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
Fellow audio engineer here. Funny, I actually just recently got back from a conference that demo'd some DAPs. I got a chance to listen to the Sony NW-WM1Z paired with a WooAudio WA8 amp. I was more impressed with the prices than I was with the actual audio that came out of the devices.
I'm always a skeptic when it comes to insanely priced audio gear. As an engineer, we have the science to prove whether a product can do everything it claims to. And sure, a lot of these things can do it all, high resolution audio, proper amplification, the works. Human auditory perception is limited though, specially at age. There are diminishing returns when it comes to high performing devices and the prices they come in. I'm saying all of this because in my humble opinion, I don't feel it's necessary to spend so much money on a DAP/AMP when we have mobile devices with enough processing power to accomplish the same thing. As far as amplification, there are affordable options for that too.
Phones are capable of playing back lossless files with the right media player. VLC for iOS and Android can play flac, alac, and wav. The software can output up to 192khz. Mobile devices, are mostly limited to 44.1khz:16bit but there are accessories to extend this capability also.
Enter the mobile DAC/AMPs: http://www.cozoyaudio.com/ http://www.audioquest.com/dragonfly-series/ These override the native 44.1khz:16bit and render the proper sample rate and bit depth for the media you're listening to. These in combination with the lossless media players can turn any phone or tablet into a high performing DAP/AMP. Don't take the capabilities of your Galaxy device for granted.
Something to think about.