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
AndrewMason139Follow THX Ltd. Analog & Power Engineering Expert 2D MadMan007@MadMan007 There are some very expensive, very nice opamps in there! Supporting truly balanced signal pathway throughout would shoot the cost through the roof, for negligible improvement. See Bruno Putzeys' EDN article on why having truly balanced signal path isn't necessary. "Symmetry is useless". " Differential transmission of audio doesn't mean you need to make a symmetrical voltage " https://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4429968/2/The-G-word--How-to-get-your-audio-off-the-ground
Then in another post claims its balanced when compared to the Monoprice 788? So which is it balanced or not? I dont think you can have it both ways its either balanced throughout or its not balanced.
AndrewMason139Follow THX Ltd. Analog & Power Engineering Expert 3D joshy_bennettHi @joshy_bennett . Compared to the Massdrop 789, the Monoprice 788: -uses the same AAA technology -788 has less output current/voltage/power -788 no true balanced output (has XLR-4, but it's only driven single-ended) -788 includes a DAC selected by the Monoprice team. So it depends on what you're looking for.
Everything on this drop suggests the 789 is balanced. The engineer mentioned phase inversion vs discrete DAC's per channel, there's a difference in power output etc. But, the 789 was supposed to be a tweaked 788, or at least that some people's impression. The differences just need some clarification.
There's just a lot about this drop that simultaneously impress me, and give me pause. I'm gonna have to think on it a bit longer.
With that good news (and the fact that the unit has a DAC with a full array of digital inputs... and Dirac Sensaround processing on-board), Monoprice's 788 is looking quite promising. Shame they keep pushing the release date back, though.
I followed-up my original question by asking if the circuitry from the amplifier to the output was fully balanced (differential). Unfortunately, Monoprice chose to delete my questions from the page. I was looking forward to this upcoming Monoprice DAC/amp, but this kind of behavior doesn't sit well with me.
That's in contrast to the 788 from monoprice which isn't even running phase inversion. It's supposedly a standard, single ended output with a 4pim xlr connector.