Drop + Grell Signature Edition

[IAtaman]

It says the OAE1 is distributed by Drop in May and limited to a 1000 copies.
Because of the limited nature they expect it to become a collectors item.
Today (may 9th 2024) it is launched at the Munich HIGH-END fair.

It is $349 on drop. Ordered one as well. I don't know if this 1000 pieces only, EUR499 a piece was a marketing stunt by drop.com or not, but in any case it worked

 

[sharock]

I'm tempted but might just wait and see what people here say. I'm pretty happy with EQ'd HD800s and want to save up for a DCA E3.

 

[PuX]

Seems like the page has been updated on Drop.

it's a shame drop made these charts slightly different from their own measurements of 58X for example.

anyway, isn't that a pretty big drop at 6-10k?
what do graph experts think?

 

[Leiker535]

anyway, isn't that a pretty big drop at 6-10k?

The headphones.com guys complained about peaky treble and thus Grell nuked it.

Jokes aside, that dip on the lower treble with that peak again in the upper treble (trusting the 5128 can reproduce it correctly) will have a HUGE impact on timbre, making the upper treble much more evident tonally. This might make the headphone sound extremely airy and open, which in conjunction with the whole 800s soundstaging comparison makes sense.

And damn, bad timing for me as I can't get any Drop product this early in the year, and if it's indeed a limited item, I'm terrified of the price this might get on the used market...

 

[EniGmA1987]

I love 4 things in headphone, wide soundstage, low distortion, fast decay, tactile bass. This UAE1 I expect will be absolute banger, becose it will have biocellulose drivers. Bio cellulose drivers are best headphone drivers on earth IMO becose they combine the moving mass and tactility of dynamic driver with low distortion of planars. Then combine that with chassis that is very open, that means it will have fast decay, no ringing. To top it all off, Grell made HD800 which is best widest soundstage I ever heard and this with its extreme driver angle will most probably be even wider.

According to the THD graph on Drop, these new headphones have bad distortion when compared with high end headphones (HD800, Focal's, Dan Clark's). But somewhat similar to say an HD6XX THD graph. Same in bass regions and a bit worse in midrange as 6XX.

 

[Somafunk]

Hmmm, dunno , these Grell open backs, HD 620S closed back or one of the new Focal open/closed……..I’ll wait a month or two till we hear more but I have to admit I do like the industrial design of the Grells.

 

[GaryH]

 

[Leiker535]

With that level of bass, the distortion figures shown earlier wouldn't be that meaningful. A simple negative filter around the mid bass and lower mids area might make it flat and harmany without adding any distortion.

More worrisome is the pinna though, that everest on 3khz might make people think twice before calling the hd 600 a shouty headphone, specially considering that it may be tonally emphasized by the treble dip.

If it's as surprising as early testers reported, it will be in detriment to conventional graphing. This might be explained by the very unusual angled driver, but then again, shouldn't the 5128 be sota in pinna simulation?

 

[IAtaman]

That does not look very good. Hope they sound much better than they graph.

 

[Graph Feppar]

According to the THD graph on Drop, these new headphones have bad distortion when compared with high end headphones (HD800, Focal's, Dan Clark's). But somewhat similar to say an HD6XX THD graph. Same in bass regions and a bit worse in midrange as 6XX.

Lets compare them. Here are screenshots from Head Fi youtube measurements of HD650/HD6xx.

HD650 does 1.2% THD at 20Hz and 84db while HD6XX does 1.6% THD at 20hz and 85db, this is significantly inferior to the OAE1 that does 1.3% THD at 20hz and 91db.

I do agree that HD8XX, OG HD800 and high end Dan Clark stuff is lower THD. Focal Utopia and HD800S arent much better though, the Head Fi Utopia 2022 measurements shows Utopia at 0.09 at 20hz, but the db level is unclear as it says "white noise 80 dBSPL ( 94.97dB SPL @ 1 kHz )". How much db is that at 20hz I dont understand.

But looking at the Amirm measurements of OG Utopia, I suspect that level is much lower than any of the above headphones becose he got 0.7% THD at 20hz and 90db which is still superior to OAE1, almost twice as low, just not 14x lower as the Head Fi graphs would suggest.

 

[maximit]

Im tempted to replace my custom HD650 with these but a bit gun shy to pull the trigger as the reviewers were kind of split on them. I trust hard measurement more than subjective reviews, so hopefully we will get some measurements in before they sell out. Just FYI as of right now they sold about 500 units so they will sell out most likely, unless everyone was so eager to order that they all put in their orders first day. I will try to keep you guys posted as to when its down to last 100 units or so if anyone is interested.

And a bit off topic and just for fun my HD650s since i mentioned them:

 

[jhaider]

Bio cellulose drivers are best headphone drivers on earth IMO becose they combine the moving mass and tactility of dynamic driver with low distortion of planars.

Isn’t “biocellulose” just a fancy word for “paper?”

Consumers read too much into drive unit materials, IMO.

 

[Graph Feppar]

Isn’t “biocellulose” just a fancy word for “paper?”

Consumers read too much into drive unit materials, IMO.

I dont like biocellulose drivers becose they are made from biocellulose, I like them becose they often have planar level of THD in bass region without the bulky headphone and high frequency resonances of planar. Also they have quality that I call "magical" bass but ofcourse there is no magic, I suspect its their moving mass that is higher than PET, causes physical vibrations that go through the pads to skin and giving small degree of bone conducted bass to the inner ear. I dont have accelerometer to confirm this theory but touching the biocellulose headphone cups while they play bass, I feel more vibrations on fingers. Bio cellulose drivers in my experience have unique bass that is much more speaker-like than headphone-like bass of PET driver headphones.

And by the way, no, biocellulose is not paper. Biocellulose is real superior driver material, this isnt snakeoil like those titanium/beryllium/tungsten/DLC/whatever coated PET drivers these chinese ANC headphones come with. First of all, biocellulose comes from bacteria and not wood! Secondly, its mechanical properties are vastly superior to paper.

 

[Soria Moria]

Extremely bloated and muddy bass. A large treble mountain followed by a deep contrasting drop in energy. Wow. This is awful. However I was going to EQ anyway.

 

[_thelaughingman]

That response curve above 3khz is just a mess. Can anyone explain to me the sudden drop and peak from 5.5khz onwards?

 

[Mr Swing King]

I was fairly hyped after watching the recent interview Axel did with Jude over Head-Case…but looking at the measurements, I’m glad I didn’t take a chance on them.
Looks like a strange combination of the K1000 and Beats

 

[sharock]

I was fairly hyped after watching the recent interview Axel did with Jude over Head-Case…but looking at the measurements, I’m glad I didn’t take a chance on them.
Looks like a strange combination of the K1000 and Beats

I'm sure we'll be told its sound cannot be explained by FR alone.

 

[Mr Swing King]

^With most buyers I suspect you’re right. The (coping) force is strong in this hobby.
I am however hoping for an ulterior frequency response that puts the above to shame. Truth be told, I have a hard time coming to grips with the man, who gave us the HE90, HD580 as well as a whole host of brilliant natural sounding headphones, now seems to have gone in the complete opposite direction tuningwise.
Tastes do shift sure…but this feels strange to say the least.

 

[Graph Feppar]

That response curve above 3khz is just a mess. Can anyone explain to me the sudden drop and peak from 5.5khz onwards?

Its most probably due to the extreme angle of the driver. Google "ear related transfer fuction angle" and you will find bunch of graphs of ERTF for different ear shapes and horizontal/vertical angles. I am too lazy to do research on what the ERTF of the pinna used in the head simulator Head Fi uses is at the angle that the UAE1 has, but I bet that is it. If my theory is correct, then when its measured on flat plate coupler like solderdude has, it should not have the Mount Beyer-esque 3khz peak and Mariana Trench like 10k dip.

 

[Leiker535]

Its most probably due to the extreme angle of the driver. Google "ear related transfer fuction angle" and you will find bunch of graphs of ERTF for different ear shapes and horizontal/vertical angles. I am too lazy to do research on what the ERTF of the pinna used in the head simulator Head Fi uses is at the angle that the UAE1 has, but I bet that is it. If my theory is correct, then when its measured on flat plate coupler like solderdude has, it should not have the Mount Beyer-esque 3khz peak and Mariana Trench like 10k dip.

True, but the 5128 that Head-fi already uses features a full reconstruction of the pinna and internal ear, so in theory it's measurements should more or less reflect the end-result.