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
As seemingly typical of Massdrop, the first thing to change for sake of differentiation is to darken the colorway to a mostly matte-black finish, as I approximated in the poorly-edited photo I'm attaching to this post. It could definitely stand to look something like what Massdrop did with the Focal Elex, which I own and love.
Perhaps the model number could be HD 7X7, to avoid confusion with AKG's K7XX.
Build quality changes are the bulk of what I'd like to propose, and as I have yet to hear a stock HD700, I'll leave desired sound-signature changes for others to speak of (aside from what I hear is a general love or hate of the 5.5KHz peak and the 11Khz peak).
I'll start off with the headband. The rubberized top portion has been said to add a bit of unnecessary weight for some, and could probably be changed to plastic in order to lighten it a bit. This would also help with color consistency when going for the all-black look.
Next, perhaps a more robust click-adjust mechanism. I've read and watched many a review complaint about these being a little too light with the clicks (noticeably, Zeos of Z Reviews shaking the HD700 lightly and having them fall all the way to the lowest setting rather quickly).
Another point of dismay for several reviewers was the rather unwieldy 10-foot cable. As with previous Sennheiser collabs, this one could be cut from 10' to 6', terminated in 3.5mm with a 1/4" adapter instead of the monstrosity of its current stock form.
Otherwise it is apparently a pretty comfortable headphone, with many reviewers enjoying the ear-shaped pads. However, I think it's probably worth experimenting with an alternate material to see if that will yield positive sound-signature changes. Some modders out there have experimented with that, to varying levels of success.
Others, feel free to chime in about the sound-sig. I'm hoping this can be the humble start of some much needed love for a very polarizing and somewhat overlooked headphone.