Just wondering, what is the difference between what's being offered in this drop and what is on Kennerton's shop, in other words, what makes this an Exclusive Massdrop Edition? The price is definitely quite attractive and I'm interested in these, just curious about what makes this drop special (aside from being the first and potentially only Vali drop here).
SlashEmperorTechnically Vali in the Standard version and Massdrop Edition are absolutely identical. Differences consist of colorized metal elements of headband and grills (black instead of silver) and the changed packing (soft case instead of a wooden box).
SlashEmperorProbably not very much, there have been people that have measured the sounds' reactions to different types of wood (not with any particular headphones, just in general); ZMF has done this for example as can be seen here:
http://www.zmfheadphones.com/wood/
This is a fairly detailed analysis, though not completely extensive it should have more info than you would possibly need on the impacts of different wood, the TLDR is this:
All you really need to know when deciding on a wood for your headphones is whether you want a softer wood, which will have more decay and more sense of roundness to notes or if you want a hard wood which will be slightly more precise with harder edges to notes. In pretty much any case where you can decide upon the wood yourself, you should choose based upon aesthetics only.
Edit: these aren't even closed so realistically the wood grain differences will affect the sound even less obviously - ZMF headphones are closed (or semi-closed, 85%, but still).
VigrithThanks for that! I'd seen some analysis with wood before (actually was the ZMF one, but I forgot it was from ZMF), but I figured I would ask, since I'm not terribly knowledgeable on that. I absolutely do adore the wood here, though I like the look of walnut a little more (but for $290 less, I can't complain).
bayareakirkThey've done other more exclusive editions of the Odin too - the Old Wood Odin was $200 more than the "standard" versions but the sound between all of them should be absolutely the same as said.
@SlashEmperor yea I rather the wood here than the standard one for the Vali, the best one they've made to date in my opinion is the Amaranthe Odin!
VigrithWow. Seeing my photos here is a blessing :-)
Glad that it's helpful for people with the 'visual' of the headphones.
And, yeah, the Massdrop Vali should looks more like the standard Odin (on the left most of the bottom photo) than the standard Vali.
I'd kinda sad I missed this drop due to financial situation/
rawitat Ithilienrp! Very happy to see you here, I hope you are well!
I wasn't sure but figured those were your photos as I don't know anyone else who owns the Amaranthe Odin, they are gorgeous (both the headphones as well as the pictures), apologies for not crediting you for them directly when I posted them.
I also missed the drop due to finances so I feel your pain, I'm very much looking forward to the next one as Kennerton have already confirmed on head-fi as I'm sure you noticed that they'll be bringing it back with a higher unit limit next time. :D