With the earbud scene catching up in the east, a lot of independent earbud artists have evolved, most of them hand-making their gems.
Moonbuds are one such buds made by Moon Harvester of Vietnam. The Moonbuds lineup has some interesting earbuds and the Bunting is one earbud which promises TOTL performance. I suspect that they are named after the singing bird, Bunting, similar to how the top offering of Moonbuds is based on the Nightingale.
These earbuds can be exclusively purchased from facebook page of Moonbuds.
https://www.facebook.com/MoonbudsOfficial/
Build, fit and packaging
The earbuds come in a zippered pouch with Vietnam artwork on it – loved it! What more, there was a wooden case with my name etched on it – even better! There is a good amount of colourful foams included in the package – donuts and regular. The foams are of good quality, especially the full foams. You also get a nice, Moon-branded, faux leather cable organizer.
The housing is the comfortable Yuin shell, which fits me perfectly with foams on. Without foams, I don’t get a good seal on them – big ears. The shell material is of good quality and comes etched with Moonbuds logo.
The cable is always unique in the Moonbuds family and the Bunting is no different – a combination of Gold and Silver colored cables – 4-cores in total; 2 to each side. While Moon hasn’t specified the properties of the cable, I suspect they are SPC (Silver Plated Copper). The cable looks premium and has good looking, chrome colored 3.5 mm plug, Y-Splitter and cable slider. The Y-splitter and cable slider are made of metal. While they feel solid, they don’t add too much to the weight of the cable. The cable has no microphonics issue and is quite flaunt-worthy.
The quality of material is top-notch for price paid. With quality material used, the Bunting should easily last the distance.
Foam Matching
Foams are critical to get the right sound out of any earbuds and choice of foam have a greater impact on the sound signature. Foams help with seal and can be used to customize the warmth and bass on offer.
The Buntings are intended to be used with foams and by the admission of its maker, he prefers to use the Crescent with either donut foams or full foams.
Without foams – The earbud is hardly felt in the ears and they are most comfortable, but I don’t get a good seal, so the sound lacks the warmth and the treble is slightly on the higher side.
Full foams – The warmth is perfect and the treble is just right. Foams don’t impact the airiness on these, in fact foams aide to get the perfect tonal balance in these earbuds.
Donut foams – Donut foams have the same warmth as full foams, but the sound is a lot brighter and not my cup of tea.
Thin foams – Sounds like donut foams, minus some warmth.
I feel the Bunting sounds their best with full foams and the rest of the review to follow is compiled with these full foams.
So how does it sound?
Here's the setup for my evaluation - FLACs (16/44.1, 24/48 and 24/96) on my LG G6 with ES9218p DAC SOC or Tidal Hi-Fi played bit perfect through the UAPP player.
I write this in most of my reviews - the key factor that is to be considered while reading my opinion below is that earbuds may sound different to different individuals based on the shape and size of your ears and how the earbuds fit and how they are positioned and your hearing sensitivity itself.
So, with all that said, let's get into the actual performance of the Bunting.
Moon Harvester recommends a burn-in period of 70 hours for these earbuds and my buds have more than that on them.
A lot of people use the term TOTL sound quite often, especially when it comes to handmade earbuds. So I was quite curious how TOTL sounds, so when Moon offered me a discount for the review piece, I quickly grabbed on to it. And boy, I must say, the Bunting delivers what it promises.
The very first test track is the humble
September Song by
Agnes Obel, which most earbuds struggle to get it right. You need a fast bass response to render the quick notes of the lower octave and a clean mids to handle the higher octave. The Bunting gets it right – notes have the right attack and decay and shows a good amount of dynamism as well. Overall the track was enjoyable on the Bunting.
Throw a song like
Saturdays by
Twin Shadow, you get satisfying drum beats, great texture on the bass, clean and airy highs on the triangles. Amidst all this, the vocals stand apart and shine through. I may not be able to put the satisfaction that the Bunting delivers on the track in words, but this track just comes alive on the Bunting. A smidge more warmth would have been orgasmic, but the amount of dynamism from these tiny drivers are superb.
Vicious Delicious is as delicious as it can get – great texture on the synths that span over a range of frequencies, accompanied by nice weight on the kicks. Notes are in and out before they can linger in your mind. You may feel that your brain is playing catchup to the speed and dynamism shown by the Bunting on this track by
Infected Mushroom. The width on offer is excellent as well. Nothing to complain, just sit back and enjoy the performance.
The bass the just the right quantity (though I sometimes wanted 5% more), but the bass quality is just too perfect – cannot ask for more. Mids are on a different level altogether – they are neither too forward, nor recessed – right where they ought to be (well, according to my preference). Even on a track like
Way too long by
Bent Knee, the vocals of Jessica Kion’s vocals shine through amongst the ride cymbals, overdriven guitar, snare drums around the 3:30 mark. There is no bass bleed into the mids and the vocals are clean as ever.
Tracy Chapman never sounded better on her
Fast Car track. The track just comes alive at the 2-minute mark when the drums, guitar and cymbals come together and amidst all this, Tracy Chapman’s voice is as clean and clear as it could – sounds beautiful.
Layering is exquisite too - be it a simple one like
Tiny Monsters by
Puscifer or
Madness by
Muse or
Caribbean Blue by
Enya, the Bunting has enough space to distinguish between each layer of music without any overlap whatsoever.
With the nice soundstage width on offer, combined with amazing separation between instruments and clean, realistic vocals, the Bunting is just perfect for
Steely Dan tracks.
Aja cannot be anymore beautiful on a such a tiny driver – crisp, sparkly cymbals with a quick decay, impactful drums and an excellent texture on the saxophone and the bass guitar, you are placed right in the middle of the band at around the 4:45 mark. The rendering of the highs is just too perfect around the 7-minute mark – cymbals and triangles in all their glory accompanied with great, impactful drums. I guess I should stop my review right here – it cannot get any more perfect.
So what do I do, I indulge in some guilty pleasure with some of my favorite
A.R. Rahman tracks:
-
Narumugaiye from
Iruvar,
-
Thee Thee from
Thiruda Thiruda,
-
Aao Balma from his Coke Studio performance
-
Chanchan (Aao Re Sakhi) from the soundtrack of
Water.
Each track sounds better than the previous, but
Thee Thee is a totally different experience – so dynamic and full of life.
Conclusion
Moon Harvester told me that the Bunting offers TOTL sound and is almost as good as
Nightingale, which he claims his best. Bunting sings its heart out and delivers everything that was promised. If Bunting is just his side act and not the finale, I am now left wondering how great is the Nightingale is in that case.