Moondrop Blessing 2:
Forgive me for this, but I've been out of the loop for a good bit. It's been a while since I last really paid attention to current audio trends and hype, nevermind went out to an audio store and sat down and listened to stuff. But that's not to say I've been completely oblivious. I'm well aware of the current hype surrounding Moondrop, namely the Blessing 2 being a giant killer and whatnot for a paltry $300. Mind you, I was one of the first people I'm aware of to in my circle to get their ears on a pair, but I didn't think it was much more than alright. It had a pretty decent tonality but had issues with treble peaks and a general lack of resolving ability. For $300, that's a given really. But since it's become a popular opinion of sorts that the B2 competes with flagship level IEMs, I find it hard to avoid viewing and therefore writing about it in such a light.
One of the most hyped aspects of the B2 is that the bass response is a major improvement over the original Blessing. Considering I happen to have both of them on hand with me right now, I can pretty safely say this is accurate, but at the same time it really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. That's not to say that the B2's bass response is that great, though. While the B2's bass is undeniably DD, it has a major issue in that it's overly lacking in texture. Not to the extent of a BA woofer, but man is it pushing it. For comparison I wouldn't bat an eye at calling something like the FDX1 much, much better at bass texture, though that has obvious flaws in other areas. This is kind of disappointing given how hyped up the B2's bass response was in my eyes, and leads to major wideband coherency issues that I'll get into later. To add to that, I find this affect bass separation as well - it gets muddled with bass guitars and kick drums far too often and I would personally attribute that to poor macrodetail ability.
That aside, the B2's bass response is pretty alright. The bass slam, while not extremely hard hitting, is about right for a DD woofer of its amplitude, and the bass transients are clean and quick enough to not create any egregious time domain incoherencies with the midrange or treble. I'm mostly just disappointed by the strange smooth timbre of this thing's bass.
The midrange is like the B2's primary strength. It has a level of tonal coherency throughout the midrange not unlike the Fearless Dawn, and I can understand where comparisons between the two come from. It's slightly too upper midrange forward and maybe a little too shouty for my tastes, but these are but minor concerns. As a whole, the B2's midrange is at the very minimum pleasant, and it's nice to see a cheap IEM pull off a midrange that's really listenable, and all things considered, probably has the best midrange tonality I've heard in a sub-$1000 IEM. I can totally get behind that.
But the real issue with the B2 lies in its treble response, and how it clashes with its bass.
Graphs can be, often times, decieving. On paper, the B2's treble response is extremely smooth. Save for a barely even 2 dB hump at 6khz it's very linear, much more linear than a lot of the IEMs I've lauded for their treble response. But practice says otherwise. For whatever reason, I hear the B2 as having a not-so-insignificant treble peak around that region that isn't too far off from the one that the HD800 is infamous for. I hear that distinctive treble grit and bite that's really not pleasant. At times it veers into straight sibilance, which is especially bizarre given that's more the domain of a 7khz or 8khz peak. Depending on tracks and mastering, cymbals can sound rough and be difficult to listen to. And that's not all there is to it either.
Earlier I mentioned the odd uncanny smoothness of the B2's bass response, and how it clashes with the treble response. It just sounds off to have such a bare and featureless sounding bass response sit next to a treble response that's rough, but otherwise fairly textured (though I question how much of this texture is timbral coloration). Perhaps the most disappointing part about this is not that it's your bog standard incoherency issues that hybrids generally run into, but one that could have been avoided entirely. Had Moondrop chosen a much more resolving DD woofer, or found a way to turn down the 6khz peak and reduce the treble harshness, I honestly doubt this would have been an issue. As is, it's two opposing approaches to sound clashing in the same IEM, and though this is a non-issue to many, I find it giving off a feeling of unpolish that is frankly unacceptable when talking about TOTLs or their would be killers. On the other hand, from the perspective of a $300 IEM, this is perfectly fine and par for the course. There are much more expensive hybrids that sound far, far more incoherent.
But at the same time, this feeling of unrefinement is one that plagues the B2 outside of its mere tonality and in its intangibles. The lack of macrodetail mentioned with the bass response is also present, albeit in a much less jarring manner, in its midrange, which often times just doesn't sound all that detailed despite what its brighter high clarity tuning would have one believe. In turn come the layering issues which are most prominent with instruments mixed on top of each other, as opposed to ones spread out throughout the stereo mix. And this is despite the fact that the imaging is, thanks to its fairly wide and thick shell (which unfortunately punishes people with smaller ears) slightly out of the head, though not what I would consider sonic wall-less. The Blessing 2 also has odd issues in its dynamics: while it does pretty well with macrodynamics (not the among the best I've heard like where I would place the U12t or the NT-6, but it still does them better than what I would consider average in IEMs), it struggles a lot with microdynamic delineations, and there are a lot of moments where it feels strangely unengaging despite the great midrange tonality.
Mind you, this stuff is completely normal for a $300 IEM. I've been unrelentingly ruthless to the B2 in judging it, versus how I treated, say, the Minor, or the ER2. But this is to make a point. The standards I judged the B2 with are with how I would judge a flagship competitor IEM. The B2 is, simply put, not this at all. Is it a great budget IEM? Without a doubt. I can see most people buying it and being satisfied with it just off of the midrange tonality and bass slam alone. But this isn't enough for an IEM to become a flagship competitor. There is much more to it in my eyes than simply having a decent bass response or midrange tonality, and as it stands I really don't see the B2 as worth more than what it retails for. Competing with the steadfast benchmarks like the ER2 and FDX1 is exactly where it should be, and I wouldn't bat an eye at anyone choosing any one of those three over the others.
All listening was done with my WM1A's 3.5mm jack as well as my Bifrost 2 > BHA-1 stack's single ended output.
I really should make it clear again because this review has portrayed the Blessing 2 in a pretty negative light: the B2 is not a bad IEM, not even close. My problem lies with the kilobuck killer comparisons, and that it doesn't meet the standards I would expect for an IEM to be worth of such a title. I also want to make it clear that I'm well aware that my opinion of the B2 has been somewhat tainted by the fact that the hype surrounding it doesn't meet my expectations. This is, unfortunately, inevitable for anything that's hyped, and it's hard, if not impossible to separate such an IEM from the reputation surrounding it. But I feel like it is ultimately dishonest to temper an aspect of my opinion on something simply because it's unfairly biased. After all, what are audio reviews if not biases and opinions laid out in context?
In any case, the Blessing 2 is going on the recommended list for bringing another competitive IEM to its respective price bracket. But for nothing more. It is without a doubt a good IEM that is worthy of recognition and lauding for being a capable hybrid in a sea of budget single DDs, as well as pulling off one of the best midrange tonalities you can buy on the cheap. But I don't think any of its praise beyond that is warranted at all. And with that I leave you guys for hopefully not another month.
Score: 6/10
Note: Yes, I know. I need to review S8 as well as the new stuff that's come out during this quarantine/hiatus period. Very soon this will become possible again, I hope. Until then.