[4ceratops]

I get the consensus is to get the 32 plus, but that doesn't tell me about the differences. Someone on reddit /headphones reviewed the non plus and the plus and he likes the non plus better. Plus just has better bass but mids and highs are worse. So that seems to me the plus is for bass heads? https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/nv6f0h/ry4s_mmcx_review/

I personally own only 32 Ohm Plus and 300 Ohm. I like the tuning of the 32 Ohm Plus much better (cleaner bass, better, more detailed mids, and overall much more natural sounding compared to the 300 Ohm, even after connecting them to a desktop amp). I haven't tried the basic 32 Ohm version yet, someone else could comment on its comparison with the 32 Ohm Plus...

 

[Stevehamny]

Just built mt877's Artiste Nightingale buds and these are so ridiculously good for small-ensemble classical and jazz. Much appreciation to the creator for sharing these with the community!

(The octopus is guarding them not so much to prevent theft but to make sure you don't open them and see what a hack job I did on the soldering.)

 

[FranQL]

I get the consensus is to get the 32 plus, but that doesn't tell me about the differences. Someone on reddit /headphones reviewed the non plus and the plus and he likes the non plus better. Plus just has better bass but mids and highs are worse. So that seems to me the plus is for bass heads? https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/nv6f0h/ry4s_mmcx_review/

IMO the no plus is a pretty sterile and boring bud, but I guess the reddit person has their own tastes.

 

[PeacockObscura]

Just been listening to the Lrey Aurora and M03pro with the Sony Zx707 uncapped Japanese version and they really sound fantastic I might have to play with some different foamscthough as they ones on are a little course and irritated my ears.

 

[ttorbic]

Just been listening to the Lrey Aurora and M03pro with the Sony Zx707 uncapped Japanese version and they really sound fantastic I might have to play with some different foamscthough as they ones on are a little course and irritated my ears.

Hiegi foams are super soft, although a bit dense (they are similar to the stock white ones on the Aurora).

 

[NotTheJohn]

My Moondrop U2 just arrived! Going to put them through their paces and try and share some impressions here.

 

[mt877]

Just built mt877's Artiste Nightingale buds and these are so ridiculously good for small-ensemble classical and jazz. Much appreciation to the creator for sharing these with the community!


(The octopus is guarding them not so much to prevent theft but to make sure you don't open them and see what a hack job I did on the soldering.)

Hack job on the soldering or not, excellent build and congrats! I tried that driver with a couple different metal shells and I was stunned with the final driver / shell combination. I'm glad your build of the Artiste Nightingale buds came out great and sound "ridiculously good". Might encourage others to build a set for themselves.

 

[NotTheJohn]

My Moondrop U2 just arrived! Going to put them through their paces and try and share some impressions here.

Alright, went through a decent selection of songs both with the stock foams and without foams. Apologies in advance if this is hard to follow, I was pretty much writing down my thoughts as they came to me. Let me summarize the notes I took...

Spoiler: Test songs/source equipment

Songs listened to, in order:
Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone
Cheap Trick - Mighty Wings
Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump
Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy
Radiohead - 15 Step
Yosi Horikawa - Bubbles
Mr. Oizo - Positif
Blank Banshee - Scud
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Motor Spirit
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Nuclear Fusion
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
Harold Faltermeyer, Steve Stevens - Top Gun Anthem
Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Source chain:
Roon -> JDS Labs Element III MK2 -> Moondrop U2

All DSP was disabled in Roon. Volume as set on the Element III ranged from -43.0dB to -41.0dB throughout my testing as I settled on a comfortable listening volume.

Fit/Comfort: Good both with the foams and without. Obviously a little looser without the foams, but they never felt like they were going to fall out or anything. I ended up fiddling with the fit of the left ear a handful of times, but that easily could've been due to my ears and not necessarily the U2 themselves. I've historically had a pretty difficult time with in-ear headphone fit in general.

Sound (stock foams): My initial impression was noticing some instruments/vocals being weirdly suppressed, almost muffled sounding? In particular some of the guitars and vocals from Danger Zone. By contrast, the drums sounded nice and clear. (Drum clarity was something I consistently noticed throughout my testing, across many tracks.) It wasn't necessarily consistent, as I noticed that the clarity was better with Mighty Wings. Could have been my ears adjusting to the U2, though. Bass was pretty solid. Not a ton of impact, but there were small hints of sub bass, such as some of the deep bass tones in Shake Your Rump. Soundstage is fairly narrow, but there's some pretty distinct channel separation going on. It sort of hit an interesting territory where stuff would either be mostly towards the center but sometimes I'd hear something all the way out on the far left and right sides. Detail retrieval is pretty good, and it never felt fatiguing to listen to. There's a lot of clarity to be heard even despite my mixed first impression.

Sound (no foams): Taking the foams off and listening to the same songs, I immediately noticed there was way more treble energy. To be expected, I suppose. The extra emphasis there helped hide some of the "muffled" things I was noticing on my initial listen with the foams. Bass definitely subdued too, those hints of sub bass I noticed earlier were almost gone without the foams. Otherwise very similar and still a solid performer.


I don't think they're going to redefine the price bracket but they're pretty well rounded and a promising return to the earbud form factor from Moondrop. Those who like lots of treble will want to give them a listen with foams off, but I think foams on was a little closer to my preferences. I've got both solid and donut foams from Hiegi I can try, so I may do some more experimenting with them soon.

 

[h8uthemost]

Just built mt877's Artiste Nightingale buds and these are so ridiculously good for small-ensemble classical and jazz. Much appreciation to the creator for sharing these with the community!


(The octopus is guarding them not so much to prevent theft but to make sure you don't open them and see what a hack job I did on the soldering.)

Now these would be right up my alley as I'm a jazz/chamber fan. I actually might look into these being my first build.

Alright, went through a decent selection of songs both with the stock foams and without foams. Apologies in advance if this is hard to follow, I was pretty much writing down my thoughts as they came to me. Let me summarize the notes I took...

Spoiler: Test songs/source equipment

Songs listened to, in order:
Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone
Cheap Trick - Mighty Wings
Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump
Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy
Radiohead - 15 Step
Yosi Horikawa - Bubbles
Mr. Oizo - Positif
Blank Banshee - Scud
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Motor Spirit
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Nuclear Fusion
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
Harold Faltermeyer, Steve Stevens - Top Gun Anthem
Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Source chain:
Roon -> JDS Labs Element III MK2 -> Moondrop U2

All DSP was disabled in Roon. Volume as set on the Element III ranged from -43.0dB to -41.0dB throughout my testing as I settled on a comfortable listening volume.

Fit/Comfort: Good both with the foams and without. Obviously a little looser without the foams, but they never felt like they were going to fall out or anything. I ended up fiddling with the fit of the left ear a handful of times, but that easily could've been due to my ears and not necessarily the U2 themselves. I've historically had a pretty difficult time with in-ear headphone fit in general.

Sound (stock foams): My initial impression was noticing some instruments/vocals being weirdly suppressed, almost muffled sounding? In particular some of the guitars and vocals from Danger Zone. By contrast, the drums sounded nice and clear. (Drum clarity was something I consistently noticed throughout my testing, across many tracks.) It wasn't necessarily consistent, as I noticed that the clarity was better with Mighty Wings. Could have been my ears adjusting to the U2, though. Bass was pretty solid. Not a ton of impact, but there were small hints of sub bass, such as some of the deep bass tones in Shake Your Rump. Soundstage is fairly narrow, but there's some pretty distinct channel separation going on. It sort of hit an interesting territory where stuff would either be mostly towards the center but sometimes I'd hear something all the way out on the far left and right sides. Detail retrieval is pretty good, and it never felt fatiguing to listen to. There's a lot of clarity to be heard even despite my mixed first impression.

Sound (no foams): Taking the foams off and listening to the same songs, I immediately noticed there was way more treble energy. To be expected, I suppose. The extra emphasis there helped hide some of the "muffled" things I was noticing on my initial listen with the foams. Bass definitely subdued too, those hints of sub bass I noticed earlier were almost gone without the foams. Otherwise very similar and still a solid performer.


I don't think they're going to redefine the price bracket but they're pretty well rounded and a promising return to the earbud form factor from Moondrop. Those who like lots of treble will want to give them a listen with foams off, but I think foams on was a little closer to my preferences. I've got both solid and donut foams from Hiegi I can try, so I may do some more experimenting with them soon.

It sounds like foams on would be more ideal to me as I tend to learn more towards the warmer side. Since there's no gushing over these I'm gonna go ahead and wait for a sale.

Thanks for the info

 

[trevdawg94]

I finally got all of the parts to build the Artiste Nightingale by @mt877 and though I've only listened to it for a little bit I can already tell that I like what I hear. I'm going to listen to it for a while before I give my thoughts on it but I haven't been disappointed so far, thank you so much for sharing this build. The only step that gave me issues was soldering the wires to the MMCX connector, I thought soldering 2-pin sockets was bad but this was on another level. I've replaced surface mount connectors with very small pins before such as micro USB and HDMI but I would rather do one of those than solder these connectors. The combination of the small wires and curved surface with the center pin being pretty close makes not bridging that gap difficult even with a fine point soldering tip. Massive respect to all of the DIYers and custom flathead makers as it's not as easy as it may seem. Definitely going to have to look into building more earbuds, the problem now is figuring out what pieces I want to use. As if I needed another rabbit hole to go down lol.

 

[Stevehamny]

Now these would be right up my alley as I'm a jazz/chamber fan. I actually might look into these being my first build.

Yep, cannot imagine a better first build, especially if this is your music!

I finally got all of the parts to build the Artiste Nightingale by @mt877 and though I've only listened to it for a little bit I can already tell that I like what I hear. I'm going to listen to it for a while before I give my thoughts on it but I haven't been disappointed so far, thank you so much for sharing this build. The only step that gave me issues was soldering the wires to the MMCX connector, I thought soldering 2-pin sockets was bad but this was on another level. I've replaced surface mount connectors with very small pins before such as micro USB and HDMI but I would rather do one of those than solder these connectors. The combination of the small wires and curved surface with the center pin being pretty close makes not bridging that gap difficult even with a fine point soldering tip. Massive respect to all of the DIYers and custom flathead makers as it's not as easy as it may seem. Definitely going to have to look into building more earbuds, the problem now is figuring out what pieces I want to use. As if I needed another rabbit hole to go down lol.

Yes, soldering the little f'ing wires to the little f'ing MMCX connector! I know all the right steps to do, but actually executing those steps on the Lilliputian scale is another matter altogether. If I were doing it again, I would be tempted to buy an extra set of connectors with the 20mm wires already pre-soldered. (I've seen them on both Amazon and AE, and in fact I bought a pair a while ago to mod my KSC75s.) An extra few bucks to save my sanity!

 

[h8uthemost]

Yep, cannot imagine a better first build, especially if this is your music!


Yes, soldering the little f'ing wires to the little f'ing MMCX connector! I know all the right steps to do, but actually executing those steps on the Lilliputian scale is another matter altogether. If I were doing it again, I would be tempted to buy an extra set of connectors with the 20mm wires already pre-soldered. (I've seen them on both Amazon and AE, and in fact I bought a pair a while ago to mod my KSC75s.) An extra few bucks to save my sanity!

This is great to know! Member tekki-uk has a myshop/Etsy store (Hundo3D) that sells pre soldered mmcx connectors(as well as adapters to do the cable mods on the koss line, along with other mods for them). So this is going to be a huge and I'm sure irritating step that I'll be able to skip now. Anything to make my first build easier I'll take.

 

[GrammyDickles]

Heyo! I bought the Dunu Alpha 3 a month ago for work and I absolutely love them, they live in my work coat and are extremely pleasant for long listening sessions while on the clock, I want to branch out though and have some options. I think there probably isn't any real upgrades from the DA3 but what would be a good side grade(or upgrade) in the $50-200USD range? I was looking at the Fiio FF5 but want to know if there are any other good options. Currently driving with my Zenfone 9 but I will be getting a TempoTec V3 soon so that I can use my collection of FLACs directly. I listen to a little bit of everything so I tend to prefer neutral tuning but in general I'm open to experimenting.

 

[ttorbic]

Heyo! I bought the Dunu Alpha 3 a month ago for work and I absolutely love them, they live in my work coat and are extremely pleasant for long listening sessions while on the clock, I want to branch out though and have some options. I think there probably isn't any real upgrades from the DA3 but what would be a good side grade(or upgrade) in the $50-200USD range? I was looking at the Fiio FF5 but want to know if there are any other good options. Currently driving with my Zenfone 9 but I will be getting a TempoTec V3 soon so that I can use my collection of FLACs directly. I listen to a little bit of everything so I tend to prefer neutral tuning but in general I'm open to experimenting.

Hi and welcome deeper into the earbuds rabbit hole! There are plenty of upgrade options to the Alpha 3 that are within 200 USD, especially if you consider used sets. Few questions though:

- Where are you based?
- Have you tried MX500 and other shell designs?
- Music genres?
- preferred sound signature?

 

[mt877]

Now these would be right up my alley as I'm a jazz/chamber fan. I actually might look into these being my first build.

I'll give my encouragement right now. You've mentioned you're hands are shaky, please take your time and try stabilizing your hands / arms by resting them on your table when you're soldering. Practice soldering by soldering some small wires together to get a feel for soldering. You can do it and your efforts will be rewarded with an excellent sounding set of buds.

I finally got all of the parts to build the Artiste Nightingale by @mt877 and though I've only listened to it for a little bit I can already tell that I like what I hear. I'm going to listen to it for a while before I give my thoughts on it but I haven't been disappointed so far, thank you so much for sharing this build. The only step that gave me issues was soldering the wires to the MMCX connector, I thought soldering 2-pin sockets was bad but this was on another level. I've replaced surface mount connectors with very small pins before such as micro USB and HDMI but I would rather do one of those than solder these connectors. The combination of the small wires and curved surface with the center pin being pretty close makes not bridging that gap difficult even with a fine point soldering tip. Massive respect to all of the DIYers and custom flathead makers as it's not as easy as it may seem. Definitely going to have to look into building more earbuds, the problem now is figuring out what pieces I want to use. As if I needed another rabbit hole to go down lol.

Congrats on your first build! I think it's really cool that you chose the Artiste Nightingale as your first build.

Yep, cannot imagine a better first build, especially if this is your music!

Yes, soldering the little f'ing wires to the little f'ing MMCX connector! I know all the right steps to do, but actually executing those steps on the Lilliputian scale is another matter altogether. If I were doing it again, I would be tempted to buy an extra set of connectors with the 20mm wires already pre-soldered. (I've seen them on both Amazon and AE, and in fact I bought a pair a while ago to mod my KSC75s.) An extra few bucks to save my sanity!

This is great to know! Member tekki-uk has a myshop/Etsy store (Hundo3D) that sells pre soldered mmcx connectors(as well as adapters to do the cable mods on the koss line, along with other mods for them). So this is going to be a huge and I'm sure irritating step that I'll be able to skip now. Anything to make my first build easier I'll take.

I've thought about using soldering paste instead of solder wire. My thought is to dip the end of the small wires into the paste, hold the wire against the small mmcx connector and briefly touch the soldering area with the iron to flow the paste. Soldering paste is used for small SMD component soldering and might work well for this application.