Moondrop - METEOR

Hi guys, a few months ago I saw an interesting format in the watches sub and I decided to take inspiration from it. I recorded the hours of my IEMs used in the last 2 months, in total I stopped at just over 400 hours, it was an interesting experiment especially to understand what I can sell and what is not used. I'll leave you some impressions and comments:) * Punch audio Martilo: In the end they were my most used between Work, Music, Gym and Gaming. I must say that lately I listen to a lot of phonk * Tangzu Tianpeng: They replaced my Bajie, excellent quality and accessories for more refined listening at home or excellent for gaming * Tanchjim Force: They are becoming my favorites, already heard at various fairs and lent by a friend, excellent aesthetic and design, sound similar to my beloved Meteor, but they are less goofy and therefore I can also wear them on trains or at work, I will definitely increase the hours * Moondrop Kadenz: Great all-rounders, simply top, but I'm using the Forces more for a similar sound. They're perfect for work. * Moondrop Meteor: Among my favorite flagships, but I'm more comfortable with the Tanchjim as they are more discreet, I listen to the Meteor at home in peace * Fatfreq Deuce: They were the most used for the same reasons as the Martilo, but I prefer the Punch Audio for design and comfort. The bass is perfect in both.

The Moondrop meteor really impressed me, like wtf real meteorite lol

Honestly I hit this too recently, splurged on some top line stuff and honestly need to force myself to use them over some cheaper options I have. For example I picked up the Moondrop Meteors and Blessing 3’s Yet still find myself falling back to the old trusty Shire se215, kiwi ears orchestra and moondrop aria snow editions I find the top line are always very “clean” sounding but i personally enjoy the sound curve on the lower line models best! Might be what my ears are capable of hearing also. Again all subjective and YMMV Always enjoy the little sense of discovery with things like this, think finding the limit of price to returns for me is a fun thing with most hobbies i get into. Finding out for yourself is important! Now I get more excited when I find some a pair of cheap little gems that I can recommend to people looking for some IEM’s!

Recently I tried the moondrop meteor and I can't imagine a better iem for mastering, its the clearest, most neutral iem I've ever heard, I didn't enjoy it very much because I like fun iems but for mastering it would be perfect.

For iems the moondrop meteor is the cleanest most transparent iem I've ever heard, and I precisely don't like it for that specific reason.

I used to like it, too bad I can't wear it for more than an hour. The weight distribution ain't the greatest, and it pulls down on my ears.

Meteor is great, among moondrop's newer IEM releases(Kadenz,Harmon) I think its the best.

I don't know your tuning preference, but the Moondrop Meteor is my personal favourite at 500USD. Sounds like a mild V, some would consider it neutral with a little bit of fun added. It was a great benchmark set for me, and I brought it with me when I went to demo kilobucks in store. It still holds it's own, especially in the treble. The bass might be too little for EDM depending on your taste, but technical performance gaps the Rockies imo, without having to overboost the treble. It also sounds a lot more natural. It was the opposite of hyped initially, where everything except the treble was clowned on in reviews (Moondrop Mediocre). When the user reviews rolled in it was actually quite positive, but didn't manage to reach the same levels of hype as the Rockies is getting right now because of the initial lukewarm reaction. I sold it because of long term comfort issues but I seem to be a rarity. Most find the comfort ok, just that it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Yes, these are pretty interesting sounding IEMs, but they have a pretty bad peaks at around 5800Hz and 14000Hz. Because of that, I'd still go for something like Moondrop Variations and Meteor, because they simply don't have these flaws, and they are cheaper

On variations, the bass is perfect, in my opinion. It matches the Harman IE 2019 bass shelf of 105Hz, and it's actually the perfect balance between clarity and enjoyment. What about the meteors, they also have a really really good bass, similar to the variations, but I would consider boosting it up a little, maybe 2-3dB with a simple 105Hz LSQ filter, and also adding a HSQ filter, starting from 3k Hz, also adding 3dB

I want to own a nice set of every well known iem brand out there, right now i got the Moodrop Meteor, the Fatfreq xHBB duke and the Kiwi Ears x HBB punch. I wached the bad guy good audio video about ZiiGaat and i want to get the Ziigaat Lush soon.

The galaxy buds 2 pro you normaly use are peak bleutooth headphones, maby thats why some iem's dont sound like a upgrade. I got the zero bleu 2 and was disapointed. I waited a long time till i bought another pair of iem's. I got the Moondrop Meteor as my second iem and its on a diferent level.

Alright.... Time to show off my age. **Sony EX70/71**. One of the first consumer grade IEM to show what IEM was like before IEM was in the hobby's consciousness. If you know, you know. This was one of the first consumer level IEMs available. This was 2003, and I got mind around 2004/5? **Shure E2C.** Around the same time, Shure released their IEM, the E-series to the general public. Slightly more darker tuning if I remember right, but the E2c was one of the first **professional IEM** that was available for the general public. I think I liked it better than the EX71, because it was more rounder and/or more decent sounding. Few years later, the **UE TripleFi** went on sale on Black Friday for $99. That one holds a special place in my heart. First 3x BA driver with detachable cable and was pretty good sound. Sony got my wallet back in the 2010s with their XBA series. **XBA-3** around 2012, 13? That one still remains one of my favorites and I still have them to this day. It just hits right for me. Then... KZ hit the market with their ATE, then ZS series.... and everything changed, in a very positive way. **ZS5** was the major milestone. And that was amazeballs. Multiple BA and DD drivers? For less than $50, let alone $100? Mindblowing. Was it neutral? No, not really. Was it controversial? Yes. But it sounded really good. And I think I got lucky getting the v1 rather than v2? But still. That was mindblowing. Chinese OEMs were now making stuff that sounded good as mainline brands, at fraction of the price! The new wave of $20 to $50 Chi-Fi IEMs impress me to this day. From the **Wan'er** to the **Moondrops** and maybe even the **KZ ZS12 Pro X** (non tuning). I'm going to jump on the cheap bandwagon with the **ARTTI R6 USB-C** version. $3.50? And it sounds better than what was considered state of the art 10 years ago?! Are you fucking kidding me? You newcomers have it immensely good. Before 2017, 16(?), you had to spend at least $50+ to get something worthwhile (SQ, detachable cables, etc) because that was the state of the market.

I really do enjoy high end IEMs a *LOT*, but I also find enjoyment in what makes each IEM unique too. A lot of the lower end/cheaper IEMs on the market still offer unique experiences I've found and to me that is going to be enough to be "fun" and I think a lot of the reviews out there focus solely on technical performance when comparing IEMs, rightfully so, but a lot of the nuance in what makes IEMs fun gets lost when you put them under a microscope and compare frequencies or other objective metrics. I know for a fact there are individuals out there that would prefer a 7Hz x Crinacle Zero:2 over something super technical like moondrop meteor for 10x the price (not a critique of the meteor, I really do enjoy them).

Detail. It's like 4k, but for your ears. I was pretty shocked when I was sent the Moondrop Meteors by accident. These things are gorgeous. https://preview.redd.it/yu346bl96ulf1.jpeg?width=8192&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=467e2af1a3fa8c21aad10874efe976fe08effea2

If you are into super neutral and long-duration critical listening, then I think that the cost effective end-game critical listening IEM (if you can get it from China) of 2025 has to be Moondrop Meteor. I’ve tested various high-end IEMs, and found out that it fleshed out as much details and imaging as other high-end ones without too much sibilance or bass, and I managed to get it for roughly 2699 YUAN ~ 360-400ish USD thanks to their government-backed discount on some pricy electronics. For the technical/physical details of MM, there are tests done on Crinacle. Also, Boizoff has tested its other specs like group delays (very low <5 ms from 10Hz to 13kHz where there are some spikes around 7-8 ms) and validated its harmonic distortion+noise is indeed <= 0.6% at @1kHz fundamental and 94 dB. Also, its diffuse field response and frequency response are way better than many others at $1000 range(based on both PopAvg DF and 5128 DF targets). I’d say its soundstage, imaging, and instrumental separation and Monarch MK4’s have no audible difference, but MK4 has more bass and brighter treble; the latter is quite noticeable in ACG songs, and the brightness sort of hinder sounds from other ranges as many ACG songs are complex and use almost all ranges at any time. At last, there’s is a piece of Aletai meteorite on each side of MM with (very likely) different Widmanstatten pattern, and I think the design is quite aesthetic and elegant compared to even the more expensive ones.

I don’t know what’s the “best”, but among the setups I’ve tested (up to +$2ks), I truly enjoyed Moondrop Meteor as it struck me as incredibly natural and excellent imaging, soundstage, and separation over the whole audible frequency spectrum compared to the rest. The measurements and technicalities also justify the performance (Check Boizoff’s measurements and graphs on Hangout Audio). One would immediately notice its the incredible neutral-natural-analytic performance at ~80dBa; its performance scales smoothly wrt dB level. It’s super smooth and analytic, and it might seem very dull to some people who seek warmer sounds or sharper treble. Though, on Meteor, if you can scale dB level to match “average studio recording room dB level” and close your eyes the more this IEM will very likely make feel like you are in an actual studio. It’s almost perfectly neutral (relative to JM-1 target) and what sets it apart from little bit away from perfection is the ~10 dB linear bass elevation which is common in almost all IEMs to get more natural hearing (compensate ear gain at lower frequencies). Although we can make a case that ER4SR is closer to JM-1 (no preference adjustment), the bass on ER4SR doesn’t sound natural. Its sound signature is quite close to Variations but I think Meteor’s overall treble is way smoother and has slightly better separation, imaging, and soundstage. I think Boizoff has the best analogy for Meteor based on its measurements and taste; https://boizoff.com/language/en/moondrop-meteor-earphones-review/ I only disagree with his take claiming that it’s not “good” for jazzy songs since listening Giant Steps and various jazz-fusion tracks on Meteor was definitely a natural and elegant analytic experience.

Hard to say what's the best for "neutral" since there's almost always trade-off which is funny as I haven't found any IEM that has achieved decent neutral response (mid-treble according to IEF 2025 target and mid-low according to Harman 2019) with near-perfect diffuse field response (JM-1 target (5128 DF has certain flaws for IEMs as it overphamsizes on the pinna's contribution to the response and IEM is directly fed into the ears)). I think a near-perf. neutral would be low Harman, mid (somewhere between), and treble, IEF 2025. We also have to consider Harmonic Distortion + (Noise) of the setup (ideally at around <= 0.5% at 1 kHz, 94 dB). But honestly, having tested THIEAUDIO Monarch MK4 and Divinity, Moondrop Meteor, and Letshuoer Cadenza 12 on Moonriver 2 Ti at around 70-80 dBa, and compared the diffuse field/freq responses, group delays, and whatnot on some 32-bit 96kHz tracks (a bit pointless but want to make the details like decaying sounds, scratches, etc. are clear enough). As for instrumental separation and imaging, I'd say maybe Divinity has overall best based on how close it matches the JM-1 target, but based on my experience, I can't faithfully say I have noticed audible spatial difference between Meteor, MK4, and Divinity on imaging and instrumental separation. Though, Cadenza doesn't do too well well on treble, and the clarity is noticeable. MK4 is also amazing, but it fleshes out too much detail on high freq, and sometimes, we can hear some unnatural emphasis on breathing or air noises; we can hear those sounds neutral enough on Meteor and Divinity. Also, my hearing is not bad as I can faithfully hear up to \~19.5 kHz and down to 20 Hz with my setup, and I've cleared hearing tests. Though, for treble, I think that Moondrop Meteor really aced it the most neutral out of all of them; I think it might have the most neutral overall treble in all IEMs based on the graphs. For mid-range, honestly, I haven't noticed much difference as all of the them sound exceptionally natural and clear. Now, for the bass region, I think MK4 nailed it the best, and also I think that Meteor does better at bass region than Divinity. So, it depends what region of neutrality you care the most about as there isn't one that aces all of them... In my case, I chose Meteor as I'm way more into treble details. It's also relatively cheaper than others \~$600, and if you can get it from some Chinese stores in China, it can be reduced to around $500 USD. Also, the bass on Meteor is quite punchy and the decaying details are clearly present (if you play at around 70-80 dBa); it's just that it doesn't hit as much as the others.

In case you aren’t sure, you can wait a bit or try to attend some shops/conventions. But if you want to go blind, then I would just elaborate again with bit more detail and tips. I’d say that MK4 isn’t really good if you’re sensitive to treble and your tracks also contain lots of mid-high trebles since if we look at both Harman and IEF preferences, the high treble differs by like 3dB from both curves which would be very bright if you are sensitive. There’s no need to worry about bass as all of them have bass under decent control. Though, if most of your songs don’t contain much high treble (can caused by breathing/air, percussions, violin, overtones…), you can still consider MK4 as it would be the the smoothest/neutral for bass and midrange as the curve sits right between IEF and Harman curve and its DF response almost perfectly overlaps with JM-1 besides for mid-high treble region. Or, in other cases, you can consider V16 as it should provide best overall separation (even mid-high treble) while also having decently smooth/neutral treble (fits IEF-2025) and bass (fits Harman bass + midrange). It’s a combo I also really enjoy as Moondrop Meteor also follows the same pattern besides MM really smoothened that treble to fit IEF and has decent separation too (it’s just that its bass might feel a bit less natural to some given bit higher deviation from JM-1). In a way, Meteor and V16 are very versatile for various tracks where V16 would have more natural overall imaging and Meteor would have more natural treble and as for bass region, I think MM better but that’s more debatable. I’m not sure about other expensive IEMs as I haven’t tried.