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Drop + THX Panda Wireless Headphone

Audiophile

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Drop + THX Panda Wireless Headphone

crona

114

Oct 13, 2020

In lieu of a full review, since IGG supporters can't yet post reviews, here are some thoughts from an international buyer who's spent some time with these, and received replacements. Let's get the service out of the way first. This is a mixed bag. First of all, let's be clear: receiving support for products directly from @Will is, frankly, below his pay grade. That's not to say that communication has been great, or that things have been going smoothly, but let's not lose sight of the fact that you wouldn't expect weekly updates from an executive at Sony every week if your XM4 pre order was delayed. Has every update and answer been satisfying? No, but let's acknowledge the good with the bad - he's clearly been trying to be responsive and helpful, and has even encouraged people to cancel their orders until things level out, or go with another product altogether. That might not be what people want to hear, but in many instances I've seen it's what people need to hear - there are good, in stock alternatives if you need something right now. If you don't want to deal with the uncertainty, of which there is still plenty, this might not be for you right now. The support agents I've dealt with have also been good, if slow to reply initially. A replacement was issued when I was concerned my unit might be defective, and it was shipped the same day I put my old pair in the mail. Since then, I received my replacement and got charged duties. I notified support using the same email thread that the replacement was set up with, and got a response with an offer to refund the amount on the same day. I think Drop needs to reconsider the size of their support department (I've reached out at least 3 times in the past 6 months and spoke with the same employee each time) but the quality of service is above average. Now, let's address where the service fell flat on its face for me - international orders. My order was part of the initial batch. Many of these were shipped overnight from Taiwan to their final owners, sparing no expense. International orders on the other hand sat in a New Jersey warehouse for over two months as the paper work was filed and those orders dripped out of that warehouse to the rest of the world via snail mail. Why? Did they have the same employee answering support requests handling all the paperwork? Did they not prepare any of it before they had the packages in hand? Did they really handle each package individually, like a mom and pop shop might? I don't know - it boggles my mind. Two months with no manufacturing delays to fallback on as the cause. I suppose it's better that they'll sell their products internationally at all, but only barely. I hope that this has since been worked out, because if international customers who have already had their headsets delayed months have an additional two month processing delay that isn't yet being acknowledged, I expect Drop has a lot more frustration and anger coming their way, and we could all do without that. Not to mention you can still order headphones and put yourself in the back of the queue as of today. Really, Drop? Why not just put things on hold until you've got units on hand, or at least fulfilled orders that were given a September estimate? This is perhaps the most egregious - Drop is still scrambling, and failing to get these manufactured for people who pre-ordered in January, but continuing to take orders? I think it's disingenuous. Next let's talk build quality. It's good - as advertised. The hinges are metal, wrapped in plastic, which I expect are the most likely point of failure. If I had my way, any moving parts, or parts subject to frequent stress would be completely metal. I'll be watching these anxiously for stress fractures, but after having them in hand, I'm less concerned than I was before. The headphones are made of what feels like some sort of soft touch plastic. From personal experience, these plastics don't always age very gracefully, but only time will tell. The included 3.5mm and USB-C cables are both nothing really to write home about. They're made of a soft touch rubber, about four feet long (I don't have a measuring tape on hand) - they get the job done. The only downside here is that the headset doesn't come with a charger, and the USB-C cable is C-C, so unless you have a USB-C port on your computer, or a USB-C power adapter, you're going to have to go buy one. This isn't a huge deal, but it might catch some off guard. Including a fast charge power adapter would have been nice given the price of these things. Headband adjustment takes a little muscle grease, and I'm always scared of damaging them. It's good that once I get them dialed in I don't have to worry about them slipping out of place, but Drop overshot the sweet spot here by a considerable margin. Speaking of headband adjustment, comfort is a contentious topic with these headphones. The reality is Drop hasn't "fixed" the problem, despite claims that the padding was doubled. How important that will be to you depends on how important comfort is to you, along with how susceptible to discomfort you are with headphones. Personally, I fiddle with them once every hour or two, adjusting them forward or back by about an inch, to relieve hot spots. It's not ideal, but it's fine for me, however I would also hazard a guess that I'm less susceptible. This is a true "your mileage may vary" situation. There are aftermarket solutions for making headbands more comfortable, but it's surprising given the price, and quality of the rest of the headset, that more care wasn't taken with comfort. Electronics. The components used seem high quality. The battery tends to last about a week when used while working, excluding online meetings. I might start using them during meetings, but the device hand off hasn't been reliable, and I tend to listen to music with my phone to take advantage of LDAC. Those factors combine so that it's easier for me to just take these off and swap to my other headset when in meetings. There's not too much to say here, which in my opinion is a good thing since it means the electronics fade into the background, but there is one glaring exception. There's crosstalk. It's between the headset's Bluetooth hardware and the left audio channel. I can say with nearly complete confidence this isn't outside noise getting in, it's noise generated by the headset itself. It's a very quiet, high pitched hum, like a mosquito barely close enough to your ear to be heard. It can only be heard in the left driver, and only when using Bluetooth. This isn't a defect, it's a quality of the headphones. If you're above the age of 30, it may be outside your hearing range altogether. It's most apparent immediately after pausing your music, only for a second or two. It was audible on both of my units and I've seen others describe it too. It shouldn't be there at all, but it's not a deal-breaker.

(EDIT: Others have noted their experience of getting replacements that do not have any buzzing, but many required multiple replacements. It's unclear if there's a variation in noise, from imperceptible to very loud, or if this is affecting many, if not most of the early units. In either case, you should be aware that your first unit has a reasonable chance of exhibiting this quality. Support has agreed to letting me hold onto my unit until QC and the rush the meet orders levels out.) Let me get into software development weeds here for a second, in case a developer on the Drop team happens to read this. The sound could be caused by a software routine that runs when an audio stream stops; my shot in the dark is it could be clearing memory on a timer after it detects the data stream has stopped. If that's the case there could be software solutions to mitigate the problem entirely, should Drop decide to pursue a fix. Now, the part of this that most people are interested in, and I feel the least equipped to give a meaningful review of, the sound. For reference, I regularly also use a pair of Hifiman HE4XX. Rather than try to go in depth and use terms I don't fully grasp, I'll just point out some standout features I noticed, since I think that will be more useful to most people.

The bass is deep and capable of sustaining pressure in the ear cup. It's been a pleasure to listen to the new RTJ album on these.
The highs seem to roll off for a while, then surge back before rolling off again. It can make the highs seems a little uneven. It's not noticeable during casual listening, but it was one of the first things I noticed when listening to them critically. To be fair, my first hi-fi headphones were Audio Technica AD700s, which to call "bright" would be an understatement, so keep that in mind when considering my perspective.
The sound stage is significantly more intimate than with the HE4XX. When playing a game, or listening to a live or acoustic album for example, I find the HE4XX to be superior since they sound more natural, positional and, obviously, open. On the other hand, I find the Pandas are more fun for general listening.

Overall it's hard to sum these headphones up any better than Drop has already done - they're 'audiophile quality' wireless headphones. They might be slightly overhyped; I believe you're getting a $200-250 pair of headphones with top of the line Bluetooth hardware and a killer THX amplifier for $400, which I think is worth the asking price but not revolutionary in terms of audio quality per dollar. There's not a huge competition in the category of 'audiophile quality' wireless headphones, especially in the closed back category, and what competition I have tried briefly (Sony's WH1000XM3) sacrifices audio quality for features. If you're looking for wireless headphones which prioritize sound quality above everything else, these scratch that itch, and quite well to my tastes. But maybe don't pre-order, wait until it's in stock.

(Edited)

Lychondy

Oct 13, 2020

cronaI like what you've written here. I also have some HE4XX to compare with. My application for these was meant to be gaming with Discord. I have found that remarkably troubling. The Pandas have this sort of captive mode when used as a headset where it focuses on an application. I can use discord, but I lose the game sound. That is not ideal since they are closed back headphones. I tend to use the HE4XX with a modmic for comms while using my speakers for game sound. I like the open back design of the 4XX and allows me a nicely immersive experience. Panda, while the sound quality is nearly as good as the 4XX has a bunch of drawbacks. Until I find a fix for the "captive" mode, I won't be using these for gaming.

ElectronicVices

2937

Oct 13, 2020

cronaI had two pairs with a noise in either the right or left cup, my third pair (so far) appears completely free of noise. My prior pairs had noise on boot up, during pairing mode, after pairing/connecting, during playback (at low levels) and it was especially noticeable when interacting with play/pause/forward and back. The noise you reference may be different but I wanted to clarify there is certainly some variability and a noise free unit is possible for these sub 40 year old ears. Edit: Was able to detect a little bit of the typical bluetooth "system" noise last night during an extended session (action on phone like changing tracks), still nothing like the first two pairs I received.

(Edited)

crona

114

Oct 13, 2020

ElectronicVicesI'm not sure what's worse - a design flaw that causes some small noise, or a manufacturing defect that is so pervasive that most units seem affected. The fact that you could hear it during playback gives me some small hope that we're talking about different things, but I think it's more likely that all units are affected to some degree, and your first two units were just especially bad. Alternatively, maybe you have better ears than me!

crona

114

Oct 13, 2020

LychondyI haven't been able to test this, but sometimes Bluetooth headsets show up twice in audio settings - once as a headphone device and again as a headset. If discord is opting to use it as a headset, while your games are trying to use it as a headset, it could explain the behavior you're seeing. If this is the case, you should be able to change the audio output device in discord to the headset. Hopefully that helps make your use case a possibility.

ElectronicVices

2937

Oct 13, 2020

cronaIt's been a while since I tested them but I was still hearing to 18kHz a few years back. On a positive note the performance on these was/is good enough that I opted for the replacement vs. refund option after getting two defective pairs. There truly is nothing exactly like it on the market.

(Edited)

Anzial

1494

Oct 14, 2020

crona"you wouldn't expect weekly updates from an executive at Sony every week if your XM4 pre order was delayed" - well, sony is not going to find itself in this situation, it's not a tiny boutique company like MD, they have their shit figured out months if not years ahead of a product release.

(Edited)

crona

114

Oct 14, 2020

ElectronicVicesI've spent a little more time with the replacement pair and can confirm the noise is audible in these during playback. It's faint, but it's there, which it wasn't with the last pair. Maybe it's time to hit up support again... @Anzial the point isn't that it's acceptable but that it's not in his job description.

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aaaafireball

Oct 15, 2020

cronayou mentioned "It can only be heard in the left driver, and only when using Bluetooth. This isn't a defect, it's a quality of the headphones" I had that problem with my old pair, then got a new pair and its completely gone.

Anzial

1494

Oct 15, 2020

cronaYeah, agree to disagree. It is his job to fix this real failure of a project that MD couldn't fix without producing a whole lot of defective units and under-delivering on their promises.

(Edited)

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Lividmatter

Oct 15, 2020

cronaDear Crona, thank you for this super extensive post. One thing that really burnt my spirits to the ground was the part about international shipping. Are you certain that international shipping warrants an extra two months of waiting? Where did you get the details about your shipping process? My headphones were originally due for shipping in September, and despite the current estimate of November I assumed they would arrive somewhere during December. (I did not want to get my hopes up). Does this mean I should be looking more in the ranges of January/February? Sincerely, Lividmatter

ArchiCroc

Oct 16, 2020

LividmatterMy understanding following this project is that people with international orders for the June batch, particularly those with the 1000+ serial numbers really got screwed, and is why Drop offered them $30 credit (which was the same as the premium they paid to be in the first batch). The European manufacturer of the driver material shut down due to COVID after delivering the first 1000 pairs to their Taiwan factory and then when they restarted, the production rate was reduced and had QA issues. It took two months to ship the rest of the June units. International orders were unable to be shipped direct from Asia, and were shipped to DROP's U.S. warehouse for distribution. Why? I have no idea- If I had to guess, Drop avoiding tariffs and VAT. More bad luck struck that DROP had lots of products arriving at their warehouse at the same time and took even more time for them to take inventory and pack international orders for shipment. Once your international order ships from Drop, you are at the mercy of the shipping company and your local customs. Some people in the forum have seen their packages stuck in customs for a month or more. As COVID cases spike again, I predict the customs delays will continue to be measured in weeks. I'm curious how this next batch of July orders will go to see if anything has improved.

crona

114

Oct 17, 2020

aaaafireballThat's fair, and you're certainly not the first one to say so, but it seems like most people who have one with the sound and get it replaced end up with a second with the same issue. So either it's a quality of the headphones, the severity of which varies, or it's a defect so prevalent that you're more likely to encounter it than not. At that point, what's the difference? I actually reached out to support, and they agreed to replace the unit in a month or two once the supply chain and QC has caught up instead of swapping headphones indefinitely. That's another point in favor of their service at least.

crona

114

Oct 17, 2020

LividmatterI'm sure that I was part of the original 1000 units. Will said that the international shipments from that batch were waiting to be shipped in their New Jersey warehouse. Two months after customers in the USA started getting their shipments, I finally got my tracking number. To be clear, it didn't get held up at customs, or slowed down in shipment due to COVID - it was not in the hands of the shipper until two months later. I hope this has been fixed, but I have no way of knowing unfortunately.

crona

114

Oct 17, 2020

ArchiCrocI mentioned this in my other reply, but wanted to make sure we were on the same page. My SN was <1000, I was in the original shipment batch. My delay had nothing to do with manufacturing whatsoever. Additionally, the slow down wasn't due to the shippers (UPS, FedEx, etc) - there was no tracking number generated until two months after the other units had already gone out to the USA customers. That means my package was sitting in their warehouse, presumably while paperwork was filed by Drop themselves. I think you understood the gist, but I don't want to misrepresent the situation one way or the other.

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ArchiCroc

Oct 17, 2020

cronaThe lack of transparency about what was going on with your order makes a delay like yours a very negative experience. Honestly, it would not surprise me if the "QA issue" that Will posted about around 1000 unit mark actually happened sooner and affected the batch they shipped to their warehouse for International orders and they were forced to take time to rework them. I'm curious where your serial number falls in the first batch? I've read you can find it on the left side of the head band.. just above the ear cup. I'm still waiting for mine...