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
I have a similar laptop for work (an x260) and I can attest that the audio out of the jack is pretty crummy.
I highly recommend the Dragonfly series of DACs by Audioquest, they are really excellent. They do take up a USB port, which is a bummer, but the audio quality is really outstanding.
I hear that the V20 is an excellent phone for audio, so maybe you have a solution in search of a problem here!
I wonder if the DFR will be phenomenal!
Based on discussions here, my impression is that you are best off upgrading headphones rather than sinking money into a better DAC? The biggest performance jump I've seen is by getting better headphones and a desktop amp. People here speak very highly of some of the small format desktop amp/DACs here like the grace.
Think I've found "the one".
(There isn't a DFR to try.)
And I tried it with a meze 99 classic.
Love it!