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
From what I read about this headphone, most people perfer a tube sounding 'warm' amp like this one:
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/little-dot-i-headphone-amp
That will drive your phones well from the sound output of your computer. Later on you can add an external DAC as well for better sound quality.
Good luck
Solid state amps/dac combos that will not break the bank would be either the fiio q1 mark ii (has balanced and is portable) or micca origen g2.
Spend a little more you may consider things such as aune x1s or schiit magni 3 + modi 2 or o2 amp + odac/sdac or topping a30 + d30. If you spend more money then you probably want something that is balanced such as the aune x7s (pair it with a sdac is fine) or liquid carbon x + sdac (massdrop has this right now) or schiit jotunhiem or two nuforce ha-200 in mono block config and a balanced dac.
The 6xx are great headphones for tube amps. You can start out with something like a little bear b4 amp. If you spend more money there is the darkvoice 336se. I don't reccomend hybrids like the little dot +.
Or you can just get a Schiit Jotunheim with the balanced DAC module, spent about $50 to get a balanced XLR 4pin cable, and you're set. About $600 investment and you got yourself a setup that's good enough and can be expanded on quite easily.
IF you are a baller get a Modi Multibit and don't bother with the Jotunheim's DAC module and you'd be spending about $150 more but supposedly it's "better". I can't vouch for that one since I only have the Jotunheim with the DAC module, but to me it's good enough.