Greggo
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Posts
- 373
- Likes
- 105
So far I am happy with all the feedback I am reading about and I stand by my original plan to start with an Element 2, which should arrive any day now... and that I will probably buy the T1.3 at some point soon. I would not hesitate to argue against tubes for the T1.3, that makes zero sense to me for a low impedance headphone that is already being accused of having too dark of a tonal signature, with a little too much weight in the bass and maybe a little muddy in the upper bass and lower mids... I am not saying that I will agree with these characterizations, just that I am hearing similar things around the net and it reminds me of the push back on the, you guessed it, AQ Nighthawks, which I also defended on these boards numerous times as a very satisfied owner and someone with a dozen mid to high end headphones and multiple DACs and amps back in the day. I think the industry has leaned towards bright signatures for way too long now, and that most listeners on these boards mistake brightness for space and resolution, and thus have a very different listening experience through headphones than they would have in a good 2 channel hifi rig in a room with conventional loudspeakers. The Element 2 is held back by the DAC, and in that regard I would agree it is at the higher end of general entry level gear, but the amp section makes it into the mid-fi tier IMHO and with reasonably tight bass and energetic but smooth highs (if you believe the DMS review and a few others), I would argue this is exactly what the T1.3 needs for a partner. I would then look to upgrade to a nice external DAC next year and then maybe an upper tier amp after that. But I can tell you that, after owning many amps all the way up through multi-thousand dollar Cavali's in the past, I think most of it is hype. With something as easy to drive and efficient as a Focal Clear or T1.3, I could easily live with the Element 2 being fed by something like a Bifrost 2 or Ares 2, would definitely be happy long term with something like a Topping A90, and even if I had plenty of extra money would never spend more than something like a GS-X mini for around 2k. Based on what I am hearing about the T1.3 so far, I am going to predict that the best pairings are going to be mid-fi solid state amps and DACs that lean towards a tighter and more detailed sound. I am very treble sensitive so I will lean towards something like a Denafrips DAC, but I will bet the absolute sweet spot for the T1.3 for most folks will be something like a D90/A90 stack.