Moondrop Para 2 Planar Headphone Review

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Hi I am willing to give the headphones another go.. They are original Para, but there arent much difference from Para 2 - i think Cosmo ear pads are making most of the difference in performance.
Going to pick up DX5 II tomorrow, the same Amir used with the headphones. I suspect that FiiO K7 wasnt completely up to task - it even shut down on me once or twice with Para. No problems with easier headphones..
I also replaced my pads with Audeze LCD kit from Dekoni, sheepskin. Now i can tell you the fit is TIGHT.
And my complaint about the plastic headband holders - here is an advice. Once you find comfortable position, remove the plastic and just secure it with metal bolts and nuts. The breaking if plastic is certain, only a question of time.

With the DX5ii having PEQ, and these having a fairly neutral FR to start with, and very low distortion, they’re pretty much ‘perfect’ in that regard. Comfort is obviously a personal thing. I doubt very much that these will ‘certainly’ break. I suppose it depends how much use use them, and/or feel I need to constantly adjust them.

Apart from the Allen Key (Hex Key) sockets to remove the headband (to turn it upside down, etc.) there’s a second set (a little smaller) which can tighten the grip on the headband so it slides easier/less easily which may be useful.

When I first flipped my headband it wouldn’t stay in place so easily, but became rock solid once these were tightened.

 

[Sanlitun]

Where are these Vs. the Edition XS?

I had my heart set on buying the Para 2 but have a great deal of doubt now. Already own and enjoy the Edition XS.

 

[knevgen]

I doubt very much that these will ‘certainly’ break. I suppose it depends how much use use them, and/or feel I need to constantly adjust them.

They made this part of the mount from metal on Moondrop Skyland.
I guess they thought it's going to be an improvement.. One of those things just snapped on me without much effort - just sharing what i observed.

 

[nvtinh94]

Where are these Vs. the Edition XS?

I had my heart set on buying the Para 2 but have a great deal of doubt now. Already own and enjoy the Edition XS.

I have no experience with the XS but i have a fiio FT1 pro (a competitor to the XS). To my ear the para post EQ is significantly better than fiio FT1 pro post EQ (in both tonality and technicalities). A friend of mine who has a hifiman XS prefer my FT1 pro to it.
But all of this can just be personal preferences so please try before you buy if possible.

 

[DivineCurrent]

They made this part of the mount from metal on Moondrop Skyland.
I guess they thought it's going to be an improvement.. One of those things just snapped on me without much effort - just sharing what i observed.

I'm curious, what part of the plastic piece broke? Like did it just crack and fall apart? I never adjust mine, I found the size that was right for me and tightened down the screws so it stays secure in place.

 

[knevgen]

I'm curious, what part of the plastic piece broke? Like did it just crack and fall apart? I never adjust mine, I found the size that was right for me and tightened down the screws so it stays secure in place.

Pretty much, yeah. And my head is not that big and i dont have gorilla hands.
It snapped inside where the screw goes.

 

[Zekbone]

Not even 2 hours after my last post, I managed to knock my pair onto the floor, and now the left earcup's 3.5mm jack has a loose contact (no sound unless you press the cable forward a certain way) so I guess I am also going to experience moondrop's support. Did you contact the seller or moondrop directly? I ordered from Shenzhen through their Amazon, and I'm not sure which one of these three I'm supposed to contact first.

They finally came back from China after being repaired. I ended up paying for shipping to China and nothing else. I'm ok with the time it took. Support was handled by Shenzhen, who sent it to Moondrop. Overall happy with Shenzhen.

 

[milanjeromos]

As sound pressure increases, distortion decreases? Is that accurate?

 

[Rincewind42]

As sound pressure increases, distortion decreases? Is that accurate?

No.

 

[Bleib]

Higher volume leads to more distorsion

 

[milanjeromos]

As sound pressure increases, distortion decreases? Is that accurate?

looked again, from 30hz to around 300 it has lower distortion at higher spl

 

[Rincewind42]

looked again, from 30hz to around 300 it has lower distortion at higher spl

Generally, higher volume => more distortion.

But "distortion" is a very general term; it can result from many factors. There are millions of types of distortion; it's basically any non-linear process that alters the signal... somehow.

Also, all these distortion charts with steady-state simple signals are just minimum guidelines. With real-world complex signals, it's far more complex. The time domain phenomena of distortion is also not measured at all (well, it's very hard to measure, and very hard to present that data).

Then we don't quite know the exact measurement methods anyway, don't know if there were errors, etc.

TL;DR treat it as a very rough ballpark measurement. Also, 114 dB measurements are kinda pointless; you'll go deaf in 30 minutes if you listen to actual music at those levels. Generally you see a low flat line there over the freq spectrum => good. There's not much point fixating at 96 dB vs 114 dB measurement differences if they're low anyway and roughly the same (plus minus a few dB). To get a general ballpark feel of the distortion (i.e. no huge spikes in the midrange or in the bass), these measurements are good, but the more you go into super fine detail, the less important/relevant they are.

 

[yo!]

looked again, from 30hz to around 300 it has lower distortion at higher spl

Not possible. This is probably a result when background noise is a issue.

 

[solderdude]

114 dB measurements are kinda pointless; you'll go deaf in 30 minutes if you listen to actual music at those levels.

For average dBA levels ... correct.
For short peaks in music reaching 114dB peaks (usually mainly low frequency) means that with good recordings you are looking at 'average levels' of around 100dB and when applying dBA filters and averaging over a longer time period you end up with 80-90 dBA average.
Given that the sensitivity is 107dB/V the Para2 only needs 2.2V to reach that (0.6W).

So it kind of makes sense to measure/look at frequencies below 200Hz at 114dB levels and mids at 104dB levels and above 3kHz at 94dB levels to gauge the distortion levels.

I do NOT recommend to listen at those levels for a prolonged period but these levels are possible when occasionally turning up the level while shortly enjoying some favorite music with the bass turned up (to compensate for the lack of tactile feel with headphones).

 

[Rincewind42]

For short peaks in music reaching 114dB peaks (usually mainly low frequency) means that with good recordings you are looking at 'average levels' of around 100dB and when applying dBA filters and averaging over a longer time period you end up with 80-90 dBA average.

That's a good point. I was conflating this this THD/noise measurements at those levels (with sustained signals), which is indeed rather pointless. But yeah, transients is a different matter, and clean transient reproduction matters.