Drop + THX Panda Wireless Headphone Discussions | Drop

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Drop + THX Panda Wireless Headphone

Jul 5, 2020

i've been curious about these headphones for a few months now. recently came into a bit of money so i'm seriously considering them. however, i do have a different set of cans which altogether come to almost as much cost, and as i'm in the uk these would actually cost me $480 rather than $400, so i do have a few questions. first, i suppose i should give my current headphone context. i'm using an aiaiai tma-2 with the h05 aptx headband, the s03 driver units, and the e05 microfiber cups. i was using the PU leather cups for a few years until recently, as the "leather" started peeling away where my glasses rubbed on the cups. to its credit, it felt more like bonded leather than PU leather, although of course that's still very far down the leather totem pole. i understand some of the tma-2 speaker units don't have the best reviews, but those are almost exclusively s01 and s02. at the time i ordered these about 5 years ago, s03 had the flattest response curve in the configurator, and more recently their s05 unit has also had decent reviews for being $300 headphones. the main reason i being all this up is i would already describe the soundstage as wider than most closed back, and being somewhere between closed and open back, as many have described the pandas. there's no fancy THX amplifier or ribbon driver, which is what is drawing me to the pandas. but certainly bass isn't overemphasized, while still being present when the mix demands it. the mids have decent room to breathe, and the highs are fairly crisp without being grating. again, this sounds broadly similar to the descriptions people are giving for the pandas. the chip in their h05 wireless headband is the qualcomm 8675. qualcomm themselves claim 8645 but everywhere else says 8675. it certainly was noisy when i first got the headband, but there was an update a few months ago which boosted the mic volume and drastically reduced the noise floor. the main ways that i'm growing dissatisfied with this setup is that the microphone is still pretty poor. phone calls are intelligible now (i was inaudible before the update) but google assistant still takes a long time to decode what i say through the headphones. some people say i sound far away speaking through these headphones, as if i'm on speakerphone, although others say i sound the same as any phone call (i presume GSM sampling and bit rate has something to do with that). i like that there's the wired option, again very similar to the way the pandas function. i'm not a huge fan of their 3-button-remote layout on the headband though, and the buttons while clicky don't move very much. the biggest ergonomic gripe i have with this headphone is that the cups are fixed against the headband with no swivel, and the circular pads while looking nice in photos and the sketchbook end up causing soreness on the corners of my ears after a few consecutive hours. the shape of the panda cups seem like they would avoid that issue, though some other people have said the padding isn't good enough for prolonged use. i did also own the tma-1 in 2012 and that headband wasn't padded enough, whereas the h05 on tma-2 is padded enough for me. so i'm slightly wary in case the pandas would be more of a sideways-grade than a strict upgrade, at least in terms of the ergonomics rather than the sound. (i am presuming the pandas would sound better to some degree or another, even if the quality of the sound signature is similar – which is fine by me as i like that kind of sound and specifically picked the s03 as having the flattest curve out of the 4 options they had at launch) i'm wondering if anyone would like to chime in with their experience wearing the pandas for long periods of time? i'm not opposed to shifting the headband slightly forward or backward periodically, and i do like that the cups have independent swivel on the pandas a lot. when i do listen to music on headphones i tend to do it all day, so this is rather important to me. the functionality seems to be basically identical in terms of input options, since i also have the USB-C to 3.5mm cable aiaiai sold. and that's important to me, so that i can easily plug into my various synthesisers and my USB audio interface on my computer which i use to record mic, guitar, sax, etc. besides one or two people who had analogue audio sounding flat, most people report it sounds basically the same via analogue, USB, or BT, and that's also important to me (and also is the case with my tma-2 configuration, when the analogue input is powerful enough – a laptop's built in output makes them sound slightly less clear). apologies for the ramble, i guess i'm just trying to bring up all of the relevant details that make me like my current headphones, the relevant details that have had me looking at pandas for a few months, and especially i'm wondering if by a long shot anyone else here has used the s03 speakers and could possibly make a direct comparison? i'm presuming the pandas will sound better due to being another 33% more expensive, but i'm still just on the fence about buying an entirely new set of headphones considering the modular approach has served me well over the years. though obviously the cabling is modular oh the pandas also, just not the headband. and the always-circular ear cups is really starting to get on my nerves. i would say i'm really rather satisfied with the sound of my current tma-2 configuration, and the latest update also reduced latency a lot. the headband already seemed to communicate latency back to the phone as netflix and youtube would delay the video by a split second after hitting play, but with the update even videos that were out of sync before are basically in sync. so seeing aptX HD latency is still kinda high on the pandas is another slight trepidation factor on my part. but i would also certainly be satisfied to get something that sounded the same but better. i tend to like to use just one headphone for everything, wired, wireless, spotify/soundcloud but also listening to FLACs at home. casual listening, but also dialling in sounds on my instruments. and i certainly am impressed by the various frequency charts presented here, and by people's descriptions of the sound that sounds like exactly the kind of sound i like. so i guess... yeah. any extra analysis anyone can provide would help me a lot. especially because of how many people were saying they'd never experienced this much of a soundstage on closed-back headphones before, just has me wondering if the s03 is more special than i'd realised, because it also has that quality to it. or maybe i'd get the pandas and the s03 would seem crowded by comparison. that's the trouble with describing sound in words, i suppose. like, with my tma-2 configuration, i was aiming squarely at solid midrange performance without undue emphasis on bass. and the headband does use a DSP/analogue hybrid instead of pure DSP. but i have kept looking at and thinking about the pandas, because of their shape and design and planar ribbon. so, please help me evaluate this! (which i guess means, convince me that it's worth spending $480 plus shipping on these headphones!) oh yes, one last thing, the firmware on the h05 can be updated through fwupd in linux, which i really appreciate. and aiaiai host their firmwares on github. the idea of having to use a smartphone app that may or may not exist in ten years is less appealing to me. but that's about the only seeming downside, if the pandas are more comfortable than the tma-2. it's not like there's been a ton of firmwares released either, but it's just nice to know that they're hosted on github and i should be able to access all of that many years in the future if i needed. but given that the pandas use another qualcomm BT audio chip, maybe they're also theoretically compatible with fwupd? i'm not against apps to be clear, i just like there to be more than one update pathway. also are the ear cups detachable on the panda? if this is like any other PU leather my glasses WILL make a mess of it after a few years, and it'd be nice to know i could replace them instead of just having tatty looking pricey headphones. that is one of the things that initially drew me to the modular system in the first place, and i did have my eye on the alcantarra ear cups aiaiai announced last year, though if i was to go ahead and order pandas i doubt i would bother – the microfiber cups are just fine. so yes, being able to replace the ear cups on the pandas would be really nice, especially if there ended up being velour/alcantarra options. okay, i think i really said everything now! thank you for reading all of this if you did! i scrolled down through all the comments as best i can tell, and tried not to ask questions that others had already answered in their posts, but apologies if i missed yours. thanks for being such a great community, audio massdrop!

Jul 5, 2020

Pandalover1

119

Jul 5, 2020

dolljoints2 things that I am aware of is that they are planning alternative earcups to purchase soon , they are supposed to be working on alternative materials, the app is on the way and is due out in the next couple of months. Fellow UK resident and reluctantly taking the hit of the customs charges 😕

Jul 5, 2020

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phillnokay

Jul 5, 2020

dolljointsIt's funny reading this as I had the same exact AIAIAI setup (H05, S03 + PU Leather)! Though I have to say I was really unsatisfied.. I had product issues with not only the headband but also one of the speakerunits. I claimed a refund and I find myself now everyday on here thinking about buying the Pandas! It was extremely bothering dealing with the support at AIAIAI all the time and I had to send the headphones back to Denmark a few times.. So thats my biggest concern right now, if I buy the Pandas and there are issues (like a few already described) I'd be soo bummed (I'm from Europe too btw). Sorry for not being helpful to your questions, just felt the urge to say smth too as I come from the same previous headphones :D

Jul 5, 2020

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dolljoints

155

Aug 8, 2020

phillnokayhey man, no problems at all. i watched a few more reviews around the place, lurked thru reddit and headphone forums a bit, and especially the head-fi video convinced me to just take the plunge. even if it is "basically the same but better" as my "worst fears" were, that's still great. and it could be far better. so i ordered the pandas a few days after i commented :) the import fee is high but i've decided i'd eat the 20% increase in cost since it would've been almost the same as the tma-2 setup without it. interestingly, i had went back onto aiaiai's website to try to show the freq response curves of the s03, and they look really different to how i remember. s01 and s04 are flatter than s03 now, allegedly, with s05 flatter still. very bizarre. now s03 is just as bass-heavy as s02?? apparently? makes me think there are two possibilities. either, they overestimated back when i ordered. or they changed s03 at some point in the past and now a modern s03 wouldn't sound the same as an original s03? i bought into tma-2 at the very start of the product run, with a huge discount for being a tma-1 customer. but i remember specifically picking s03 as the flattest one they had at the time >.> at any rate, i'm listening to them right now, playing my soundcloud likes ^.^ using the microfiber pads now, very very subtle sound difference, gives mids a very small boost, feels like there's a little more room for the sound to, well, breathe, with the more breathable pads. tbh i'm kind of tempted to buy the alcantarra pads that only seem to be available direct from aiaiai atm, even tho i just spent £30 on these microfiber pads... since the pandas will take another few months. the comfort on the microfiber is okay, basically the same as the "leather" – but i feel like a good fabric pad should be more comfortable than the leatherette option. it sucks that you found your support experience with them to be poor. i haven't needed to do any such things since getting tma-2, i only ever had problems with tma-1. but i had a very streamlined experience there, they just asked me for a pic showing i'd cut a wire in the headphone to brick the old headband before they'd send another one. they always sent it by express post and it would arrive the next day, or in the worst case, the day after. (however i would reuse pics to keep using the tma-1 with a snapped headband in those few days... shh). i've actually been a customer of theirs for 10 or 11 years, back to being a teenager. i had earbuds with them and every few months one of the channels would die with all the jostling of being tucked into clothes and the walk to school. they'd always send me a new unit without fail. i'd built up a collection of about 10 of their acrylic tubes (the packaging they came in). so i've never had a bad customer service problem with them in that time, and i can't really fault their cheap iems for failing in the way that literally every iem seems to fail sooner or later. but by the time i'd reached 10 replacements, i stopped needing to have pocketable 'phones so much after i finished school. so i switched to tma-1/2 full time. although i do have a massdrop nuforce wired iem that i keep in the corner of my bag all the time – just in case. with regard to massdrop's customer support, so far i've never had to send anything back to them. just provide proof of a fault and get a new one. the main thing there is making sure they know to mark the customs correctly for being a warranty replacement instead of a new purchase – lest we get hit with double import tax. since i already ordered them, i hope if new types of pads arrive they're available separately <.< i do prefer cloth in the long term although i like having the option of leather(ette). plus, of course, the tma-2 system headphone is still there in case anything goes wrong in the panda, after all. pretty excited overall! the battery life is rated at about double of the h05's battery, and the h05 actually gets about 66-75% of its quoted time for me. so even if it's actually 24 hours instead of the quoted 30 for the pandas, that's still a nice improvement over my real world ~12 hours with h05. and if it happens to genuinely be 30 – even better! hearing the mic samples in a couple youtube overviews helped convince me too – they really were fuller and closer-sounding than most others. on my productive days i listen to music straight through and burn out the h05's battery from full to flat in one go. so that could really be a genuine big improvement for me. plus, this way, i can leave the tma-2 plugged into some synthesiser or guitar amp ready to go there... :) bit rambly, but yeah. it was nice to see you had the same setup as me, haha. it felt a little bit validating as to my sensibilities in picking the ones i did, as i suppose it did for you too. my main problem rly is just the circular shape squeezing or bending my ears. which the panda looks to avoid. if you can afford the import tax hit and you're also still on the fence, i'd say why not go for it? plus, the right to refund is nonrevokable in EU law. so you could probably get the cost back if you decided you didn't like them within 14 days or 30 days or something.😉

Aug 8, 2020

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dolljoints

155

Aug 8, 2020

Pandalover1nice nice. i decided to take the plunge before the next wave. hopefully if they come out with other earpad materials later i can buy them separately... lol i was a bit nervous spending this much all on one go on headphones (my previous pair was a gradual spend buildup, after all); but a few weeks later i'm just excited for mine to arrive. 😅 even tho i have to keep reminding myself my bank balance isn't reflecting the final cost yet lol

Aug 8, 2020

AlejandroIsaza

Mar 5, 2021

dolljointshi i just buy the aiaiai tma-2 hd wireless but i am also looking for other hifi wireless headphone in case i dont like the tma-2, what do you think of the pandas vs the tma-2?

Mar 5, 2021

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dolljoints

155

Jun 6, 2021

AlejandroIsazaHi there! I apologise for taking 3 months to get back to you, but there was some IRL stuff in the way unfortunately. So, it kind of depends on which driver you bought for the TMA-2! Some of them have a U-scoop shape with emphasised low end and highs, others are flatter, some are even more trebly and “brighter”. The TMA-2 I have does decent low end and alright bass but has fairly rolled-off highs. The Pandas definitely provide a ton more sub-bass and they let the highs sparkle, which does a lot for the texture on things like chiptunes and distortion. The Pandas also stay more detailed in heavy mixes than my TMA-2 drivers, but the mids do sound slightly thin sometimes. Though others have said the EQ app helps a lot with that, but I haven’t had the chance to try that yet. The headband was just about as comfortable as the TMA-2, so if you didn’t like the TMA-2 headband you won’t like the Panda, and vice versa. But I found the cups more comfortable, especially for wearing with glasses, since they’re kind of pill-shaped instead of the perfect circles on the TMA-2. The Panda are also a lot heavier than even the TMA-2 with the Bluetooth headband. If you don’t care about Bluetooth at all though, I wouldn’t really recommend the Panda just as a passive wired headphone. It can certainly be useful, for instance for plugging into the headphones on my synthesisers or guitar amp fairly easily, but the built-in amp makes music sound a lot better and fuller than the analogue input unless you give it something fairly strong/clean. A lot of the price goes into the Bluetooth and the amp, so if you’re not using either, it would probably feel like a bit of a rip-off. But if you’re using Bluetooth, and you’re comparing for the all-in price on the TMA-2, it’s actually fairly evenly priced if you have the Bluetooth headband and a USB-C wired option (for full feature parity, which just happens to be what I bought for the TMA-2 just before I saw the Panda, and was amused that the Panda have the exact same set of inputs and a fairly similar sound profile). The Panda are a bit more detailed, can go a bit louder, and have more sub-bass oomph. Which isn’t bad for a very similar price. But if you prefer lighter headphones or only are using them wired, you’re probably better off sticking with the TMA-2 honestly? Since these just don’t perform their best with wired analogue mode with a lot of sources. I was expecting to really not enjoy going back to my TMA-2 as my left ear cup has broken, and there are some areas they’re a bit weaker, but it’s really like 80-90% as good. The ways the Panda are better are fairly subtle although I am one who really appreciates subtle details and critical listening. And I do want the Pandas back, especially with a little mids-boost EQing. But it’s not like excruciatingly worse detail or overall instrument separation TBH. The Panda are definitely a decent upgrade over my TMA-2 in a few ways, but if you got a good deal on the TMA-2 or are going to be using them wired then I would think the price you’re paying would be in some diminishing returns territory for the Panda. But compared to Bluetooth TMA-2 they’re rather competitive I’d say. Hopefully that’s helped, even if I’m a few months late. If you already bought the Pandas, or something else, and have written anywhere about it, feel free to link it to me, I’d love to give it a read! Thanks very much for asking, and thanks for your time. :)

Jun 6, 2021

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