Moon Audio IEM Silver Dragon

After a year of listening to my Shure SE846s, I upgraded to Silver Dragon cables. Money well spent since my music's soundstage, clarity, and imaging (hearing instruments distinctly in space) was astonishingly better. I know there are non-believers. People who think upgrading cables doesn't do anything but bleed money from easily taken unsuspecting idiots.

I'm friends with Drew and Nichole and live somewhat near their office in Cary, NC. They let me listen to gear I can't afford. I didn't think to upgrade my IEMs until Drew suggested it. His suggestion came as I was thinking about spending several thousand I didn't have to improve my headphones. Thus Drew saved me money while costing Moon Audio a big sale.

I didn't have the money because for the two years between adding Silver Dragon cables to my SE846s and finally upgrading by buying Shure KSE1500s I was having chemo. Chemo chairs are the loneliest chairs in the world. Music via my better-sounding SE846s IEMs helped get me through a TOUGH time.

I've purchased a lot of audio gear over the years, I understand the "used car salesman" audio BS others may have suffered having given at that particular store more than once. Drew, Moon-Audio and Silver Dragons are not that. They are good, generous people whose Silver Dragon cables made my Shure SE846s sound better.

I have chronic leukemia so who knows when it comes back. Between now and then music is a must and my music sounds better thanks to Silver Dragon, Blue Dragon (what I use now see picture), Moon Audio, and Drew. I won't buy audio gear anywhere except the Moon (period, full stop).

Martin
PS. I shared a picture of how I listen to music at UNC Lineberger cancer center now - iPad, cck/usb (Silver Dragon), Hugo DAC, Blue Dragon cables into Shure SKE1500s. Sounds EPIC and isolates me from the noise, confusion, and chaos all around.

Indeed, I also upgraded to a balanced cable and it definitely sounds better.

Moon Audio Silver Dragon IEM.

Got this cable about a year and a half ago. About couple months ago, it was starting to cut out on both my westone W60 and W80, send it in to Drew, asking to replace MMCX connector (I was willing to pay for it since it was out of warranty) almost TWO weeks later, recieved the cable back. They dint fix a dang thing, the sound was still cutting out! when I try to removed it, this bit camed off, and he blame it on my W80 female socket tolerance as being "off", charge me 40$ to fix this or 25% off on a new cable. All my other cables there is NO cutout, none whatsoever, so its not my IEM or the MMCX connector itself.

I'm pretty pissed, to think I was going to purchased a copper cable from them. Point is, I will never do bussiness with them, I'm talking to Ted Allen and plus sound right now to get this cable fix with a better parts or soldering. If you bought stuff from them or going to buy stuff from them, beware of quality issues.

Communication from Ted and PLUSOUND is a hella lot quicker than Drew. I bet my cable wont take 2 weeks to return either.

After reading several reviews on Headfi, it seems people are getting the same experience. Please dont buy from this company, dont support a company that blame your CANs for its failure.

UPDATE: send my cable to plussound, got it back today, connection is really tight and fitting, PLUSSOUND did an amazing job, not sure what kind of material they used but its really fit well with my Westone W80. There is no more cut out (what a suprise...) Moon audio has reached out to me, indeed did refund me. Whether this is a PR stunt or really trying to solve the issue with customer relations (or quality) is up for you to decide. I am really being lenient to give them a 3 star rating.

I have these exact same wires (got them a month ago), only mine are terminated for the Pono/PHA-3. This is very helpful, thanks for the post!

Dear Law87, Wanted to let you know we’ve processed a full refund for your purchase of our cables adding $25 to cover shipping costs associated with your cable order and their return to Cary, North Carolina for repair. Of course, there won't be any charges for our repairs that didn't work. Together, we worked hard to resolve the issue you correctly identified. We share your frustration! And you may have heard and felt some of that frustration. Our bad! We’ve sold more than 900 Dragon cables for Shure earphones. The vast majority have worked well, garnering positive reviews. The coupling issue you experienced happened a handful of times. Making cables capable of linking to OPH (Other People’s Headphones) means small manufacturing variations, differences that may break the critical coupling piece you noted, may impact our Dragons. We’ve sent some IEMs back to Shure receiving replacements after a long delay. We’ve tried other fixes too and wish one of those options worked for you. We’re a small company partnering with large brands like Shure to improve customers audio gear. Your listening experience didn’t improve, and it wasn’t for lack of effort by your or us. We’re engineers. We hate not being able to fix things! You are a music lover and hate not being able to hear your music. Similar repairs have worked, but your experience coupled with the handful of other similar problems has us rethinking this Dragon cable offering. Hearing negative feedback is never easy or fun but necessary. We appreciate your taking time to summarize your experience. Your feedback about communication has us working on ways to improve such as adding a page where customers can share company and customer service experiences in a public forum on our site. We should have that page up before the end of the month and it's due to your helpful feedback and guidance. We hope providing a refund while sharing ways we’ll improve provides some satisfaction. We aren’t satisfied. Our life’s mission is building, hacking and fixing headphones and audio gear. Getting elbows deep in the guts of emerging sound technology is our love, passion, and livelihood. Your note gave our small team a lot to think about, learn from, and create change around. Thank you. Please let Nichole or I know if the extra added doesn’t fully cover your shipping costs from your beautiful home island. Money back doesn’t provide the same satisfaction as better sound. We know and make a final promise. We’re in your debt. If there is a way we can make your listening experience better please let me know. I answer Drew(at)Moon-Audio.com personally and will be glad to hear from you. Consider any reasonable future request granted as our way of THANKING YOU for helping us face a hard truth - we didn’t fix this one. We’ll do better. Thanks, Drew ---Drew BairdFounder & Chief EngineerMoon-Audio.com

I have two of the silver dragon cables. One for my $1000 IEMs and one for my $1400 Senheisser. I purchased from Moon Audio because the vendor was at an audio show and a couple other vendors said that the folks at Moon Audio are straight shooters.

I think the people at Moon Audio have good opinions, audio taste and good ears. They also resell some good name-brand electronics. But, each of my two silver dragons has been sent in 1x for service. Each had problems with the connectors. Each time, Moon Audio blamed me for the problem and reluctantly repaired the cables. The second cable was repaired and it came back in worse condition and they blamed me once again. I did myself a favor and purchased the replacement connector on-line and did the repair myself. Problem solved. It sounds better too. I'm not interested in doing business with cranky people. I put Moon Audio on my junk e-mail filter.

I've been upgrading my electronics and now know I need to upgrade to a serious cable. I am also developing the opinion that I can build a better cable than the silver dragon for a fraction of the cost.

Moon Audio has an aggressive weekly e-mail campaign. I have asked to be removed three times. Maybe this review will get the job done.

Now im not so shure if i should get a moon audio silver dragon for my se846 or, go with ted - headphonelounge.com , to have a silver litz custom cables. so guys, what did you guys think of it?

Moon audio is over priced and rude on phone.Drew has an attitude that he's thinks he's right 100 percent of the time. And the Silver dragon is over rated high end is distorted and pins break easy. End of story.

Whiplash cable is one of the best and great service from Craig in upstate NY!! Thank you.

Here's my email thread with Drew. You decide for yourself if my comments are unwarranted.

Comment: I bought a set of Silver Dragons for my SE535s about a year ago. I use them about once a month when flying so they are still in virtually new condition but the connector with the red dot isnt working properly. The connection clicks and mates with the IEM but there is a problem where the wires connect to the connector. I've reversed left and right and have isolated the issue to the connector with the red dot and am absolutely certain the problem is with the wires leading to the connector because wiggling the wire works temporarily. How can I get them fixed? Thanks Howard Olsen
Reply:

It looks like you have broken the wire somewhere in the connector, maybe accidental yank. Manufacturing defects are covered under a 1 year warranty. Wear and tear is not covered. Manufacturing defects typically happen in the first month or less. Our IEM Headphone cables use Plastic Injection Molded Connectors for the IEM side of the cable. These are not off the shelf connectors. They require a Plastic Injection machine which is quite expensive to operate. We have to produce these cable in batches of hundreds. Thus we can not mold just one cable at a time as it is not cost effective. So repairing the IEM connector is not possible. If your cable is less than 1 year old and you are the original purchaser we can swap out your cable for a new one for 50% off the cost of a new cable plus shipping. If the issue is on the amp side connection, this more easily repaired. These are off the shelf connectors. And is usually a small fee or no fee depending on the issue. Since it is on the IEM side and a little out of warranty, I will still offer the 50% off replacement. So total would be $92.50 for a new cable shipped.
My Response I have to admit I’m more than quite disappointed. I’ve used those cables maybe a dozen times and you wont even find any soil on them. I treat everything I own with respect and care including those cables which due to their cost have been treated with kitt gloves. Please return the damaged cables which I believe to be a defect and not a result of mis-treatment to me and thanks for nothing. Comment
For Cables that cost close to $200 I dont think that counts at decent customer service.

Somehow I cant respond to comments, but YES. You are correct That was the response when I sent them the cables.

Interesting post. They are assuming a lot. Blaming you for the problem when you explained that you have only used them twelve times. Can you confirm that you returned the cables and this their position when they inspected them?

I purchased this cable with the connection type to fit my Westone UM Pro 50 IEMs. My UM Pro 50 IEMs already delivered great sound with the stock cable, but I wondered if it could be improved even more. With the promise of good reviews here and elsewhere I also purchased this cable. When it arrived I attached this new cable, but I noticed a few things in doing so. The connectors on the cable that plug into the IEMs are made of metal and there are some rough edges still left on the surface from the casting of them. These rough edges affect the comfort level of using these cables, since the rough edges rub against your ears. These cables are also heavy, which is to be expected of this kind of cable. However this added weight combined with the rough cast metal connectors makes long term use of these cables fatiguing to the ears. With the stock cable of my Westone UM Pro 50 IEMs, I could use my IEMs all day long with no fatigue or discomfort. With the Silver Dragons I could only use them for several hours at most. I realize that most people will not be inconvenienced by this, but for professionals who use these for longer intervals this is an issue.

The other thing I noticed when installing this replacement cable was that the left and right channel connectors did not have the same fit. The connector for the right channel has a very tight fit and does not wiggle at all or even swivel. The fit was so tight that I did not notice any snap to confirm a proper connection, so I wondered if it was connected. The connector for the left channel though is quite loose and wiggles significantly, to the point to where it felt like it would fall off. It plugged in with so little pressure that I wondered if it was really connected even though it snapped into place. When it swivels and moves I can hear static and audio distortions in the audio in my left ear. I tried reversing the channel cables with the left and right IEMs to see whether this was due to the cable or the IEMs themselves and this showed that it was because of the connectors on the cables, not because of the IEMs. Thus even though I did appreciate the improved audio fidelity from these cables, the static and distortions resulting from poor quality assurance ruined my experience. In the end I decided to use the stock cables for their superior comfort and lack of static and distortion. About a week after I purchased my cable they sent me an email requesting feedback and positive reviews. By then I had enough listening experience to respond and I politely inquired if these issues I mentioned were customary for their cables, to which (now two months later) I still have received no reply. Now I can boast that I have the most expensive spare cable collecting dust in my spare cable drawer. Until Moon Audio improves their quality assurance and customer service I cannot recommend this cable to anyone.

I got my Silver Dragon in a trade, and am really loving it. I will probably come back to do a more in-depth explanation of the differences I hear on my UM3X between the stock EPIC cable and the SD.

For now, suffice to say I am definitely impressed by the construction. The cable is thick and obviously sturdy, but also very flexible and soft. All of the strain reliefs and connecting points also feel strong and are flexible where they need to be. Despite the lack of memory wire, the cable tucks snugly behind my ears and doesn't give me any problems.

I do hear some changes in the sound that I cant just ignore. The bass feels lighter and tighter, and treble is much more prominent. The overall sound feels less thick, and the soundstage seems noticeably wider; listening through my HRT Microstreamer, my UM3X made me believe that rumbling thunder in The Magic Flute was coming from outside; I've never experienced that before when listening with the stock cable, or any IEM, as a matter of fact.

Overall I'm loving the Silver Dragon and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to other UM3X owners; I got a good deal in a trade, and, being a lowly retail drone, wouldn't have purchased it at the retail of $185, but if you have that kind of cash and want a lighter, tighter, wider sound from your UM3X, give it a shot and see what your ears tell you.

Moon Audio IEM Silver Dragon

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