This is the place to discuss all things to do with the Moondrop Para 2. The folks at Shenzhen Audio were kind enough to send one in for review.
Specs:
Impedance: 9Ω±15%.
Sensitivity: 106dB/Vrms.
Connector Type: Dual 3.5mm.
Weight: ~512g
Price: $500
Measurements
B&K 5128:
Positional variation - At the moment this is 10 seatings per channel on the B&K 5128. We typically include the GRAS data here as well but we’re currently overhauling things a bit with setup and data visualizations - I’ll have more info on this to share hopefully in the near future.
One of the more interesting things to do with the Para 2 is how easy it is to pad swap, and some of the results are exceptional. It makes me wish they had included additional pad options with the headphone.
Here is the Para 2 with the Fiio FT1 Pro pads. Sadly, I couldn’t find anywhere to buy official FT1 Pro pads on their own, so this is really just an indication of this headphone’s potential.
The pads you can buy that I generally recommend for this style of headphone (the Cosmo as well) are the Yaxi pads for the TH-900 (the leather one). It retains a similar character to the default sound slightly less flare throughout the upper mids, and it also improves the comfort quite a bit.
This is how the Para 2 behaves in the presence of a leak. A bass boost like this with a leak shows extremely low driver damping and a very low resonance frequency. This is an exceptional driver because it’s able to achieve this kind of low Fs without nearly the prominent modal characteristics you typically find with ultra large diaphragm planars like this. It still has some of the planar jaggies higher up in frequency but that’s to be expected.
No issues with harmonic distortion whatsoever, and notably better than most ultra large diaphragm planars like this. You’d expect more distortion products showing up, especially at such insane volume levels but it’s still kept under control. Once again, this driver is very capable.
Notes:
Build & Comfort - Not a fan of the headband, it is likely not suitable for smaller heads. It’s also on the heavier side. Still, I personally find it comfortable enough because the headband strap is wide, meaning it distributes the weight well across the head.
Sound General - It sounds super unique. Extremely detailed, spacious and incisive, but it’s also a bit on the lean side with the default pads. Not suitable for all genres, but for instrumental and acoustic music this headphone is exceptional.
Pad swapping is where the magic happens with this one. There’s a lot of potential in this platform, especially because of this driver, and pad swapping involves a simple magnetic metal plate that you put the pads onto. One thing to note, there is no protective grille between the plate and the driver, so if you do get into pad swapping with this one, be very careful not to touch the diaphragm!
Just bought these and the Recommended pads. Outside of glasses, do you have any recommended strategies to introduce a leak? First set of wired open backs. Would love to play around with the sound.
Hello, I’m looking into getting my first openback planars and very interested in a fairly strange comparison: somehow where I live I can get Para 2 or Arya Stealth for almost the same price. What would you recommend considering I’m open for EQing and pad rolling? How their subjectives such as resolution and soundstage compare?
Thank you so much for your post and videos. I’ve recently decided to get into this hobby and have been watching a lot of videos (many of them yours). I do have a few beginner questions about EQ and the differences between the Para 2 and Cosmo.
For context: I listened to the Cosmo and Para 1 in the shop. I really liked the Cosmo (though not perfect), but with the Para 1 I actually felt that in some ways my office Jabra headset sounded more pleasing—at least less harsh with certain tones. I didn’t get the chance to hear the Para 2, but from what I gather it’s not too far from the Para 1.
Since I’ve never used EQ with “real headphones” before, I’m wondering:
Is it true that the Cosmo has more potential with EQ, but if EQ is done well, the difference between models/drivers doesn’t matter as much?
Sorry for the noob questions—I just couldn’t find much clear info on the relationship between driver differences and the EQ process.
I just ordered these. I started my journey tonight wanting to purchase something that I could compare with Resolves views on audio. I started with the 660S2 and being that the 6xx is the closest thing I have to a headphone he admires and I can understand the graph’s on, I almost got them; however they were on backorder and I couldn’t handle the idea of them coming after my Tungsten. My intoxicated purchase tonight says I need a stop gap before they arrive in December. I watched his review on the 660 and said insert leonardo decaprio pointing at the TV I get that, I fuggin get that! I’m NOT a graph person but I called it before he said it. like…. I knew what he was going to say. Anyways I almost got the 109 pro and got his take pretty quick on those and couldn’t be more excited. But when both of those fell through on the store I went to another site and saw this….. The para 2….. I have the para1 and see no reason to upgrade from it. They’re stunning. But I dropped mine onto a concrete backed tile floor directly onto the jack. Even emergency surgery didn’t save them. But I need an amazing solid state headphone and given the incredible thing’s Resolve said about them which I could relate to the Para1….. yeah I’ll just get these instead of purchasing the originals again.
**So I got them a couple of day’s ago and initial impressions are just not good. I despised them out of the box and that slightly improved when I put my para pads on them. They don’t fit good because I have a tiny head, no bass and just a sound signature I am simply not a fan of. I have been on my Elex with a dragon iha-1 for quite a while so it’s not a fair comparison, however I have to remember that my elex were two dog turds when I got them (one runy and one white). I hated them so much that I ordered adapter ring’s and pads for them but shelved them for a few month’s. It’s been a while though and I’ve come to find the Elex as essentially my favorite headphone I own, at least for now. I’m just hoping that the negative first impression is rivaled by my future love of the para2. I’m going to re-repair my para1 this weekend to see what I used to love about it, and dare I say it…. burn the 2 in. Meh can’t hurt. There is just some kind of resonance in them when I talk sometimes with nothing on, I’d say something in the mid’s that is a metallic reflection of my voice. I’ve only experienced something like this once, the Blon BL60 but that frequency was much higher. I’m going to give these a minute to stew and come back in some time to see if my take is different.
Hi Andrew, here’s a video idea: why not take an excellent driver like the Para 2 and EQ it to your heart’s content and then compare it to a couple of flagships ( eg: LCD-5 and Susvara) . Let us poor people know how close we can get to TOTL performance with a great driver plus EQ. It’s so easy to EQ now with all these automated tools. I want to know if we can get close to $5000 performance for less than $1000.
Or on the other hand is there some magic tech the big boys have access to that results in a meaningful improvement ( not just a different FR)
This is the wrong approach, you should instead be trying to get the less expensive headphone like the Para 2 to sound better than the $5k ones, all of which can be done with EQ. If you get into EQ correctly, headphone performance should probably be considered more about what kind of platform provides the best canvas for turning it into your ideal sound signature. And this is where having an already agreeable treble response, particularly for fine-grained features, is going to yield the best results.
I’ll leave you with this: if it can be heard, it can be measured. It’s just a matter of understanding that connection better.
Ok so you’re telling me you have experience making a sub $1000 headphone sound better than a $5000+ flagship? That would be an interesting video topic. Thanks for the quick response
So I’m running off anecdotal experience with these headphones. I will say that on my journey I broke my initial para before getting my dragon. But for many hours today I have been on my para2 with some of that time spent on music. And they did start to open up to me with fast response and crisp tones, but I’m just left with them feeling harsh and resonant. Being that when I talk with nothing running I get reverb, a metallic resonance on them. It’s leading me to believe in burn in, which I don’t abide by such witch craft lol. So ten minutes or so ago I clicked on my tube amp and plugged in my elex, and the difference was immediate and noticeable. There was less harshness and a darker background with a wider range from low to high. The elex/tube combination is just far more soothing. Ok I just put the solid state and para2 back on while typing this….. and it’s not harsh but more energetic? I don’t know the brain is a crazy thing along with the mushy bit’s. Still it’s a touch fatigueing. I do hear some beauty in the bass reproduction though, burn it MUST be real. It’s not black or white, most of it is squishy bits but some of it is hardware? That piercing treble though. I think that I need to learn how to EQ.
*rewatched the review after posting this and ordered the Yaxi pads recommended, instant night and day difference. These are now great headphones.
Well, that would just be frequency response in situ. Like, brain burn-in aside, pad wear is an enormous variable for this kind of stuff, and can absolutely change the FR at your eardrum. SO functionally, that is a kind of burn-in. It’s just unlikely to ever be from the driver, which is what it typically gets attributed to.
Also, re the tube amp thing, in the case of the Elex, I expect that headphone to get much warmer, given tube amps typically have higher output impedance and the elex has an impedance bump in the low frequencies.
So none of this stuff is witchcraft, and if we’re talking about tangible differences that aren’t just localized to the psychoacoustic layer, there cause is always measurable.
I will be the first to admit that I don’t have a scientific mind when it comes to audio, I don’t understand graph’s and I don’t use EQ. But I’m trying to learn how it all works and watching your reviews is the closest I’ve come to it. I kind of enjoy the mystery of it all as a hobby. I still don’t understand many thing’s in this hobby which aren’t purely subjective, that’s probably why I have a collection of headphones, both kept and given away. I’m wondering though if there are can’s that I didn’t give enough of a chance, whether that was through brain burn-in, pad swapping, different dac/amp combo’s or even EQ. I feel like my next venture in this hobby is to follow the scientific path to learn more of what I love about it. I’ll say though that it’s a real struggle for me. It’s almost not fun to de-mystify it, but it’s the next logical step. I took your advice from the review, which somehow I forgot a lot of it, and got the Yaxi pads. And these turned from a headphone that I was trying really hard to like and get used to into one that is instantly excellent.
