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
Tidal is not worth it, because for my needs, the App, the songs available and the monthly fee are less interesting than Spotify and Soundcloud combined. (I know that these are not perfect sources)
Because I'm listening to music everywhere, from places where I have access to Hi-End audio, others where the setup is totally crappy, subscribing to Tidal which would cost me more monthly than Soundcloud and Spotify Family combined, is ridiculous for the little (NOT OPTIMAL) gain I would get by subscribing to Tidal.
As @Heefty mentioned, if you particularly digg an album or a song, there's nothing like the original source, when you have a proper audio setup to make it shine to its true potential.
If your use case is that you have a Hi-Fi phone/protable dac with good travel headphones and want very good sounding music on the go + discover during travel without the hassle of downloading FLACS for everything, Tidal is worth it (not perfect). But hey, this is a pretty specific use case, which I doubt is yours.
If you want to get the most of your audio setup, original sources like CDs, Vinyl and FLAC would deliver. So any streaming service wouldn't do it. When you try the real thing for a bit, listening to streaming service is a totally different experience: Sometime it's completely disturbing and I dislike it, sometime it's interesting to the point I digg it.
For example, the song Melting Pot from Booker T. & the M.G.'s sounds amazing from its original source with a good audio setup, but when I streamed it from Spotify to low-end box speakers, the bass started slamming through the loose wooden floor they were standing on and the whole room started to groove with it and totally complement this song. The room accoustic which was far from optimal, transformed the original song to the point where I prefered it like than its "HI-FI audio setup" version.
So in the end, it's not a matter of source nor audio setup to enjoy a song, in the right conditions, all streaming services can be enjoyed, sometimes it could be perfect for your needs.
Hi-Fi is nice when you have everything into place to get the perfect experience, but having Hi-Fi speakers without room accoustic, man, you're wasting time and money IMHO. Headphones are the cheapest way to get into Hi-Fi, but you'll have to hack your way in to have the full experience.
If you want something nice for a better experience with the HE400i you're planning to buy, get yourself a sub woofer with these, you'll thank me later ;-)