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
Would it be possible for someone to try listening to the same song and see if they hear the same problem?
Slightly more distortion and less flat than the Audio-GD NFB-11, which is also excellent but with somewhat less jitter and slightly warmer, more tubey, less fatiguing sound. That having been said both of those have really flat frequency response, low distortion and are really quick and jitter free relative to anything else. I prefer the R2R11 to the NFB-11. Even if you have speakers that cost 6 figures a pair, the speakers will add more to the non-flatness of the frequency response and distortion than either of those will and humans are remarkably sensitive to timing/jitter even though we subconsciously associate both with a general subconscious sense of quality rather than anything we can put our finger on.
Both outperform most stuff I know of at anywhere near their price including the O2/ODAC and Schitt Stack or Schitt Modi Multibit -> Jotunheim -> Headphones for that matter.
Is the odac and amp rev b or original? Rev B versions do have better stated specifications thought I haven't ever done an A/B. If you haven't ever done any serious audio listening and are mainly listening to Spotify/iTunes or maybe Tidal HiFi or something similar, get the cheaper separates. They are more than good enough to get you started and figuring out what you really like. You won't hear any material sonic differences between them now. You are probably going to be upgrading over time and upgrading one component at a time is easier.
Also if you have a Macbook Pro, the audio out from a Macbook is really quite good relative to most computer analog audio outs so you could get started even without a DAC. The amp will help a lot to help you get the most out of the Sennheisers. Then wait for a good deal on a DAC.
Nfb11 really tempting but it has highest shipping costs n extra paypal charges taking it to 367 dollars! Others shipping costs in the 20 30 range kuz lighter ofcourse. Hence, Audio gd is wayy above my budget unfortunately. i getcha when you say a loss to sell n upgrade later, i won't be satisfied with a simple o2? Never upgrading.. I will only have 1 hd6xx.. No speakers etc.. If only the massdrop o2 u suggested earlier was available, i would have an amp dillemma solved. :) or i wait for it to come back maybe..
A friend ordered some tube stuff which was supposed to have matching tubes. The tubes were from different brands. Their response was that they match by measurement, not brand. This sounds interesting if you don't have any knowledge about the issue and don't know how to measure things because given what the brands actually were and the range of measurements you actually get from them it's extremely unlikely they would have been even close. He measured, not close, demanded a refund or replacement of the tubes. They refused because the tubes were now used having been used while being measured......
Customer service(?) is email only. They have a phone number but you can only leave message. Nobody will call you back. You will have better luck calling someone in a foreign country who doesn't speak English.
I have heard Schitt equipment and have not been remotely impressed. Treble is way accentuated. This is an easy way of making newbies think they "hear stuff they don't with other equipment" and impress them. It actually leads to listening fatigue if you really want to listen. Then read about the incident with nwavguy. Their excuse is that they didn't carefully check amplifier measurements that even amateurs make which are necessary to ensure the amp doesn't damage headphones, followed by a description of a different problem in some high end systems which require a certain sequence of turning on and off to distract people who don't actually get audio, when in fact the defect in their amps was something totally different and far more serious. The problem is that in this case Schitt amps were doing things that could damage headphones even with no source connected and the volume way down. Supposedly they "remembered" testing and "remembered" different measurements which makes no sense. Then of course Schitt gear does weird stuff. For example, most high end pre-amps and amps will short the inputs that are currently not being used to ensure there is absolutely no signal bleed from them. Connect even the highest end Schitt DACs to genuine high end equipment that does this and the DACs basically go kaput. Etc, etc..
You may want to consider eBay. You can get some amazing deals on lightly used audio gear that is really very, very good. I just bought a DAC at a really good price this weekend myself.