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Moondrop Blessing 2 Review (IEM)

Rate this IEM:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 2 0.9%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 15 6.8%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 99 44.6%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 106 47.7%

  • Total voters
    222

Art of sound

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Feb 27, 2021
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No I did not use any eq. I actually tried EQ-ing them by raising some parts in the mids (definitely not the 150hz region as that will exacerbate my stiff midbass issue and drowned mids) but I didn't like what it did to other stuff so I reverted to no EQ and just use the best tips at hand to alleviate the issue which is the Radius Deep Mount. Previously I was using CP155 and while it lessens my issue with hass it also did something weird in the highs.
I got the idea from here but he makes sense and B2 doesn't distort sub bass so you might have to boost that 125 if not 150
i can take less mids but i can't live without sub bass. In any case why compromise when you have a driver that doesn't distort in the low end and you can always boost <200Hz without losing much. my focus is on getting the right balance and forget everything else.
 

autoexec

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Apr 8, 2022
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I got the idea from here but he makes sense and B2 doesn't distort sub bass so you might have to boost that 125 if not 150
i can take less mids but i can't live without sub bass. In any case why compromise when you have a driver that doesn't distort in the low end and you can always boost <200Hz without losing much. my focus is on getting the right balance and forget everything else.
We clearly have different issues with the B2. You seem to want more bass from it while I am bothered by its bass quality (meaning I don't want more of it and even want it toned down a bit) and the last thing I would do is boost it.
 

Art of sound

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We clearly have different issues with the B2. You seem to want more bass from it while I am bothered by its bass quality (meaning I don't want more of it and even want it toned down a bit) and the last thing I would do is boost it.
I guess the BA driver is different from the variations. i just read the review on headphones.com and you're right the sub bass lacks texture from multiple reviewers pointing to its BA timbre. Can't resolve that with EQ i suppose. id like to try one of these some day
 

RHO

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the sub bass lacks texture from multiple reviewers pointing to its BA timbre.
The bass driver is not a BA but a DD in the Blessing 2.
Or are you implying that the "bass texture" comes from the higher harmonics, reproduces by the BA? Do you know the x-over frequency between the DD and BA?
 

Art of sound

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The bass driver is not a BA but a DD in the Blessing 2.
Or are you implying that the "bass texture" comes from the higher harmonics, reproduces by the BA? Do you know the x-over frequency between the DD and BA?
Yes. thats right. the bass from the mid range is BA and i'm not sure if this gives the whole lower midrange a sense of timbral quality that lacks decay and precision based on other BA iem reviews such as seeaudio bravery hence the recommendation to boost the sub bass at different frequencies to test the DD driver.
 

mightycicadalord

Addicted to Fun and Learning
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Nov 10, 2021
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Ugh, all these IEM's look really interesting but I just can't stand to have things in my ears :(
 

whatever

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Sep 24, 2021
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i bought one of these back in the days due to popularity thus wanting to listen for myself what it really got.
i kind of knew what to expect but still it disappointed me. i realized the only reason these get as popular is because of the hype generated from guys like crinacle.
back to the iem, this iem fell so flat compared to a pair of KXXS i owned at the time, which is a product from the same company utilizing single dd. in terms of details & bass presentation (to name a few aspects i think worth mentioning)... i would choose KXXS any day of the week, any week of the month, any month of the year, any year of my life, any life between reincarnation (except there is no such thing as reincarnation) & so on......
that's why i sold it the next day. i didn't buy it just to do so. i really wanted to like it, but it is what it is. it is not bad at all, but KXXS is just that much better, to a point that listen to B2 is unbearable as B2 offers nothing special & KXXS feels like a direct upgrade. wouldn't make sense at all to have the B2 sitting besides the KXXS any longer, so that was the end of my encounter with the B2.
before this, i didn't think either BA or DD is superior than one another. i thought there is no superiority & just product dependent. if the product is good, then the product is good & that's it. the sole & unique merit of BA has always been the isolation it brings & this is so useful for such a portable device that often being used outdoor. in this way, it is superior than DD, no doubt.
but after this, i looked more into this matter. and i found out, on ASR in fact, that the distortion of the BA drivers inside those so-called high-end BA iem is actually quite high, let alone a bunch of them in the same iem unit. also, that a good DD can actually achieve better distortion.
so time went by, moondrop released a model they officially call it their flagship - the Illumination. i was shocked by the stunningly low distortion measurement provided by the company. i was hesitant to fully believe that, but bought it anyway. omg. turns out the measurement is the only explanation to its unbelievable performance which i have no intention to get into as i don't want to derail the topic more than need be.
so the funny thing is, that crinacle guy doesn't regard the Illumination highly. he left the following almost laughable quote before went on to complain the iem for lack of details. "But the smoothness of its notes is also an indication of another shortcoming: its definition and resolving ability." what detail is this guy talking about? before the rise of moondrop, i owned my fair share of so-called high-end, expensive iem & i've never ever heard as much detail as i've from the Illumination.
i tend to believe he wasn't making thing up, so this guy must be perceiving distortion as details if he really listens & thinks that. by saying this, i'm entering pure speculation territory which is not good, but this would be the only explanation if we assume that he is not a complete fraud.
see? the thing is, if you read some of his review, you would know that, this guy got serious misbelief of "single dd standing no chance against (properly implemented) multi-driver BA" as evident once again by this exact case.
this guy somehow gained so much trust from normies just for his FR measurements, excessive trust i would argue. the tonality part, he got FR measurements to back that up, which should be respected as that is basically objective data for us to judge by ourselves. but that's just that, that's all. that doesn't automatically add weight to everything (& anything else) he says. calling his own imagination "Technicalities" is questionable, but i have no right to go against that as he is completely free to do so.
don't get me wrong. crinacle is amazing & i don't hate the guy. we all should be thankful or where else do we get such large amount of FR measurement data? people overrating his opinion way too much is not his fault. what we can learn from the fact that people blindly believe in the bs he said is that, for normies, anything is better than nothing, even if it's bs. if i were him & this is the only thing i can do to be able to put food on the table & provide for my family (try read an article on his site using smartphone, between every paragraph, there is an ads, which makes half of the screen ads all the time, i get the need to put some ads, to be able to eat, but you think 3-5 a page would be reasonable. that many? then you know how it is), i would do exactly the same too even i know what i said is bs, but since i don't think he knows, so absolutely no blame here.
it's just that as a matter of fact, he is clearly doing things that he isn't qualified to do, no wonder he doesn't exactly know what he is doing, how he should do it. he is not amir, his site is not like ASR. on ASR, there is no ads. donation only, & the donation is for buying device to measure, maintaining the site, etc, clearly no personal gain, you can see the sincerity in it. place like this, people like amir, wouldn't even care to feed you bs. but for a money-hungry ads-all-around site like crinacle's, you got to be careful what you wish for, because if what you want is bs, you for sure is gonna get it, for this guy is not into audio science at all, you may even call him an audio religious guy that measures FR, that's all he is. just check out his ridiculous articles. you can also read his illogical nonsense about how distortion measurement is useless lol. he even reminded people not to take his word as the absolute truth, but that is exactly what many people seem to do, so not his fault. it's the people that overrated him & the demand of bs put him where he is.
back to the iem again, i never tried B2D for obvious reasons. btw, hybrid iem is really just marketing gimmick without real benefit as you got the relatively high distortion of BA & lack of isolation of DD all at the same time. people fooled by audio religion guys like crinacle is gonna say 'BA bAsS TiMBrE nOt gOod' or sth along these bs lines, and then go like 'all hail hybrid', but if you use ear to listen instead of imagination, you would know that's nonsense. that's just BA with bad FR. you encounter that & some 'reputable' (lol) guys want to make you believe a made-up reason like 'TiMBrE', you may actually just believe that if you aren't thinking logically enough. for example, the bass of some full BA iem like the moondrop S8 or softears RSV is just fine. (of course, once again that crinacle guy would disagree. 'bA TiMBrE') but S8 suffers the same uncomfortable fit as B2, as many people in this thread have already mentioned. nozzle too big. if you want BA for isolation, i would suggest you get one that is decent-tuned, & as cheap as possible, like maybe audioscene dt600 (with a 50-70ohm impedance adapater, which is necessary for it to be listenable, otherwise it's just a bad-tuned garbage). it's nothing impressive, but it fits comfortably, & it's very cheap. it does its job which is to offer the only thing a BA iem can offer over a DD one: near-perfect isolation. (but for that, why not moondrop quarks? which is a DD that achieved BA-level of isolation & it's even far cheaper & still sounds decent)
in scenario that isolation isn't needed, there's no reason to go for BA, as nothing really beats the value of a pair of moondrop kato. (as per my listening, which holds no value, but i get peace of mind knowing that crinacle's opinion holds no more actual value than mine, except maybe some imaginative value inside his fanboy's head:), and i at least got distortion measurement from the company beside my listening experience to back me up & crinacle got none except his words lol) kato is almost as good as the Illumination for 1/4 the price. it may even be just as good, i really can't tell if i'm imagining Illumination being better just because it is the more expensive one, or not. seriously when i listen from the kato, i wouldn't even think of the need to swap it for the Illumination. maybe it's the far better isolation it offers over the Illumination making it feels nice in some situation involved mild domestic noise. it essentially makes my pair of Illumination obsolete.
all in all, no wonder looking at moondrop's production line, the BA models feel like afterthought just to fulfill the market's need to make money to support the company running, the DD ones, on the other hand, you can feel the passion & a diffierent level of focus/attention to details, because they know better, about the hard limit of BA in terms of the fidelity it can produce, that's why. i think i said enough. i will see myself out.

(this is a re-post, as never have i thought i would be censored, with no explanation given, for calling out someone in the community for their non-objective, non-scientific practice & just giving opinions as is. maybe someone abused the report function, idk. just so unbelievably sad.)
 
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Jimbob54

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It's working aaaaahhhhhh
Look at it this way, you wont buy without the review and when it is reviewed it cant possibly be worth the asking price, so by teasing you with all this 19th Century kit he is actually saving you a fortune
 

Blank Verse

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Feb 27, 2021
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I nearly bought an Ety ER2SE as an import from the USA as super good deals over there, and I don't own any IEM's....interest sparked by the reviews here, but I really don't want to keep pushing wax further into my ear (working against the human bodies natural conveyor belt from eardrum to earlobe - skin growth). Fears of lack of soundstage and higher distortion are also factors for me not pulling the trigger yet, I suppose it would be interesting to try a good value but good measuring pair.
Amazing IEMs if you can handle the fit. The sound quality depends a lot on the tips and fit you use. I so far have only tried the default tri-flange silicone tips, and the sound is amazing. My ears produce very little wax (almost none), so this isn't an issue for me. As far as the soundstage, you get what is in the recording. Listening right now to the Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack...superb. And there is no noticeable distortion. The ER2SE is one of the IEMs with the smallest amount of distortion you can buy, and the design is based on extensive research by the company that invented IEMs.

Right now you can get it in the US for $80 from Amazon, but Europe is a completely different story.

By the way, unlike many people I don't find their bass insufficient by any means. It is a linear bass (not emphasized), and it reaches quite low, but it is not as impactful as a basshead's headphone, which is one of the main virtues of this IEM (its neutrality).
 

Keened

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Adds a ton to the cost.

It really shouldn't at this point. Between far infrared (good for general scanning of the outer ear shape) and terahertz (good for the deeper parts of the ear canal) we should be able to create custom molds for reasonable prices and then just pour silicone in. Or even just 3D print it at this point and then tumble to wear external ridges and take a light dremel to the internal channel.
 

staticV3

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The ER2SE is one of the IEMs with the smallest amount of distortion you can buy
Simply not true. Eymotic's IEM have many strengths, but low distortion ain't one of them.
There are numerous, much cheaper IEMs with lower distortion:
Bl-03 ($27):
graph (16).png
Final E2000 ($35):
graph (17).png
KZ ZSN Pro ($15):
graph (19).png
MH755 ($7):
graph (20).png
That is mirrored by Earfonia's IMD measurements
 

someguyontheinternet

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Apr 16, 2021
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Looks like Moondrop decided to release a 20$ IEM with pretty much identical FR to the Blessing 2:
1650036416101.png



If distortion numbers are not terrible, that could be a pretty awesome product.
 

RHO

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Looks like Moondrop decided to release a 20$ IEM with pretty much identical FR to the Blessing 2:
View attachment 200099


If distortion numbers are not terrible, that could be a pretty awesome product.
It even looks fractionally better in the bass and upper mids/lower treble region.

Edit: Just ordered a pair. My Tin T2 plus died some time ago. It's a good replacement. :)
 
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