So I ordered the Drop + JVC HA-FDX1 to Germany and received them a few days ago. But I am sorry to say that I regret the purchase.
Build quality and design are superb. They feel premium, the parts are machined well, the design allows great comfort with the cable worn over the ear and straight down, the cable itself feels very durable, etc.
But what's with the sound? This is worth creating a hype over? My initial impressions were really poor, so I took a few days to get adjusted, tried the different filters and also checked if I have a defective pair. But since both units are well-matched, I guess it's safe to say that there is no issue. Unless Drop pulled a sneaky on us and massively reduced the quality of the product in secret after the hype took off.
These have very poor resolution, in my opinion. The bass is bloated with little texture, poor decay and slow transients. The quantity isn't overdone at all, but the low-end lacks any kind of definition. The midrange sounds off - I have read so many impressions of how great the tonality is but the upper midrange is completely messed up - no matter which filter. Voices remain shrill, which is due to audible distortion. I installed some SpinFit which helped a bit to cut back upper mids, but the FDX1 fail to pick up multiple layers in tracks, like doubled voices. What really disappointed me, though, is the treble. It's perhaps one of the worst I heard in a while. Cymbal splashes are
missing. There is no shimmer, no sense of space at all. Sadly, when swiping with a sine tone generator, I can confirm it. When I play 8 kHz or 9 kHz, I don't
hear a 8 or 9 kHz tone, I hear noise. So either both my units (L+R) are defective, or Drop is doing something fishy. (Or, but that's a big maybe, people get blinded by the great build quality and a really misleading frequency response.)
This is probably the best example of why people should stop reading frequency graphs. If the drivers were up to the task, had more speed, faster decay, I am sure the tuning would work well. But I'd say all of these have clearly better sonic qualities: Etymotic ER2, Azla Horizon, Tin HiFi P1, qdc Neptune, NF Audio NA1, CCA C16, MoonDrop Kanas Pro, Reecho x Peacock Spring.