DROP (formerly MassDrop), in response to popular request, have announced a DROP + SENNHEISER HD 8XX version of the well-regarded SENNHEISER HD 800S open-back headphone.

Special introductory price - US$1100 (Balanced XLR cable not included I believe.)

(The SENNHEISER HD 800S can be found at ~US$1400 / NZ$2000)

"...made in Germany at Sennheiser’s HQ factory...we worked with Sennheiser to tune the housing resonance to add low end extension, while we adjusted the driver damping to create midrange balance and reveal treble detail...(with) signature Drop color accents "

" we worked with Sennheiser to further balance the midrange and extend the bass response (of the HD 800S). With a new resonator system and driver materials, The HD 8XX has a balanced upper midrange and sub-bass that extends to 10hz. "

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There's quite a bit of forum discussion about the mods that Drop & Senn have done to create the HD 8XX (from the HD 800S).

Here are Freq Response & THD graphs published on the DROP site:

It looks like move to enhance bass.
And upper midrange balance, they say?)

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Compare those to similar measurements previously published for the MASSDROP HD 6XX:

(Graphs don't necessarily tell the whole story of course.)

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First listening impressions of the DROP + Sennheiser HD-8XX headphones - by Joshua Valour (11 Mar '21):

(Based on a pre-production model supplied by Sennheiser - estimated shipping date is Nov 25, 2021.)

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

More developmental details from DROP's Chief Product Officer (from the DROP.com webpage) -


" This headphone is the result of hundreds of thousands of community posts and four years of collaboration between the teams at DROP and Sennheiser.

Analyzing discussions around the HD 800S, we saw clear mandates from the community around bass extension and midrange balance. The HD 8XX incorporates two novel changes to accommodate those mandates.

Where the HD 800S uses a single resonator in front of the driver, Sennheiser created a new resonator system for the HD 8XX, enabling bass extension down to 10hz (+5db @ 10hz vs 800 S) by changing the resonant properties of the housing.

Sennheiser’s team, lead by Jermo Koehnke, reached the bass solution pretty quickly, but our goals for the midrange proved demanding... bordering impossible. After significant research, Sennheiser reached a solution; altered acoustic impedance in the transducer's dampening material to smooth the FR from 2.5k to 8k. "

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com