Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk is a result of a cooperation with Crinnacle. It includes a single dynamic driver as well as 4 balanced armature drivers all of that tuned to give you the closest response to IEF Neutral Target. It costs $329.99
Introduction
Moondrop is a company that is very well known to IEM world as well as to me personally. In the past I’ve been testing their products such as Kanas Pro, KXXS, SSP, SSR and mostly I really liked the performance as well as tuning of all these. This time we have something slightly different. It’s Moondrop Blessing 2 but tuned differently, by no other than a popular IEM reviewer and measurement provider – Crinnacle. Did he make the Dusk a price to performance killer with that modification? Let’s find out!
Packaging & Build quality
Let’s start with the box and that is my very first infatuation with Moondrop products. Since KXXS Moondrop started to put anime girls on their boxes and that is something that I personally approve. Not only because I’m a fan but also because they differentiate themselves from all these black simplified boxes. If you’re wondering that anime girl is no other than the female image of Crinnacle himself.
Let’s talk about accessories now. With Dusk you’re not getting ton of stuff but all of it is very high quality. I’m talking about 6 pairs of silicone tips, very well made hard case, airplane adapter, cable for IEMs and a big colored Crinnacle waifu sticker. Not going to lie they went full on with this edition.
The cable is nothing else than your standard 2-pin 0.78mm which gives you tons of compatible third-party cables which you can pair with Dusk. Speaking about stock cable though, overall it’s okay, it’s pretty, includes angled 3.5mm jack and a very nice looking Moondrop splitter. The only thing I really dislike about it (and that is of course my personal preference) there’s no slider on that cable. This means if you’re wearing your IEMs just like stage musicians do (cable on the back) then these IEMs will be pulled out of your ear all the time. I had to wrap it with a thin wire to make it stop doing that, although I noticed that most IEM owners use them with cable on the front so this issue does not exist in this case. It’s all about preference.
Last but not least, build quality. Not going to lie in this case Blessing 2 Dusk is simply stellar. Brushed metal faceplates (and you can order them with engraved Crinnacle Waifu!)
but the star of the show is that transparent shell. You can see everything and I mean EVERYTHING that’s inside of them. One of the best builds I’ve ever seen in IEM world.
Comfort & Isolation
Blessing 2 Dusk shells are rather large and also they reach pretty far into your ear canal. They provide very good isolation but since they are so big, comfort can be a matter of a specific person. In my case, it was pretty good for about 2-4 hours. After that time I started to notice some minor pain at the bottom of my ear canal. 30-minute break and I was good to go.
Sound
Onto the sound then. How does retuned version stack up? First up we have to mention that Blessing 2 is overall a neutral bright pair with significant boost in the upper midrange. That’s exactly why people were praising them for overall technicalities but frequency response was always a case of a dispute. In short, while retuning them to IEF neutral target we gained a significant amount of lower frequencies and personally, I like that idea.
The bass is what I would call an example of a properly tuned Dynamic Driver. When you’re used to listening to DD especially the ones that are designed to take on low frequencies exclusively you’ll always notice that is a Dynamic Driver and not anything else. You’re getting that very characteristic punch and rumble. The problem is obvious, you’ll make it too weak and every song sounds like not having enough energy, make it little more powerful and immediately you’ll notice bloat going into mid frequencies, which will make your vocals warmer and thicker. Dusk, have a really special type of bass. Mostly because it is actually very powerful yet it does not bleed into mids at all which is kinda amazing. Very controlled, boosted only in sub-bass parts. Very unique experience which I recommend to everyone.
The mids I think are the strongest point of this pair. I feel that it’s just the most engaging part of the whole experience because there’s detail and I mean A LOT of detail. You can easily pick the smallest nuances even between the lowest and highest parts of midrange. Some small characteristics exclusive to the vocalist’s performance or instrument that has been through a lot of events so it starts to make tiny squeaks and creaks. Dusk is a pair that will reveal even more in your music you listen to every day. For its price, I don’t think I’ve ever heard such energy in this particular part tonality.
Because of unique experience with lows as well as a stellar performance with mids, treble has a lot to prove here. Unfortunately in my opinion this is one of the weakest points of this IEM. The main characteristic is that peak around 6 KHz which can really bother if we’re listening to some percussion. Spikes, as well as overall shoutiness, can occur and that is not something particularly pleasing. I’ll only defend here that we are talking about IEM for $329 that already proved to punch above $500 level of performance so even while treble being slightly behind the rest of amazing tonality… you’re still getting a lot of performance for that kind of money.
The soundstage is fairly limited but very well controlled. Imaging is stellar. Mostly because of mids where you can experience a lot of contrast between specific parts are adding a lot of points to overall rating. We cannot forget about detail as well. There’s a lot of it, you can easily pinpoint specific parts of the track and maybe discover your favorite music from a completely different side. That is something I really do like about audio overall. Trying to find something new in a piece you’ve already heard thousands of times.
Pairing
I’m not going to say that Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk is particularly hard to drive but honestly, I would skip pairing them with a headphone out from a phone. I noticed that Dusk when plugged into a proper DAP gets a touch more microdetails and overall harmony. Out of a generic phone, they sound OK but on the other hand, you get that feeling of your music being too close and too thick to listen to. Plugging them to Sony ZX300 which does not have a ton of power really and everything simply just clears out. Like that tiny speck on your glass that does not really makes your perception worse, but it annoys you so you want to clean it as fast as possible.
Summary
What can I say. Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk definitely hits above its weight. For just $329 we’re getting the performance closer to $500+. Great build quality, very universal frequency response, tons of detail as well as performance and that very unique look that will definitely turn more than a single person’s head.
Recommended. Truly and highly.
Moondrop Blessing 2 dusk was sent to us as a part of moondrop blessing 2 dusk Review tour.
Gear used during this review for the sake of comparison and as an accompanying equipment:
- Headphones – Beyerdynamic DT1990 Pro, DT770 Pro 80 Ohm, Hidizs MS2, Tripowin TC-01, Etymotic ER4XR, Campfire Solaris 2020 LE, Anthem Five E2
- Sources – Sony ZX300, Pocophone X3, Earmen TR-Amp, Cayin C9
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