DROP + GRELL OAE1

[Rob80b]

Will we see a summit level can? ……
……
Honestly you weren't far off with this one. I mean I have some expensive cans but still enjoy listening to these, they are special indeed

Still details to be ironed out, but not many if any so called summit phones attract me, technically they can look great and have improved drivers and linearity such is the case if one goes from the entry level Focal to the Utopia for example but basically still the same phone, excellent dynamics etc but the whole picture just does not attract or engage me "psycho-acoustically" I would say. There we go again. lol

listen to t1 and t5 and you will see the difference.

They are on my short list as I recently got into Beyedynamic with Amiron Home but then the OAE-1 finally got released for pre-order, beginning of story.

 

[JM Popaleetus]

Ordered a JDS Element III Mk2 Boosted and some Aune AR5000s to compare.

 

[zilax002]

If you can, I highly recommend trying the OAE1 with an amp with higher output power into 32 ohms. The OAE1 with lower powered amps is by no means bad sounding, but more power really helps making the OAE1 sound more fuller, tighter, and natural sounding.

Don't tempt me with a good time! They are definitely low sensitivity; much moreso than the official specs would seem to indicate.

I've been considering the Atom Amp 2 as a cheap upgrade since I don't want to spend serious money on an amp at this point.

Honestly it'd also just be more convenient since it has 4.4mm, which I'm coming to prefer to get power output from portable sources (I think my Fiio KA19 does something 620mW from 4 4).

Atom Amp 2 does: Max Continuous Power @ 32Ω
2.65 Watts

 

[Fatdoi]

received it here @ AU..... opened the box, very nicely packaged, hooked it up and mistakenly listened to a violin concerto.... one of the biggest disappointment in my headphone journey..... a modern recording sounded like it's from the 1960s..... so lean, distanced and muffled.... the bass and vocals are great but anything orchestral is a no go on this HP so far..... i'll burn it for another few days and see how it'll turn out.....

 

[JM Popaleetus]

received it here @ AU..... opened the box, very nicely packaged, hooked it up and mistakenly listened to a violin concerto.... one of the biggest disappointment in my headphone journey..... a modern recording sounded like it's from the 1960s..... so lean, distanced and muffled.... the bass and vocals are great but anything orchestral is a no go on this HP so far..... i'll burn it for another few days and see how it'll turn out.....

Check cable connections and ear placement.

 

[Thomsen132]

Sounds amazing with the OAE1
Also tested the OAE1 with my Lehmann Black Cube Linear, which i bought 2009 and didn't use it for about 10 years now. It's a great combo. Together with my smartphone it will be my "mobile" chain to take with me in the holidays

 

[pure5152]

I think it’s important to consider the sample size and quantity of our large headed friends here.

No disrespect to them, but it’s the same rough handful repeatedly saying they want more extension. One said that the HD 600 series was one of the few that extended enough to fit them… that headband is one of the MOST extreme extendable headbands on the market. I can fit four fingers, basically an entire fist between the headband of the HD 650 and my head, and on adjustable hats (with the pins?) I have a larger than medium sized head. The Beyer DT 770 and 880 have been on the market for a long time, oft praised for their comfort (mostly due to pads), and they extend less than the OAE1.

You’re not alone in having a large hat/head size and still fitting the headphone.

Let’s round up to an easy 10 different people out of 1000 have found the headband too short for them, that’s still a 99% success rate. It would be great to fit everyone, big and small, but engineering is all trade-offs. The platform does look pretty modular though… maybe as more OAE1’s sell, it might be viable to accessorize?

If you look at the reviews on drop for the OAE1, pretty much every single review and many comments mention the headband extension being an issue-- I think it's far more common and feel the "99% success rate" you mention is a bit misleading. Even though it fits me, I don't agree; I really do think it's a design flaw with the headphone and it should have been designed for more extension. I'm actually surprised this wasn't caught beforehand, given how much user-testing there was at can-jams and such.

Alex Grell has picked up on this and seems to be working on a new headband system to help with the extension issue based on comments here/on drop which is great to see! Hopefully the next product run will have the fixed headband, and the headband will be available at an affordable price for current OAE1 owners who need it.

 

[Somafunk]

So far it’s been a mixed bag with the Grell, on a few tracks it’s been “wow” such as this electronic track below that has a chatter percussion that bounces from left to right and had me looking around the room to see where the noise was coming from but overall I’d say at this point that I prefer the HD490 - it’s so comfortable and light.



I’m going to have a play with peq this afternoon, I’ll start off under 2kHz and see if I can clean it up (to my ears anyway)

 

[pure5152]

1W should be more than enough, but yes it definitely responds differently depending on the amp. My Mojo 2 makes the OAE1 sound more analytical, despite the elevated bass, but I like it better when adding the less-than-perfect-but-very-fun 1.5W Monoprice Liquid Spark. I want to hear it with Questyle amps or dongles, I predict the OAE1 would sound great on those too!

@pure5152 I had the same overall impressions with the Asgard 1 & 2 as you did with the 3rd, I guess it has its fans but the first time I heard it I thought something had gone wrong with the Schiit demo sample. Your Lyr+ impressions are intriguing though… that’s the hybrid that can enable or remove the Tube from the signal?

Yeee but I think the bigger thing was the Lyr+ had a ton of power (6W)! I thought it might be the bifrost 2/64 dac as well, but there was a valhalla 2 with that dac at the schiitr as well, but that sounded noticeably thinner and underpowered, so I feel it really was the Lyr+.

I did find a used bifrost 2/64 at a great price so looking forward to seeing how that pairs with the magni unity first. But definitely going to try saving up for a lyr in the future as the pairing was superlative and irresistible to me.

 

[zilax002]

If you look at the reviews on drop for the OAE1, pretty much every single review and many comments mention the headband extension being an issue-- I think it's far more common and feel the "99% success rate" you mention is a bit misleading. Even though it fits me, I don't agree; I really do think it's a design flaw with the headphone and it should have been designed for more extension. I'm actually surprised this wasn't caught beforehand, given how much user-testing there was at can-jams and such.

Alex Grell has picked up on this and seems to be working on a new headband system to help with the extension issue based on comments here/on drop which is great to see! Hopefully the next product run will have the fixed headband, and the headband will be available at an affordable price for current OAE1 owners who need it.

I'll get behind "we don't know what percentage of people it's an issue for" because that's true. We don't.

But yeah, 99% is a very optimistic number, which has no basis. There would also be no basis for saying, say, that it's an issue for 50% of people. They're both fantasy numbers made up in lieu of any representative data sample.

@pure5152 I was going to RMA based partially on the headband but have now asked Drop customer service if I can get the replacement parts instead.

 

[Philimon]

I got some more time with the OAE1 today, and while I think the headphone has notable flaws (notably, ergonomics both in terms of comfort/size accommodation and the ability to get the intended sound with the angled/upfront drivers), my feelings have improved.

I can't say, at this point, that the OAE1 sounds like I'm right there with the music (that is, that it transcends the medium of headphones). But it also doesn't sound quite like a traditional headphone.

That's strange, and it's not objectively a positive or negative. It depends on what you're looking for. I've always had more of a connection to the sound of headphones.

The greatest manifestation of the driver orientation of the OAE1's, to me, isn't a huge soundstage, but rather the simple (but strange) sensation that the music isn't coming from the headphones. I know I'm wearing headphones; I can feel them, and while comfort isn't a huge issue on my head, it's also not fantastic. But it doesn't sound like the music is coming from the headphones. It sounds like I'm hearing music played from an external source, and hearing it through the external grilles of the OAE1.

The technical capabilities are all average, in my estimation, which might be what ultimately makes the OAE1's unique qualities not quite worth the tradeoffs. Bass is elevated and present, but lacks definition. The timbre in the midrange can be problematic in some materials. The dips in and unevenness in the treble can have tangible and detrimental effects to the naturalness of sounds in those frequencies.

I'll have to gather my thoughts to say more, but for now I've heard enough. I may not be in love with it, but it's unique enough. And I'm too intrigued by the EQ/modding possibilities to return it. So I'm keeping it.

This is where Im at currently. afaik, OAE1 shines in a way that any other headphone can not, so I will be keeping despite my main complaint regarding big-head comfort issues. If OAE1 were limited to 1000 units and nothing else in the future was engineered to have both relatively out-of-head soundstage with extended bass then OAE1 would be legend and used prices would become unnatainable for most, so $350 would be a steal. I listened to other headphones yesterday but missed OAE1’s soundstage presentation so Im listening to OAE1 again.

 

[Philimon]

@pure5152 I was going to RMA based partially on the headband but have now asked Drop customer service if I can get the replacement parts instead.

Did they have any update on that like an estimated timeline or price?

 

[Rob80b]

the bass and vocals are great but anything orchestral is a no go on this HP so far..... i'll burn it for another few days and see how it'll turn out.....

With the OAE1 it really does come down to Brain "burn in", as a long time stereo hobbiest I was able to settle in rather quickly and highly enjoy orchestral works on the new Grell, so now it becomes a toss up between the HD800S but still currently giving the OAE1 the majority of head-time.
Due to the smaller and highly damped inner core of the earpads the OAE1 is darker overall and there's more bottom end bloom, and as the drivers are not directly pointing into the ears there is also less treble bite and in your head sound, lending itself IMHO to a more tactile organic feel, less two dimensional, so that the overall sound as some of us, not all, find reminiscent of stereo speaker listening.

 

[4udio7ool]

I'd certainly like to think EQ could improve this (and pretty much every ) headphone, but this profile is awful for me.

It makes the OAE1 shrill and compressed. I'm firmly in the camp that thinks the OAE1 is too warm (for my liking), but this profile has the opposite problem ... but worse.

Yeah. I didn't listen to that preset, but I've tried a couple of others based on the Harman target and gotten similar results. I started working on my own preset based on just addressing some of the problem areas of the OAE1's FR with much better results. This is what I did with the Sennheiser HD800S too. It is still very much a work in progress, but since so many are complaining about the stock tuning here is what I have so far. Please consider it v0.1.

Preamp: -3.36 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 180 Hz Gain -2 dB Q 0.8
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 3800 Hz Gain -4 dB Q 2
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 5900 Hz Gain 4 dB Q 3.2

 

[4udio7ool]

I’m going to have a play with peq this afternoon, I’ll start off under 2kHz and see if I can clean it up (to my ears anyway)

VERY interested to know what you come up with