To be fair, he is at the point where he can quit lmg, and it will keep running. Iāve been watching him for years and he hires the best qualified people and tests them on videos. If they suck he finds someone else and capitalize on what the bad person was good at. I think he is what we all would like in a boss. But again, he can be done since he did all of the work hiring a great crew.
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Iām super interested in these and if they sound good will probably use them as my daily driver over the 177X GOās. If these have good noise isolation I could easily see myself using these at work or when I work from home.
I want to wait until other people have tested and reviewed the final revision before purchasing though.
Same here the product itself really entruigues me and I need a closed back anyway
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When will we start seeing these in the hands of the consumers?
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They should start shipping this week.
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We might start shipping but yeah but no butā¦should be Drops slogan?
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Last update I got was June 9; there was a slight slip to schedule, but they anticipated getting the first 1000 out in June. They said theyād send a survey email to those slated to get a Panda in June. Alas, I did not get that email (kinda irritated since I bought like 6 of these for friends and family and sprung for an early one just to be able to preview it properly; oh, well).
In any case, looking forward to impressions when these start showing up. Still really impressed by what I heard at the Listening Day and canāt wait to see how the end product stacks up to the pre-production models.
Latest update:
First Pandas Ship
Hey Friends,
The first Panda units are ready to ship! Final QC checks are complete and weāll have Pandas on a plane in the first half of next week.
In addition to shipping these first units in June, weāre pleased to announce all remaining orders are expected to ship on schedule.
We also wanted to tell you about a few improvements we made for the production model based on late-stage community feedback :
Improved Damping Scheme
We improved the damping material and layout to further reduce reflections inside the cup. For most listeners, this manifests as improved detail and a more open soundstage.
Extended Headband
We added two notches of extension on either side of the headband. This will allow most people to wear Panda over a hat.
Additional Headband Padding
We doubled the amount of padding and selected a more porous foam. Production Pandas have more cushion than the review samples.
EQ App
Drop is partnering with a pro-audio DSP company to create an accompanying (but fully optional) smartphone application to use with Panda.
This application has two functions right now. First, serve firmware updates to Panda. Second, offer an equalization function. Panda was designed to sound great without software manipulation, and as a result, it is an ideal platform for software manipulation. The driver type and amplifier structure take an EQ really well, so weāre excited to give you a couple ways to customize the sound.
Weāre still working with our partner to see how far we can push the EQ feature but weāre shooting for full parametric EQ and weāll learn more about how thatās going in a meeting later tonight.
A note on how weāre implementing the equalization: The equalization is managed by Pandaās hardware. Youāll define an EQ profile with the app, then it will upload that profile to your Panda, and it will have that EQ profile applied until you change it with the app again. This is about finding exactly the sound you like, and enjoying it with any digital source.
Most of the time, the moment you buy a product you really care about, thatās the peak enjoyment. You get it later, some aspect isnāt as good as you hoped, and itās still great, but itās not better than you hoped. With these improvements, and the way we develop products in general, we hope the best part is when you get to use it.
Thanks for your patience and support, more updates to come.
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Looking forward to hearing peoples reviews on this headphone. Going to wait it out and if it turns out really good I will be ordering one myself.
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Was just about to post the same. The phone app EQ is a neat idea, and itās cool that itās persistently stored in the Panda hardware itself so that it will remain applied regardless of which paired source(s) you use. At the very least seems like a fun avenue for tinkering.
@Falenkor: I am as well. I attended the Listening Day even with zero expectations for Panda. I had barely followed the development news and had no desire to own any Bluetooth headphones. All of my experiences with BT to date had been pretty āmeh.ā I regarded the whole idea as a minor gain in convenience for a fairly painful surrender of sound quality. The whole reason I bothered attending in the first place was simply to meet up with friends in San Francisco and enjoy the novelty of experiencing a new audio product in development.
Panda stunned me in the same way that the Porta Pros have stunned meāthe experience was completely beyond even my most optimistic expectations based on what the product appeared to be. Per the development updates it sounds like Drop has intelligently incorporated early feedback to tweak the final product to be even better. The one real wildcard is how good is the mass-produced version compared to hand-picked demo units?
Overall, Iām optimistic, and anxious to receive my early copy. I suppose it should be coming sometime in July. Either way, Iām also excited to hear from other early adopters to confirm that what ships matches what I heard a few months ago.
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Wow, that EQ feature is awesome. Really looking forward to trying these out.
Man I did not think about that. Thatās excellent. One of the reasons I donāt like EQ is obviously that you have to EQ everything, everywhere.
Although I guess hardware EQ wonāt affect the 3.5mm in, just the bluetooth audio. Nice way to A/B?
When people are more excited about the EQ app than the HPās
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Wow can I be your friend and/or family, please?
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Lol, Pandas are really interesting ā because headphones without DSP are rare, and this is a great one (with Oppo drivers).
Now they announce hardware, optional DSP you can set yourself, for planars, which apparently respond really well to EQ.
Thatās just a win-win.
My Pandas arrived today, and after trying them out for awhile, they really do sound very good. So far, Iāve tried them with my iPhone, and with my HiBy R3 Pro (ldac)ā¦ listened to various music from my both my stored library and Qobuz. I havenāt tried them wired yet, and I may never even get around to it. Drop says theyāre coming out with a companion phone app for firmware updates and EQ soon, but I donāt know when.
So far, so good!
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Arrived this morning! They sound great. Sound isolation is pretty remarkable. I wore them while working this afternoon and the listening experience was sublime. Just tight accurate sounds coming out of these things, but I did start to encounter some slight ear and top of the head pain. I do have a pretty big head/ears, so maybe Iām a freak or something. It might be something that also improves with time too.
I do typically make efforts to buy larger headphones: Focal Elex, Argons. etc.
On that note, I would like to see a larger pad hole option or 2.0 of the Panda that put them on the scale of the Argons or something similar. Just go big! Screw āportabilityā.
Size comparisons for fun:
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One thing to be aware of is that the Pandas come with a charging cable that has USB-C connectors at both ends. I donāt have a wall charger for USB-C, but the charging cable for my HiBy has a USB-A connector at one end, and USB-C at the other, so I used that to fully charge the Pandas.
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I wonder how these react to pad swappingā¦ I canāt wait to try on my BW Angled Sheepskin pads! Itās too bad that I have to wait a whole month for mine to arriveā¦
As someone who has waited 2 years for my Vokyl Erupts to show up I laugh in the face of the Panda launch schedule. These moved fast as far as Iām concerned.