Drop + THX Panda Wireless Headphone Discussions | Drop

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Drop + THX Panda Wireless Headphone

Audiophile

FULL DISCUSSION

Rms2000

Oct 4, 2020

What follows is a description of my experience with the pandas so far. When I got my pandas I was quite pleased with the packaging. They came in a matte black box with Drop in glossy black on the top so you couldn't read it in low light. Pulling on the cloth strap poking out of one side slid another black box out from inside, in which were the panda carrying case and the manual and warranty info in a small recess in the foam on the bottom of the box. The carrying case unzipped to reveal the pandas and, in the negative space between the headband and earcups, a raised compartment with a flap door containing an Aux cable and a USB C to C cable. My first experience with the pandas was somewhat alarming. I'd connected them with the Creative BT-W2 Bluetooth transceiver that I'd bought months in advance for exactly that purpose, only to find that there was a noticeable and quite off-putting delay between what I did in my game and the audio cue for the action. I switched over to USB-C using the third port on my Juiced USB-C hub and resumed play, only to be interrupted a few seconds in by harsh white noise at moderately deafening volume (probably about 55% of the unit's insanely high maximum output). I found that this issue recurred each time I tried listening to that game's audio, so I gave up and went to bed. The next day, I tried moving over to port 2 on the same USB hub and found that the issue didn't occur on this port, which I have used for every test since. My first experiences notwithstanding, my overall experience with the headset has been quite good. I haven't experienced any of the issues people have been RMAing their units for. The headset does buzz a little when negotiating a Bluetooth connection, but so does ever other Bluetooth headset I've owned, so I'm willing to chalk that up to protocol and/or chipset requirements rather than build quality on the part of DROP. That said, the buzz on my unit is nearly inaudible to my untrained ears, so if yours buzzes loudly, that might be a different issue. I will say that at present I can only recommend it for listening and watching music and videos and only on native Bluetooth connections because connections through the USB dongles I've used seem unable to compensate for the latency in the connection, while native connections, regardless of codec all seem to have the ability to compensate for the lag when watching videos (while when listening to music or audiobooks the latency is a non-issue). Audio quality is not something I'm equipped to discuss in detail, but to my ears the headset sounds good. I'm a little disappointed in the directional button: I found it just hard enough to find the right direction to push it that I've mostly avoided using it, but perhaps with more practice it would be usable. As far as comfort goes, let me preface this by mentioning that the headset I've been intending to replace is a Steel Series Arctis 7 Wireless Gaming headset. If you're not familiar with that model, it uses a ski-goggle style strap resting on your head to suspend the metal headband out of contact above your head, while the earcups have a fairly light clamping pressure and clothed foam earpads with a closed-back design and integrated retractable microphone with a volume control, balance control (between game and chat audio by default), and some auxiliary connections. By comparison the first thing I noticed on the Pandas was the higher clamping pressure and the relatively concentrated pressure spot from the headband on my scalp. After some adjustment to the headband length/height I was able to reduce the pressure spot and make the clamping action support most of the unit's weight making the fit reasonably comfortable, albeit still somewhat short of the Arctis' near-weightless feel. Upon reflection, I realized that I wanted more comfort than was being offered and so took someone here's suggestion and ordered a ZMF Pilot Pad in their new "ZMF Suade" material. After discovering that ZMF apparently only ships things on Mondays and receiving the pad, I found that it applies quite easily and, after another length/height adjustment, significantly improves the feel of wearing the pandas. Conclusion: My Pandas have replaced their predecessor in my setup (the Arctis 7) with some caveats. I required a USB C hub to extend the cable to reach my sitting position and a modmic to add a boom mic without extraneous wires, with a Pilot pad increasing the comfort to the point where I can game with it on for several hours at a time. I'm using it in USB-C wired mode to avoid latency until such time as firmware updates add AptX-LL support, and I'm really missing having a properly wireless gaming experience. I don't intend to use my Panda on the go very much because it's much bulkier than my bone conduction headset and the noise isolation makes it hard to do anything else while listening with it.

Oct 4, 2020

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