Moondrop - Starfield II (Gen 2)

Those I own or have owned: Tangzu Nezha, Tangzu Tianpeng, IO Sogno, QoA Aviation, Hisenior Cano Cristales, Intuaura Plume, Leteciel Magiris, Reecho Spring 2, Moondrop Starfield 2, Tangzu Yu Xuan Ji (both standard & Year of Snake editions), Kiwi Ears Forteza, Celest Wyvern (Abyss and Remaster), Vzonis VD-01. Those I don't own but have seen in person: Artpical Michael, Palavox Akasha, Forte Ears Mephisto, Nostalgia Audio Durandal, Thieaudio Prestige LTD, Xenns Top Pro, Elysian Pilgrim, Moondrop Psyche, Kinera Imperial Verdandi. Those I have only seen online photos of: SeeAudio Bravery 24, Rossi&Wing LUA series (all 3 of them), Aful Cantor (Starry Night ver), Kinera Nott, Ice Lab Spectrumica, Leteciel Encore, Tangzu Xuanwu Gate, probably missing quite a few that I can't recall right now.

Yeah I also rate KZ Gale higher than Kunten. Kunten is still really good but I dont think that iem is better than nicely tuned 50$ iem. Sure it can sound better than some more expensive iems but thats more because that expensive iems are poorly tuned or not matched to my taste.. Like, I would prefer Kunten over Starfield 2.

I use moondrop starfield 2

Moondrop starfield 2, a downgrade in every conceivable aspect to the first.  Truthear hexa.  Looks cheap, feels cheap,  sounds cheap. 

The Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite, Starfield IIs were pretty ok. Yea HRTF is such a strange thing, I'm a huge fan of the Speaker Harman Curve but finding IEMs that work for me has been a challenge.

Wouldn't call myself an audiophile (yet), but i picked stuff up from recommendations of friends. Currently using the Moondrop Starfield 2 IEMs when I go out, and the DT990 Pro from Beyerdynamic connected to the Filo K5 at home. Very satisfied with what I've got but I've not exactly explored lots of other options.

My first IEM was the Moondrop Starfield which I purchased in early March 2022 as an early birthday present for myself. I really liked that IEM. I still occasionally listen to the Starfield out of nostalgia since this IEM caused me to switch away from headphones. The Starfield sounds very slightly veiled in comparison to most of today's budget IEMs. The budget IEM wars which started in late 2022 has resulted in the variety of really nice budget IEMs which are available to today's consumers.

Final Audio A4000 — tuning that favors clarity and a fairly transparent presentation for the price; a good option if you want to capture micro-details without spending a lot. • Moondrop Aria / Starfield (Starfield family) — very good in terms of resolution and separation; the Aria is especially good as an analytical "entry-level" model due to its balance and resolution for ~$80–120. The Starfield offers good soundstage and timbre within its range. • TINHiFi T2 Plus — surprisingly detailed and well-separated at a very low price; if you're on a tight budget, it delivers a lot of "micro-resolution" for little money.

I’ve been using Moondrop Aria IEMs for 4 years now, recently upgraded to a Moondrop Starfield and I’ve enjoyed them. First time using them I heard a guy crawl on top of some rocks above me on the woods map and waited for him to peak. Was sold from that point on, just recommend to find some good ear tips and maybe try foam out. Also I just searched up Pc Dac on Amazon and found the fosi K5 Pro which for me personally has made the audio much more enjoyable. I previously used it plugged into PC, but got interference (slight pops) then I plugged into my Mic which allows audio pass through and had cool features like volume control, and I would be able to hear myself talk (IEMs in my case I talk louder than I needed to and this feature was nice to control my voice because of noise cancellation) I’ve tried Logitech Pro X but headsets just give me fatigue after awhile, playing mostly 4 hours or more at a time which is what made me look into IEMs in the first place.

Funny I’ve been maining IEMs for 5 years and been wanting to get the DT 990 Pro X just to see if I could more accurately pinpoint movements in Tarkov. Been using moondrop arias and loved them but recently got the moondrop starfields and they’re even better quality wise. Aria paint chipped and filters go out pretty quick

I've spent years looking for Moondrop Starfield upgrade, so far I have listened around 40+ of the most popular and most recommended iems with prices up to 1300$. I was thinking of writing an article about all the iems I have tested and what I have learned, but I just don't have that much time to share a detailed findings unfortunately. But in short I can tell you this - if you have good hearing and appreciate the real/natural/reference sound then Moondrop Starfield iems are simply unbeatable in sub $1300. Yes, they are not perfect sounding, BUT they have not a single minor or major flaw, have good to excellent sound across the board, very comfortable to wear and their overall sound signature is very similar to the reference Genelec monitors. Yes, other more expensive iems can have a slightly more natural mids, or more detailed highs, or wider stage, or better bass, but they ALL have at least one major flaw or more often several minor and major flaws, like being big and getting hot and uncomfortable very quickly or having much worse mids or much worse highs. So overall they always lose to Starfields and often are simply unacceptable sounding without EQ. MOST common and prominent flaw of expensive iems (like the often recommended Monarch MKII/MKIII or PRESTIGE LTD) is very harsh and sibilant high frequencies. People who enjoy and recommend these iem have damaged hearing and by listening to them they damage it even more. So unless you have hardware to equalize the iems, I would recommend to avoid buying any expensive ones. Possibly there are some iems that are overall better than Moondrop Starfield in over 1300$ range and that is what I plan to investigate in the upcoming months/years when I have time to spare. The only iems that got close to be a replacement for Moondrop Starfield are 7th Acoustics Supernova. They have some minor flaws like highs being borderline harsh, slightly weak bass, poor and cheap accessories with only balanced cable, sealed design that makes it quite challenging to find the right eartips and right insertion depth. But after spending some time and money experimenting with different eartips and external DACs to get less harsh sound and not so tight fit, I found the right balance so they now sound like 10-20% better than Starfields depending on the song. But it all cost me over $1000, meaning over 10x the price of Starfields for some small (still noticeable) improvements. So unless you have $1K to waste I would recommend staying with Starfields and saving the money.

A common problem with many high-end IEMs, they have almost fully sealed design - better sound isolation, and possibly allows them to have better control of acoustics/resonances, but ultimately makes most of those high-end IEMs unusable for long-term listening sessions. The best sounding IEM under 1300$ I found after listening to dozens of them is 7th Acoustic Supernova and it has the same pressure issue. Better for your ears and hearing to avoid these IEMs entirely. Also, keep in mind that all these expensive IEMs do not provide much of improvement sound-wise over these 2 IEMs that are as close to reference sound as I could find: Wan'er Studio Edition (only WHITE one) or Moondrop Starfield (unfortunately no longer produced, so hard to find). Both of these do not have any "pressure" issue. But if you still want to use the tight-sealed ones, then the only workaround I found is as follows: when you insert the IEM into your ear canal, push the silicone ear tip against one of the ear canal walls, for example push it downwards, so that upper part of the silicone tip does not seal the ear canal and still allows some air to go through while you insert the IEM. You try to insert the IEM this way as deep as possible, deeper than you would usually/comfortably put them in, when you can't insert it any deeper then stop pushing the silicone tip towards the wall, so it unfolds and seals the ear canal. You will feel slight pressure on ear drum. After that you just slightly pull the IEMs from you ears, reducing the pressure, while still keeping them in your ear and sealed. You might do it couple of times until you get to the optimal pressure, cause its hard to get it right on the first try.