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Drop + Grell OAE1 Headphones

$249

~~$299~~

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Drop + Grell OAE1 Headphones

Name: Drop + Grell OAE1 Headphones
Brand: Drop + Grell
SKU: drop-grell-oae1-headphones
Price: 249 USD
Availability: PreOrder
Rating: 4 (1 reviews)

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storyboardtech

490

Keyboard Club Member

Nov 13, 2024

Verified Buyer

Can a headphone can have “thock?” The Grell OAE-1 does.

When I’m reading reviews of a product, I’ll often see them ranked into categories like “Best overall” “Best on a budget” and “Best all-around performer.” I almost never buy the “best all-around performer”, because most of the time I need a specific solution, and best all-around usually sacrifices excellence in one area to be generally good. That’s why I think it’s really interesting when you see a product that abandons the “jack of all trades” approach to fearlessly chase something unique. For the record, I wasn’t paid to review these and Drop told me to write what I think. So let’s get into it!

Before I get into why these headphones are so interesting (the way they sound), I do feel it necessary to say that the build quality and appearance of the Grell OAE-1 Standard are top-tier for the price point (currently on sale for $250, which is $100 less than the first "Signature" run.) The cans are really attractive, almost entirely made of open metal mesh with woven stainless steel acoustic damper mesh. The “subdued” black clamps and well-cushioned headband are comfortable and look awesome. The velvet pads pick up lint easily, but that’s par for the course. If you are interested in the Grell OAE-1 Standard, and you should be, know that it is not for everyone. It’s certainly not a jack of all trades, and to me, it doesn’t sound amazing with every style of music. But in certain circumstances, with certain types of music, and most importantly, as I listen more and my ears calibrate to the OAE-1… it can be staggeringly beautiful. Why I’m feeling this headphone... Since receiving it a week ago, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with it, and have read many excellent reviews of its nearly identical predecessor, the OAE-1 Signature. Full disclosure, almost universally, highly technical reviewers who had eagerly anticipated this headphone, wrote incredibly detailed, intricate, scientific descriptions of why they feel the OAE-1 Signature did not achieve what it set out to do. That’s where the story gets interesting to me. What the Grell OAE-1 set out to do is so unique… so different… that many of the reviewers acknowledge that they’re not even sure that its end goal is even possible. And that’s why this headphone receives pretty mixed reviews. The Grell OAE-1 is thinking way outside the box, which I find incredibly cool! Imagine if a car designer, famous for their work in a popular brand, came out with a car whose wheels tilted out diagonally from the sides? That’s almost what’s happening here. Axel Grell, responsible for so many beloved headphones, including some of the highest reviewed headphones ever, the Sennheiser HD 600 and HD580, decided in his first “named” collaboration with Drop, to challenge one of the principles of headphone design; diffuse field. For your sake, I won’t delve heavily into the science behind diffuse field (because I’m not qualified, and other people say it so much better, if you’re interested in the science) but in simple terms, diffuse field is a commonly used approach to how you hear “where” the music come from in your headphones. More specifically, diffuse field is the impression that the music is coming at you equally from each direction. Most headphones play around with “soundstage” a bit, or the distance you feel the music coming from; (close equals “small” and far equals “big” soundstaging.) But almost all headphones project music from the center of the headphone and the drivers work hard to deliver consistent sound to your ears so that it sounds like the music is coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. NOTE: If I have oversimplified this, it’s not for lack of trying. I’m still wrapping my head around the concept, and I’m not an audio engineer. If you have a better way of summing up diffuse field, please do so in the comments. The primary reason for this, as I understand it, is because our brains are incredible things, and are always looking to read into the input they’re receiving. To give it meaning. Picture yourself sitting in a room and a speaker to your left begins to play. Your brain doesn’t say “I’m hearing a full, complete range of sound on my left and slightly delayed, incomplete tones on my right…” Your brain says “music is coming from my left.” Your brain detected what was happening and made the decision that rather than knowing about the quality of the music, you would be more interested in knowing where you were in relation to where the music was. This comes in handy when running from a saber-tooth tiger, and is also really handing in figuring out where your enemy’s footsteps are coming from in Modern Warfare. Diffuse field, or the “everywhere/nowhere” approach to headphones seems to be almost universal. Interestingly, it might not be necessarily optimal, but that’s an entirely different discussion. Back to what Axel Grell is attempting to do with the Grell OAE-1… rather than produce another standard-style headphone with incredible tuning, Axel made the decision to challenge diffuse field entirely, and moved the drivers from the center of the headphone to the front, in an effort to produce a soundstage effect imitates natural, orchestral performances, with heavy perceived bass, using what he calls a psychoacoustic effect.

It's only natural. The fact that such a respected designer would attempt, in the first headphone that bears his name, to chase such a goal deserves our respect. Also, that word “natural” reminds me of a story. I’ll never forget the day that Apple introduced the idea of “natural scrolling” into its computer line, reversing the direction that a page would move in when scrolled. I worked at Apple at the time, and man, did I get an earful. From everyone and anyone that had used Apple computers, or any computers in general. To reverse completely the direction one would scroll to read every webpage, every pdf, every photo… and call your reversal “natural…” it’s hubris on a scale that only Apple can achieve. If gaslighting applied to industrial design, this certainly qualified. That said, I think that the change Apple made was the right one. For decades, users interacted with their computers by scrolling in the direction they wanted the page to go; down to go down, up to go up. But that’s not how we move objects in the real world. Think about how you interact with swiping on your phone and tablet screens. To move the page, you swipe in the opposite direction of what you want to see. You swipe up to read what is below. You swipe down to return to what you were reading before. Or as Apple would call it… natural scrolling. In a world where we’re moving more and more to touch screens, Apple adusted their non-touch interfaces to behave the way their touch ones did for continuity, for design. Changing perception is an important piece of innovation. KOSS, one of my favorite brands, invented stereo headphones, flipping the world literally on its ear. Is this as dramatic a shift as stereo vs. mono? Probably not. But it’s pretty fricken delightful. What this headphone does really well… It thocks. If you are a part of the mechanical keyboard hobby, you know what thocky means. Deep and satisfying, thock-heavy keyboards are comforting, visceral. Thocky keyboards carry with them the perception of bass-y keycap delivery that extends beyond the actual sound that comes from the keyboard. And that’s what the bass tuning of the OAE-1 reminds me of. I haven't said this yet, but I think I need to share how I’m listening to these. I’ve tested the OAE-1 on a few DAC/headphone amp setups. My Schiit Magni/Modi at home, and Schiit Vali 2 at work. I’ve also tried them using my iPod 5.5 (the one with the nice DAC), and my phone and iPad without any external DACs. As noted by others, the OAE-1 is kind of hard to drive, especially on the Vali 2. The iPod handled em like a champ. The bass in the OAE-1’s is more pronounced than any open back headphone I’ve ever heard, and deeper, richer, than I thought possible in an open back. Leonard Cohen’s “You want it darker” and Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons (Live at the Austin Outhouse)” are absolutely breathtaking on these headphones. The bass growls and carries with it that “psychoacoustic” in-concert effect that Grell speaks of. I didn’t find the bass muddy or diffused like I read in some reviews. This week, the mids are growing on me. My initial response was that some of the vocals felt distant or buried, but the more I listen to the OAE-1’s, the better I feel about the delivery. If I do have a gripe with these, it’s in the treble delivery, that I do feel is strangely scratchy and off-putting at times. As I mentioned at the top of my article, some genres present better than others on the OAE-1 unlike my Grado SR325E’s and the Sennheiser 58X Jubilees, which sound awesome to me on most everything (although they don’t hold a candle to the OAE-1 on bass.) I think that the only genre that seems to really fall flat for me is modern rock, which I don’t listen to very often, so I’m mostly unaffected. The genres I do listen to most, Hip hop (A Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang, Kendrick,) Indie and punk rock (Pedro the Lion, Jawbreaker, Big Black,) and Sad Girl Bedroom Rock (Clairo, Alvvays, Cigarettes After Sex,) sound incredible. In my experience, I don’t know how many open back users there are that listen to the same styles of music that I do, but if you find yourself in that group… I think that these are a special headphone that you’ll really enjoy. What this doesn’t do well… it can be weird. I think that because of the innovative nature of the way this was constructed and tuned, it can really fall flat on some songs. I will go into a song, absolutely expecting these to sound great, and they don’t at all. There are a few albums where 9 out of 10 songs sound really good, but then one will just sound awful, and I can’t put my finger on why that is. The trebles continue to be where I find myself disappointed, or I won’t get a lot of separation of instruments on some tracks, but it seems like it’s a real minority of the time. Not enough to take them off, I just find myself skipping tracks occasionally. All in all, very pleased with this headphone from a true master, who is brave enough to push the boundaries of what’s normal, and try something new. I really look forward to hearing what these sound like in a couple months, and might return to this thread with a follow-up. Thanks for your time, please feel free to chat about your impressions, offer corrections when I’ve made a mistake, or ask questions! Best, James @storyboardtech

(Edited)

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IainDonald

Nov 15, 2024

These remind me of the Hifiman design but with cone drivers and a Grado aesthetic. I'd wait to see what people say about these and consider some Grados with the Symphones driver mod if this is your general style/config for open backs. Seems that most the hype of these is about who designed them rather than the product itself. There's great story writing and I've read all I can about these, yet haven't seen much concrete description at all about how they actually sound or perform haha

(Edited)

storyboardtech

490

Keyboard Club Member

Nov 15, 2024

IainDonaldThere are definitely some more scientific reviews of the predecessor, the OAE-1 Signature, and the tuning has been kept the same. My favorite description was to watch Axel talk about them. For written reviews of the signature, I recommend this one, or this one, or this one.

(Edited)