MOONDROP MAY

Packaging & Accessories

For me I never really cared if the iem came in a brown box or some waifu box, to me Its all about how they SOUND and if they're comfortable. But...admittedly I do enjoy a nice unpacking experience

As you can see the box art is quite nice and almost looks like your buying a toy that can only be found overseas. The accessories are very nice imo, the case is of great quality and guess what the iems ACTUALLY fit in the case!! No way right ? No YES WAY!!

Sadly the eartips included were not designed (just an assumption) to accommodate these iems. The nozzle is quite wide on these and the eartips are meant for there other iems, not the may lol. So tip rolling is definitely a must with these!


Build Quality & Design/Isolation

This set is a very sharp looking iem and the photos online simply don't do it justice. The iems have a really nice mirror like finish and literally reflect anything. If you wear iems in public like myself, expect people to mindlessly stare at your ears but all jokes aside there really gorgeous IMO and will attract a lot of attention so if you're an attention seeker. Look no further

Isolation is good on this set although it won't be a kinera like Isolation. It has a semi ergo design and I found wider eartips to isolate better since these don't go as far in your ears (moondrop variations for ex they're LOOOOOOONG)


Sound Quality

Bass
Now when it comes to sound it's obviously very opiniated. Many may like these and many may not. It's the hobby in a nutshell. The bass is extremely well done and reminds me a lot like the variations woth better sub note extension compared to the variations It's articulate and is well textured. The sub can reach really low and you can hear & feel the lower sub notes in your music. All in all its not single noted sounding if that makes sense. The impact and slam is f-ing insane at this price point, I've never heard an iem under 200 that has this quality of bass I mean it punches wayyy above its asking price point and with tips that add bass these can become a mild basshead like set. My song of choice for this iem to test the bass was Drive The Boat by Pop Smoke and I can safely say they exceeded my expectations.

Midrange
The Mids remind me a lot of the variations but if I'm being honest it's better, there's no thin male vocals/lower mids, no weird S,F,P sounds when an artist is singing(to me the variations had a wonky mid range when it came to certain words in a song (ik sounds dumb but ik what I was hearing lol). The lower mids has a nice heft to male vocals although female vocals will take a slight prioritization in the midrange. But don't worry the balance is very well done and you'll be satisfied listening to either female or male vocals.

Treble
This is where moondrop kinda had to make a sacrifice. Now I don't mean to word it like that as it it's gonna make it seem like it's bad because no the Treble to me is really good on this set. It's just ONLY at very high volumes I guess maybe the DSP cable pushes the Treble forward a bit and at higher volumes it doesn't play as cleanly.

Sorry I got ahead of myself but the Treble listening at normal volumes and with a clean source is quite great to my ears. It's very clear, detailed and "airy" sounding. Just don't put the volume on 9999999999 and you'll be chilling

DSP Cable
You're probably wondering why the hell i made this part of the reivew but just hear me out real quick. Yes it can be used on other iems and some will pair well with them and some will sound worse. It's fun to experiment with a lot of different iems

Overall I think this is a fantastic iem. I'm not even someone who goes crazy for moondrop I mean I like them but I don't hold any bias or favoritism to a company just because of a waifu box or whatever gets people clinging to companies. But this set right here is truly a great set from them and I'd say this should be an instacop for any iem enthusiast out there. It's that good IMO!


just wanted to apologize if many don't like this review as it is my first time and yeah I suck

Thanks for reading!

Introduction:-


Hello guys today I am going to review the Moondrop May, its a DSP Iem from moondrop which has had a lot of buzz surrounding it.


I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.





This was a review unit sent by Shenzhen audio but all the thoughts and opinions are my own.

You can buy the May here (unaffiliated Link) :-

https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/moondrop-may-dd-planar-in-ear-headphone


Also just want to say that my format for this review unlike other iem reviews will be a bit different as I will cover some other tips which generally don’t come with most iems.


I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.


So Lets start!

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Review:-



1. So the outside packaging of the moondrop is beautiful as usual and it looks really fabulous. They cost $65



2. Inside the box it comes with the same case as aria 2 which is really good the iem, the dsp cable, and 3 pairs of tips.



3. the tips provided are plain awful as they don’t fit the iem and I spent literally 20-30 minutes to fit them in. So I gave up the hope and I am using the TRN t tips which fits quite easily and they have more grip to than the provided tips.



4. Now as the cable supplied is the same as the cdsp but there is a chip which says that it is the may inside the app.

5. Now talking about the overall sound. I will be talking about the stock sound with the dsp cable



6. The overall bass is really good! I love the quantity of sub-bass and the punch and thump it had.



7. The mid-bass too had a great body and doesn’t bleed. The balance between the sub-bass and mid-bass is done really well.



8. The overall tone and timbre seems really good nothing off here.



9. The overall sound signature is very well done specially for rap, r&b and hip-hop



10. Now coming to mids



11. The male vocals does take a back seat but the test track of my male vocals does sound plenty good.



12. Female vocals is where it shines at imo, although for some it could get a bit spicy here and they might find it bit more shrilly here specially at higher volumes. Like when listening to idol by yoasobi at high volumes it becomes to much sometimes.



13. The high in my opinion is quite well done and the overall balance between the upper mids and treble seems to be done really well.



14. The overall technicality seems quite good for the price. Although nothing exceptional here as the ew200 (although it is a normal 3.5mm) has good technicalities. The overall technicalities is better in the ew200 than the may



15. Soundstage is quite ok and very well rounded. It has equal amounts of width and depth.



16. Imaging too is decent and the transitioning from left to right and vice versa is quite good too.



17. Now talking about the different presets. I personally prefer the stock preset which comes out of the box as that is what suites the may best in my opinion.



18. The basshead tuning gives it even more bass and it makes it sound too dark as the already meh treble gets masked by the over arching amount of bass.



19. The reference tuning sounds ok but then again the soundstage here suffers and also the bass becomes quite limp over here



20. The no bass tuning Is exactly what is and gives a flat bass



21. The harman style is something my second favourite here but it does sounds a bit wonky specially with vocals.



22. Now using the PEQ is something I stay away from as I particularly didn’t find anything enticing here except maybe boosting the treble a bit.



23. Now one good thing is all the settings you change stays inside the cable so you can use it anywhere.



24. Also there are frequent disconnects with the app that is everytime even though the may is connected I have to disconnect and connect and force close the moondrop app and then it works.



25. Also sometimes the dsp cable is working properly but if I connect it and then the app doesn’t detect the cable so I repeat the troubleshooting step I mentioned just few seconds before the previous setting vanishes and the factory setting gets apply.


26. I still think you should have a look at the may as believe it or not I have been using it the most (obviously without the app) as the usb c is very convenient.



27. I think so if you can get them in sale I think they make a great value with the usb c cable and iem. That was my review of the Moondrop may


28. You can have a listen to the mic quality on my YouTube video at the 7:21

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If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.

Again a big thanks to ShenzhenAudio for making this review happen.

Have a great day ahead

Moondrop is one of the bigger players in the IEM market and May is their projection to the future in my opinion with the removable DSP cable and endless possibilities. With the 65 USD asking price, let’s see if Moondrop delivers on these promises.

Disclaimers​

Moondrop May was provided to me by Shenzhen Audio for free in exchange for a review. As I always say, everyone is biased one way or another so take everything you read with a grain of salt. Also I will try to be more concise and to the point in my reviews from now on without worrying about the word count etc. If you have any questions, please ask me in the comments and I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities.

Build and Accessories of Moondrop May​

May comes in a package we became accustomed to. Personally I like the anime art style they use and providing a frequency response graph is always welcome. What comes in the packaging is a little humble however, with a very nice case, the dsp cable which is identical to their freedsp cable apart from the branding and just one set of generic tips which I didn’t even use.



Build of the earpieces is very good, almost identical to Moondrop’s own Variations with smaller shells so they are more comfortable for me than the other iems I have tried lately. Nozzles are rather thick but not very long so they aren’t intrusive. Shells are made out of semi transperent dark resin and faceplates are mirrored metal. Yes they are fingerprint magnet but the playful pattern on the shells kind of camouflages them.
Inside May uses two drivers. The 10 mm dynamic driver is a full frequency one unlike the most other hybrids and the 6 mm, what they call annular planar driver, helps with the treble frequencies.

Sound of Moondrop May​

Tonality​

Talking about the tonality of an IEM that is made to be equalized is a little stupid but still I could talk about presets here. I mostly used May on the Standard preset. In this setting, tuning was subbass focused neutral with great tactility and decent body. Mids and treble were also on point with no shout or harshness at all.



Harman preset, although looks bassier on graphs, is cleaner, clearer and vocal focused. Not that other presets are muddy, in fact, I’d argue a lot of people would find Harman preset a little lean but it sounds very good when the song is suitable.

Other settings are more or less variants of the Standard preset with different bass levels.

Lastly, setting all the filters at 0 gain manually yields the same result with using a different cable. Some of my friends prefer listening to May this way. It isn’t vastly different from similar presets so you can tell the baseline is actually pretty good. In my opinion, Standard preset has a more balanced presentation while 0 gain has more bass and body and a little more blunted treble. If you are a treble head or like a little bite, you might not like May this way.

Technicalities​

Moondrop May isn’t something that sets the world on fire with its technical capability. It is more or less on par with other good sub 100 USD IEMs. It doesn’t feel closed in, reveals good amount of details. Timbre is pretty good as it is and can be improved with EQ. Actually around 80% of technical qualities depend on the tuning in my opinion so potential is quite high.

More on the Cable and Moondrop Link 2.0 App​

Like I said earlier, in the case of May talking about the possibilities instead of Tonality of the IEMs makes more sense.



May’s cable is identical to Moondrop’s own FreeDSP cable which is sold for 30 USD. FreeDSP however, comes with different presets while the presets on May’s cable are specialized for May. Still you can download other presets from Moondrop that imitate their other IEMs or other users uploaded. You can also import EQ profiles that you created using tools like AutoEQ. Unfortunately Parametric EQ only uses peak filters so I assume the profiles you import also shouldn’t include shelf filters.



There are 9 bands of filters which should be enough for any profile. The profile you create and apply is saved in the cable so you can use the last setting you applied with any other device including your computer. The app doesn’t work as smoothly as I’d like it to but I hope it keeps improving.

Comparisons​

Truthear Hexa vs. Moondrop May (no filter applied)​

May is a product that is a whole nother level from the conventional IEMs. I could have compared it to Tanchjim's One DSP but honestly there is nothing to compare. One DSP is a cheaper alternative to May with caveats. It only has 5 adjustable filters, technically inferior and has a zinging upper treble quirk that is harder to fix with EQ.



So I decided to compare May without applying any EQ to Truthear’s Hexa which is considered a benchmark below 100 USD by.

• To be honest, they are more similar than different, neither is sibilant or harsh.
• Without the DSP cable May is richer, has a little more body, vocals are a little more forward and drums and bass guitars are highlighted more.
• Treble on May is ever so slightly more refined. Hexa’s treble although, not harsh, kind of loses its composure compared to May’s. Still without any filters, May’s treble lacks a little bite so treble heads beware.
• May feels more spacious while Hexa is more closed in. Imaging and layering on May is better. May is also slightly more resolving but neither is truly exceptional in this area.

Conclusion​

I enjoyed my time with Moondrop May a lot. In fact I have already recommended it to my friends. It is not perfect, of course it isn’t, especially the app should be refined more. But at the price it was offered I’m more than happy. For quite a while I wasn’t genuinely enjoying my music with the equipment that came for a review. But with May, I often found myself forgetting that I was supposed to review it, bobbing my head, vibing to my test tracks again that started to become boring after listening to them so many times.
I know some may argue that they were already using equalizing apps on their phones but having that DSP correction in the cable itself and not using a software is a convenience by itself. If I were to leave the hobby today, May would be one of the things I would definitely keep because of this convenience, versatility and all the possibilities it brings to the table.