Man, I really hoped these would review better given the frequency response and size of the DD. Odd bulge aside, I really like the way the resin on these looks. Thanks for the review Mark, maybe I'll demo these some time but I certainly won't blind buy them.
I'd be curious to hear from an engineer's perspective what the advantages / disadvantages are. I think Crin chose the micro planar for Dusk because it avoided a 6kHz peak.
me wedding band is made out of meter - you absolutely can do that. not a lot of them end up being museum quality or worth much. most are generally made of iron and nickel. valuable in its origin, not in its content
Pleeeasssse do a BA-only IEM roundup showing your best recommendations there? I don't think you had any BA-only items in your Yearphone video last year. I recently stumbled across my old Magaosi K5 and it's blowing me away in comparison to some newer IEMs, and made me a good bit less anti BA too. After the heavily disappointing Dunu SA6 I swore I'd never go pure BA again, but alas, here I am.
Dunu SA6 Mk2 ❤❤ - they are made for my 47 year old ears. Good well defined base (2 steps), silky smooth trebble - warm sounding sound profile without sounding "smeared". And GREAT technical performance❤
@SuperReview Thanks for response! I just received my Volume S and like it more than some much more expensive gear I own. The upper treble feels a bit relaxed but I think that I'm just conditioned to an excess of energy there.
That's such a pity, I love the looks, it should be mighty yet tender and contrasty, thunderous but smooth and mystical... well 😔😊. I listen a lot these days to Symphonium Helios, that's an extraordinary IEM I think you didn't give it enough love Mark...love and power 😆❤️🙋♂️
Sure.. it fits me fine. The woman you spend a night with asks you the next morning how was it for you and you say...nice. Helios is not nice but great 😉🙋♂️
I'm someone who's quite sensitive to treble, and as much as I'm drooling over this IEM (so many IEMs, and headphones for that matter just go ham on the treble), that's kinda the only part I'm drooling over, the rest of the sound just doesn't seem too interesting, and while I could EQ it, having an IEM that I basically *need* to EQ for this much money just makes me even more hesitant. Maybe some reviewer could do a collab with this as the base since I see incredible potential with this platform. Time will tell.
I love my Blessing 3, but I want a little bit more bass and mid-bass. I can't buy the Dusk, so I am thinking about the variations, fiio fh19, xenns top, or something like that. Any tip? I don't like something super bassy like Davinci, but the B3 lacks a bit for me. Thanks.
You could just try EQ''ing it first. The top is just as bassy as the DaVinci, the fh19 has a very eccentric tuning that I suggest you demo first, and the variations sucks a lot of the midbass and lower part of the midrange. The variations could work for you depending on your library, I'd say the closest you have to an upgrade is the meteor that is if you want a bit less bright tonality and a bit more bass.
Great video. I am brand new to IEMs and I have had a Moondrop obsession lately for their Bluetooth earbuds. I recently purchased the Chu II and the May. How does this compare with the Variations? I have heard good things about the Variations. Also, thoughts on the Kadenz and if they are worth it? Thank you so much in advance for all the help and the amazing reviews. Cheers!
15:27 Interesting use of the word 'metallic' to describe cymbal drop-off. People usually say that when it sounds too harsh, forward or unnatural. Whereabouts in FR do you EQ this?
From my experience trying to EQ treble harshness in ER4, no, you can't EQ any freq range to tame the harshness. The sound becomes muted but still harsh.
Really random, whats your preferred method for cleaning iems. I have some 99% alcohol i use for computer parts. Should i use that or a diluted version or just dry clean them with a brush.
The Blessing 3s to me sound much more dynamic and technical. Meteors are good for female vocals but nothing extraordinary. Hopefully a Meteor II Dusk? 😂
I agree about B3. I started listening to Meteor and emotions went from, "Heyy pretty good," to, "Hm, seems to lack some incisiveness." And then I double checked versus Blessing 3 and felt, "Yep, that's what I was looking for."
I wonder if this actually would be nice for monitoring, or long work use, to avoid fatigue. Since you said it sounds kinda right just not very engaging, "monitor-like implementation", etc. But I don't own a lot of audio gear and my first priority would be something that sounds both neutral and enjoyable so that audio decisions can be made intuitively, even if I were to use it for work things. So I wouldn't consider a less engaging set until I was confident in having that all-arounder which I haven't quite found yet.
That girthy pre-nozzle gives me Blessing 2 'nam flashbacks so Meteor and Dusk are a no-no for me, but Brain Dance and Megafest are both incredibly interesting. I’ll probably go for Megafest because I just like midbass, but I’m craving some V lately so Dunu is still tempting…
@@SuperReview i see. I found the Kato's bass a bit too much, just a tiny bit though. The treble and mid lacks details but love it for vocals. Almost perfect for me tuning wise due to the kinds of songs I listen to, but wanted better treble with better details which was why I asked. Thanks, man.
Aful 5+2 have made me wary of those micro planars. I bought some for my son & tried them myself first. I'm not giving him something I, don't think is good. The higher highs were absolutely awful. Heavier snares were just like sharp, non descript noise & it's the only time I had to put treble into minus on my Mojo 2 DSP to try & salvage them... no good... sold within a day. A big shame as I thought the Aful P5 This isn't a silibance issue - I'm an ex drummer & I produce drum n bass music... the Final A8000 are one of my top 5 IEMs of all time & a lot of people complain about the silibance (that's just how drums sound - they are extraordinarily clean/natural). 😊
1:21 1:30 Why doesn't he know that it is a competition between IEM companies to put the most useless and irrelevant thing in the IEM and the competition now is Softears Enigma: vs Moondrop Meteor? Someone puts a picture and another puts a Rubik's cube I fear that in the future, items will become like artistic paintings, they will sell them at a high price, and they will say that you do not understand art, because that justifies their price, and this seems to say that we will enter that period.😅
@SuperReview Yes, a small poster and not a strange, colorless literal picture. If you saw it in the street, would you take it or throw it back? There are companies that put more effort into the designs, whether on the box or other things, and you can print dozens of pictures of these for a few dollars and put something like an IEM mount on the wall. Or near the desk, or a clothes clip, or ear hooks in different shapes, it will be better than this because they do not put everything even We say they no longer put there, so they put this there are more important things
I'd say a nice photo of a meteror shower is quite poetic with a iem that literally has a meteror on it. And it's quite sad people don't appreciate the artistic vision they have. And to be very fair: how much do you think printing the photo cost in PRC?
I would get the Dusk if you aren't going to use EQ. If you can EQ, the Mega5-EST is pretty great, in my opinion. However, the Dusk still has better sub bass than the Mega5-EST. Dusk is probably a better choice since it's better than the Mega5-EST if you can't EQ. The Mega5 without EQ sounds pretty flat, as it's intended.
Interesting that iem with similar bass tunings can sound so different when it comes to impact and tactility. Why do you think that is? Different driver materials ?
@@godofgrains Agreed, I think treble plays a part in how we perceive bass. Also a reminder that measurements are not absolute, we'll find more accurate measurements in the future that can help explain/predict it. Though interest in this case that it won't be a different of fit, since B3 and Meteor fit the same.
@@SuperReviewThe Dusk dips slightly at about 100 hz and then shows a slight upward slope till about 900 hz while the Meteor remains relatively flat. Would that coupled with the more sub bass on the Dusk make it sound more incisive? Enhance the contrast? The Dunu BD has a similar style
I'm just going to say it. Moondrop should take the employee who's taking a picture of the box to put in the box and have them work on quality control 😂
@@SuperReview I may be looking into this too much, but I believe the quality control panic stems from the notorious volume imbalance issues that some mostly metal-shelled Moondrop IEMs develop over time, thanks to condensation. But that is often confused with QC, while its in reality more of a design flaw that could be easily fixed.
@@Sherolox My point is that the channel imbalance concerns are very likely unfounded. There are thousands of measurements on Squiglink, Moondrop channel matching is not worse than average. More extensive thoughts here: www.reddit.com/r/inearfidelity/comments/1cvkavl/comment/l4rmbkf/
@ Oh no, that's not actually what I meant. Some people report one channel growing quieter over time. It's happened to me before, as well. Changing the filters or letting the IEMs dry a bit generally fixes that.
Yeah it's not a bad cable, but Moondrop could stand to upgrade their accessories. I really like the KATO cable -- update it with a swappable termination mechanism like this one and it'd be great on their most expensive stuff.
6:41 It looks distorted. Why is it in this shape? There are elements that may be as loud or better, smaller in size, or in a normal shape. So what is the point of this? Figure 4:03 Now the problem lies in placing a wire like this. It comes with Nasser. $70. So what is the price of a 15 wire? $ and the remaining price for the items. Is it really worth this price?
It's been too long since I last heard Variations, I remember the bass was pretty decent when it was there... but the mid-bass suck made it pretty inconsistent for me. Interestingly, I find Blessing 3 -- with a very similar measurement to Meteor's bass -- is more tactile.
Man, I really hoped these would review better given the frequency response and size of the DD. Odd bulge aside, I really like the way the resin on these looks. Thanks for the review Mark, maybe I'll demo these some time but I certainly won't blind buy them.
Yeah I like the look overall and the tonality is excellent. Maybe people who find the Blessing 3 and Dusk a bit sharp will prefer this though.
Love your work Mark. Thanks for another great review
🤙
Great review, love your content
🐓
Man i am pretty sure this year we will have a lot of IEMs with these micro planars for treble.
I'd be curious to hear from an engineer's perspective what the advantages / disadvantages are. I think Crin chose the micro planar for Dusk because it avoided a 6kHz peak.
me wedding band is made out of meter - you absolutely can do that. not a lot of them end up being museum quality or worth much. most are generally made of iron and nickel. valuable in its origin, not in its content
Huh, that's kinda cool.
With how smooth that treble looks, the meteor could be a solid base for EQ.
Pleeeasssse do a BA-only IEM roundup showing your best recommendations there? I don't think you had any BA-only items in your Yearphone video last year.
I recently stumbled across my old Magaosi K5 and it's blowing me away in comparison to some newer IEMs, and made me a good bit less anti BA too. After the heavily disappointing Dunu SA6 I swore I'd never go pure BA again, but alas, here I am.
Dunu SA6 Mk2 ❤❤ - they are made for my 47 year old ears. Good well defined base (2 steps), silky smooth trebble - warm sounding sound profile without sounding "smeared".
And GREAT technical performance❤
Peep this: ua-cam.com/video/v7Dd-uA750c/v-deo.html
How does it compare to the Volume S?
I prefer Volume S, it has the incisiveness in both treble and bass that the Meteor lacks.
@SuperReview Thanks for response! I just received my Volume S and like it more than some much more expensive gear I own. The upper treble feels a bit relaxed but I think that I'm just conditioned to an excess of energy there.
That's such a pity, I love the looks, it should be mighty yet tender and contrasty, thunderous but smooth and mystical... well 😔😊. I listen a lot these days to Symphonium Helios, that's an extraordinary IEM I think you didn't give it enough love Mark...love and power 😆❤️🙋♂️
Helios is nice, I like the SE version because it fits me.
Sure.. it fits me fine. The woman you spend a night with asks you the next morning how was it for you and you say...nice. Helios is not nice but great 😉🙋♂️
it would've been cool if they'd made a cable termination that has USB-C and DSP, kinda like the dunu q lock mini (except that one doesn't have DSP)
I'm someone who's quite sensitive to treble, and as much as I'm drooling over this IEM (so many IEMs, and headphones for that matter just go ham on the treble), that's kinda the only part I'm drooling over, the rest of the sound just doesn't seem too interesting, and while I could EQ it, having an IEM that I basically *need* to EQ for this much money just makes me even more hesitant.
Maybe some reviewer could do a collab with this as the base since I see incredible potential with this platform. Time will tell.
MArk, what tips do you use for the Dusk? or in general?Im having issues with the Dusk and their stock fit.
I like two different tips for Dusk: TRN T-type, and Fiio HS18. I currently have the TRNs on my Dusk, small.
@SuperReview ill try them thanks... the stock ones don't work for me at all
Looks like the volume s is better?
I love my Blessing 3, but I want a little bit more bass and mid-bass. I can't buy the Dusk, so I am thinking about the variations, fiio fh19, xenns top, or something like that. Any tip? I don't like something super bassy like Davinci, but the B3 lacks a bit for me. Thanks.
Try Volume S.
I'd say Xenn's Tea Pro, Volume S or Performer 5+2.
You could just try EQ''ing it first. The top is just as bassy as the DaVinci, the fh19 has a very eccentric tuning that I suggest you demo first, and the variations sucks a lot of the midbass and lower part of the midrange. The variations could work for you depending on your library, I'd say the closest you have to an upgrade is the meteor that is if you want a bit less bright tonality and a bit more bass.
@ thank you.
@ thanks bro.
kind of funny that moondrop's own ancient variations is meters ahead of this one like what's happening are they going through their fiio phase?
Actually the Variation not that much better.
Fiio fh9 >fh19, so maybe
Great video. I am brand new to IEMs and I have had a Moondrop obsession lately for their Bluetooth earbuds. I recently purchased the Chu II and the May. How does this compare with the Variations? I have heard good things about the Variations. Also, thoughts on the Kadenz and if they are worth it? Thank you so much in advance for all the help and the amazing reviews. Cheers!
Is this an upgrade compared to the Moondrop Variations
15:27 Interesting use of the word 'metallic' to describe cymbal drop-off. People usually say that when it sounds too harsh, forward or unnatural. Whereabouts in FR do you EQ this?
From my experience trying to EQ treble harshness in ER4, no, you can't EQ any freq range to tame the harshness. The sound becomes muted but still harsh.
I bet bro felt like he was Vsauce when he made that title
On my way to 20 million subs, belee
Really random, whats your preferred method for cleaning iems. I have some 99% alcohol i use for computer parts. Should i use that or a diluted version or just dry clean them with a brush.
I buy boxes of small, individually-wrapped alcohol wipes from the drug store and use those. They are 70% isopropyl if that helps.
The Blessing 3s to me sound much more dynamic and technical. Meteors are good for female vocals but nothing extraordinary. Hopefully a Meteor II Dusk? 😂
I agree about B3. I started listening to Meteor and emotions went from, "Heyy pretty good," to, "Hm, seems to lack some incisiveness." And then I double checked versus Blessing 3 and felt, "Yep, that's what I was looking for."
For that price, I gotta love the tuning and be in love with the looks. This looks like an $80 face, not 500.
You think the rest of the IEM looks like $80, or just the meteorite faceplate?
I wonder if this actually would be nice for monitoring, or long work use, to avoid fatigue. Since you said it sounds kinda right just not very engaging, "monitor-like implementation", etc. But I don't own a lot of audio gear and my first priority would be something that sounds both neutral and enjoyable so that audio decisions can be made intuitively, even if I were to use it for work things. So I wouldn't consider a less engaging set until I was confident in having that all-arounder which I haven't quite found yet.
That girthy pre-nozzle gives me Blessing 2 'nam flashbacks so Meteor and Dusk are a no-no for me, but Brain Dance and Megafest are both incredibly interesting.
I’ll probably go for Megafest because I just like midbass, but I’m craving some V lately so Dunu is still tempting…
Yeah fit on this is very similar to B2, though the nozzle is slimmer.
@@SuperReview Nozzle was definitely part of the issue, but the entrance to the ear canal was where it really hurt, so I'm not optimistic about it haha
Having a huge DD and the bass does not slam is crazyyy 😅
TBH I think large DDs is mostly a meme, the IE 900 has some of the best bass in IEMs and it's a 7mm tiny guy.
If someone really loved the tuning of the Kato, do you think they'd love the Meteor's tuning?
They're different, KATO is warmer, bassier sound.
@@SuperReview i see. I found the Kato's bass a bit too much, just a tiny bit though. The treble and mid lacks details but love it for vocals. Almost perfect for me tuning wise due to the kinds of songs I listen to, but wanted better treble with better details which was why I asked.
Thanks, man.
Looks kinda great for a Treble sensitive person like me. But the price 😢
Aful 5+2 have made me wary of those micro planars. I bought some for my son & tried them myself first. I'm not giving him something I, don't think is good.
The higher highs were absolutely awful. Heavier snares were just like sharp, non descript noise & it's the only time I had to put treble into minus on my Mojo 2 DSP to try & salvage them... no good... sold within a day. A big shame as I thought the Aful P5
This isn't a silibance issue - I'm an ex drummer & I produce drum n bass music... the Final A8000 are one of my top 5 IEMs of all time & a lot of people complain about the silibance (that's just how drums sound - they are extraordinarily clean/natural). 😊
Frankenstein bolt. 🤣
Meteor vs meteor
You'll be happy to know, Meteor wins.
1:21 1:30
Why doesn't he know that it is a competition between IEM companies to put the most useless and irrelevant thing in the IEM and the competition now is Softears Enigma: vs Moondrop Meteor? Someone puts a picture and another puts a Rubik's cube I fear that in the future, items will become like artistic paintings, they will sell them at a high price, and they will say that you do not understand art, because that justifies their price, and this seems to say that we will enter that period.😅
I still want the companies to include things like stickers and pins, I think that'd be rad.
@SuperReview Yes, a small poster and not a strange, colorless literal picture. If you saw it in the street, would you take it or throw it back? There are companies that put more effort into the designs, whether on the box or other things, and you can print dozens of pictures of these for a few dollars and put something like an IEM mount on the wall. Or near the desk, or a clothes clip, or ear hooks in different shapes, it will be better than this because they do not put everything even We say they no longer put there, so they put this there are more important things
I'd say a nice photo of a meteror shower is quite poetic with a iem that literally has a meteror on it. And it's quite sad people don't appreciate the artistic vision they have. And to be very fair: how much do you think printing the photo cost in PRC?
What do you mean "will become"? It's always been that way in this hobby 🤣🤣🤣
@ One day, they might even put waifus on the boxes, and then it's over.
Would u say the dusk is a better option than the mega5est
Depends on what you want, but I prefer Dusk personally.
Dusk is cleaner.
Mega 5est is more lush.
A bit too warm for my tastes
I would get the Dusk if you aren't going to use EQ. If you can EQ, the Mega5-EST is pretty great, in my opinion. However, the Dusk still has better sub bass than the Mega5-EST. Dusk is probably a better choice since it's better than the Mega5-EST if you can't EQ. The Mega5 without EQ sounds pretty flat, as it's intended.
relative to the competition I feel like 3 stars is fair.
I'm curious to see what more people think about it.
@SuperReview yea, wish they just used the same hoddus driver tech with this.
Maybe, I'd love to understand it all better. Is it the HODDUS or the spicier top end of those other Moondrops that makes the bass attack so fun?
@@SuperReview not sure 🤔, both maybe. Youve got a good point
Looks like the Moondrop missed with Meteor again right after Kadenz.
Iam looking to buy a moondrop IEM in this price range, 350-900 dollars, what would you recommend and why?
only moondrop?
@@moraye5056 well i work in this business and i can get every moondrop product at a significant discount for myself so yes only moondrop XD
Interesting that iem with similar bass tunings can sound so different when it comes to impact and tactility.
Why do you think that is?
Different driver materials ?
more likely to be caused by the difference in the other parts of the sound signature
@@godofgrains Agreed, I think treble plays a part in how we perceive bass. Also a reminder that measurements are not absolute, we'll find more accurate measurements in the future that can help explain/predict it. Though interest in this case that it won't be a different of fit, since B3 and Meteor fit the same.
@@SuperReviewThe Dusk dips slightly at about 100 hz and then shows a slight upward slope till about 900 hz while the Meteor remains relatively flat.
Would that coupled with the more sub bass on the Dusk make it sound more incisive?
Enhance the contrast?
The Dunu BD has a similar style
A few years later: moondrop silicone 👂 tips - $500🤠
It's affordable😅
meteor was not meatier
Meteor? I'm sorry, I've vegan.
I'm just going to say it. Moondrop should take the employee who's taking a picture of the box to put in the box and have them work on quality control 😂
The Moondrop quality control panic is a meme.
@@SuperReview
I may be looking into this too much, but I believe the quality control panic stems from the notorious volume imbalance issues that some mostly metal-shelled Moondrop IEMs develop over time, thanks to condensation. But that is often confused with QC, while its in reality more of a design flaw that could be easily fixed.
@@Sherolox My point is that the channel imbalance concerns are very likely unfounded. There are thousands of measurements on Squiglink, Moondrop channel matching is not worse than average. More extensive thoughts here: www.reddit.com/r/inearfidelity/comments/1cvkavl/comment/l4rmbkf/
@
Oh no, that's not actually what I meant.
Some people report one channel growing quieter over time. It's happened to me before, as well. Changing the filters or letting the IEMs dry a bit generally fixes that.
@@Sherolox Gotcha, yeah that can happen with a lot of IEMs that use those mesh filters. Have heard similar with e.g. Symphonium.
500$ iem but the cable is exactly the same like my moondrop may
Yeah it's not a bad cable, but Moondrop could stand to upgrade their accessories. I really like the KATO cable -- update it with a swappable termination mechanism like this one and it'd be great on their most expensive stuff.
6:41 It looks distorted. Why is it in this shape? There are elements that may be as loud or better, smaller in size, or in a normal shape. So what is the point of this? Figure 4:03 Now the problem lies in placing a wire like this. It comes with Nasser. $70. So what is the price of a 15 wire? $ and the remaining price for the items. Is it really worth this price?
The Symphonium Meteor is still the best Metoer.
I love metoers
What about a real meteor?
@@SuperReview we should be sensitive to the dinosaurs we have lost due to the best meteor of our recent timescale
@@hpwrotethisBring back the TRex
The same bass issue with Variations ruined them for me and the tuning generally wasn't ideal.
It's been too long since I last heard Variations, I remember the bass was pretty decent when it was there... but the mid-bass suck made it pretty inconsistent for me. Interestingly, I find Blessing 3 -- with a very similar measurement to Meteor's bass -- is more tactile.
looks like moondrop is falling off on iem market.
Well they made my favorite IEM of 2024.
500 bucks? Jesus...
Makes me wonder what the profit margins on those are.
So the meteor is a piece of shit for the price.
What is the video equivalent of reading comprehension?
I'm gonna tell you why I prefer balanced: crosstalk. check your sources' crosstalk numbers. some can go as low as 50 db which can be heard.