[Gamerlingual]

Looks like I need to get these! The look awesome.

They are awesome. Highly recommended!

 

[itchyears]

Listening to them, now. Wow, these do sound better than the AirPods Max. Very well done! The noise isolation is actually pretty close to noise canceling. They feeling comfortable on my had and I don't feel any pressure. They feel better than the Apple Cans. Cool, so these and the XM3 will be my cans for the long run. Best part is, I got them for 30,000 yen.

Which ones do you prefer the xm3s or pandas ?

I like the pandas but more tricky to buy if you are from the UK, also that veil doesn't sound good I couldn't get on with that with my Senn HD650s and sold those off a while back.

Wish beyerdynamic Amiron-Wireless had a tigher clamp force, I have seen reviews where people reckon they could be one of the best wireless cans going, Panda also right up there and could be the better pair though !

 

[jsmiller58]

Which ones do you prefer the xm3s or pandas ?

I like the pandas but more tricky to buy if you are from the UK, also that veil doesn't sound good I couldn't get on with that with my Senn HD650s and sold those off a while back.

Wish beyerdynamic Amiron-Wireless had a tigher clamp force, I have seen reviews where people reckon they could be one of the best wireless cans going, Panda also right up there and could be the better pair though !

If you are having trouble with the veiled or wooly sound from the Panda, the good news is that they EQ very well. Until the Drop EQ capability is brought to market, hopefully you can find an EQ solution that works for you. On at least some Android versions you can use Wavelet that has an Auto EQ setting for the Pandas that I think sounds great (but I tend to like the Harman target).

 

[Gamerlingual]

Which ones do you prefer the xm3s or pandas ?

I like the pandas but more tricky to buy if you are from the UK, also that veil doesn't sound good I couldn't get on with that with my Senn HD650s and sold those off a while back.

Wish beyerdynamic Amiron-Wireless had a tigher clamp force, I have seen reviews where people reckon they could be one of the best wireless cans going, Panda also right up there and could be the better pair though !

XM3 due to the EQ and how it changes the sound completely. But I love the Pandas and find myself switching off between them to enjoy their sound signature. Either way you take will be good, but the noise canceling is important. But I honestly feel with the right EQ settings, the XM3 can get that audiophile regardless if people think I’m crazy or not. The Pandas have their own charm and the battery seems to last longer than the XM3. Well done, Drop

 

[jsmiller58]

XM3 due to the EQ and how it changes the sound completely. But I love the Pandas and find myself switching off between them to enjoy their sound signature. Either way you take will be good, but the noise canceling is important. But I honestly feel with the right EQ settings, the XM3 can get that audiophile regardless if people think I’m crazy or not. The Pandas have their own charm and the battery seems to last longer than the XM3. Well done, Drop

I haven’t heard the XM3 in quite a long time, but I am willing to assume EQ will address!

 

[tinyman392]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but Drop officially has some pad selection for the Drop Panda. Besides airflow changes (comfort/heat) they can allow for some pad rolling too; Drop has some small descriptions of what it actually does to the sound without actually giving out measurements (I'd love some measurements). That said, I purchased a set of velour pads.

 

[jsmiller58]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but Drop officially has some pad selection for the Drop Panda. Besides airflow changes (comfort/heat) they can allow for some pad rolling too; Drop has some small descriptions of what it actually does to the sound without actually giving out measurements (I'd love some measurements). That said, I purchased a set of velour pads.

While a welcome offering, what happens when the Panda EQ app is released? Will there be auto-EQ corrections for the different pad versions?

 

[tinyman392]

While a welcome offering, what happens when the Panda EQ app is released? Will there be auto-EQ corrections for the different pad versions?

Did they ever promise auto-EQ? I thought they only promised normal EQ (like a 10-band or 10-point parametric) that you'd need to EQ by ear. The app and firmware update have been talked about though.

 

[jsmiller58]

Did they ever promise auto-EQ? I thought they only promised normal EQ (like a 10-band or 10-point parametric) that you'd need to EQ by ear. The app and firmware update have been talked about though.

OK, you are probably right. In that case I personally would be happy to just stay with Wavelet since I have been pleased with that up to now as it has EQ and auto-EQ for many popular headphones and IEMs. I am sure this Drop app is more urgently needed by other Panda owners, especially those who are having problems and need FW updates to recover them.

 

[itchyears]

Ok just bought the Pandas, but completely newbie to Wireless HPs.

I use a PC and TV(optical) connected to a Topping DX3 Pro v2 dac/amp which supports AAC/SBC/APTX/APTX-LL/APTX-HD codec. I don't have a bluetooth dongle for the PC but can get one if needed.

Do I just pair the pandas to the Topping DX3 with say APTX-HD?

And is it recommended to use my Topping DX Pro other then say a direct connection to the TV(supports bluetooth) or PC ?

cheers

 

[jsmiller58]

Ok just bought the Pandas, but completely newbie to Wireless HPs.

I use a PC and TV(optical) connected to a Topping DX3 Pro v2 dac/amp which supports AAC/SBC/APTX/APTX-LL/APTX-HD codec. I don't have a bluetooth dongle for the PC but can get one if needed.

Do I just pair the pandas to the Topping DX3 with say APTX-HD?

And is it recommended to use my Topping DX Pro other then say a direct connection to the TV(supports bluetooth) or PC ?

cheers

It has been a while since I owned the DX3PRO, but if I recall correctly the DX3PRO has BT reception capability, not transmission. So, if I am right you cannot transmit a signal to your Pandas from the DX3PRO. You could connect your Pandas to your phone, though.

 

[itchyears]

It has been a while since I owned the DX3PRO, but if I recall correctly the DX3PRO has BT reception capability, not transmission. So, if I am right you cannot transmit a signal to your Pandas from the DX3PRO. You could connect your Pandas to your phone, though.

So that's a big whoops on my part, double checked BT specs and it does say BT IN not out.

Bluetooth dongle for PC then ? My TV supports BT also and so does my Nvidia shield which I also use for movie playback.

Or is there a better dac/amp that supports BT transmission ?

 

[jsmiller58]

So that's a big whoops on my part, double checked BT specs and it does say BT IN not out.

Bluetooth dongle for PC then ? My TV supports BT also and so does my Nvidia shield which I also use for movie playback.

Or is there a better dac/amp that supports BT transmission ?

Keep in mind that the only DAC and Amp that matter in this case are the DAC and amp in the Panda itself. Even if a device that is transmitting the Bluetooth signal has a very good DAC and amp, these are being largely bypassed (certainly the amp is).

What you probably want to focus on is the transmission... for example what codec is used. Do you have an Android phone? If that is the case you are in luck... The Pandas support aptX HD and LDAC, so to get the best out of your Pandas at minimum you want to be able to transmit aptX, preferably aptX HD or LDAC. I have paired my Pandas as well with my iPad and also think it sounds fine, even with AAC as the standard codec Apple supports.

You could also pair the Panda with your PC, but I don‘t have experience to comment on the quality of that transmission since PCs don’t support aptX or LDAC... but if you hunt around you may find a transmitter dongle you can buy for your PC - which may be your best bet if you have a lot of music stored on your computer. Otherwise, connecting to your phone, I think, is the way to go...

 

[tinyman392]

Keep in mind that the only DAC and Amp that matter in this case are the DAC and amp in the Panda itself. Even if a device that is transmitting the Bluetooth signal has a very good DAC and amp, these are being largely bypassed (Certainly the is).

What you probably want to focus on is the transmission... for example what codec is used. Do you have an Android phone? If that is the case you are in luck... The Pandas support aptX HD and LDAC, so to get the best out of your Pandas at minimum you want to be able to transmit aptX, preferably aptX HD or LDAC. I have paired my Pandas as well with my iPad and also think it sounds fine, even with AAC as the standard codec Apple supports.

You could also pair the Panda with your PC, but I don‘t have experience to comment on the quality of that transmission since PCs don’t support aptX or LDAC... but if you hunt around you may find a transmitter dongle you can buy for your PC - which may be your best bet if you have a lot of music stored on your computer. Otherwise, connecting to your phone, I think, is the way to go...

I'd possibly argue that the device itself may play a role too. If you're using an external BT dongle, then it would be sent a digital waveform (PCM most likely) which it would need to encode for the respective codec that it'll be transmitting. So in theory different sources (dongle vs PC vs phone vs etc.) could have a different way of encoding the PCM into the compressed waveform that's sent to the Panda which is then decoded back to the PCM, sent to the Panda's DAC and then the amp. Even if they're all using APT-X, they may have a different algorithm in place to convert the PCM into the standards for APT-X. How much of this is audible and how much isn't can be put up to question though.

I do agree that codec will likely make a bigger difference, but all of that can be for moot if the device doing the encoding isn't great. For example Androids have historically been very bad at doing AAC while Apple does a terrific job with it. Unfortunately there aren't too many other cross-platform codecs though... However, I think OS X actually supports APT-X (surprised it's not supported on iOS).

Edit: a second thing to keep in mind is that if you plug in a BT dongle into something like a 3.5mm jack (instead of being USB, etc. that's digital), then you do have to deal with the fact that the dongle itself will have an analog-digital converter in it that will take the analog signal and convert it back to digital before encoding it in the proper codec to send to the output device. This would lead to a scenario where the sound is double-amped (DAC/amp of source -> 3.5mm -> ADC -> encoding -> Panda -> decoding -> DAC/amp -> Drivers).

 

[itchyears]

Keep in mind that the only DAC and Amp that matter in this case are the DAC and amp in the Panda itself. Even if a device that is transmitting the Bluetooth signal has a very good DAC and amp, these are being largely bypassed (Certainly the is).

What you probably want to focus on is the transmission... for example what codec is used. Do you have an Android phone? If that is the case you are in luck... The Pandas support aptX HD and LDAC, so to get the best out of your Pandas at minimum you want to be able to transmit aptX, preferably aptX HD or LDAC. I have paired my Pandas as well with my iPad and also think it sounds fine, even with AAC as the standard codec Apple supports.

You could also pair the Panda with your PC, but I don‘t have experience to comment on the quality of that transmission since PCs don’t support aptX or LDAC... but if you hunt around you may find a transmitter dongle you can buy for your PC - which may be your best bet if you have a lot of music stored on your computer. Otherwise, connecting to your phone, I think, is the way to go...

Thanks for the reply, I don't really use mobile phones for music playback really but mainly from the PC instead.

I am quickly reading about just how involved it is with the codecs and actual support and transmitting/receiving of BT its clearly not as simple as TM mentioned above.

I was looking for high quality wireless headphones for my TV and PC, but sure see you are right the PC does not support AptX HD either, think just AptX. Gets even more complex my TV only supports AptX codec also.

I see Avantree oasis plus and other various BT transmitting and receivers devices with optical, 3.5, RCA input connectivity which support AptX HD, so I think this maybe the best solution to support all the devices (TV, PC, Android etc) for myself.

I can be flexible here still, I got my topping and Audio technica headphones which I can sell on if need be, I don't need the most amazing sound quality but can perhaps try the Avantree to get something decent here.