110 MACWORLD DECEMBER 2021
PLAYLIST REVIEW: DROP + THX PANDA WIRELESS HEADPHONEDrop provides a single easy-to-master joystick that’s
far easier to remember than a bunch of buttons.wear with a short haircut, but that sub-
bass is a real wow factor.
DESIGN AND FEATURES
The basic black-on-black Drop + THX
Panda feature 55mm planar ribbon drivers.
This is my first dance with this technology,
and it works quite well. Fellow reviewer
Theo Nicolakis was equally impressed
when he reviewed Oppo’s planar ribbon
implementation in the since-discontinued
Oppo PM-2 (fave.co/3CHNuMX), which
were even pricier at $699.
I have no way of checking the 50kHz
top-end frequency response Drop claims,
as I have no equipment to measure
anything above 24kHz. As the best young
ears top out at around 21kHz at best, I
wouldn’t worry about these types of
claims. I can and did check the
50Hz spec, and you can read
more in the performance section
below, though I gave most of the
story away up front.
Drop also touts the THX
AAA amplifier onboard,
which promises uber fidelity
and a super low noise floor.
Claims and numbers aside,
it sounds very good. If I
have any issue with the
Drop + THX Panda, it’s the
comfort factor. They’re a tad
hefty at 13.2 ounces, and the thin
padding on the headband wore on me
and my crewcut over time. My thick-
haired roommate, of course, wondered
what I was on about. I also found the fit of
the swiveling cups over the ears quite
snug, though the padding there is far
more abundant and effective. My ears
never ground out against the speaker
grills, a phenomenon that’s the kiss of
death when it comes to long mixing or
listening sessions.
The Drop + THX Panda use a tiny
multi-function joystick/button for all
operations, including on/off, next track/
previous track, answer/hang up, and so
on. I like having one tactilely obvious
control for everything—it’s far better than
searching for, and trying to remember,
which button is which.