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
I've noticed that several less experienced MD members have been referring to these as earbuds, which misleads potential buyers and doesn't address the purpose and inherent limitations of clip-ons, which Koss clearly is trying to address by combining that style with slight inserts. People who are attempting to get their bearings tend to repeat the most commonly used word on a thread. If these were mere earbuds and not a reinvention of one of the things that Koss does best, then the distinction wouldn't matter.
Something else that people should know: this style of headphone is traditionally warm and clear but, due to the distanced proximity of speaker to ear, isn't known for its bass and comes from a time when headphone hobbyists tended not to be bassheads. I'm guessing that Koss wanted to try a new approach to that issue, but I doubt that the result is bass-heavy. I'm also guessing that the member who dismissed earbuds as "worthless" earlier in the thread might have been expecting more bass or conflating stock earbuds with all earbuds.
In any case, it wouldn't be fair if these failed to sell because potential buyers were misinformed and not apprised of the Koss tradition.