without all the other stuff. The same applies to audio enthusiasts.
The one thing I don't like about them (but some don't mind) is they are very clampy (yes thats not a word). I have the NightOwls which (and I don't care what others think) I bloody love. They are like putting on fluffy zero gravity pillows. If someone like DropBox could build 660s innards with NIghtOwl outards, they'd be the best headphone.....in the world.
 
I'd be really interested in seeing what T&A thinks the frequency response of £5000 headphones is supposed to look like given how variable individuals preferences are.
 
I'd be really interested in seeing what T&A thinks the frequency response of £5000 headphones is supposed to look like given how variable individuals preferences are.

Have to agree with this.

I would like to hear these;however, just like speakers, these wont be for everyone
 
How much is the asking price again o_O

The price is a rich person with an ego & image to maintain.

Barmy prices for people with no sense or too much money IMO.

I do have a set of $1900 IEMS I bought 2nd hand for £470 so I suppose it can eventually feed into the more sensible 2nd hand market. Are my $1900 IEMS vastly better than my $1000 IEMs (again bought used). No way.
 
I'll stick to my 660's, but boy oh boy I'd love to hear what a £5000 set of cans sounds like. Bet it's not £4600 better
My $1900RRP IEMS are at best 5% improvement on my $1000RRP IEM's, (both bought used for under £500) so these will be around 8-10% if even possible to apply a % to a very personal experience.
 

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