Moondrop Pavane/Showerhead Impressions
So I was just searching for an earbud that would do female vocals well as i've stopped using iems and this opportunity came up.
Initially I was a bit iffy due to the comments stating that it lacked bass and was pretty bright and that was somewhat of a deterrent coz i considered myself a person who likes bass a lot but this experience had me reflecting on myself again as i just realised that my current playlist doesn't require much bass. 90% of my songs are female vocals. Live, ballads, accoustic, etc.
The previous owner was selling it off after 4 hours of purchase as none of his gears synergized well with it. He had aune s9c pro, fiio k11 and a xduoo ta66.
True enough when i auditioned through his dac amps it sounded very "off" like there was no punch and it was soulless. But there was something about it that i liked. I brought along my snowsky echo mini and fosi audio k7 to try. On the fosi k7 it was slightly better but it sounded pretty good on the echo mini. Not the best but i felt it start to come alive and there was potential there.
After purchasing it i then went on a hunt to find a source that synergizes well with the pavane and a few dongles and daps fit the bill. Cayin ru6, ibaso nunchaku, cayin n3 pro, cayin n3 ultra, moondrop echo b and so on. It isn't tough to drive but its very picky on synergy. Ymmv but i liked it best on tubes and r2r. So i bought the moondrop echo b and cayin n3 pro as it fit most of my needs and was cheap
Ok enough rambling, here's my honest thoughts
Bass - adequate. It definitely exists for my songs and its not bad for pop and stuff after my ears have adjusted to it after a couple of days. Switched back to my fatfreq deuce for a couple of songs and now i feel the deuce is wayy too much bass and gonna sell it off.
Mids - superb. One of the best i've ever heard. Very transparent. Not forward nor recessed. I prefer forward mids so I used ultra linear tube mode on my cayin n3 pro to make it more vocal forward. All the instruments sound right.
Treble - very good. Idk how else to comment on treble.. i'm not treble sensitive(either that or my ears might actually be damaged n not be able to hear the frequencies) and it didnt seem harsh to me at all once i had full foams on. Didn't really try it without foams or naked as i had to put the foams on so that it stayed in place and it didn't make sense to me to listen to it naked as it'll just slip out of my ears. Will try to get a silicone ring from fiio ff1 or something next to try it out.
Soundstage - wide
Technicalities - idk how to describe this but andyaav stated its superb for a dynamic driver and i'll just use his words as his ears and gift for explaining stuff is really much better than what i can say which is probably excellent lol
Packaging & accessories- pretty simple packaging n underwhelming. Would've liked to have received full foams, silicone rings and even the moondrop echo b with it
Build quality - superb. It really feels and looks premium. A bit bummed about the non detachable cable but i'll prolly baby it so hopefully it'll last a decade or so before i do a mmcx mod to it.
Would i recommend it? - yes for those who listen to female vocals, accoustic, jazz, classical, live
Would i say its worth 379 usd? - probably not. I got a really good deal on it so i'll be keeping it for sure as its really amazing for my playlist but if u ask me to pay full retail on it hell no.
This probably wasn't a very helpful read as it's my first time(and probably last) trying to describe something about gear that i really enjoy and was just an impulsive sharing experience. Not much thought was put into typing this as most of it was just fueled by emotion.
Thx for reading!
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I hope it's not your last post about earbuds - do come back and post now and again!
