This is a review, listening tests, EQ and detailed measurements of the Moondrop Chu II In-Ear Monitor. It is on kind loan from a member and costs just $19.
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Compared to some other IEMs I have tested, these are lighter weight due to lack of extra metallic parts. They are also a bit smaller which makes them more comfortable to wear. Three sets of silicone tips came with it. The nozzle is quite large so mounting the tips was a bit of a chore but not as bad as some other IEMs.
IEMs can be finnicky to mount on my GRAS 45CA and the Chu II was that. I think I got 90% there in the measurements you see below.
Moondrop Chu II Measurements
As usual, we start with our IEM frequency response measurement and comparison to target:
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Wow, this is quite good! The gaps between its response and our target is very small. Since the target is not high resolution anyway, this may just as well be as good as the target with just some overshoot around 14 kHz.
Creating filters by eye/hand may be a bit tricky though due to the shape of the deviations:
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What I was really impressed by was the low distortion:
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Considering that we don't need to boost bass, this is extremely good results though shy of the best we have seen.
Group delay is uneventful as it typically is for IEMs:
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Impedance is low:
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Sensitivity is also low for an IEM but still better than just about any standard headphone:
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Comfortable listening on my RME ADI-2 Pro is about -40 dB so should not be a hard load for just about any source.
Moondrop Chu II Listening Tests and Equalization
First impression was very good although I thought the bass was not quite there. It felt like a fitment issue although pushing them into my ear made no difference. I wanted to EQ it anyway so here we are:
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I took the midbass down and boosted the treble. This naturally made things worse as I lost more bass response. So I put in the Band 1 filter and that added the warmth back it. I usually don't EQ above 8 kHz but here, that peak around 14 kHz was quite wide so I went after it. Can't swear it is not placebo but the effect was softening the highs and reducing their sharpness.
Playing my reference tracks with or without EQ showed very subtle difference despite the plurality of the filters. With the filters in place, the clarity improved with better ability hear fine detail like strings and vibration in voices. On the Nathaniel Rateliff track above, the result was absolutely stunning! It felt like his head was fully inside my head singing! I have listened to this track many times with my standard headphone where the experience was not this good.
The response with EQ was so good that I had to put them back on and keep listening as I type this review! Absolutely reference quality sound reproduction.
Conclusions
The last 12 months or so has definitely been the era of budget IEMs that produce level of fidelity that is jaw dropping. The Moondrop Chu II joins that crew producing very good out of box response with very low distortion. A bit of EQ adds lipstick to an already beautiful woman, producing a level of fidelity that amazes on any well recorded music. Fitment in my ears is better than some other IEMs due to lighter weight and smaller size. And the look is more conservative which is nice.
It is my pleasure to recommend Moondrop Chu II IEM. For the price of fast food for one and half people, you can have an IEM that can transform our audio experience!
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