Solitaire P Headphones By T+A HiFi

The Solitaire P open headphones by T+A, crafted without compromise to achieve musical perfection. Every component is precision-engineered with meticulous attention to detail, utilizing solid aluminum and advanced diaphragm technology to ensure linear sound reproduction and natural dispersion characteristics. The result is distortion-free music that remains true to the original recording, reflecting T+A’s commitment to uncompromised audio excellence.

Construction

T+A engineered their headphones to overcome common planar-magnetic drawbacks like inefficiency, excessive weight, and low impedance. Through innovative design and meticulous material selection, these headphones deliver superior performance. Each component is precision-crafted with high-strength plastics or carbon, ensuring exact fit and uncompromising quality down to a few hundredths of a millimeter tolerance.

Material Selection

The Solitaire P headphones feature an open-back design that eliminates resonance issues found in closed systems, allowing the diaphragm to vibrate freely. Solid aluminum cups, machined from a single 35 mm thick plate using a precision 5-axis milling machine, provide robust support. Each cup undergoes meticulous machining, taking over an hour to complete. Yokes and connections are also crafted from solid aluminum for durability and consistent performance, chosen for its resistance to aging and ability to maintain shape and strength over time.

Transducer

The Solitaire P features T+A’s proprietary TPM 3100 transducer, meticulously developed and crafted in Herford. High-performance neodymium magnets are precisely shaped and matched in length to the oval diaphragm outline, ensuring a homogeneous magnetic field with laminar airflow. This design, including precise retaining rings and magnet mounts, maintains the diaphragm’s position in the linear magnetic field, enabling high sound pressures and an expansive dynamic range with minimal distortion and inertia. The lightweight design eliminates the need for additional opposing magnets, optimizing comfort without compromising performance. The ultra-thin diaphragm, coated with a precisely engineered conductor array, maintains an impedance of approximately 80 Ohms, ensuring exceptional acoustic performance.

Earpads

The ear and head cushions, crafted by a specialized German company, feature allergen-free synthetic leather and Alcántara. This ensures a comfortable feel against the skin, ideal for extended headphone use.

Headphone Cable

T+A prioritizes sound quality in their connecting cables, designed for low inductance and capacitance with optimal impedance. They feature ultra-pure copper (OFC) conductors with a defined silver layer, embedded in cotton threads and shielded by silver-plated woven shielding to minimize electromagnetic interference and mechanical resonances. The cables use high-quality military-grade connectors for durability, encased in a single manufacturing process for robustness and flexibility. Insulators are made from PVC and latex-free Hytrel® and TPE elastomers, ensuring safety and longevity. The headphones include two cable sets: one with a 6.3 mm barrel connector and another with a symmetrical 4.4 mm Pentaconn connector for optimal sound quality. All connectors are gold-plated for reliable performance.

Robbreport
“The Solitaire P headphones and HA 200 amplifier work together to reveal previously unheard layers of a recording.”

https://robbreport.com/gear/audio/review-ta-solitaire-p-headphones-ha-200-amplifier-1234784541/

Archynewsy
“The T+A Solitaire P is among the truly expensive headphones out there. Fortunately, they also sound heavenly! Sit down and get lost in the music!

Solitaire P is even more addictive than its little brother P-SE, with an even warmer tone. The bass is in a class of its own, and the lower midrange is simply magical. And it sounds extra good with T+A’s own amplifier, the HA 200.

The slightly laid-back midrange may not be for everyone, especially not those who want voices and instruments to come forward as far as possible. Sound engineers will probably also wonder about the sound balance. But many, including myself, will experience the sound as exclusively beautiful.

This is the sound of butter melting on a delicious tenderloin, here you just have to sit back and indulge in dreamland!”

Stereonet
“We are up in rarified air with the T+A Solitaire P. However, it doesn’t cost that much more than Focal’s Utopia, and it’s about £30,000 less than Sennheiser’s Orpheus if that’s any consolation. Personally, I prefer the build and feel of the Solitaire P over the flagship Focal, but understand that this is a matter of taste.

What’s less subjective is the sound, and I genuinely believe that the Solitaire P has now set the benchmark for planar magnetic headphones. It has incredible speed, insight and dynamic range – plus musicality in abundance. Factor in the almost supernatural comfort and this is a seriously special product that performs impeccably across so many areas.

For those who can’t afford the not inconsiderable asking price, there is good news as I am told that we can expect more headphones at different price points to follow – including dynamic and electrostatic designs, as well as more head-fi electronics. Meanwhile, there’s always the National Lottery.”

https://www.stereonet.com/uk/reviews/ta-solitaire-p-headphone-review

Hifiandmusicsource
“These T+A Solitaire P headphones are the Rolls Royce of headphones….they are designed for the longer journey, enabling you to arrive without fatigue, knowing you’ve experienced the best your money can buy.

In substance, as I have already stated, the T+A Solitaire P headphones deliver a wonderfully warm sound with such fabulous detail and they have a soundstage to stand up for. I can award these headphones nothing less than ‘Outstanding’, 5 stars.”

https://hifiandmusicsource.com/2020/05/ta-solitaire-p-headphones-hifi-review/

Forbes
“Thanks to some amazing technology involving advanced materials and clever placement of magnets, the T+A Solitaire P headphones set the benchmark for all other manufacturers of planar magnetic headphones to reach. Of course, like any high-end headphones, the Solitaires need an impeccable source because they are ruthless in the amount of detail they can reveal. If you feed substandard signals it will be no surprise if the music sounds as bad as it is. Cheap headphones can disguise a multitude of sonic sins. The musicality and abundant detail that these headphones offer is a pure delight. Normally, I can’t manage more than an hour or two of headphone listening at a time, but with these headphones not only could I listen all day in comfort, I knew my ears wouldn’t be fatigued and I could spend days rediscovering my favorite music, finding new sounds and instruments that I never knew were there. T+A may not be a household name in high-end audio, but it really deserves to be. If you are an ardent headphone fan and you want the very best that money can buy, I can heartily recommend T+A’s Solitaire P headphones.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marksparrow/2020/05/08/these-ta-solitaire-p-headphones-are-probably-the-best-youll-ever-hear/?sh=22607c462e3a

Headfonics
“Owing to the ultra-low distortion (a record-breaking < 0.015% at 100 dB), the Solitaire P is a leader of micro-dynamics and capably highlights gradations in small volume changes.”

https://headfonics.com/ta-solitaire-p-review/

• Transducer principle: Planar-magnetostatic
• Impedance: 80 Ohms
• Frequency response: 5 Hz – 54 kHz
• Distortion: < 0,015 % @ 100 dB
• Maximum sound pressure level: > 130 dB
• Transducer size: elliptic 110 x 80 mm
• Type of construction: Open, over-ear
• Connectivity
  • Wired transmission (3m)
  • Version 1: unbalanced cable with 6.3 mm connector and balanced cable with 4.4 mm pentaconn connector
  • Version 2: unbalanced cable with 6.3 mm connector and balanced cable with 4-pin XLR connector
• Material: Aluminum, steel, allergen-free synthetic leather, Alcantara
• Weight: 530 g excl. cable

Download User Manual