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
The 12AU7 tube in this has a lot of decent options, and since it's only one you don't have to worry about channel balancing via matched pairs as much. The little dots have the matching, which you have to beware about matching a bit, especially the mk2 and up since the little dot 1+ just colors the sound. If you have a strong left channel tube and a more worn out right channels tube, the left will sound louder than the right. I don't know exactly how noticeable it is, but I've heard within 5% tends to be the upper limit of what you'd want in the higher numbered little dots. Getting those matched tends to drive price up, I've seen under 1% difference go for 4 times a 10% difference in matched tubes, just for tube price reference. This unit (or any solo 12AU7 amp) can get cheap grab bag tube lots/bundles and you can find a lesser known brand/date of tube that you love that might only be $3. The gold lion tube with another amp tends to go for $35-50 since it's popular and apparently appeals to mass amounts of users. Mullard seems to be the go-to otherwise, usually around $15-20.
Damn you, planars!