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
Now the build quality, I was pretty disappointed in (Edit: it's not the build _quality_, it's the _design_). I replaced a Sony ES integrated amp with the Sprout. I must say, while two entirely different animals, the quality of the Sony ES was far and above that of the Sprout. I use bare wire for my speakers and actually had to downgrade my wire to a higher gauge because of the chincy speaker terminals. Even the cheap wire I went with would barely fit. Guess I need to get some banana plugs. The knobs on the front are held in place with a set screw and the hole for the set screw is very visible, depending on where the knob is pointed. The headphone 1/4" -> 1/8" adapter supplied feels like it's made of brass-plated tin. Very "cheap." And finally the case looks good from arm's length, but I'm not impressed with either the wood or the metal texture up close.
All in all, I'm very happy with the purchase. It does sound very good. I feel the price I received on MassDrop is very fair for what I received, and I would certainly recommend the Sprout to others. I am just disappointed at the case design. I would have much rather spent another $50 for a better design.
By the way, my choice of a pair of Sonus Faber Toy Monitors was spot on. Love them. I paired them with an REL T-5 sub. For inputs, I'm using a Pioneer PL-518 TT, and a Sonos Connect as sources. BT input works flawlessly as well, by the way.
Re: what @mydonkeykong says, I haven't had to push it past 50% so I can't comment on the hiss. My general use has it between 20% and 25% and if it's making noise, it's less than the ambient noise of various things around my house.