Intro:
Basic introduction before I start I got these moondrop Stellaris along with the 7hz timeless on sale during black Friday I have tested many closed-back headphones 50+ I only own 7 though and some open-back headphones 20+ own 1 I have however only tested 6 IEMs all of which I own except the moondrop chu's that seemed to break. as I am new to head-fi and reviewing IEM's I might do things a little differently. But with that being said lets begin.
The Good:
I gotta start off by saying I love these IEMs honestly I do, I like the way they sound when they have been eq'ed and honestly I think they sound alright uneq'ed(as long as you are ok with slight shrapnel in your ears) these IEM's have shown me something I didn't know I wanted or needed. what was that thing? well, it was detail.let me first say that my musical taste is certainly not normal I listen to music based on the feeling and texture of the music or even how the music subjectively "tastes" to me. for example, I like a lot of music by snails house because "his music sounds how sour tastes" the noise is an adhd filled noise scape a lot of the time and this extends to a lot of Vocaloid music I listen to and the jazz I like. This is to say that a lot of music I listen to has lots of noise like
a lot of noise that mixes together and
you can't actually tell one thing apart from another. why is this important to tell you this is because this
IEM makes that chaos sound so clean and beautiful that I cannot explain to you the emotion I felt when I heard a song that had been missing its nuance or in other words detail for the first time.
these IEMs made me cry like literally cry because for once in my life I felt like I could hear the whole song. the vast majority of my library of music is extremely cheerful but there are others that are not when I listened to the album "Unhappy refrain" by wowaka on these I literally cried I could feel the deep emotions he must have had in mind when he made something so messy and disorienting. it's something personal when the music touches you and really connects with you with something that you really understand firsthand and when I listened to it again I reconnected with the album again immediately I instantly got taken back to when I first was exposed to his music when I was in a deep depression using the Audio Technica m50, not to get too personal and not to just pour out my heart in a random online review. basically, the Stellaris brought me so much
closer to
some of the music I listen to. would it have happened without the Stellaris I don't know should I have gotten the variations instead of buying 2 iems I will never know but I certainly understand detail now.
I honestly find it difficult to articulate how that's something that's so strange sounding that these IEM's are for sure not the best audio equipment I have had, that I think the soundstage needs improvement, that the fit is terrible, that if you use the foam tip the soundstage and imaging go blurry. this iem kinda sucks but with just a little refinement you can really make it that diamond in the rough, getting that experience eq'ing because you need to but because you want to, changing the tips to find that perfect fit that makes the IEM really shine, I have to say it after listening to these I think they are not good enough these are the kind of IEM that MAKES you want to get another pair, and then another, and then when its all done you come back to these and listen just to compare.
like the second I turn on my happy songs or any song with strings that wants room in the soundstage instantly turns off don't care the sound is whatever if I wanted to listen to a soundscape I could grab my old akg k701 or even any of my closed back headphone almost any of them would beat the soundstage on this.
I grab these if I want to listen to a soundhell, a bunch of noises that give the song texture and weight.
ok so now that I have over-explained in 6 paragraphs what the single thing these IEM's are good at let me tell you why you might not want one
The Bad:
Honesty I don't know where to start, I swear most of the first part were actually bad things that via sunk cost fallacy have made me think are good. it's crazy they made something with this much technical detail under the layers and layers of less-than-ideal things.
Maybe we start with probably the worst part in my opinion the fit, they do not fit in my ears my ear canals are kind of too small but they are passable. this was a major pain point since I had trouble with listening and after hours of fiddling and finding out which tip let the sound really come out of the Stellaris and I eventually surpassed its major design flaw. the deep fit is awful and I don't think they can't get much worse than this but obviously, I don't have that much experience with IEMs so maybe it can be worse. the next part of this is that the shells are heavy they are possibly heavier than most over-ears headphones comfort is something that drove me to over-ears, to begin with, and that ended with me wanting something
lighter, not
heavier.
Ok, the next problem to talk about these actually needs some power to use, on other peoples recommendation I got the apple dongle but for USB c at max volume, it sounds just fine enough but I would really like the option for more sound but that's fine that's what my portable dac/amp is for great now I have to connect to a dongle into the amp into the IEM. wow how convenient and not cumbersome.
alright so at this point you have the IEM and yeah you carry the amp with you they are heavy on your ears and fatiguing in two different ways let's talk about
The 2k spike I am by no means an eq master or tuning manic I literally think the tuning craze that people are on to usually be unjustified but the spike here is meaningless I cannot tell why it exists I cannot tell what it makes sound better I can't why is it there alright so in addition to the other stuff you have to either add a physical filter or eq
ok so you fix all of this it's perfectly tuned now you have all the gear you need to really drive this thing you have everything you would want and you listen to them and compare them to 7hz timeless or compare them to literally anything with better soundstage and you realize how the soundstage is only marginally better than the 20$ iems and you think wow I want a slight upgrade it would be nice if it was just a tiny bit better, I say this in my timeless review but the soundstage sounds roughly 2cm away from my head side to side and about 8cm in height but you might read my timeless review and say but the timeless is only 2cm more than this that's only a tiny amount 2cm is almost an inch don't tell me an inch is meaningless, lest an inch be taken from you.
after all that I don't think there are that many other negatives overall if none of that dissuades you, I'm telling you absolutely get one just to try it out it's your money but I absolutely got my money's worth a nice mention is they came with the tips I now also use on the timeless.
Tuning:
It's alright I guess some extra boost in the low end would be nice as well but honestly, everyone likes it a little differently realistically your perfect sound exists but honestly, I don't feel like stock tuning has stopped me before even the stock 2k spike is alright in my opinion, even perfectly flat is fine with me.
I'll let someone way more qualified or knowledgeable talk about this I read a lot of reviews before buying so I knew what I was getting into I honestly don't care about the tuning too much.
Technicals:
Other people often talk about tuning when talking about an IEM I think although its something important I don't think any person actually thinks tuning is more important than technicals, despite these most reviewers spend over 80% of the review on the tuning and only 20% on what in my opinion what they should care about why would you buy a 2000$ IEM if only tuning mattered just eq a lesser but similar set. it makes no sense to me and they don't even separate out the different categories alot of the time, for me the 2 I have learned to distinguish well, especially between the timeless and Stellaris are detail and stage.
So let's talk about the "star" of the show
Detail:
detail is amazing on the Stellaris even when two distortion guitars are playing you can hear them strum and hear all of the resonance of the distortion it's amazing frankly this is probably going to be the basis at which I judge detail and let me tell you I do not think thing are going to pass after this their detail is significantly better than every on-ear with tiny exceptions I don't even need to compare them to the timeless I came into this thinking the timeless would beat the Stellaris slightly in every category its more expensive after all but the detail does not even come close what sounds like just distortion on the timeless has full body and detail meaning a distortion sound effect becomes a full guitar strumming fading notes become bright drops of light, plucks of the string and more are made fully present. this is only present in incredibly messy mixes something that isn't exactly common
youtube music
youtube
some of the songs used to test the detail others were part of "unhappy refrain" by wowaka flac that I have on pc and various Vocaloid songs artists like kikuo even songs you don't expect to have huge detail have moments where you cannot believe the detail that is presented to you, it's not always clear which means there is room to go for detail for sure but I'm not sure where the price tag for something like that would sit compared to this
Soundstage and imaging:
This is where the Stellaris suffers the most compared to the timeless and its lower-cost siblings don't get me wrong it's better than most of the lower-cost IEM's it just does not blow me away honestly though if both the details went up and the soundstage was fixed this would easily be a blind buy even with its flaws honestly the price I would pay for something with a stellar soundstage on par with the closed backs I use and the detail without the fit and heft would be crazy I tend not to spend more than 400$ on audio gear the diminishing returns are extreme past a certain point but a few tweaks and improvements to soundstage maybe the Stellaris 2 can be my "endgame" as some would call it. my testing music is linked below
YouTube music
Youtube
Conclusion:
Even with all its flaws I can't help but love this IEM, do I think you should go out and buy one? probably not if you don't listen to chaotic mixes, but for people who do? they know what they should do. make sure they fit well or the soundstage is terrible and suffers, even more, I don't recommend the foam tips honestly. anyways I think I've said everything I really can about these wonderful detail monsters. note that everything I say is subjective if you have a 500$ IEM my review probably doesn't apply to you anyways.
thanks for reading, wishing all a happy holidays
A real unexpected adventure from this box