Moondrop - KATO

Moondrop kato, i had it, its V shape sound with a great bass sound. Kiwi, and KZ iems are great too However there’s many options at this price range,

Moondrop kato i buy for 50$, tanchjim origin for 120$. That’s my impressive

I also own the Kato. If they sound boring now, might be worth trying getting new set of nozzles and replace your current ones. In my case, although the old filters looked clean, they actually muffled the sound. I just figured it's really easy to clog this filter and it won't be obvious because the change in sound will be so gradual that you wouldn't realize it's not what they should sound like. Now I try to replace the filters once every three months and store it with silica bag that I also regularly replace  If you do replace the nozzles with some new ones, do let me know what you think. In my experience, it practically made my Kato brand new again; really textured bass, sparkly treble, and warm mids.

What's your budget? I don't listen to these artists much, but similar-ish artists like Sheena Ringo, Hikura Utada. My go to pair for late 90s-00s j-pop is Moondrop Kato (which is discontinued, and replaced by extremely similar Moondrop Kadenz). These are vocal forward with some bass, but not overpowering. On upcoming sale they should be available in the $150-170 range. Moondrop Aria 2 is much cheaper, but a bit more v-shaped, but should still be a good choice. Full price is around 99usd, and should be able to get a decent discount with 11.11 sale or black friday.

Moondrop Chu, and no. The Kato is the only Moondrop iem I still have and use. I liked the Aria but gave it to a friend to try to get him into iems (I failed). The Chu was good enough to get me into iems, but not good enough to keep me listening. I don't even know where they are now, lol. Of the early iems that I bought, I only have and listen to the Truthear Hexa (lifeless but decent, with wonderful imaging) and that Truthear Harmon-tuned one that Crinacle did with the subwoofer (I forget the name). It is fatiguing, but it is exciting until it wears me down. Good for techno. I listen mostly to the Aful P5, the Chopin, the Letshour S12, and the Kato now. Sometimes at home, I listen to the P8 and the Xenn Mangrid Top (they are too expensive to lug around with me--I have a $200 limit on iems that I'm willing to take in my backpack).

How people love to talk for the sake of talking, 3 - 4 years is a huge technological difference, 4 years ago a planar was a matter of hundreds or thousands of dollars, the same thing happened in their time with the BAs, and now they come out with their "they change the drivers" man, they are selling you the same iem much cheaper, with the same tuning and with a driver that is more budget-friendly, something that even large companies do. They throw shit at KZ over and over again but they lick Moondrop's shoes with all their quality problems even on hundreds of dollar products (I bought the Kato as soon as it came out, the cable rusted in 2 months and I ended up going back to my ZAXs anyway). You can't really expect your opinion to be valid when you haven't even tried the brand's progression... Minimo argues objectively, and not with "so and so complained on facebook".

While I don't currently commute much, if I'm going somewhere on public transport, I find that I prefer a more v-shaped tuning than usual, with a strong bass especially. I think maybe it helps with background noise, but also in general I prefer a more energetic sort of sound if I'm out and about. My current go-to is the Ikko OH10. I've been looking for an endgame for this use-case and so far, the OH10 is the closest, but not quite perfect. It could do with a couple more dB of bass (without EQ) and a touch less stridency in the treble. I will say though, it's pretty easy to make the OH10 perfect with EQ, it's just something I don't like doing because I'm always listening to different stuff and it's a pain to manage profiles. Plus it encourages never-ending tinkering and tip rolling is bad enough as it is. Some things I was hoping would unseat the OH10 but have not done so include the Aful Explorer and FatFreq Deuce. Some warm/bassy IEMs that I don't like as much for travelling are the QKZ HBB and Letshuoer S08, despite being my #3 and #2 IEMs overall, respectively. The HBB is too laid back. The S08 is let down by its bass, which can be a bit boxy at the best of times, but this gets exaggerated quite a lot when travelling, especially on buses. The Timeless AE is an interesting one in that it sounds perfect for walking around, but as soon as I get on a bus, it suddenly sounds like it has no bass. Been meaning to write a separate post about that one. I think there's something about "planar bass" and acoustic impedance going on there; something to do with the engine noise/vibration from buses. The same thing does not happen with DD bass drivers, regardless of whether they are midbass or subbass focused. I haven't had a chance to compare the Timeless AE, Ikko OH10 and Moondrop Kato on a train, but for a long time the Kato was my go-to for long train journeys. I find the OH10 is a bit ahead of the Kato for bus trips, as it's more v-shaped. I think if I'm going to spend 2-4 hours on a train, I'll still prefer the Kato. I'll also mention my favourite IEM overall which is the Simgot EA1000. It works for everything including travelling, but the Kato and OH10 are both warmer/bassier so those are what I'd normally go to for travelling. If I were travelling, staying hotels, etc., and wanted to take a single IEM for everything, it would be the EA1000.

I have about 50 IEMs, so it's a fairly long list. But my current favourites are: 1. Simgot EA1000 2. Letshuoer S08 -- currently tied with Ikko OH300 3. QKZ HBB 4. Moondrop Stellaris -- specifically with Dunu Candy tips^[1] 5. Moondrop Kato -- tied with Ikko OH10 (order changes if I'm inside or outside). 6. Dunu Titan S ^[1] Just because these tips work for me doesn't mean they'll work for anyone else - with other tips these are super bright and fatiguing to listen to.

It's very well regarded. Some reviewers slightly prefer the Tanchjim Origin, but I skipped that one because some other reviewers say it's more of a downgrade or sidegrade from the Oxygen, which I already have. The EA1000 is definitely in another league technically when you compare it to 1DDs like the EA500LM, Kato, Oxygen, Dunu Falcon Ultra, etc. Even the reviewers who prefer the tuning of one of the other 1DDs acknowledge that the EA1000 is ahead on technicalities. The Origin is the only one out of that list I haven't been able to hear and compare myself. I also haven't heard the stupidly high end ones like the SoftEars Twilight, but that one interests me, to hopefully try in the future. Oh also I keep forgetting that technically the EA1000 isn't actually a 1DD, it's more like a 1.5DD because it has a passive radiator. Most people group it together with the rest though and it's unclear if the passive radiator actually contributes anything. I think it *might* because the bass on the EA1000 is pretty unique too. If I had to pick from the ones that are true 1DDs, in terms of enjoyment I'd rank them OH300 > Dunu Titan S > Kato > Oxygen, but in terms of "technically-the-best" it goes Oxygen -(tiny difference)-> Kato -(big difference)-> Dunu Titan S -(big difference)-> OH300. Also worth calling out the QKZ HBB for being stupidly good for what it costs (about $15). It's roughly my #3 favourite IEM at any price, but maybe drops down to #4 because of the OH300 (I haven't decided if the OH300 completely replaces the S08 or not). The HBB is just very unique for it's super laid back, warm tuning, so I can't see it ever leaving my collection.

The Kadenz, like the Kato before it, is anodised, not painted, so chipping isn't an issue. I have the matte grey Kato, which is the same finish as the Kadenz. It develops a wear pattern over time. IMO it looks better as it ages, because the angled edges tend to get slightly polished and stand out more from the rest of the overall matte finish. Tuning on the Kadenz is a bit different to the Kato. I haven't heard the Kadenz myself though. Apparently the Kadenz is more vocal-oriented and very good at what it does, but it's a bit of a specialist tuning whereas the Kato is one of the best all-rounder IEMs of all time. I feel like perhaps excessive talk about the Kato being outdated towards the end of its life has added to misconceptions about how good it actually was, and still is. 1DDs can be very good. A hybrid isn't automatically better. You're mostly paying for R&D and other factors with an IEM, not the raw cost of the drivers. Unless it's something crazy like the Fiio FX17 which is $1,500, but if you bought just the EST drivers separately they'd cost about $1,600. And IDK why people are saying the Kadenz is "outdated". That's ridiculous and is probably conflating what people were saying about the Kato, which is a different IEM. It's a relatively new release. Just because there's a new FotM release every month does not mean other IEMs go out of date that quickly. TBH, the Kadenz is probably a bit overpriced if you look at it in terms of absolute value for money, given how the driver compares to the Tanchjim Origin or the Simgot EA1000 (which are both a bit more expensive than it to be fair). But, if it's the tuning you want, it's probably worth it. The Kato was a bit overpriced by the time they discontinued it, in terms of pure value for money. But at the same time, there also wasn't anything else directly competing with it as a really good all-rounder, other than the Aria 2, which isn't quite as good and doesn't have the same build quality. The Kadenz fills a slightly different niche though. If you're just looking for a good all-rounder, the Aria 2 should be a pretty safe bet as long as you're not worried about the paint. There are some good hybrid options around $100 like the Truthear Pure and the Juzear Defiant, but they're not automatically going to sound better. 1DDs tend to be more coherent. The Pure is definitely one to listen to first or get from somewhere with a good returns policy like Amazon, as around 40% of reviewers described it as muddy, while the other 60% liked it a lot. The Defiant also needs a good returns policy because about 25% of them have a QC problem with venting. Don't let people's FotM-influenced opinions sway you away from potentially good IEMs like the Aria. Until very recently it was FotM and everyone was recommending it. It didn't suddenly become a terrible IEM because people forgot about it. I would stay away from the Starfield 2 though, as those did not get any good reviews at all. I can't say much about the Kadenz myself. Maybe someone will reply who actually owns it. Long-term though, the Kato is still one of my best IEMs. If I had to have only one IEM forever, I'd have a hard time choosing between the Kato and the EA1000 (which is another 1DD btw, although technically it's more like a 1.5DD). I have several hybrids as well. They're not better, just different.

Do you have the Oxygen for comparison? I haven't heard the Origin but I have the Oxygen and am curious about how all these new ones compare to them. Also the Oxygen is about 99% identical to the Kato, with the only real difference being the O2 has a bit more sub-bass and less mid-bass, so it sounds a bit cleaner. But it's barely noticeable - there's a bigger difference between tips than between these two IEMs.

If you like the Kato you'll probably like the Oxygen. I slightly prefer how the Oxygen sounds (but only by a tiny margin). But I prefer the Kato overall because it has much better fit stability.

If you want something very neutral then the Truthear Hexa needs consideration. The main downside with it are that the nozzles are quite largev. It's not as massive as the Zero Red/Blue but if you have smaller ears I'd avoid it. Also t has a very narrow soundstage. Another IEM with a similarly neutral tuning but a bit more sub-bass is the Thieaudio Legacy 2. I prefer that one to the Hexa and it's a lot more comfortable. It's slightly more expensive, but not much. Also the L2 has a bit more high treble roll-off although I don't find that sacrifices any detail, it just makes them a bit smoother sounding than the Hexa. These also have much better soundstage than the Hexa. Also sprach Zarathustra sounds very good on these btw; I don't listen to a lot of classical but that's one of my test tracks. I haven't heard the Aria 2 but I do have the Kato which it supposedly sounds nearly identical to, and it's another warm-leaning, mild-v. I think this will tend to sound a bit muddy with classical, compared to some of the brighter or more neutral sets. I wouldn't recommend the S08 either, because it's very tip-sensitive and even if you get good tip match, it's quite a dark tuning. It's great for certain music, but I don't think it will do classical very well at all. The S12 is a better option. Just make sure you have a reasonably good DAC/amp as planars don't always sound at their best when under-powered. Another potential alternative to the S12 is the Moondrop Stellaris. I would advise some caution here, because as it comes out of the box it's really bright and fatiguing. I personally find it becomes less fatiguing than the S12 Pro with Dunu Candy tips, but I can't guarantee those will work the same in anyone else's ears. Still [at least one reviewer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdLqjwXG7CA) recommends them for classical specifically. They do have a much flatter tuning than the S12. At least with the right tips they are a bright-neutral rather than an intense v-shape like the S12. Another non-planar option worth considering is the Simgot EA500. The original, not the LM. The LM is quite v-shaped and also sounds quite closed-in compared to the original. The downside of the EA500 again is, like several of these options can be so bright that it gets fatiguing. In fact it's probably the most fatiguing of these. It has a certain realism though and is nearly as resolving as the planars despite being a 1DD. It has a good sense of dynamics as well the largest soundstage I've heard on an IEM, with pin-sharp imaging. A much safer option is the Moondrop LAN. It's a bright-neutral tuning but regardless of eartips used it doesn't have so much treble energy for anyone to really find it fatiguing. It's also got quite a smooth treble response, and pretty decent soundstage. Short version: Moondrop LAN probably the safest option, but slightly less resolving than some of the others; Stellaris + Dunu Candy tips is a big upgrade iff your ears react to the tips the way mine do. Thieaudio Legacy 2 is another good & safe option.

Moondrop Kato was my first IEM and I just couldn't get over how shrill the high end was. Hurt my ears. Now I'm using the Theiaudio Hype 4's and I love them. I don't have a fancy DAC, I have the Beacn Mic which basically has the same chip as an AudioQuest Dragonfly Red but it works for my needs.

I think that's a good thing because it curbs your appettite to keep seeking things on the higher price bracket. It might be an age related thing too as we get less sensitive hearing as we get older and hearing adapts less to changes in what we hear. You could also just be doing side-by-side without giving your ears a rest. Sometimes giving your ears time to recover could make you hear differences better. I personally stopped at the Kato since I reached what I think is my point of saturation. Aaaaand I would always want to pick-up my old BL-03 when I want to have a good time. 2nd would be the Aria and the Kato would be something I pick-up if I want to listen to some music with a more orchestral approach.

Commuting: Samsung Buds 2 Pro Home: Moondrop Kato IEMs