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Just got the Headzone base station. Not supporting 96kHz. The sound quality is obviously better than my Onkyo 876 AVR. The surround mode has different experience but i prefer bypass mode for music. Also had a short time testnig with DT 880 (both 250 & 32 ohm) new units in the shop. Bypass mode. In overall DT 880 has deeper and stronger bass than T5P; grrr I just hope T5P to have bass at least close to 880 and i will be very happy with the combo. The cable is a little bit too short connecting to the base station; or need to put the station really close to me. Surround effect under DD/DTS is ok, for maximum room side and ambience setting the sound stage is moving away from head, not far though. It is quite easy to identify the 5 potitions with ac3 individual channel test but it is not likely able to simulate sound behind the head. Watching movie with this combo is an enjoyable experience. I am not getting the head tracker, i can't see any use of it.

I have the same thinking too when I received the T5P and heard the bass, "$1300 for this?!". After that only i realize it is in different group than what i used to be. I do not plan to use it on the go too, just too bulky. The portability to me is easy to pack and bring to another destination for use. Outstation work in my case. The headphone is still <20hrs, thing may change later. I heard other users said the bass will "slightly improve" after 300 hrs burn in but that's it.

Err, my english is not good, that may not be the correct word, "weak bass" could be a better one. What I mean is at neutral amp, T5P tries to produce sound as close to what is recorded in the studio. If there is bass recorded, then it will be heard, but will not exaggerate it. At the same song, some other headphones can give punchy bass even with neutral amp. However this is because of that headphone itself has intentionally boosted the lower frequency signal. The sound produced is not exactly the same as what is recorded. I can't give good example... Sennheiser IE8 earphone may be one of them. Some people like this type of head/earphone with boosted bass, including myself. I have been listening to music and movie with boosted bass, so when i first heard T5P my feeling is "huh!? how come the bass is so weak? Where is the boom boom?" Earlier I have a very wrong perception; that I think the more expensive the headphone is, the heavier and deeper bass it will produce. Now my understanding is how close it is to the recording source.

This is where T5P is targetted on, it is for "mobility"; if anyone plans to use headphone at home only then go for T1 + good DAC. The most frequently used mobile players are ipod, phones, laptop, mobile mp3 players; or something else that I missed out. T5P is supposed to plug into these players directly and get the sound out, with little or no bass. T5P is for people who loves natural sound, as close as possible to studio preset features, which at the end produces "plain" bass to most of us. T1 is the same too i think, although never tested.

Yes the sound is bright, the bass is very weak, but this is not nice. Ipod with "bass boost" EQ gives only a mild bass. Lower grade mobile player won't even play the bass in T5P, a good one may be on par or slightly better than ipod. My old Onkyo 876 AVR allows only +10dB bass adjustment and the bass is poor. A good PC soundcard can get the bass out, and with maximum bass adjustment the bass is execessive but without distortion, T5P can handle it. Some other headphones may surrender at that extreme setting. Sound volume more than 11% would be too loud (to me) and bass boost setting more than 6dB will be too much. If you love bass, T5P is not for you. It can handle heavy bass, but I don't think any mobile player can provide that type of setting. Other than bass, no negative comment. high & mid is ok, very comfortable wear. I feel T5P emphasizes more on human voice than background music. Because of the poor bass, I am holding back on their 5.1 base station. That would be no fun at all watching movie with lousy bass.