UMERION
December 25th, 2019
MOONDROP SHIROYUKI VS FAAEAL SNOW LOTUS 1.0 BALANCED: SNOWFLAKES
INTRODUCTION
As of writing this, it is Christmas morning at my place, so Merry Christmas to all. I hope all 3 of you who might read this have a happy holiday and spend some quality time with your loved ones.
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You all know me for my IEM reviews, but today I’m bringing something a bit different: earbuds. I’ve been getting into them lately, and if you thought the chi-fi IEM market was diverse and fast growing, you’ve seen nothing yet. From the days of the Yuin PK-1, the chi-fi earbud market has exploded with many manufacturers, with this review’s highlight being Moondrop and FAAEAL.
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FAAEAL, a newbie, they have mostly focused on earbuds and brought to market the Snow Lotus 1.0, attacting the attention of many head-fiers for its impressive sound for the price. Which is why we are going to cover the FAAEAL Snow Lotus 1.0 (Balanced).
Moondrop is also a recent chi-fi newcomer, famous for their Kanas and KXXS models, but they also have a budding earbud lineup, with their newest budget earbud entry being the Moondrop Shiroyuki.
This isn’t a full review, per se. Usually I’ll go into the lows, mids and highs and listen to a few songs and see what the products do for the song. But this time, as the Shiroyuki and Snow Lotus 1.0 Balanced both have similar looks and sharing the “Snow” in their name, we are going to compare between these two earbuds, give some impressions on their sound signature and just have a chill holiday :)
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With that out of the way, let’s start with the packaging:
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With the Snow Lotus 1.0 Balanced (I’m just gonna call it the SL1B from now on so I don’t cramp my hands typing the name), we have a pretty standard black packaging with some golden text on top.
UNBOXING
Open it up and you will see two compartments:
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The bigger box includes a really nice carrying case with the FAAEAL branding, I don’t usually use cases but with this one sometimes I do just because it looks so nice. Inside the case lies the SL1B, neatly wrapped and smells of fresh chinese Shenzhen plastic.
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The other box contains accessories for your SL1B, which includes 10 pairs of color coded foam earpads, yes 10 pairs! I guess since you can’t include much accessories for an earbud so FAAEAL just gave up and throw in an excess of earpads and hope you won’t notice. It’s great extras for those who have more earbuds though. You also get a shirt clip of questionable practicality.
Onto the Shiroyuki. For those who don’t know, Shiroyuki is japanese for “White Snow”- Moondrop released this close to the end of the year and with a snow theme, probably to entice Christmas shoppers and also acts as a nice little Christmas gift.
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The owner of Moondrop is probably a big weaboo because they often have anime girls plastered on their packaging, but for the Shiroyuki, they opted for a simple circular tin, with some minimalistic printing on top. As a fellow weeb, I wouldn’t mind another anime girl on my packaging, though I know there are detractors and the packaging style adopted for the Shiroyuki is also very nice, a bit reminiscent of DIY arts and crafts projects.
The tin opens up by twisting the top off, containing the Shiroyuki nestled in a cleaning cloth. Now on the marketing material, the cloth is supposed to be white, following the snow theme, but mine was black. Now the cloth is still a cloth, it does what a cloth does, but it does kinda ruin the theme a bit wouldn’t you agree? Another gripe for me is the earpads, which can be found underneath the cloth: they are basic black earpads and you are given 3 pairs but they are not color coded like the SL1B, also it’s black (snow theme cmon Moondrop). Though for the budget price, these concessions make sense and doesn’t detract too much from the main piece, the Shiroyuki themselves.
APPEARANCE
The SL1B uses a smoke colored shell with some braided cable of the same color, it also has a Y spiltter and L shaped jack outputting in 2.5mm (hence the Balanced marker), whilst the Shiroyuki has a clear exterior and thinner but still nice white cable, fitting the snow theme and metallic jack. Now I’ve seen the Shiroyuki’s cable in some cheap QKZ IEMs, however this time they fit really nice with the general aesthetics and durable enough given adequate care, so no complaints here. Here are some shots of the SL1B and Shiroyuki side by side, a pretty nice contrast to each other.
SOUND
Now, the sound. Whilst sharing the same MX500 type shell, both these earbuds have different approaches to tuning which make them both quite unique specialists.
Duumu - Illuminate
The SL1B is warm, very warm. It evokes the sound of older earbuds or earbuds that used to come with your nokia flip phones, but with a chi-fi twist. There is a sweet atmosphere present throughout songs like Duumu’s Illuminate. Though vocals don’t exactly take center stage, they benefit from the warmth this earbud outputs, providing a mellow and relaxed listening experience. It also has quite a bit of sub-bass rumble for an earbud which helped me acclimate to earbuds better going from IEMs, a surprise for sure but a welcomed one. Instrument seperation is par for the course, not able to beat IEMs but certainly enough to not take away from most music save for modern genres like EDM and metal albums. You can also make use of the extra power from the balanced output, although I find this a bit more of gimmick than a feature for the SL1B doesn’t really need much more than your phone’s output to shine and with more power, some distortion of the lower notes come into play. Still, a great offering for those wanting a warm, smooth delivery for instrumental and acoustic music and a truckload of accessories.
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"Though vocals don’t exactly take center stage, they benefit from the warmth this earbud outputs, providing a mellow and relaxed listening experience".
Olivia Ong - Fly Me to the Moon
The Shiroyuki is at the same time the opposite to the SL1B’s tuning philosophy yet also seems like a different flavour. Whereas the SL1B dumps tons of warmth to create a romantic signature, the Shiroyuki is more reserved, selective – so to speak. The shiroyuki puts emphasis on female vocals, a Moondrop staple and it is delightful to listen to. Olivia Ong’s Fly Me to the Moon felt much more layered on the Shiroyuki compared to the SL1B, with vocals in front, percussions and string plucks second and everything else in the back. And my oh my, I love the way these things portray vocals, so sweet and warm yet controlled and not overbearing. The Shiroyuki also successfully creates an airy feeling whilst retaining a mellow sound typical of earbuds, having slightly better seperation of instruments than the SL1B due in part to the less warm frequency response. The Shiroyuki isn’t without fault however, as its bass performance is a bit unimpressive. It’s not that there is no bass, but it’s very tight and conservative, it only really appears when you really try to listen out for it, leaving me wanting just a bit more.
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"And my oh my, I love the way these things portray vocals, so sweet and warm yet controlled and not overbearing".
CONCLUSION
"Like chocolate and vanilla ice cream; a christmas eve night with banquets and warm fires and the christmas morning where children come out to play and make snow angels, the SL1B and Shiroyuki both have “Snow” in their name, but they are certainly different types of snow. The SL1B great for those who want an intimate sound and the Shiroyuki for its sweet vocals, they don’t compete but rather compliment each other, both worthy of a purchase. For the price of one or two lunches, these earbuds make for awesome Christmas presents, whether for yourself or a friend."
FAAEAL SNOW LOTUS 1.0 BALANCED
MOONDROP SHIROYUKI
What do you think about this new shorter format ? Do you like these types of comparisons? Comment below to let me know and once again, have a happy holiday.