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Moondrop PARA, PARA-II, VENUS and COSMO (fitted with the Brainwavz Memory Foam Hybrid Earpads XL Size and ZMF Universe Lambskin perforated pads or ZMF BE2 Lambskin perforated pads or ZMF Caldera Lambskin Thick (top and side perf) pads) Discussion.
CanJam Shanghai 2024 - D-Day 1.
Moondrop representation (Stand C1-C4).
The Moondrop PARA equipped with the COSMO's stock cable, in the foreground of this photo; the COSMO is in the background.
Don't hesitate to ask to listen to the COSMO with the PARA's hybrid pads; changing pads (magnetic attachment) between these two headphones takes only a few seconds.
PS: as a Frenchman, we'd like to thank our American, Canadian and English friends for being with us on the beaches of Normandy in France, for the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day.
What if the new information came from the new Hifiman Susvara UNVEILED headphones, which have removed their external protective grille for an even more open sound?
The loss of the external grille of the new Hifiman Susvara has not prevented the price of this new Susvara headphones from rising from 6,000 US dollars to 8,000 US dollars !
(Nb: the COSMO, which is at least as technically advanced as the old Susvara, costs only 900 US dollars).
No, the real novelty of the Susvara “Unveiled” is the new metal circuit printed on the “nanometric” diaphragm which is made of silver (instead of gold, much heavier and less conductive than silver) to improve its sensitivity, as clearly indicated here:
Quote: " New to the SUSVARA UNVEILED is a metallic silver conductor layer, as silver boasts the highest conductivity of all metals. Sensitivity is maximized, subtle details are revealed, and a sense of “air” that is so important for high-end audio performance is greatly improved. "
Source: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/ar...-susvara-unveiled-open-back-planar-headphone/ )
The question now is whether the thickness of the metallic silver traces on the diaphragm of the new Hifiman Susvara is greater or less than that of the pure silver traces on the diaphragm of the COSMO (which I have calculated to be just 0.1 um (100 nm)).
Source: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/moo...-pads-discussion.970569/page-27#post-18103837
The Moondrop COSMO planar headphones clearly beats the new Susvara in terms of technical innovation, since the COSMO already uses ultra-thin (100 nm) pure silver traces for it "nano scale diaphragm", even before the new Susvara...
I'll spare you the details of the calculations I just made, but I wanted to estimate the moving mass of the metallized diaphragm for the new Hifiman Susvara “unveiled” (mass of the plastic film of the diaphragm + mass of the silver traces covering the diaphragm of the new Susvara) compared to the original Susvara (covered with gold traces, 1.53 x more resistive and 1.84 x heavier than silver) and also in comparison with the COSMO and the VENUS (both innovators in comparison with the Hifiman brand by first using silver traces, instead of gold or aluminum, for cover the planar diaphragm).
As a reminder, the moving mass of a planar headphone's diaphragm largely determines the headphone's resolution and finesse; the lower this moving mass, the more resolute and finer the headphones will be for the sound.
For memory the original Susvara with its gold-coated diaphragm (on almost 90% of the diaphragm surface) had a moving mass 10 times less than the moving mass of the VENUS's diaphragm (with its thin silver strips covering 80% of the diaphragm), and only 1.22 times less than the moving mass of the COSMO's diaphragm (with its large but very thin silver strips covering 90% of the diaphragm).
Source: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/moo...-pads-discussion.970569/page-27#post-18103837
Well, the new “unveiled” Susvara with its silver-coated diaphragm (covering almost 100% of the diaphragm surface) should have a moving mass 1.3 times lower than that of the original Susvara with its gold-coated diaphragm.
Compared with the VENUS and the COSMO, it should have a moving mass 13 times lower than the moving mass of the VENUS's diaphragm with its silver-coated diaphragm, and 1.6 times less than the moving mass of the COSMO's diaphragm, with its silver-coated diaphragm.
I would therefore like to reassure future owners of the “unveiled” new Susvara, who will have to pay $8,000 to obtain their grail, that the new Susvara will be technically a little better than the COSMO (at $900), and very much better than the VENUS (at $600); a VENUS which nevertheless doesn't demerit (Nb: see the link to this very recent review, in German, of the VENUS : https://daily-life-hub.com/kopfhoerer-tests/moondrop-venus-test/ ).
We still need to know the frequency response (tone) of the new Susvara "unveiled" versus the original Susvara (Nb: the tone of the original Susvara is rather good, even if sometimes irregular).
Otherwise, the sensitivity of the new Susvara (45 Ohm) (expressed in dB/mW) is 3 dB higher than that of the original Susvara (60 Ohm): 86 dB/mW at 1 KHz (versus 83 dB/mW at 1 KHz for the original Susvara), or 100 dB/Vrms at 1 KHz, a sensitivity close to that of the COSMO (15 Ohm), which is also 100 dB/Vrms at 1 KHz with its original pads.
On the other hand, despite its unveiling, the new Susvara is apparently less open than the original Susvara, as the driver is "windowed ", closed on the sides (wich appear rectangular instead of round) unlike the original Susvara, more open on the sides.
Openness (width of the soundstage) should be better with the original Susvara.
Photo gallery of the headphones drivers in question (spoiler)
Unveiled but "windowed" driver for the new Susvara, with silver-coated diaphragm over almost 100% of its surface.
Original Susvara driver with gold-coated diaphragm over almost 90% of its surface.
COSMO's driver with silver-coated diaphragm over almost 90% of its surface.
VENUS's driver with silver-coated diaphragm over almost 80% of its surface.
Just a note about the EP100A pads - there's no way in he!! that they were going to fit on the Venus earpieces. The warning to those here who have posted about wanting replacement pads for the Venus is that there really isn't interchangeability in this case between pads that work with the metal ring for the Para and Cosmo - and the Venus which has a full-diameter outer ring slot for the pads. Since I bought on Amazon, I'm sending them back immediately.
I suppose I'll need to look for add-on, separate velour rings. If I could attach velour to the stock pads inner faces, the OEM pads would have construction identical to most 'hybrid' pads on the market (inner sides fenestrated, velour skin facing sides, outer cover solid leather). This would also give the Venus just a bit more "space" horizontally between the driver and the ear - something that I think helped in the case of the Dekoni hybrid elite pads with the Venus (just didn't fit well enough given the Venus' outer diameter for the pad slot).
Friendly advice: buy the planar headphones PARA and COSMO and the EP-100A pads.
Re-equip the PARA with its EP-100A upgrade pads (which are better for tone, for the PARA, than its stock pads) and the COSMO with the PARA's hybrid pads (which are much better for tone, for the COSMO, than its stock pads).
Resell the PARA re-equipped with its EP-100A upgrade pads and keep the COSMO re-equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads, provided you have a powerful enough headphone amplifier putting out at least 2 watts on 32 Ohm, and at least 1 watt on 15 Ohm, and with enough gain, as the COSMO is very demanding for amplification.
Just got my Moondrop Para from Shenzhenaudio and DoA on the left ear cup... nothing playing, swapped cable and right/left, only right cup playing... sigh...
just sent email to support hope to get the replacement in progress...
Was so excited to get it, since I got the Last Venus in stock on Linsoul and the Para from Shenzhenaudio, and hopefully to catch the next sale event when Cosmo is on sale and grab it and swap para pad to cosmo.
And just have to complain, why is the qc card on Para says PASS? which part it passed? Looks? didn't try to plug in and play do they
Technically speaking, the COSMO and its "nanometric" grade membrane (500 nm thick) covered with ultra-thin traces of pure silver (100 nm thick) is as competent as an original Susvara (whose membrane, also of "nanometric" grade, is covered with traces of gold that are heavier and more electrically resistive than silver).
Tonally speaking, the COSMO re-equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads can be compared to a whole list of well-known headphones, which you can view in the spoilers below.
Note 1: the baseline (0 dB relative) is that of the USOUND3V0 Optimum HIFI Target.
Note 2: forget the COSMO's stock pads, they're bad, tonally speaking.
Headphones that boost SPL in the 1-1.5 KHz frequencies range (such as the Stax SR-009 and the new Stax SR-X9000) will make the voices shouty (especially female voices).
Headphones that increase SPL in the 2-4 KHz frequencies range (like the COSMO equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads) will make voices more intelligible; on the contrary, headphones that reduce SPL in the 1.5-2.5 KHz frequencies range (like the VENUS and even more so the Susvara) will make voices less intelligible.
Headphones that boost SPL in the 1-1.5 KHz frequencies range and that reduce SPL to the 2 KHz frequency area (like the COSMO with its stock pads and also the Abyss 1266 Phi TC) will make the voices both shouty and less intelligible; in short, they will completely distort the voices in an unpleasant way; they're bad headphones, tonally speaking.
EDIT: In practice: on the voice of the late Bob Marley, on this recording of a live concert from 1979 (with poor image and sound resolution), Bob Marley's voice is more present, more intelligible and more expressive (for the political message of the song at the time: the independence of Zimbabwe) with the COSMO re-equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads than with the VENUS ; with, in the case of this latter headphone (the VENUS), a noticeably more distant and a little less intelligible voice, and, incidentally, less smooth and more wheezy (on this recording) than with the COSMO equipped with the PARA's pads ...
As the COSMO is obviously a high-end headphone, I have opened a thread specifically for this headphone in the high-end section of this cosmopolitan forum, head-fi.
Otherwise, I'm still happy with my three Moondrop planar headphones (PARA, VENUS and COSMO).
Last night I listened with my headphones to Bach's Mass in B on CD on my top of the range hifi system, followed by a new stream of Bob Marley's 1979 live concert in Santa Barbara (California); equally pleasant listening with the COSMO and the VENUS, but always with a preference for the COSMO for the extra finesse of sound bring by this exceptional headphones.
CanJam Shanghai 2024 - D-Day 1.
Moondrop representation (Stand C1-C4).
The Moondrop PARA equipped with the COSMO's stock cable, in the foreground of this photo; the COSMO is in the background.
Don't hesitate to ask to listen to the COSMO with the PARA's hybrid pads; changing pads (magnetic attachment) between these two headphones takes only a few seconds.
PS: as a Frenchman, we'd like to thank our American, Canadian and English friends for being with us on the beaches of Normandy in France, for the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day.
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didn't try to plug in and play do they
