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
First off, I've tested "Out of your head" for this effect. It does a great job of taking the sound "out of your head". It fools you like crazy. Really amazing. BUT at the cost of fidelity. There's a give and take. If you're not worried about fidelity than that program is the best in my opinion for taking it out of your head. It really does this well. It's $150 USD. At the end though, I couldn't make the investment because it bothers me too much to lose the fidelity out of the system that I'm building. On top of that, the stability of the program isn't perfect. It makes popping sounds once and a while and also has a difficult time keeping up with the computer processor, for example if I'm browsing and loading a new web page, it will cut out for a second. That's annoying.
So I found Goodhertz plugins. The Can Opener and Mid Side plugins. They are high quality, meant for pro mixing. The effects are more subtle but maintains the fidelity that your gear is meant to show you. I'm loving it. So there's another piece of the puzzle. You need something to play the plugins. This brings in "Audio Hijack". This plays the plugins for you. And it plays it as a session where you choose the sequence. For example, it tells your apps what to do - To play each plugin, then play Amarra (or Audirvana or Itunes, whatever player you want), then output it to your dac or headphone jack. I know it's way more complicating than I hoped, but it's a great alternative to being locked into only finding amps with this function. I actually want to go back to the shop to try out the Pro ican now that I've been testing this out.
[With Audirvana, you can have Audio Hijack play automatically when you play your music, but with Amarra, I have to start up Amarra, then start a "session" in Audio Hijack. It's one more step. But the Tidal interface is much better, so that's the trade off for me. The joys of the hobby!]
Costs - Audio Hijack - $59 USD Goodhertz Can Opener - $65 USD Goodhertz Mid Size - $79 USD = TOTAL $203 USD
I'm currently using a Woo Audio WA6 amp and still haven't made the plunge to purchase the apps. I'd like to listen to the ican again to see how it compares. Based on my memory, I think Goodhertz is just as good or better at the effect (I'm combining 2 attributes - the effect itself and the ability to maintain fidelity while doing so, as I've said, if you only care about the effect, the "Out of your head" was to me, the best by quite a big margin. These all offer trials for you to see for yourself). If you want more info on the settings and details, look for the thread on head-fi. Search Goodhertz Can opener.
I'm leaning towards the $203 USD investment. The ican is significantly more expensive. Unless the ican brings a lot more quality to the sound than the WOO. But if that's the case, perhaps there is another amp that isn't as much money that gives me the increase amp quality over my WA6 and there is still savings to be had. That's where I'm at.