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
I've been watching previous Aune X1 drops that were for the previous "X1 Pro" (ie Gen 4?) version that IIC brought in the DSD functionality I wanted to explore.
Price First thing for MassDrop - you've stated that the MSRP is $299.99, but the Aune website states, "Now , the X1S was sold now at Ebay , Amazon and all the shops ,the retial price is $249USD ,please contact our distributor in your Country for buying , thanks !" - Any comments?
Reviews Second thing - for both Aune and MassDrop - every time this X1 comes up, you see people quite rightly scratching their heads thinking, "OK so this isn't an insignificant sum, but it seems to tick all the boxes, but can anyone tell me if this is any good? and How does it compare to xxxxxx?" - someone's posted a head -fi review from an early adopter audiophile and it's pretty good, but IMHO, the market is swamped with DACs in the sub 200 buck range so you need more than one person's / one website's review to get people to commit. Maybe that's me superimposing my financial perspective on everyone else, but the dearth of reviews makes for a riskier purchase. How about listing all the reviews up front? All I could find were the Head-fi ones like the one below, but the stem url should suffice.... head-fis are better than nothing but I do wish there were reviews from other sources. Also I suspect that head-fi reviews might be somewhat subjective or maybe prone to group think.
http://www.head-fi.org/products/aune-x1s-32bit-384khz-dsd-dac-headphone-amplifier/reviews/ http://www.head-fi.org/products/aune-x1s-32bit-384khz-dsd-dac-headphone-amplifier/reviews/14195
Compared to the previous model So am sure it's great and all that, but the higher price than it's predecessor ($159 was mentioned with a commenter saying that he found his online direct from China for $110) needs in my book a solid explanation. So the Aune website has some very high level technical specification comparisons between the previous and this model of the X1, but really it needs a reviewer to compare. Couldn't hurt for MD to republish the aune website info.
The DAC change from PCM1793 (X1 Pro) to ESS (X1s) doesn't really scream at me as being much better - I know there's a rave about the ESS right now but am really confused after reading this {http://www.headfonia.com/burson-conductor-ess9018-vs-pcm1793/) - so I'm not convinced.
I also noticed the 32bit / 384 (X1s) vs 24/96 (X1 Pro) for USB sourced signals. Sure it sounds better, but does it >>> SOUND<<< BETTER?
Summary So with the much higher price, together with a lack of reviews and justification for the price hike means that sadly I'm going to either wait till the price becomes more attractive or just pick up the Mk4. It's a DAC and headphone amp: Models are coming out all the time and competition is fierce - lucky Mr Consumer. I highly suspect if I listened to both the X1s and the X1Pro in real world, the only thing I'd notice every day is the extra cash in my pocket. Again, no budget to make mistakes.
Expand the review base, drop the price, give more real world information on your website on what it will and won't do and then we'll talk.....
PS: Where's the sexy white version that was shown at the Munich Audio Fair?
Idk i have a few sub $300 DACs and tbh i noticed a difference with the 1x pro, over my modi and modi 2 uber, and also my freind Bifrost so for $240 shipped ( unless you people join in...lol) its worth it to me to find out if the 32bit resolution is worth it or not. i mean its $200... in the audio world, that's hardly a placebo silver cable =P