So, my first impressions so far about Moondrop Variations:
Technicalities
Tuning
- Clarity and overall detail are awsome, even tho, not as much as TSMR Lands but those have more treble energy and 4ESTs, so there’s that.
- Soundstage and imaging are also great. Vocals are out of your head, everything is behind that, with great separation. To me, one of Variations best traits.
- Timbre and Coherency are pretty good. Not single DD-like, but one of the best you’ll get as non-DD.
- Sub-bass is great. Texture, speed and overall quantity/quality. Nothing to new here, it’s a sub-bass focused tribid that mimics Monarch, so it comes as no surprise.
- Around Mid-bass and Mids is where my problem with the set starts:
If we lock my favourite IEM vs Variations around 100hz, we can easly see where my problem is. Kickdrums, male vocals, bass guitars, etc are left behind. Mids follow the story up to the upper mids region, where from there it’s whatever. Coming from a midbass/midcentric library, this is a problem real quick. The way presentation and tuning is done by Teas on this region is better, for me and for my library. Of course clarity and detail are a bloobath that Variations wins.
- Treble/Upper treble: Pretty good texture, ESTs well done. Above average detail and air on there. It gets hot sometimes for me, since to get the volume on the mids I need, I raise up the volume and voilá. Still, doubt this will be a problem to libraries different than mine. It has nice extension, nothing really to point here.
Overall/First conclusions:
Variations is a great IEM. They sounds more monitor-a-like that I thought, with great sub-bass emphasis. If the mids were slightly different on the tuning part, this would probably be my end-game. Pretty sure these fit any library for people that like more neutral signatures with sub-bass boosts, like Dusk. Technically they are on god tier. If your library is sub-bass based, for instance, Massive Attack or Pop, this are a gem, no doubt. S-Tier recommendation if they suit your library. I’ll give a couple more spins in the next hours.
Thank you for sharing your impressions!
I think MoonDrop Variations has 2EST drives as well , or maybe I am mistaken .
Tbh - I wanted to purchase the Variations, but instead I went with EJ07M, cuz I know Variations won't be comfortable for me due to the size, and design.
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