Not a huge fan of Drop, but this is a decent price at $429
They were my first planar, and the RT and Drop versions are identical. I know because I emailed DCA and asked before purchase. They said they are in fact the same, except for any Drop badging.
If only the Aeons came with pads that didn’t fold up on themselves. Hell, you can see it with the right cup (left in photo) pad in the photo in the Drop listing – it has a noticeable vertical crease down the middle, and that’s the pad starting to roll on itself.
Full credit to Dan Clark: He posted a video on YouTube a few years ago showing how you can temporarily fix this with gentle thumb kneading. Plus you may think: “So what? It doesn’t affect the sound.”
Well, I had VERY little clearance between my ears and the drivers with my Aeon 2 Noire, and my ear touched on the side with the folded pad until I kneaded out the fold. Annoying as f*ck. Plus, DCA pads are glued to the cups, so repeated yanking at the pads to fix the foam roll can’t be good for long-term adhesion.
To be fair, I have a large head, so the pad fold problem may not be an issue for those with smaller domes exerting less pressure on the pads.
A product of this price and quality should have better-quality pads that aren’t so soft that they fold on themselves and require a Rube Goldberg fix. Otherwise, DCA products have top-shelf build quality and lovely sound. Too bad the pads feel like vinyl seat covers in a Ferrari 488 Pista.
That is a bummer, it must be aggravating.
I also have a big head 
. I can’t say I’ve encountered that issue though.
Maybe the pads were revised by the time I got mine. I got them from DCA directly, so they’re not the Drop version. When I got mine they were both on sale, and his came with a better cable to boot.
My understanding is the RT uses the Aeon 2 pads fwiw… but I thought the Drop version did too.
I had the pad roll problem with a pair of Aeon 2 Closed with perforated pads, so basically a Frankenstein Noire. They weren’t Drop products.
The Nitinol headband is fantastic for its strength and quality, but that also caused a problem for me. My big dome, combined with the soft pads, created too tight of a seal, inducing inner ear pain and headaches. But the Nitinol is so damn strong that it’s almost impossible to bend. It returns to its original shape every time.
Add that up, and I reluctantly had to sell my A2C with perforated pads. A crying shame, as the sound was lovely.
I have the Aeon 2 open. They’re my traveling phones.
The v2 pads are replaceable. I did so with Dekoni fenestrated sheepskin. Great pads, on all my phones. (v2 Hifiman Arya, Senn. HD800s)
People think leather car seats are luxury. If you live down south, like me, you want cloth seats. Sheepskin phone pads are luxury.