Another interesting bud from the far east and this time it’s the Moonbuds Nightingale from Vietnam. I had reviewed the Moonbuds Bunting earlier and given it a full 5-star. Being the ultimate TOTL in the Moonbuds range, does the Nightingale match up to the Bunting or do a 1-up? Read on!.
These earbuds can be exclusively purchased from facebook page of Moonbuds.
https://www.facebook.com/MoonbudsOfficial/
These buds are loaned to me by a friend for the review, so these are officially not mine, unless I choose not to return these back to him
.
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 the buyers 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 organiser.
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 Nightingale comes in white colored shells by default with markings for left and right. The buyer went for custom shell colors – red and black. Looks like the red was painted over a white shell; both shell don’t have the marking for left and right. With the regular build, you shouldn’t have this issue.
The cable is always unique in the Moonbuds family and the Nightingale is no different – a combination of Gold and Silver colored cables – 4-cores in total; 2 to each side. The cable of the Nightingale looks better than the ones in the Bunting and Moon has confirmed that it is of better “quality”. While he hasn’t specified the properties of the cable, I suspect they are SPC (Silver Plated Copper). The cable looks premium and has good looking, black colored, Nightingale branded 3.5 mm plug. The Y-Splitter is of carbon fiber texture, while the cable slider is just a fancy, non-functional, jewel ball. Overall the cable is quite light and has no microphonics issue and is quite flaunt-worthy.
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.
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, but the highs are still quite manageable.
Full foams – I feel they are too warm with full foams, while the sparkle and brilliance in the highs take a hit. Also, the mids have a veil on them.
Donut foams – The warmth is same as full foams, but the mids and highs are much better. However, I don’t like the tonal balance with the donut foams
Thin foams – Just the right warmth while letting the mids and highs shine without any issues. Sadly thin foams are not include with the package.
I feel the Nightingale sounds their best with thin foams and the rest of the review to follow is compiled with these thin foams.
So how does it sound?
The following combinations were used to evaluate the musicality of these buds (all files were FLACs - 16/44.1, 24/48 and 24/96)
The Nightingale has an impedance of 16 ohm and good sensitivity and doesn’t require too much power to drive and sounds good from my LG G6 directly while using its ES9218P SoC. The iFi has better crosstalk and showcases better channel separation and a wider soundstage, while having a slightly extended bass (compared to the LG G6)
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 and finally the source setup itself.
Moon Harvester recommends a burn-in period of 70 hours for these earbuds and I always ensure that the buds have more than recommended burn-in period on them prior to the review.
Before I start the review, I would like to say that these earbuds are a loaner from a friend of mine and not purchased by me. Hence, I do not have any sentimental attachment to the product driving the review.
The Nightingale is warm sounding with good control on the bass texture. Turn on Flight of the cosmic Hippo by Béla Fleck, you are presented with a platter of bass frequencies that range from 40Hz to 300Hz presented with conviction by the Nightingale. A very clean presentation of the guitar in the mid frequencies along with nice levels of brilliance on the cymbals. Travis Scott’s Stargazing has some interesting bass lines with oodles of texture – presented well by the Nightingale. While the vocals are rendered well, the extra warmth on the bass doesn’t give them enough space to stand apart – the vocals are slightly forward but not as enagaging, as it was in the case of the Bunting. The upper mids have more presence and the claps are slightly aggressive. The sound stage is good overall.
Moving on to Seinabo Sey’s I owe you nothing, the first thing that is immediately noticeably is the excellent soundstage on the Nightingale – wider than usual with a good amount of depth. While Seinabo’s vocals are rendered well, the texture leaves you a wanting more. This is the only weakness of the Nightingale. It is not that mids lack texture, but at this level you expect very engaging mids. There is a good amount of speed and texture on offer at both the lower and mid frequencies as seen on Infected Mushroom’s Vicious Delicious. The extra width perception of the soundstage makes this track a brilliant listen on the Nightingale, especially at the 3:35 mark when the track goes ballistic, the entire spectrum comes alive and sounds great – a really capable driver.
Going to my ever dependable review track – Madness by Muse, it confirms everything that was observed so far – highly energetic electronic drums in the upper mids, well rendered vocals, good texture on the bass synth. The layering is rendering quite well – there is enough to distinguish between the multiple layers of music post the 3:30 mark. The only issue is that vocals appear slightly cramped for space due to the extra warm upper bass frequencies.
To appreciate the excellent soundstage on the Nightingale, you should try the tracks from 70s and 80s which heavily relied on stereo in their presentation. One such track is Lady in Cement of the late 60’s by Hugo Montenegro. The sound stage width and depth are exquisite on the Nightingale. The ride cymbals are not that prominent on the track, but the Nightingale has enough extension to bring out the details. Instrument separation is quite good too.
Conclusion
Moonbuds have quite an interesting lineup with the Nightingale as the top of the offering and it does offer top-notch audio experience with its impressive sound stage and imaging. I still prefer the Bunting over it though, especially owing to the lustrous mids showcased by the Bunting.
These earbuds can be exclusively purchased from facebook page of Moonbuds.
https://www.facebook.com/MoonbudsOfficial/
These buds are loaned to me by a friend for the review, so these are officially not mine, unless I choose not to return these back to him
.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 the buyers 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 organiser.
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 Nightingale comes in white colored shells by default with markings for left and right. The buyer went for custom shell colors – red and black. Looks like the red was painted over a white shell; both shell don’t have the marking for left and right. With the regular build, you shouldn’t have this issue.
The cable is always unique in the Moonbuds family and the Nightingale is no different – a combination of Gold and Silver colored cables – 4-cores in total; 2 to each side. The cable of the Nightingale looks better than the ones in the Bunting and Moon has confirmed that it is of better “quality”. While he hasn’t specified the properties of the cable, I suspect they are SPC (Silver Plated Copper). The cable looks premium and has good looking, black colored, Nightingale branded 3.5 mm plug. The Y-Splitter is of carbon fiber texture, while the cable slider is just a fancy, non-functional, jewel ball. Overall the cable is quite light and has no microphonics issue and is quite flaunt-worthy.
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.
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, but the highs are still quite manageable.
Full foams – I feel they are too warm with full foams, while the sparkle and brilliance in the highs take a hit. Also, the mids have a veil on them.
Donut foams – The warmth is same as full foams, but the mids and highs are much better. However, I don’t like the tonal balance with the donut foams
Thin foams – Just the right warmth while letting the mids and highs shine without any issues. Sadly thin foams are not include with the package.
I feel the Nightingale sounds their best with thin foams and the rest of the review to follow is compiled with these thin foams.
So how does it sound?
The following combinations were used to evaluate the musicality of these buds (all files were FLACs - 16/44.1, 24/48 and 24/96)
- LG G6 as source playing bit perfect through the UAPP player in USB out mode with the iFi Nano iDSD BL DacAmp.
- Tidal app on my laptop to play bit-perfect thru the iFi Nano BL.
- Foobar2000 on my laptop to play bit-perfect via ASIO thru iFi Nano BL.
The Nightingale has an impedance of 16 ohm and good sensitivity and doesn’t require too much power to drive and sounds good from my LG G6 directly while using its ES9218P SoC. The iFi has better crosstalk and showcases better channel separation and a wider soundstage, while having a slightly extended bass (compared to the LG G6)
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 and finally the source setup itself.
Moon Harvester recommends a burn-in period of 70 hours for these earbuds and I always ensure that the buds have more than recommended burn-in period on them prior to the review.
Before I start the review, I would like to say that these earbuds are a loaner from a friend of mine and not purchased by me. Hence, I do not have any sentimental attachment to the product driving the review.
The Nightingale is warm sounding with good control on the bass texture. Turn on Flight of the cosmic Hippo by Béla Fleck, you are presented with a platter of bass frequencies that range from 40Hz to 300Hz presented with conviction by the Nightingale. A very clean presentation of the guitar in the mid frequencies along with nice levels of brilliance on the cymbals. Travis Scott’s Stargazing has some interesting bass lines with oodles of texture – presented well by the Nightingale. While the vocals are rendered well, the extra warmth on the bass doesn’t give them enough space to stand apart – the vocals are slightly forward but not as enagaging, as it was in the case of the Bunting. The upper mids have more presence and the claps are slightly aggressive. The sound stage is good overall.
Moving on to Seinabo Sey’s I owe you nothing, the first thing that is immediately noticeably is the excellent soundstage on the Nightingale – wider than usual with a good amount of depth. While Seinabo’s vocals are rendered well, the texture leaves you a wanting more. This is the only weakness of the Nightingale. It is not that mids lack texture, but at this level you expect very engaging mids. There is a good amount of speed and texture on offer at both the lower and mid frequencies as seen on Infected Mushroom’s Vicious Delicious. The extra width perception of the soundstage makes this track a brilliant listen on the Nightingale, especially at the 3:35 mark when the track goes ballistic, the entire spectrum comes alive and sounds great – a really capable driver.
Going to my ever dependable review track – Madness by Muse, it confirms everything that was observed so far – highly energetic electronic drums in the upper mids, well rendered vocals, good texture on the bass synth. The layering is rendering quite well – there is enough to distinguish between the multiple layers of music post the 3:30 mark. The only issue is that vocals appear slightly cramped for space due to the extra warm upper bass frequencies.
To appreciate the excellent soundstage on the Nightingale, you should try the tracks from 70s and 80s which heavily relied on stereo in their presentation. One such track is Lady in Cement of the late 60’s by Hugo Montenegro. The sound stage width and depth are exquisite on the Nightingale. The ride cymbals are not that prominent on the track, but the Nightingale has enough extension to bring out the details. Instrument separation is quite good too.
Conclusion
Moonbuds have quite an interesting lineup with the Nightingale as the top of the offering and it does offer top-notch audio experience with its impressive sound stage and imaging. I still prefer the Bunting over it though, especially owing to the lustrous mids showcased by the Bunting.
