[wayofthedawn]

The Faaeal copper cable. Bargain of the Year

Grabbing it, tyvm sir!

 

[Melliflow]

Realized it's been a few days since I mentioned giving out my impressions for the Illumination. I'm currently still working on my full review write up but here's a decent run-down of my impressions of it overall and versus the Blessing 2.

Bass extension digs very deep. Sub-bass and mid bass impacts harder than the graph indicates. It's a well textured and cleaner/tighter versus the Blessing 2 from my initial listening.

Mid frequencies overall are in line with Moondrop's in-house tuning but vocals present themselves on the smoother side overall, which is most likely due to the driver material used for the diaphragm and the nature of DD timbre decay. Vocals really stood out to me in the way how the Blessing 2 did when I had my experience with them.

It's also worth noting that it's not shouty/aggressive versus the SSR which I've seen people trying to make comparisons to from FR graph.

The treble presentation I prefer the Illumination over the Blessing 2 due to it extending more in the treble based on what I can perceive so far that I felt the B2 was missing. I also find it has naturally pleasant sheen in the treble that adds the right amount of air and sparkle to it without it sounding over-emphasized. I do prefer the more uncolored approach around the 6khz to 7.6khz but I can definitely see people finding it lacking in extra energy in those frequencies that some would perceive as lack of detailing if the mixing of a track doesn't have emphasis there.

The note thickness is relatively in the same realm as the Blessing 2 but seems slightly thicker due to dynamic driver timbre versus balanced armature timbre. Your mileage will vary from track due to the Illumination's more diffused field neutral tuning.

I find there's a greater sense of stage depth and width when compared to the Blessing 2, which I already found had an above average soundstage. More often than not, it'd be to the point where sounds like far panned left/right noises sort of wrap behind my ears. I find the imaging and detail retrieval quite excellent for a single dynamic driver IEM while maintaining a superb sense of coherency. I could see some people might find it as not detailed due to the trade off of having a more natural timbre, which dynamic drivers characteristically sound versus the perceived precision and clarity of balanced armature drivers.

The resolution I find is better than the Blessing 2 at bass good part of the lower to middle of the midrange and the overall balance in the frequency spectrum makes it a joyous listening experience that's not fatiguing. It's to the point where I'd position the Illumination as Moondrop's TOTL pleasant single dynamic driver version of the Blessing 2. Unfortunately, treble detailing around 6khz to 8khz may not suffice some that want more energy.


And some little fun things to note:

The vent holes that are arrayed near the nozzle are 1mm in width and 2mm in length each. Leakage isn't as bad as I initially thought much due to how it's positioned towards your ear.

Isolation is about on par with the Starfield/KXXS/KXXX which aren't too stellar compared to other IEMs.

As of this post, I've logged about 65+ hours with it. To which I will lastly note, I can't seem to hear a hint of any odd metallic or ringing timbre that some single DD IEMs may suffer(be it with the nature of it's tuning and/or the internal structure itself) I'd applaud the dampener in the vented acoustic chamber helping relieve that possible issue.


Hopefully this gives some people an overall idea of how the Illumination is until I finish up my full review.

 

[Slater]

The Faaeal copper cable. Bargain of the Year

Totally agree. The chin slider is a joke, but other than that it’s the best cable in the budget segment hands down.

 

[unifutomaki]

Totally agree. The chin slider is a joke, but other than that it’s the best cable in the budget segment hands down.

Shame about that IEM eh

 

[Slater]

Shame about that IEM eh

Well, the irony is that if not for the meh Hibiscus, its awesome cable would never have existed

 

[dharmasteve]

I am so looking forward to the Moondrop SSP. The only Moondrop I have is the Starfield so sadly have little to comment on, on this thread. I love the look of the SSR, but somehow it has failed to morph into the SSP so far. C'mon Moondrop your disciples are waiting for you to make an appearance....and one that costs about £36.

 

[Stuff Jones]

Realized it's been a few days since I mentioned giving out my impressions for the Illumination. I'm currently still working on my full review write up but here's a decent run-down of my impressions of it overall and versus the Blessing 2.

Bass extension digs very deep. Sub-bass and mid bass impacts harder than the graph indicates. It's a well textured and cleaner/tighter versus the Blessing 2 from my initial listening.

Mid frequencies overall are in line with Moondrop's in-house tuning but vocals present themselves on the smoother side overall, which is most likely due to the driver material used for the diaphragm and the nature of DD timbre decay. Vocals really stood out to me in the way how the Blessing 2 did when I had my experience with them.

It's also worth noting that it's not shouty/aggressive versus the SSR which I've seen people trying to make comparisons to from FR graph.

The treble presentation I prefer the Illumination over the Blessing 2 due to it extending more in the treble based on what I can perceive so far that I felt the B2 was missing. I also find it has naturally pleasant sheen in the treble that adds the right amount of air and sparkle to it without it sounding over-emphasized. I do prefer the more uncolored approach around the 6khz to 7.6khz but I can definitely see people finding it lacking in extra energy in those frequencies that some would perceive as lack of detailing if the mixing of a track doesn't have emphasis there.

The note thickness is relatively in the same realm as the Blessing 2 but seems slightly thicker due to dynamic driver timbre versus balanced armature timbre. Your mileage will vary from track due to the Illumination's more diffused field neutral tuning.

I find there's a greater sense of stage depth and width when compared to the Blessing 2, which I already found had an above average soundstage. More often than not, it'd be to the point where sounds like far panned left/right noises sort of wrap behind my ears. I find the imaging and detail retrieval quite excellent for a single dynamic driver IEM while maintaining a superb sense of coherency. I could see some people might find it as not detailed due to the trade off of having a more natural timbre, which dynamic drivers characteristically sound versus the perceived precision and clarity of balanced armature drivers.

The resolution I find is better than the Blessing 2 and the overall balance in the frequency spectrum makes it a joyous listening experience that's not fatiguing. It's to the point where I'd position the Illumination as Moondrop's TOTL pleasant single dynamic driver version of the Blessing 2.


And some little fun things to note:

The vent holes that are arrayed near the nozzle are 1mm in width and 2mm in length each. Leakage isn't as bad as I initially thought much due to how it's positioned towards your ear.

Isolation is about on par with the Starfield/KXXS/KXXX which aren't too stellar compared to other IEMs.

As of this post, I've logged about 65+ hours with it. To which I will lastly note, I can't seem to hear a hint of any odd metallic or ringing timbre that some single DD IEMs may suffer(be it with the nature of it's tuning and/or the internal structure itself) I'd applaud the dampener in the vented acoustic chamber helping relieve that possible issue.


Hopefully this gives some people an overall idea of how the Illumination is until I finish up my full review.

Thanks for the writeup! Have you heard any other higher end DDs you can compare the illumination to?

 

[MrDelicious]

Realized it's been a few days since I mentioned giving out my impressions for the Illumination. I'm currently still working on my full review write up but here's a decent run-down of my impressions of it overall and versus the Blessing 2.

Bass extension digs very deep. Sub-bass and mid bass impacts harder than the graph indicates. It's a well textured and cleaner/tighter versus the Blessing 2 from my initial listening.

Mid frequencies overall are in line with Moondrop's in-house tuning but vocals present themselves on the smoother side overall, which is most likely due to the driver material used for the diaphragm and the nature of DD timbre decay. Vocals really stood out to me in the way how the Blessing 2 did when I had my experience with them.

It's also worth noting that it's not shouty/aggressive versus the SSR which I've seen people trying to make comparisons to from FR graph.

The treble presentation I prefer the Illumination over the Blessing 2 due to it extending more in the treble based on what I can perceive so far that I felt the B2 was missing. I also find it has naturally pleasant sheen in the treble that adds the right amount of air and sparkle to it without it sounding over-emphasized. I do prefer the more uncolored approach around the 6khz to 7.6khz but I can definitely see people finding it lacking in extra energy in those frequencies that some would perceive as lack of detailing if the mixing of a track doesn't have emphasis there.

The note thickness is relatively in the same realm as the Blessing 2 but seems slightly thicker due to dynamic driver timbre versus balanced armature timbre. Your mileage will vary from track due to the Illumination's more diffused field neutral tuning.

I find there's a greater sense of stage depth and width when compared to the Blessing 2, which I already found had an above average soundstage. More often than not, it'd be to the point where sounds like far panned left/right noises sort of wrap behind my ears. I find the imaging and detail retrieval quite excellent for a single dynamic driver IEM while maintaining a superb sense of coherency. I could see some people might find it as not detailed due to the trade off of having a more natural timbre, which dynamic drivers characteristically sound versus the perceived precision and clarity of balanced armature drivers.

The resolution I find is better than the Blessing 2 and the overall balance in the frequency spectrum makes it a joyous listening experience that's not fatiguing. It's to the point where I'd position the Illumination as Moondrop's TOTL pleasant single dynamic driver version of the Blessing 2.


And some little fun things to note:

The vent holes that are arrayed near the nozzle are 1mm in width and 2mm in length each. Leakage isn't as bad as I initially thought much due to how it's positioned towards your ear.

Isolation is about on par with the Starfield/KXXS/KXXX which aren't too stellar compared to other IEMs.

As of this post, I've logged about 65+ hours with it. To which I will lastly note, I can't seem to hear a hint of any odd metallic or ringing timbre that some single DD IEMs may suffer(be it with the nature of it's tuning and/or the internal structure itself) I'd applaud the dampener in the vented acoustic chamber helping relieve that possible issue.


Hopefully this gives some people an overall idea of how the Illumination is until I finish up my full review.

Cheers for the impressions! What kind of music do you listen to with the Illumination? How do you think they'd do with metal?

 

[KokushiTsumo]

I was wondering when the fanbois were going to show up haha

Fanboys of....? if you don't mind me asking

Realized it's been a few days since I mentioned giving out my impressions for the Illumination. I'm currently still working on my full review write up but here's a decent run-down of my impressions of it overall and versus the Blessing 2.

Bass extension digs very deep. Sub-bass and mid bass impacts harder than the graph indicates. It's a well textured and cleaner/tighter versus the Blessing 2 from my initial listening.

Mid frequencies overall are in line with Moondrop's in-house tuning but vocals present themselves on the smoother side overall, which is most likely due to the driver material used for the diaphragm and the nature of DD timbre decay. Vocals really stood out to me in the way how the Blessing 2 did when I had my experience with them.

It's also worth noting that it's not shouty/aggressive versus the SSR which I've seen people trying to make comparisons to from FR graph.

The treble presentation I prefer the Illumination over the Blessing 2 due to it extending more in the treble based on what I can perceive so far that I felt the B2 was missing. I also find it has naturally pleasant sheen in the treble that adds the right amount of air and sparkle to it without it sounding over-emphasized. I do prefer the more uncolored approach around the 6khz to 7.6khz but I can definitely see people finding it lacking in extra energy in those frequencies that some would perceive as lack of detailing if the mixing of a track doesn't have emphasis there.

The note thickness is relatively in the same realm as the Blessing 2 but seems slightly thicker due to dynamic driver timbre versus balanced armature timbre. Your mileage will vary from track due to the Illumination's more diffused field neutral tuning.

I find there's a greater sense of stage depth and width when compared to the Blessing 2, which I already found had an above average soundstage. More often than not, it'd be to the point where sounds like far panned left/right noises sort of wrap behind my ears. I find the imaging and detail retrieval quite excellent for a single dynamic driver IEM while maintaining a superb sense of coherency. I could see some people might find it as not detailed due to the trade off of having a more natural timbre, which dynamic drivers characteristically sound versus the perceived precision and clarity of balanced armature drivers.

The resolution I find is better than the Blessing 2 and the overall balance in the frequency spectrum makes it a joyous listening experience that's not fatiguing. It's to the point where I'd position the Illumination as Moondrop's TOTL pleasant single dynamic driver version of the Blessing 2.


And some little fun things to note:

The vent holes that are arrayed near the nozzle are 1mm in width and 2mm in length each. Leakage isn't as bad as I initially thought much due to how it's positioned towards your ear.

Isolation is about on par with the Starfield/KXXS/KXXX which aren't too stellar compared to other IEMs.

As of this post, I've logged about 65+ hours with it. To which I will lastly note, I can't seem to hear a hint of any odd metallic or ringing timbre that some single DD IEMs may suffer(be it with the nature of it's tuning and/or the internal structure itself) I'd applaud the dampener in the vented acoustic chamber helping relieve that possible issue.


Hopefully this gives some people an overall idea of how the Illumination is until I finish up my full review.

Exactly what we wanted, thanks a lot for the writeup

Mind me asking what cable you're using in the pic? Stock SSR cable?

 

[KokushiTsumo]

I am so looking forward to the Moondrop SSP. The only Moondrop I have is the Starfield so sadly have little to comment on, on this thread. I love the look of the SSR, but somehow it has failed to morph into the SSP so far. C'mon Moondrop your disciples are waiting for you to make an appearance....and one that costs about £36.

Same here, not sure if you saw but the SSPs are set to release mid november. (using this as a source https://shenzhenaudio.com/blogs/news/moondrop-ssp-iem-preview ).

 

[dharmasteve]

Same here, not sure if you saw but the SSPs are set to release mid november. (using this as a source https://shenzhenaudio.com/blogs/news/moondrop-ssp-iem-preview ).

That's good news. Super Spaceship Pulse, SSP, $39.99. Hard to say no to it. Credit to Moondrop for keeping it affordable.

 

[Cevisi]

I love the color of the ssp

 

[dharmasteve]

I love the color of the ssp

Really smart looking.

 

[Melliflow]

Thanks for the writeup! Have you heard any other higher end DDs you can compare the illumination to?

Unfortunately I haven't heard other higher end single DD IEMs but I'm looking to get my hands on a Ex1k for comparison. I suppose the closest single DD I do have is the NM2+ which seems to sound like a baby version of the Dunu Luna from some people on here. The NM2+ surprisingly is very technical for its price but possibly hindered by tonality for some.

Cheers for the impressions! What kind of music do you listen to with the Illumination? How do you think they'd do with metal?

Cheers! My music taste tends to be very eclectic so I'd find myself jumping around a lot of genres of music during my listening sessions. To give a general idea, I'd be bouncing around some classic rock, k-pop, city pop, orchestral, jazz, ACG, EDM, hip-hop and a plethora of other stuff. I find it's very versatile with all the stuff I've listened to so far. For what it's worth, that includes going through my gauntlet of sibilant and harsher female vocal tracks.

As for metal, I'll have to look into testing some tracks but I wouldn't be too surprised if it sounds good.

Exactly what we wanted, thanks a lot for the writeup

Mind me asking what cable you're using in the pic? Stock SSR cable?

It's the stock cable for the Illumination.

 

[Stuff Jones]

Unfortunately I haven't heard other higher end single DD IEMs but I'm looking to get my hands on a Ex1k for comparison. I do have the NM2+ that seems to sound like a baby version of the Dunu Luna from some people here. That set surprisingly is very technical for its price but possibly hindered by tonality for some.

Would love to hear comparisons with the NM2+ if you have the chance.