[Racheski]

$300 for a cable is outrageous? Nowadays “flagship” IEM cables alone costs from $1,000-2,000+ lol

“Audiophile” prices itself is already outrageous for a long time now

It's $300 for the XLR and $380 for the pentaconn on Sennheiser's website, and yes for a stock cable that is outrageous since the parts probably cost Sennheiser less than $40.

 

[gikigill]

It's $300 for the XLR and $380 for the pentaconn on Sennheiser's website, and yes for a stock cable that is outrageous since the parts probably cost Sennheiser less than $40.

Plenty of folks are proposing the same on Drop too. Give an option of Pentaconn or XLR and its more palatable.

 

[gtb75]

I cancelled my day-one 8xx preorder earlier this week before the "preview reviews" hit. After watching both of them and reading the reviewers comments in the discussion section I have no regrets. For such a high profile exclusive launch Drop could have done a much better job here. They should have had reviews locked an loaded on day one - not 20+ days after the launch. And the "we have these but can't show you them" is complete BS for a product which, based on Drop's own photos, is visually identical to an 800S but with a different color trim ring. Sennheiser's comments about looking to off their CE business didn't help my confidence either. Between those issues as well as Will's less than helpful comments about the warranty subject and I'm out.

I am a long time Drop customer (TH-X00 in 2015 was my first purchase) and am very disappointed with how this launch went down. The price didn't bother me since I saw it as $900 after the Drop rewards (which I would have used on other stuff), but just about everything else about how these were launched did.

 

[orkney]

I cancelled my day-one 8xx preorder earlier this week before the "preview reviews" hit. After watching both of them and reading the reviewers comments in the discussion section I have no regrets. For such a high profile exclusive launch Drop could have done a much better job here. They should have had reviews locked an loaded on day one - not 20+ days after the launch. And the "we have these but can't show you them" is complete BS for a product which, based on Drop's own photos, is visually identical to an 800S but with a different color trim ring. Sennheiser's comments about looking to off their CE business didn't help my confidence either. Between those issues as well as Will's less than helpful comments about the warranty subject and I'm out.

I am a long time Drop customer (TH-X00 in 2015 was my first purchase) and am very disappointed with how this launch went down. The price didn't bother me since I saw it as $900 after the Drop rewards (which I would have used on other stuff), but just about everything else about how these were launched did.

Agree. This drop was and continues to be a mess, especially given the built-in customer base and general goodwill for an 8xx in the wake of previous Senn collaborations. Feels almost like neither party was really committed to this one, so much weirdness. I also pulled out after receiving some answers to qs regarding changes to stock and warranty expectations. Drop really seems to have lost their way of late.

 

[askeladden]

I like the headphones.

 

[Racheski]

I like the headphones.

I like the headphones. HD8XX to the moon!

 

[elira]

Drop has done shady stuff in the past. But the tuning in their collaborations has been good. And Sennheiser is a reputable brand, so build quality shouldn’t be an issue. If you can park $1100 and have some trust on Drop’s tuning then it could be a good deal.

What makes it more attractive is that you can cancel whenever you want (before shipping), so if a reviewer you trust says something bad, you can get your refund and continue with your life.

The unit Zeos had looks like a very used HD800s, so nothing to see in there. This launch is kind of rushed and there are no production units yet. They shipped their prototype to reviewers to get some initial impressions.

The big concern is if you can park that amount of money for 9 months or not.

 

[Heyyoudvd]

762. That’s 4.

I wonder if the positive impressions from Josh Valour and Zeos will have any effect over the next few days.

774. That’s 12 today.

 

[vkenz]

I love the HD800 series headphones... I also own the 800S/820 and the 8XX is a nice addition to my HD800 collection.

 

[justanut]

It is called a media embargo and they are normal. See Nvidia their 3000 series & AMD Ryzen releases for examples.

Right... did Nvidia and AMD say look, you are allowed to talk about it but not show the card, gameplay footage nor any FPS screenshots?

 

[539465]

Right... did Nvidia and AMD say look, you are allowed to talk about it but not show the card, gameplay footage nor any FPS screenshots?

Don't even bother apples to oranges ask the guy a for a examples of other times a AUDIO companies allowed reviews but not to show the headphone on video.

He is conflating some terminology he doesn't understand about media embargos on reviews with some arbitrary rule by drop that shows they are incompetent and don't even understand the medium just -> "give reviewer we do business with scraps" -> "expect good review".

Both of the people they sent the item to they have working business relationships with, hardly objective.

All in all nobody can explain a lot of the strange choices and decisions like this to go past not being transparent to actively trying to conceal and seemingly manipulate the situation are why the drop is doing so terribly and nobody watching with half a brain thinks hitting 25% sales target is good.

Everything else wrong with this drop has been said 1000 times let those who wish to cover their eyes remain blind, lord knows why they, like drop, take an extra step into the lunacy and blindly shout the praises to them from rooftops as if drop was their own birthing mother and can do no wrong.

Funny some of them are calling people who don't want to buy this poor when they are selling their own shilling voices for about $200 tops.

 

[Luckyleo]

Drop has done shady stuff in the past. But the tuning in their collaborations has been good. And Sennheiser is a reputable brand, so build quality shouldn’t be an issue. If you can park $1100 and have some trust on Drop’s tuning then it could be a good deal.

What makes it more attractive is that you can cancel whenever you want (before shipping), so if a reviewer you trust says something bad, you can get your refund and continue with your life.

The unit Zeos had looks like a very used HD800s, so nothing to see in there. This launch is kind of rushed and there are no production units yet. They shipped their prototype to reviewers to get some initial impressions.

The big concern is if you can park that amount of money for 9 months or not.

He was showing his modified 800s. He wasn't allowed to show the demo unit.

 

[Racheski]

Right... did Nvidia and AMD say look, you are allowed to talk about it but not show the card, gameplay footage nor any FPS screenshots?

Yes, and nobody could share benchmarks until the embargo was lifted which was the day it was available for purchase IIRC.

 

[elira]

He was showing his modified 800s. He wasn't allowed to show the demo unit.

I know, but he mentioned somewhere that the pair drop sent him is just a modified 800s, so nothing special to see and it doesn’t reflect how the final product will look.

 

[Racheski]

Don't even bother apples to oranges ask the guy a for a examples of other times a AUDIO companies allowed reviews but not to show the headphone on video.

He is conflating some terminology he doesn't understand about media embargos on reviews with some arbitrary rule by drop that shows they are incompetent and don't even understand the medium just -> "give reviewer we do business with scraps" -> "expect good review".

Both of the people they sent the item to they have working business relationships with, hardly objective.

All in all nobody can explain a lot of the strange choices and decisions like this to go past not being transparent to actively trying to conceal and seemingly manipulate the situation are why the drop is doing so terribly and nobody watching with half a brain thinks hitting 25% sales target is good.

Everything else wrong with this drop has been said 1000 times let those who wish to cover their eyes remain blind, lord knows why they, like drop, take an extra step into the lunacy and blindly shout the praises to them from rooftops as if drop was their own birthing mother and can do no wrong.

Funny some of them are calling people who don't want to buy this poor when they are selling their own shilling voices for about $200 tops.

That is not what conflating means, but whatever.
Let's think about this rationally for a moment and give Drop some benefit of the doubt. They have years of experience with announcing and releasing products - do you really think they wanted to announce this with a 9 month lead time, without any production units ready, and no reviews immediately available? Or did Sennheiser dictate the lead time and demand to know how many units to produce before the initial run? I think the latter is more likely.