Review on Immerse Yourself In Unmatched Sound Quality With DROP + HIFIMAN HE5XX Planar Magnetic Over-Ear Open-Back Headphones In Black by Justin Elmore

Update: To my surprise, Drop did replace them without any difficulty and without requiring the original box. Better yet, the replacement pair do not seem to exhibit the awful creaking sound when pressure is placed on the cup with a hand or pillow. I will be using them sparingly now that I know how delicate they are, and the subjective sound quality (to my casual audiophile brain) is not hugely better than the very sturdy and comfortable 4XX. It's enough to raise my rating from 2 to 4 stars.I did not need these. But Drop's endless promotional emails and Affirm financing wore me down. Unfortunately these are by far the worst of the 6 audiophile products I have now bought from Drop. I have probably owned about 2 dozen headphones in the $200-600 range in my life and these are the flimsiest, frailest I have ever seen. The pads are cheap and uncomfortable and don't sit on my head evenly compared to any other over-ear headphone I have ever used.I often listen to music while laying down with my headphoned head on its side on a pillow. This is normally fine, but for some reason these headphones randomly emit this horrifying metallic creaking noise under the gentle pressure of the pillow, suggesting that something in the cup housing is not as fixed as it should be. Not a terrible flaw but lessened my use case for these headphones, which again, I did not need, and now wish I had never bought. I am not a super picky audiophile and don't experience any dramatic difference between this and the HE4XX which I already had and which are MUCH more solid and comfortable.But the last straw was yesterday the left side just stopped working for no apparent reason. I did nothing to the headphones that I have not done to every other of those two dozen (better) phones. These are just not made to last. And I am dubious Drop will accept a return given that I no longer have the original box, due to my cat spraying on it. I guess the cat could tell how good these headphones are too!Now I get the pleasure of making Affirm payments for an object that has zero value to me.