T+A Solitaire P Planar Headphones and HA 200 Headphone Amp Review

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The Solitaire P Headphones are an open-back over-ear design. With just a thin grill on the outside, anyone nearby will hear what you’re listening to. The advantage to this approach is that the earcup has little to no influence on the driver’s operation, in this case, a planar-magnetostatic transducer. The film is only a few thousandths of a millimeter thick and driven by precisely located neodymium magnets. The goal of this is to produce a transducer that is driven evenly across its entire surface. Given the precision and clarity I observed, T+A has certainly achieved this goal.

The cable is interchangeable and T+A has included unbalanced and balanced cables in the box. You can order them with any two cables T+A offers. The balanced one I received was a Pentaconn 4.4mm plug with four poles. The unbalanced was a standard quarter-inch affair. You can also get an XLR version. The HA 200 Headphone Amplifier I received accepts all three types.

The Solitaire P weighs just over a pound and sits comfortably on the head with large firm ear pads. They breathe well and I never noticed any heat buildup around my ears. The headband is also firmly padded and more than amply supports the headphones’ weight. Comfort was never an issue for me.

The HA 200 Amplifier is a stout component with one of the best-built cases I’ve ever seen. There isn’t a single stamping in evidence. Rather, the front panel is milled from billet aluminum. The top, bottom, and back are aluminum plates; and the sides are extruded finned heat sinks. It’s sized somewhere between a desktop amp and a rack-mounted box with decent heft at just over 14 pounds. Every button operates with a high-end feel and the volume dial has firm clicks as well.

In the front, starting on the left, are the three headphone outputs switched by buttons. Above those are analog VU meters, always a nice touch. Next is a row of discrete input selectors. Above that is a detailed display that shows the current input, bitrate, volume level, and the status of any sound enhancements that might be operating. The volume knob on the far right clicks firmly as you turn it. If you adjust the volume with the remote, it makes audible clicks.

T+A has spent a lot of time and energy on the DAC section of the HA 200 and the result, besides great sound, it has four different upsampling filters that subtly change the character of what you’re hearing. You get two FIR and two Bezier filters. You can also switch the analog output filter bandwidth between 60 and 120 kHz. A loudness control lets you match the intensity with the efficiency of the attached headphones. This way, you can get full detail from the quietest passages.

The remote feels carved from a billet and has a sealed battery with a USB port at the bottom for charging. Conveniently, T+A has included a charge port with cable, so you don’t have to find a free wall outlet to juice up the handset. It operates via IR, so you’ll need a line of sight.

In the back is just about every input imaginable. On the analog side are one each of RCA and XLR. The digital board has two optical, two coaxial, BNC and AES/EBU along with a USB-B. An included antenna threads onto its own connector. Bluetooth is aptX HD which has a 24-bit/48 kHz bandwidth. You also get two HDMI inputs and an output with ARC. This would allow one to interface the amp and headphones with a TV and associated sources like a streaming box or Blu-ray player. You can use the menu to delete inputs if you don’t want to cycle through the unused ones.

The Solitaire P Headphones come in a posh box covered with a leather-like material and padded. It is designed to be reused and includes cavities inside for the headphones and two cables. I plugged the connectors into the earcups which required a careful twist to get the right orientation. Just line up the angles and they go right in. It took me a few minutes to find the tiny red dot that indicated the right channel. The headphones are clearly marked on the inside of the hardware at the bottom of the head strap.

The HA 200 was plugged into the wall and for my first order of business, I charged the remote using the included USB cable. I connected the headphones first to the unbalanced jack and pressed the button to select it. To verify operation, I put up the Bluetooth antenna and streamed a few tracks from my iPhone. I used Apple Music and Apple Classical which has a wealth of lossless selections, some with spatial audio or Dolby Atmos.

For critical listening, I plugged an iPhone 12 directly into the USB-B port using a B to Lightning cable.

I wish you could have seen my face the first time I fired up the Solitaire P system. I spend a lot of time reviewing audio and video products and much of that is devoted to finding the right adjectives to tell the story. For those early hours of listening, I had trouble finding adequate words to describe the experience.

If you’ve read my audio reviews before, you know that I listen analytically to classical recordings because that is what I do for a living. My musical perspective comes most often from the middle of an orchestra. Google a picture and look for the bassoons, they are literally in the middle of everything. And yes, I have to be the first to my seat and am usually the last to leave.

For music reproduction to impress me, I must feel like I’m sitting in that bassoon chair, the one next to the clarinets. An audience perspective is fine, most recordings are mixed like that. But I want to hear things like how much vibrato the bassoons have and what alternate fingerings they’re using.

I recently participated in a performance of Brahms’ Third Symphony, so I compared the performances of the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. The Solitaire Ps presented every nuance and detail with precision. I could hear the oboists’ key clicks, the quality of vibrato used by the woodwinds, and the extra edge of Stanley Drucker’s clarinet sound versus Ricardo Morales’. I like to study recordings and scores when preparing for performances and I can think of no better tool than this T+A system.

I’m playing Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony next season so naturally, I’m preparing now. The Chicago Symphony under Sir Georg Solti provided a perfect beginning to my studies. Willard Elliot, principal bassoon from 1964-1996 has a distinctive vibrato that I have not heard from anyone else, though John Clouser of the Cleveland Orchestra comes close. It was immediately apparent in the opening solo which starts in the lowest register of the bassoon. Projecting vibrato in that range is difficult but Elliot’s efforts were rewarded by Solitaire’s incredibly detailed reproduction. In the opening of the fourth movement, I could hear Solti’s grunts as he drew intense emotion from the orchestra. This symphony is called Pathetique for a reason.

I turned to a bit of chamber music presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mozart’s two most famous wind serenades, 10 and 12, are as close to perfect as music can get. I enjoyed the group’s precision ensemble and intonation as they expertly navigated these legendary works. I thought the bassoons sounded a bit raspy in the Gran Partita but in the C minor, there was a bit more meat to their tones. This is what I’m talking about here: the Solitaires are so incredibly detailed that I can’t help but nitpick the performances. Like I said earlier – analytical.

Ok, does this combo rock? Absolutely, if you are prepared to be picky about recording quality. I started with Metallica’s latest album, 72 Seasons. Guys, Lars, Kirk, James, and Robert, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry. This recording is SO compressed it sounds like it’s coming through a narrow tube. I love Metallica’s songs, I love their sound, I love their style. But their recordings are crap. I promise you, dudes, if you pick up a set of Solitaire Ps and an HA 200 amp; each one of you should get one; you will be back in the studio in post and in haste to make your recordings better, guaranteed.

I know I can count on Dave Grohl and his Neve console to provide the best-recorded rock out there. Starting with Wasting Light, Foo Fighters albums have adhered to a higher standard than anyone. Layered guitars? Yeah, you can hear each and every one. Drums are almost pointillistic they’re so precise (RIP Taylor Hawkins). Dave Grohl’s voice is crystal clear whether he’s crooning or screaming. It’s so enjoyable to listen to.

I could go on and on here I listened to so much music. But I’ll summarize by saying that not only are the Solitaire P headphones and HA 200 amp precise and detailed, but they are also incredibly well-balanced. I knew this when I found I could listen at just about any volume and hear everything without effort. Yes, it’s possible to play them loud enough to be uncomfortable. But there was never distortion, and I was able to dial in any volume level and have a similar experience. Sometimes, my mood called for more intensity, and other times, I wanted it mellow. No matter what, this combo delivered!

T+A’s Solitaire P Planar Headphones and HA 200 Amplifier deliver finer sound reproduction than every expensive speaker I’ve heard. At $16,550, they’re a bargain.

I don’t typically like to talk in absolutes but the T+A’s Solitaire P Planar Headphones and HA 200 Amplifier blew my mind. They delivered more detail and better balance than any speaker I’ve ever heard. Their presentation is addictive, analytical, emotional, musical, precise, and next-level. And for the sake of brevity, I’ll stop there. They are expensive at $16,550 for the system. But compared to high-end speakers and electronics, they are a bargain. If you want to sit in a chair and let music flow through your mind and spirit, I can think of no better way.