Which headphones of Drop's currently available?
I have some rewards points to burn but there's no obviously good options on Drop right now for headphones Contenders Ultrasone - maybe? I don't own any Ultrasones, so curious. Looks like garbage travel headphone which could be useful also. Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro. - Maybe? I have the DT 880 Good price point, really uncomfortable headphones but could be interesting to try the upgraded version. E-MU - strong contender but $400 is a bad price point for what it is. Which of the above would you choose and why? Nothing else on Drop is relevant to my interests, because Already own 6xx 820 800 s Ether cx Garbage / Consumer grade Meze 99 - garbage bass canons, hard pass No gaming headphones obviously Sennheiser wireless - no to wireless/bluetooth Hifiman - I have 2 of drop hifimans and they make really bad cheap shit on Drop, hard pass on HE-R7DX Aeon - I own the closed, Drop refuses to address #padgate so no reason to buy open Beyerdynamic 177x - wireless, nope Too similar 8x / 560s...
Mar 28, 2024
Expect the headphones to play similar music best.
The idea of a 3 driver headphone is rather flawed though. The only other audiophile grade multi-driver over/on ear headphone I have listened to is the Final Audio Design Sonorous (previously Pandora Hope) product line.
The main issue is phasing around the crossover and the modulation distortion that is a result... even though that won't show in most AP measurement plots.
Having a balanced radiator in a headphone seems kind of useless... never seen a headphone driver with a Q over 0.7 before, and I seriously doubt that the LF driver can reach an suitable CX point to a balanced armature if it has a Q that would necessitate the passive radiator.
The only engineering reason there might be for the radiator is to avoid conflict with "prior art" or to establish some level of sufficient novelty from an intellectual property standpoint.
However, it is possible that the headphones still sound nice. Coaxial speakers often have a tweeter mounted in the center of the woofer, but still offer a reasonably smooth on-axis response. It could be that the phase rotation introduced by the tweeter's high pass filter moves the constructive peaks out of the range of irritation.
I say all that to say, I really don't know whether these will sound good or not. For the money, though, I'd be more likely to grab a pair of AKG K7XX or Sennheiser HD 6XX. Those seem like less risky designs to me.
My 2-way Pandora Hopes are EASILY the most revealing headphones I own. They are also fatiguing, and just about the least forgiving headphones I have ever heard.
I'm really just encouraging people to recognize the difference between marketing and reality... just because the headphones have 3 drivers, doesn't mean they are "better".
The FAD Pandora Hopes are metal diaphragms with a particularly harsh BA for the tweeter. These headphones might not fatiguing (or revealing).
I didn't realize this was a 10khz CX at 6db/octave. That's pathetic.
Re: HPF details, I just guessed based on @ZeosPantera's description a few comments up: "... and a 10k soft Crossover point for the tweeter".