Moondrop In-Ear Monitors and Ear Buds

IEMs / In-Ear-Monitors General IEM Discussion
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I have the Moondrop Illumination in for review at the moment, so I thought I’d share my thoughts here:

Moondrop Illumination Frequency Response using GRAS RA0402 coupler that dampens the 8khz resonance. Not comparable to RA0045 equivalent:

Illumination vs Harman
Illumination vs Harman1600×864 205 KB

Illumination1
Illumination11600×864 197 KB

Technical performance

  • Soundstage is a bit too intimate - music all around you rather than in front of you
  • Detail is average, really good in treble, decent in mids, not so good in bass
  • Excellent dynamics across the board, it has a wonderful physicality that you don’t typically get from multi-BA setups (leaving aside some of the Sonion woofers that I’m currently testing as well).
  • Timbre is spectacular, good enough to make me dislike BA timbre more.

Tuning

  • The best tuning for a single DD IEM so far
  • Mostly neutral
    • Slight bloom to upper bass and lower mid
    • Slightly forward in upper mids, ear-gain is a bit too much in my opinion
    • Smooth but well-balanced treble - keep in mind the RA0402 resonance dampening going on (8khz is actually much more smooth there than it looks).
  • Very much like a Sennheiser HD650 in terms of tuning

Comparisons

  • Thieaudio Monarch
    • Monarch has better detail, better sub-bass, better sense of space
    • Illumination has better timbre, more natural sounding, sense of weight to everything that only a DD can give
  • KXXX/Starfield
    • Illumination has the better tuning, better treble - where these other two are less balanced and coherent in the treble.
    • Illumination has better technical performance - except in the bass

Conclusion

  • In some ways the Moondrop Illumination is like the Sennheiser HD650 of IEMs, with the same strengths and weaknesses. This is one of the best tuned IEMs, period - with the downside of not having quite as good technical performance in terms of soundstage, depth, and bass texture as the competition. The flips side is how amazing the timbre is.
  • If you’re someone who hates BA timbre - cares a lot about timbre - this IEM is for you.
  • My only wish is that this had a bit more sub-bass presence, and maybe slightly less energy at the ear-gain region, but for ‘neutralheads’ this tuning should fit the bill.

Here’s the video review:

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