I forgot, is this the first headphone drop is making without partnering with someone?
They bought the driver technology from OPPO, so itās not like a completely new design. And the THX amp is designed by THX.
Yes and no. If anything, you could say theyāre doing it with THX, but in all fairness, beyond that, and allegedly (according to DMS in his review) using an orthodynamic driver from Oppo. From what Iāve found: orthodynamic=planar magnetic, and the term was first used by Yamaha back in the mid-70s(HiFiHeadphones UK explination). Hell, Fostex has tried calling it āRegular Phaseā.
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Quick blurb from Will again regarding the battery for the Panda
Hey, everything we do is based on requests, so if we have a ton of folks coming back to us, after ~40,000 hrs of listening (roughly the battery lifetime), and want replacement batteries, weāll create a solution. Battery replacement for a small fee, designating an authorized repair center, or posting DIY guides are all good examples.
Iād love nothing more than to replace thousands of batteries on gen1 Pandas because itās still the best wireless headphone in 2025 and nobody wants to upgradeā¦ but letās take a step back and think about the wireless audio industry for a minute.
In the five+ years between now and when Panda batteries start to die, wireless technology will have gone through 5-8 generations, and there will be a host of desirable new features. How many wireless products have you upgraded through in the last five years? Panda is still going to be an outstanding BT headphone in five years, but there will be better technology that we canāt anticipate today. Checkout WISA if you want an interesting example, itās a wireless audio transfer standard with lag measured in micro seconds and bandwidth to support 24bit/192khz.
Panda comes with a two year warranty and uses an off-the-shelf battery that you can access by taking apart the right earcup. Thereās no removable panel, that would have made the acoustic design pretty impossible, but if youāve got a screw driver and some patience, you can replace the battery. Replacement batteries can be purchased from most electronic component suppliers. Mouser, digikey, etc.
So to summarize:
1. Iād love to see a pile of battery replacement requests and weāll work with customers if we do get those requests after our two year warranty period, either directly or via authorized repair shops.
2. I doubt the electronic components of Panda will still be dominant in 2025, there will be updated wireless standards with exciting new features that the community will want. Rather than deal with batteries, I expect most people will sell Gen 1 units as passive headphones for $200 on the secondary market (itās basically a PM-3 with better tuning at that point and stock PM-3ās fetch between $400-$600 these day) and put those funds toward Panda 2 (or whatever is the best wireless headphone in 2025).
3. If you want to replace the battery yourself, you can, by taking apart the right earcup and buying a replacement battery from digikey (or any other retail component supplier). If this becomes popular, we can post assets to help.
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Sounds well reasoned to me. Iām not worried about the batteries.
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pretty great solution. and a tep forward to what i ppersonally want out of these. sucks im in canada though. I wish drop woudl open up a ware house up here
In summary, there will be a gen2 Panda so dont jump in just yet. 
sounds to me panda 2 comes out next year on indigogo 
thats the worst statement i have ever heard from a company.
drop secretly get bought by apple? thats some crap apple would do and sell. after all the whole world wants shiny new every 2 years. no one wants a product for 20 years! buy something once? good lord are you nuts!
edit: ill even say this, i was planning on getting a pair as my only bt headphones that i have not gotten yet. but that statement says after 2 years your sol on the panda. i need the company to have more faith in their product than that statement makes.
what do you mean shit out of luck after two years? the battery life is suppose to last 5 years give or take before the battery starts to die. Most if not all major headphone manufactures only cover up to 2 years of warranty or less. the fact that you can order an off the shelf battery and replace it yourself is quite attractive and if the demand is high enough theyāll provide a service if you choose to extend the life of the gen 1 panda.
Apple would tell you to fuck you and give them money.
Drop said replace battery if you want or we work something out with third party shops.
i read between the lines.
drop stuff has notoriously bad QC and longevity.
he just said there will be better headphones out.
batteries never last remotely close to the rated longevity because we live in the real world and not a test bed. 5 years isnt as relative as the hours played. and only if the community bitches enough will they contemplate opening up 3rd party(always a joke) repair contact service.
there other designs are based off of tried and true and OLD designs. they are not going anywhere. yet the panda is?
its all to shady for my tastes. as bad to me on the shady level as the airest dac(which is a stolen design).
i guess to me i expect a company to back their product. and that statement to me does the exact opposite.
Damn, dudeā¦ someone from Drop piss on your dog or something?
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I will never forgive them for what they have done to my poor baby
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Sounds a lot like SALT:
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sounds like you all are 3. last i checked reviews go good and pad. discussions are just that. but w/e.
I read that not as lack of faith in Panda, but as a simple acknowledgement that wireless technology is and will continue to evolve rapidly. Whereas āBluetoothā used to just be a singular thing, it now comes with version numbers, Bluetooth 5.0 being āthe iteration that supports LDAC.ā
The BT receiver / DAC is an integral part of Panda 1.0, as it is for any BT product. If the battery lasted 100 years or was a simple drop-in replacement it wouldnāt change the fact that the BT part of the design is frozen in time and will become obsolete as wireless technology continues to advance. Thatās simply the price you pay for cutting out the wires.
Frankly, I found that statement to be a refreshingly honest bit of perspective. Making the battery more easily replaceable would have increased the cost and complexity of the design. I think they made the right call for what is still a brand new design, unproven in the marketplace.
The fact that batteries can still be replaced with some effort means thereās an opportunity for a secondary service market (kinda like how I threw a few bucks at someone to patch up the optical drive on my Xbox 360 when the laser went bad). And the Panda sounds almost identical wired out of a good source as it does wireless; itās not like you have to throw it out when the battery goes bad.
Anyway, Iām still excited for Panda and looking forward to mine. I even shelled out a little extra for one of the June batch copies. And this despite literally zero interest in Bluetooth cans before attending the listening party.
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I kind of agree - sony are on their 3rd generation and people donāt give them slack.
Heck by this logic we should all hate intel and amd and ask why canāt the 386 play battlefield 5, or my CRT not support 4k resolutionsā¦
Dropās intention was never to make this the end all be all headphone - but people seem to think they are required to do so.
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Apparently these are a more refined Oppo PM3, maybe someone can compare whoās heard both PM3 and 177x
Email from Drop via Indiegogo (funnyāI just emailed them this morning asking for exactly this type of update).
Weāre Right on Track!
Hey Friends,Panda production is on schedule . Our team has moved some unexpected mountains to make this happen; part shortages, a global freight capacity squeeze, dramatic labor shake-ups as people returned from Chinese New Year, and lock-downs impacting part suppliers across Europe. Despite all of these challenges, weāre on track for our original shipping schedule.
We improved the packaging and the included case . Our Product Development team improved the tolerances, fit, and styling for both; the new case is slimmer while still accommodating all headband extension levels.
Weāll post another timeline update during production at the end of the month.
Thanks for your continued support of Panda and weāre proud to be on-schedule despite challenging global circumstances.
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good to know they are at least trying to show they care. this is one of the most promising audio products set to release in a while so I really hope they continue with the updates and release a good product.
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