OP is contradicting himself. So his post recommends to not buy from Drop. And then he wants to keep Drop product, instead of full price refund that is offered by Drop.

If you dislike Drop that much, take the full refund offer. That is like using the product for free for 2 years. Then buy another headphone from somewhere else. Oh, but then you want PC38X for its value.

I have heard 2 high-end speaker systems. What are the odds that both were Wilson Audio Watt Puppy (I don’t know the version). I believe the speakers themselves were around $20-30k. I’m sure the rest of the system (power amp, pre-amp) made up the rest.

How did they sound? Without any experience in that tier, they did feel spectacular, literally. What surprised me the most was the feel and impact of the mids. Normally, I associate bass with vibration. My first response was that the bass was really good. But my friend corrected me that there was no subwoofer, so what I felt was actually mids. So I could feel the mids in my chest and heart.

Most people start with bluetooth wireless headphones. Hifiman He400se compares well against those, and at lower price. But that is true for most wired headphones.

He400se is priced where it is for a reason. Going higher up in price brings additional performance and attributes.

Wow, so many incorrect info on this thread.

USB or lightning outputs have digital only. They cannot output analog audio. So these phones do not have audio DAC nor amplifier. DAC and amp are on dongles or external devices.

Phones with headphones jack have built in DAC and tiny amplifier, which can output analog signal directly.

As to why OP’s external device works with iPhone and not pixel is likely compatibility. Dongle will state which device it is compatible with.