Moondrop enters the OE headphone market

[RHO]

Measurements look like they are all lacking bass.
The electrostatic and planar magnetic designs look cool. The dynamic driver one looks cheap and plastic. I honestly don't think they will compete overclass anything currently already on the market.

 

[MayaTlab]

The dynamic driver one looks cheap and plastic.

I'm wondering where the swivel mechanism is for these headphones' yokes... please tell me they have one, don't they :/ ?

 

[Fregly]

The graph looks great for my taste. And by the way, is everyone at Moondrop under 25? Looks like a young crew.

 

[Matias]

Impressive to enter the market with all 3 types of headphones at the same time. Measurements, style and price look right, and time will tell about reliability.

 

[Matias]

Prints from the video. If you look closely, Venus (the planar) has the least amount of distortion and follows closer to the red target curve, not only below 30Hz, but also resonances between 6 and 10 kHz.


Moonzero (electrostatic)

Venus (planar)

Void (dynamic)

 

[RHO]

The graph looks great for my taste. And by the way, is everyone at Moondrop under 25? Looks like a young crew.

If the THD is as low as advertised one could always EQ the bass in if required.
Yes, that looks like a very young company. I think that plays in their advantage.

Impressive to enter the market with all 3 types of headphones at the same time. Measurements, style and price look right, and time will tell about reliability.

Yes, I agree. It's impressive to develop these 3 in parallel.
I don't know about electrostatics, but the planar could well be good competition for Audeze (LCD-2?) and the dynamic for Sennheiser (HD560s?). But I think it will be difficult for the planar to compete with Hifiman (mainly the Sundara) and the dynamic with Sennheisers HD560s at this price point.

Prints from the video. If you look closely, Venus (the planar) has the least amount of distortion and follows closer to the red target curve, not only below 30Hz, but also resonances between 6 and 10 kHz.


Moonzero (electrostatic)
View attachment 215933
View attachment 215930

Venus (planar)
View attachment 215934
View attachment 215931

Void (dynamic)
View attachment 215935View attachment 215932

Yes, the graphs look good, apart from the lacking sub-bass. But as I said, that could be fixed with EQ. I hoped they would have done that in the design, but apparently they don't believe the Harman bass shelve sounds pleasing to the majority (I think it does!). Their target doesn't show it, so I think the lack of sub-bass is intentional.
I find that a bit confusing since their IEMs do have a small bass shelve and are regarded as very well tuned. They should know that it is desirable for most customers.

I just don't think these are much of an improvement over what is already available from other companies at similar (or lower) prices.
The design of the planar looks a bit more high-end than most Hifimans, so maybe we would best compare them to Audeze. And there they do have the price advantage. (if the performance is as good as they claim)

I'm wondering where the swivel mechanism is for these headphones' yokes... please tell me they have one, don't they :/ ?

I'm afraid they have overlooked that detail.

 

[Matias]

I wonder why the target for the dynamic Void is different for the others. A mistake?

 

[RHO]

I wonder why the target for the dynamic Void is different for the others. A mistake?

You are right. There the target looks much more like the HTC.

 

[tiramisu]

Moon Drop has done extremely well with Chifi IEMs. I hope they do to the headphone market what Topping has done on the DAC/AMP side. Crush the price and deliver high-quality headphones that measure great. I would love to see a comfortable, serviceable, headphone that lets me EQ either diffuse-field or Harman and lets me use a balanced cable for the extra powr.

 

[D00M]

Interesting. Graphs is a start; real test will be audio test.

Hifiman Sundara is $300; Ananda is $699 (sale prices). Moondrop Venus MSRP is $599; I assume actual sale price can be lower. So depends on how they compare. And of course QC and reliability.

The Moonzero is out of my price league. I assume $999 is headphone only and does not include amp.

 

[Soundstage]

Prints from the video. If you look closely, Venus (the planar) has the least amount of distortion and follows closer to the red target curve, not only below 30Hz, but also resonances between 6 and 10 kHz.


Moonzero (electrostatic)
View attachment 215933
View attachment 215930

Venus (planar)
View attachment 215934
View attachment 215931

Void (dynamic)
View attachment 215935View attachment 215932

Thanks for the screenshots. Why is the target red curve different from the other ones for the last headphone?

 

[Luke]

I'm wondering where the swivel mechanism is for these headphones' yokes... please tell me they have one, don't they :/ ?

 

[RHO]

View attachment 216078

I think he was talking about the dynamic driver headphones.

 

[Luke]

I think he was talking about the dynamic driver headphones.

Oh right, my bad

Yeah, it doesn't look like there's much of a swivel mechanism on the dynamic headphone. Someone posted some photos of them on r/headphones

Hopefully it at least has something like the HD600/HD650's swivel mechanism.

 

[MayaTlab]

Yeah, it doesn't look like there's much of a swivel mechanism on the dynamic headphone.

I really hope that we're wrong here. I'm still gobsmacked that some headphones manufacturers are still treating proper yoke design as a polite proposition rather than a crucial aspect of delivered sound quality.

 

[KiyPhi]

Yes, the graphs look good, apart from the lacking sub-bass. But as I said, that could be fixed with EQ. I hoped they would have done that in the design, but apparently they don't believe the Harman bass shelve sounds pleasing to the majority (I think it does!). Their target doesn't show it, so I think the lack of sub-bass is intentional.
I find that a bit confusing since their IEMs do have a small bass shelve and are regarded as very well tuned. They should know that it is desirable for most customers.

The design of the planar looks a bit more high-end than most Hifimans, so maybe we would best compare them to Audeze. And there they do have the price advantage. (if the performance is as good as they claim)

The lack of bass shelf is also part of the design. It is hard to make a headphone that has good seal tolerance and also has a bass shelf. They are using the same design principles as Audeze and Hifiman.

These are ones I'd have to EQ (if the graph is how they indeed sound) but the big thing to me is the size of the earpads. The Sundara are a pair of headphones I listen to daily at work but the earpads are juuuust too small to not touch my ears when it comes to inner diameter. These look like they might be large enough to allow that. Plus they have rotation. If they measure as well as they claim and can take to EQ okay and have the seal tolerance their design would suggest, I plan on replacing my Sundara with these. If they are comfy enough, might even sell my at home listening headphones, the Empyrean...

 

[Luke]

The lack of bass shelf is also part of the design. It is hard to make a headphone that has good seal tolerance and also has a bass shelf. They are using the same design principles as Audeze and Hifiman.

These are ones I'd have to EQ (if the graph is how they indeed sound) but the big thing to me is the size of the earpads. The Sundara are a pair of headphones I listen to daily at work but the earpads are juuuust too small to not touch my ears when it comes to inner diameter. These look like they might be large enough to allow that. Plus they have rotation. If they measure as well as they claim and can take to EQ okay and have the seal tolerance their design would suggest, I plan on replacing my Sundara with these. If they are comfy enough, might even sell my at home listening headphones, the Empyrean...

I had the same issue with the Sundara and HE400SE. It's been an issue in general for me and my dumbo ears
I feel like headphone manufacturers should at least be targeting 65mm+ given the standards and all
Oh well, *puts on HD800*

I have never been this excited for a headphone release. The high-end headphone market needs a shake up and this might be it. If they don't quite hit the mark with this release, they probably will on the next one. Moondrop seem like a solid company.

I'd be slightly concerned right now if I was Hifiman!

 

[Snoopy]

I just don't like the design of the headphones. Looks way to much like some Xiaomi kitchen device or LED lamp thing mixed with some futuristic anime design.


But I'm still interested in the electrostatic headphone

 

[Matias]

I think the designs as being "safe", that is, not very polarizing in taste, which makes sense as they are already risking with new markets and 3 new technologies, better to keep other things safe.

 

[RHO]

They are using the same design principles as Audeze and Hifiman.

I think this could be the main problem. They don't add much new to the market. They have copied what other popular brands do and packaged it differently.