Moondrop Blessing 2 Review (IEM)

[Garrincha]

unfortunately the results can be applied to my ears only, yours may have different hearing capabilities, comfort, sealing properties and of course different taste in how music sound better, so it is in some degree a personal quest my friend, but good reviews like Amir’s helps a lot, why don’t you get a well review $200ish IEM and compared with the Monarch and then you can decide which to return, I kept both…. I am a lost cause….

Well, I currently live in Brazil, the only reasonable way to buy them is via AliExpress and there is no return policy. So why don't you send your Monrach to Amir for testing

 

[tomtrp]

Amir is unchained and on fire, brace yourselves!

Blessing 2 are one of the most highly praised IEMs since its launch and this measurements absolutely correlate the importance of frequency response and the adherence to a somewhat validated target close to Harman (VSDF).

Also, the first hybrid IEM reviewed at ASR, here are crinacle's measurements for reference:

View attachment 198219

Keep this great momentum with highly popular and regarded products, Chief.

Honestly, I don't trust crinacle's measurement anymore, at least not for creating peq profiles. Crinacle's GRAS43 measurement(as well as headphone.com/resolve's measurement) deviates quite a bit from Amir's GRAS45 and to my ears, Amir's measurements usually correlate with my listening much better. Another example will be the LCD-XC 2021 version where Resolve's measurement shows deficiency in the 8-10k region, but Amir's mueasurement shows excess energy around 8-9k which is what I hear from my LCD-XC21.

 

[FreaK]

I got the Blessing 2 Dusk, 6 months ago, replacement for my old Shure SE846, which I have been using for 10 years, but I liked the Dusk better because of the additional bass, I was very pleased; but 3 months ago the Dusk were decommissioned to oblivion after 4 days of extensive AB testing against the 7Hz timeless (planar EIM that has generated so so so much hype) and cost $100 less than the Dusk. I know how perversive bias are, so a Methodology was needed. No blind test, unfortunately you can tell easily which IEM you are wearing ( different weight and form) , so I plugged both IEMs to the 2 balanced outputs of my topping A90, low gain, SMSL Su9 DAC , no EQ, volume cero, start music , then volume up to a decent level, listen for 15 to 20 sec, then volume to zero, switch IEM as fast as I can, then volume up again, listen for 15-20 sec, volumen down….and so on and on for about 45 min , different genres tested, and 4 sessions in 4 different days for consistency. There was no match, the Timeless sounded always much better than the Dusk, the details of mids were just mind blowing, and yes that much work to be sure which one I like better, as I knew new comparisons will eventually come in the future, and it did, 1 month ago I got the Monarch MK2, most IEMs reviewers put these on top of the top, basically a $1000 IEM that sounds better than most of the $2000 or $3000 IEMs , at least is what they claim. So I put the Timeless against the Monarch, after 4 days of testing I just could not tell which one I like better, both sounded awesome, still the mids of the Timeless were slight better, (but not consistent), the monarch had better detailed bass, bass in the Timeless was good but in some occasion there may be some distortion at higher volume? ( remember I do not have trained ears so…..) The timeless were more confortable and I was able to get a seal much easily, but remember that was in in my ears. Conclusion to my ears, the additional $800 for the Monarch was not a good deal.

The whole point of this forum is, that you can't trust what you hear. Based on that:

1: if you do AB test without matching the SPL levels exactly (via measurement), that will distort your judgement, because the louder one you will perceive better/more detailed etc.

2: without measurements and/or controlled blind test, you can't evaluate the differences anyway. So what you think you are hearing (more detailed this and that) is most likely not true. Sorry to say that, but no matter how long you are comparing them, if you don't do it correctly (how science says, you should do), you can't be sure that's real what you think about the IEMs.

Just watch some of Amir's videos, he talks about that many times, i believe last time it was in some of the videos about the cable's he tested.

(edit) +1: what you hear as detail/lack of detail it mostly depends on you brain, and how much do you concentrate on the listening, not the item itself. The only thing (as far as i know) related to that, coming from the item, is total harmonic distortion, which can be measured and thus compared.

3: As far as we know, based on Amir's testing, it's not really a matter of cost how good an IEM (or anything else) really is, but proper engineering, and knowing the science behind it. That means, it could be very be, that an IEM worth $15-50 will give the exact (or better) experience as the these multi hundred or thousand dollar ones, if you compare them in a controlled blind test. That's why Amir is buying now some cheap one's to test.

Sorry,i really don't mean it offensively, but adding all that together, and this experience you wrote here is most likely not worth much.

edit2: and please, don't rely on any subjective opinions, its very misleading.

 

[GeekyBastard]

I used to own a Blessing 2 (not Dusk version), but it always sounds too thin for my ears, no matter what EQ I throw at it, it sounds either muffled, or bright.

Now I wonder if the peak around 6KHz and lack of bass caused that problem, maybe the channel matching variations were higher on my sample.

Btw, that channel matching and distortion graph doesn't look good.

 

[dib]

I got the Blessing 2 Dusk, 6 months ago, replacement for my old Shure SE846, which I have been using for 10 years, but I liked the Dusk better because of the additional bass, I was very pleased; but 3 months ago the Dusk were decommissioned to oblivion after 4 days of extensive AB testing against the 7Hz timeless (planar EIM that has generated so so so much hype) and cost $100 less than the Dusk. I know how perversive bias are, so a Methodology was needed. No blind test, unfortunately you can tell easily which IEM you are wearing ( different weight and form) , so I plugged both IEMs to the 2 balanced outputs of my topping A90, low gain, SMSL Su9 DAC , no EQ, volume cero, start music , then volume up to a decent level, listen for 15 to 20 sec, then volume to zero, switch IEM as fast as I can, then volume up again, listen for 15-20 sec, volumen down….and so on and on for about 45 min , different genres tested, and 4 sessions in 4 different days for consistency. There was no match, the Timeless sounded always much better than the Dusk, the details of mids were just mind blowing, and yes that much work to be sure which one I like better, as I knew new comparisons will eventually come in the future, and it did, 1 month ago I got the Monarch MK2, most IEMs reviewers put these on top of the top, basically a $1000 IEM that sounds better than most of the $2000 or $3000 IEMs , at least is what they claim. So I put the Timeless against the Monarch, after 4 days of testing I just could not tell which one I like better, both sounded awesome, still the mids of the Timeless were slight better, (but not consistent), the monarch had better detailed bass, bass in the Timeless was good but in some occasion there may be some distortion at higher volume? ( remember I do not have trained ears so…..) The timeless were more confortable and I was able to get a seal much easily, but remember that was in in my ears. Conclusion to my ears, the additional $800 for the Monarch was not a good deal.

Your comparison is interesting, I'm hesitating between the blessing 2 dusk, Timeless and Monarch mk2.
There is another model, Shuoer S12, a planar magnetic IEM, that roughly matches the Timeless qualities and according to a subjective reviewer, has a better bass .
What do you think about Monarch MK2 vs Timeless in the High frequencies region, where Monarch MK2 supposed to have an advantage?

 

[Madlop26]

The whole point of this forum is, that you can't trust what you hear. Based on that:

1: if you do AB test without matching the SPL levels exactly (via measurement), that will distort your judgement, because the louder one you will perceive better/more detailed etc.

2: without measurements and/or controlled blind test, you can't evaluate the differences anyway. So what you think you are hearing (more detailed this and that) is most likely not true. Sorry to say that, but no matter how long you are comparing them, if you don't do it correctly (how science says, you should do), you can't be sure that's real what you think about the IEMs.

Just watch some of Amir's videos, he talks about that many times, i believe last time it was in some of the videos about the cable's he tested.

3: As far as we know, based on Amir's testing, it's not really a matter of cost how good an IEM (or anything else) really is, but proper engineering, and knowing the science behind it. That means, it could be very be, that an IEM worth $15-50 will give the exact (or better) experience as the these multi hundred or thousand dollar ones, if you compare them in a controlled blind test. That's why Amir is buying now some cheap one's to test.

Sorry,i really don't mean it offensively, but adding all that together, and this experience you wrote here is most likely not worth much.

I never claimed It was a perfect scientific method, just an attempt of approximation which IEM sounds better to my ears, even a not perfect designed experiment sometimes can give you some idea where is the true, but not the absolute location of true. And this is frequent in the scientific method, (small trials previous to commit large expensive ones), and as I said it before, whatever information was obtained is only useful to me, as is very likely other person will get different results (taste among others):
1: level matching, not gonna lie, it is the hardest, i do not have adequate equipment to match exact levels, that is the reason every time a I was swapping IEMs I was turning volume down to zero then after the swap turn volume up to the usual level I would listen to music or higher depending the day, now keep doing that every 20 seconds for 45 min. x 4 days, become tedious , that is around 540 times, now for the chances volume matching bias messed up my experiment means that i turn the volume higher for the Timeless 540 times against the Dusk every single time. still possible... yes, but unlikely in my opinion
2: Blind testing is close to impossible in IEMs, you need a good seal, when doing the experiment i had to push the IEMs inside the ear canals unusually hard, to be sure to get a good seal, (the reason of the 45 min session is because the ear pain becomes unbearable by that time) and all the skin touched by the EIM will tell you which IEMs is being placed. The only option would be to put your skin under anesthesia, lol

 

[Bow_Wazoo]

I packed the Blessing 2 back,
up after a few hours.
To me it sounded boring.
I particularly noticed that details were missing.

 

[half_dog]

Well, I currently live in Brazil, the only reasonable way to buy them is via AliExpress and there is no return policy. So why don't you send your Monrach to Amir for testing

For your happiness some stores have return policies as Brightaudio Store - sadly I received a not so good Moondrop Kato and now it's on the way back. (And yep, I live in Brazil as well)

 

[Bam!]

For me Amir is far more reliable than Crinacle. Crinacle - nice guy no question- lost me with the KZ BS. Despite all the "science" talk, in the end, it's still all very subjective in this hobby. For me, Crinacle has a bias against Fiio for reasons I don't understand. I like the FH7 and I could never understand his description of a "strange" tonality. I also like the FD5 much better than the Blessing 2. The B2 has been extremely hyped in my perception. In all fairness: Crinacle always points out it is just one man's opinion. Very influential man though.

 

[FrantzM]

At $320, this IEM is IMO, very close to SOTA.
Ignore the rise in quality and performance of Chinese Hi-FI products at your own perils... They have arrived.

This said, IEM are to me a strange breed of listening devices, that I avoid religiously: my ears are too important, for me to insert anything into. Best IMO, to use something on the ears not into the ear canal.

Peace.

 

[RHO]

Crinacle has a bias against Fiio

That surely is the reason why he collaborated with them.

 

[staticV3]

I like the FH7 and I could never understand his description of a "strange" tonality.

Hm yeah, maybe because of the massive hole between 2 and 9KHz

 

[edahl]

For me Amir is far more reliable than Crinacle. Crinacle - nice guy no question- lost me with the KZ BS. Despite all the "science" talk, in the end, it's still all very subjective in this hobby. For me, Crinacle has a bias against Fiio for reasons I don't understand. I like the FH7 and I could never understand his description of a "strange" tonality. I also like the FD5 much better than the Blessing 2. The B2 has been extremely hyped in my perception. In all fairness: Crinacle always points out it is just one man's opinion. Very influential man though.

Crinacle handled the "KZ BS" perfectly.

And it is a very subjective hobby, despite and alongside the scientific nature of our approach.

 

[Bam!]

That surely is the reason why he collaborated with them.

It is of course absolutely impossible that Fiio sees Crin as an influential person who could promote the sales of Fiios products and Crin is of course above filthy lucre and does it all for fame and glory...

 

[Bam!]

Hm yeah, maybe because of the massive hole between 2 and 9KHz
View attachment 198468

His measurements are the word of god and beyond any doubt?

 

[staticV3]

His measurements are the word of god and beyond any doubt?

 

[Bam!]

Crinacle handled the "KZ BS" perfectly.

And it is a very subjective hobby, despite and alongside the scientific nature of our approach.

The man himself begs to differ.
The aftermath is what he handled perfectly.

 

[phoenixsong]

The man himself begs to differ.
The aftermath is what he handled perfectly.

Welcome to ASR! Derailing the thread is not welcome

 

[Bam!]

Welcome to ASR! Derailing the thread is not welcome

I have not insulted anyone and have expressed my opinion that I personally trust Amir more than Crinacle. If I then reply and point out that Crin himself has admitted mistakes, this should be seen in context. If I am not allowed to do that, then please kick me out of the community.

 

[poppy]

Dumped Audeze's and a few Sennheisers after getting into IEMs. Just kept a pair of 58X when my ear canal gets irritated when wearing IEM's for hours.

Similar situation here. Use speakers normally and IEMs when I can't use speakers. Full size headphones just seen like worst of both worlds now.