I have been out of head-fi for a long while, so things have changed and I haven't kept up. Could someone enlighten me as to what Massdrop is and what mods they seem to do to the headphones, particularly the Sennheiser headphones.
I have been out of head-fi for a long while, so things have changed and I haven't kept up. Could someone enlighten me as to what Massdrop is and what mods they seem to do to the headphones, particularly the Sennheiser headphones.
Massdrop collaborates with well known companies to design and make cheaper alternative versions of already existing products, based on feedback from an online community of enthusiasts.
Massdrop runs a group buy model and on several occasions, they collaborate with manufacturers to bring Massdrop Made products to the enthusiast community. For example, in response to the audiophile community’s call for a Denon D5000 successor, they teamed with Fostex to create the TX-X00 headphone. The initial run used mahogany for the cups. Subsequent runs uses purpleheart and ebony. I purchased an ebony variant for $499.99. Well worth it, IMHO.
Another example: Massdrop x AKG K7XX. This headphone was inspired by the AKG K702 65th Anniversary edition. The color scheme is all black - in response to community input, the sound signature was tweaked to boost the low end (3db), and the headband was changed to make it more comfortable. There were other tweaks I think, but I can’t recall all of them. These cans can be had for the pretty ridiculous price of $199.99.
It is worth joining the community or communities of your choice. It costs you nothing unless you buy something. I joined the Audiophile, Watches, Blades, and Tech communities.
That's pretty cool. However, what's unclear is why would the manufacturers participate in modifying their products to produce cheaper versions? It would seem that it takes a lot of additional time and effort to modify a product and then reduce the price. Why not reduce the price on the existing product without going through the mod process? That doesn't make sense to me.
It's basically collective bargaining as consumers... Massdrop orders a large number of units and distributes them to members who've committed. I'm not exactly sure how it works, buti imagine basically massdrop contacts a manufacturer and says "if you do this, well order this many pairs at xx dollars". So it's a giant guaranteed sale for the manufacturers with essentially no marketing or distribution costs.
Massdrop also has regular consumer product drops where they've negotiated with the manufacturer and say if we order x number of units we will do it at this price and distribute the individual units. Usually about a 25% discount is given. So basically they buy in bulk once they've sold to individuals.
They take a cut for themselves. Make sure you compare retail prices for their regular consumer products as occasionally you can find better deals. The big downside to massdrop is the delayed gratification on most items, most stuff will take a month or so to ship since they have to wait to put in the order until the drop is done, get it from the vendor and then ship to individuals. Make sure to check out the estimated ship date before committing.
They take a cut for themselves. Make sure you compare retail prices for their regular consumer products as occasionally you can find better deals. The big downside to massdrop is the delayed gratification on most items, most stuff will take a month or so to ship since they have to wait to put in the order until the drop is done, get it from the vendor and then ship to individuals. Make sure to check out the estimated ship date before committing.
If you're interested in a Massdrop product (a "drop" in Massdrop parlance), always read the associated discussion thread. People are quick to point out if there is better pricing available elsewhere, or a better competing product.
Yes this is true. I live in the UK and after having parted with $450 of my money for the Fostex TH-X00 Purpleheart, I had to pay an extra $100 in customs charges.
I do think it was worth it for the overall price I paid, when compared to the price of the TH-X00 Purplehearts bigger brother, the TH900.
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