T+A Solitaire T Review: $1,600 Headphones?!

The T+A Solitaire T are some very interesting headphones, because at US$1,600 or S$2,560, it’s pretty darn expensive, so to me, it better be worth the money.

So, a bit of background on T+A. They are a German audiophile company that does audio systems and loudspeakers, and they came out with the Solitaire P in 2020, the planar-magnetostatic headphones that are even more ridiculously expensive at US$6,900. Ridiculously expensive, yes, but also very well-respected in the hi-fi world, in terms of build quality and of course, sound quality. So the Solitaire T is the brand’s first foray into the wireless headphone market, and, well, let’s take a look.

Design

Befitting their premium price tag, you get a nice box and packaging too. There’s a nice, hard-sided carry case at the bottom where you get the USB-C to C cable and two headphone cables, one terminating in an unbalanced 3.5mm plug and one in a balanced 4.4mm plug. There’s also a 3.5mm to quarter-inch adapter and an airplane adapter so that's very nice. Additionally, it’ll be easy to find third-party cables for these headphones as they’re using 2.5mm jacks and not some proprietary jack.

As for design, it’s pretty decent. You get a lot of aluminium parts, along the yokes as well as around the earcup, although the headphones aren’t too heavy at around 330 grams. It’s relatively comfortable on the head, with no pinching at the crown and the clamping force is about right. Unfortunately, there are two problems. One, the earcups are incredibly small. My ears are small-ish, and I can feel the back and top rubbing against the earpad, so if you have bigger ears, these might end up sitting on your ears instead of being over-ear headphones. Second, the leather used for the headband and earpads is synthetic leather instead of real leather. To each their own here, but at this price point, I’d really prefer real leather.

The good thing here is that the headphones can collapse in on themselves and swivel 180 degrees, so that’s very nice. Inside, you get 42mm dynamic drivers, which is interesting since the Solitaire P wasn’t using these. Of course, the price difference between the two could account for it as well, but to me, I think dynamic drivers are more suitable for headphones intended to be used portably because of the weight and all.

Inside, it’s pretty cool. There is a Qualcomm QCC5127 chipset which gives you Bluetooth connectivity and all, but there’s also the ability to use this headphone completely wired. So no power is needed, it works like a regular wired headphone just like how the Mark Levinson 5909 does. This is great. Other headphones like the Focal Bathys or the Px8 don’t have this. There’s also an ESS ES9218P Sabre DAC inside, which is nice.

Controls

As for controls, these are pretty interesting, right? There are both physical buttons as well as touch controls. On the left earcup, you get a single power button, and no touch controls here. On the right, you get a mode button that toggles between ANC on, off and High Quality or HQ mode, then a DA button which stands for digital assistant, so this pulls up your voice assistant on your phone. Below that, you get a switch that turns Bluetooth on or off, puts the headphones into pairing mode or resets the headphones. Above this switch, there is an LED light that lights up in different colours depending on the Bluetooth codec that’s in use. Blue for SBC, white for AAC, red for aptX and orange for aptX HD. Pretty cool.

On the right earcup, there are also touch controls and they’re very intuitive. Swipe up for volume up, swipe down for volume down, swipe forward to skip tracks forward and swipe backwards to skip tracks backwards. You can also tap once for play/pause. But the cool thing is this small textured area on the faceplate. Put your finger there and you activate transparency mode. Hold down for conversation mode, which will end once you remove your finger. Tap it twice to put it into conversation mode without having to hold your finger there, and it’ll end when you tap it once again. Unfortunately, I’ve found that the touch controls are super inconsistent and finicky, registering the wrong controls. I can spend five seconds trying to get a swipe up to register as volume up instead of play/pause. I did figure out the reason for the inconsistency though. You need to have the cups completely straight on your ears, but that makes the headband sit quite forward on the head, which I don’t like. In my preferred wearing position, the swipes just don’t work because they’re not swiping in the right direction in a straight line if that makes sense. I’m not a big fan of the transparency mode dot either, it’s too easy to activate. I’d say T+A really has to improve this part of the headphones.

Solitaire T App & Connectivity

As for the app, well, there is the Solitaire T app, and it’s alright. I did have some issues running it on an Android phone, but no issues with my iPhone, which was definitely odd. Anyway, the app is sparse. You get a four-bar battery indicator, the ability to change modes, a few fixed EQ presets as well as firmware updates. And that’s about it. Oh yeah, there’s no on-head detection here either.

Connectivity-wise, it’s on Bluetooth 5.1, so a bit old, and there’s no multipoint. Codec support, as mentioned above, is limited to SBC, AAC, aptX and aptX HD.

Battery Life

Battery life is very good though, at 70 hours when you have ANC on and dropping down to 35 hours when you have HQ mode turned on. I charged these once during the review period and never had to plug them in again, so yes.

As for microphone quality, it’s alright. Not fantastic, but honestly, I’m not looking at these for calls anyway.

ANC

ANC is decent, nowhere near the level of the Sony’s or AirPods Max, but they do enough to reduce commute noise. Voices or higher-pitched sounds will still creep in from time to time though, even with music playing. Transparency works fine, you’ll certainly be able to hold a conversation.

Coming to sound, there’s something I do have to mention. I’ve been seeing people complain about the low volume when using these wirelessly, and I’m not sure if it’s a firmware update but I have no such issue with this unit that’s running on 4.0.5. I do listen at around 40% volume so yeah.

Sound Quality

So, on to how it sounds. Wow. I did most of my testing with HQ mode turned on which means ANC is deactivated and it sounds really gorgeous. There’s a tinge of warmth overall, but the detail, layering and accuracy is really on point.

The bass is present and quick with plenty of definition. If you want more bass, you could always EQ the headphones or turn ANC on, which should add a bit of power to this range.

As for the mids, they’re well separated, with plenty of body and presence. Vocals are forward, distinct and crisp. The change in this region with ANC or HQ mode on is audible as well. It feels like there’s a bit of suppression going on when ANC is turned on. Not a heaven and earth difference, but it definitely can be heard.

Moving on to the highs, there’s a good amount of sparkle and air and energy here. With ANC on, there could be a bit of sharpness, but I did notice that tapered down slightly when in HQ mode.

The soundstage though, wow, it’s wide, it’s high, it’s spacious and it’s just all-around good. Layering is great, separation is great and the detail is great. And this is just in wireless mode. When used wired and especially when using a balanced cable, it’s even better. Very quickly, if you’re comparing these and the 5909, I much prefer these. The sound is just more accurate in my opinion, with a more comfortable treble compared to the 5909. Here is a short sound test of the headphones used in different scenarios.

Long story short, I think these headphones aren’t the most fun or musical out there. But they’re detailed, accurate and they present the music in a neutral, almost “boring” manner, which allows you to hear the music as the artist intended and it does a very good job at it. I think everybody should have their “fun” headphones, the musical ones that make you want to dance, but everybody should also have their “boring” headphones for more critical listening, and these are great because they allow you to bring them out of the house and go wherever you want.

Price & Conclusion

Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re quite worth the US$1,600 or S$2,560 price tag. It’s just a bit too much at that point, especially with the touch control issues, older Bluetooth codec, no multipoint, average ANC and all. If you only want these headphones for the sound quality, I’d say go for it. If you’re planning on using these mostly wired with just the occasional jaunt outside, go for it. But if you need ANC for regular long commutes, if you want stuff like multipoint, aptX adaptive and all that, there are just too many compromises for this price tag I think.