February 8th, 2020

MOONDROP STARFIELD REVIEW: STARSTRUCK

INTRODUCTION

Say the name “Moondrop” a year or two ago in audiophile communities and you’ll be met with a unilateral “wut?” accompanied by confusion as to what such a name entails. Yet since those days, the plucky chi-fi brand has rocketed to audio stardom with many well-regarded products like the KXXS – a semi-budget single DD offering with Harman style tuning, going up to the S8 – an 8BA iem that goes toe to toe with flagship earphones in the kilobuck level, at sub-kilobuck prices.

I had been keeping my eyes on the brand for a while, with their anime style packaging absolutely winning over weaboos like me and a great iem on top of that? Sign me the hell up! Thus, I bought the Moondrop Starfield, with its gorgeous glittery affair of a paint job; it was love at first sight indeed. But does the Starfield’s sound do justice to how beautiful it looks? What about its durability? Let’s find out.

UNBOXING

The packaging for the Starfield is pretty…standard. By that I mean it is quite reserved compared to what the brand has done for its previous releases. I’m talking anime waifus plastered front and center – like this:

It’s this type of risqué, niche packaging that is simultaneously eye-candy for weebs and an absolute turn off for everyone else that drew me to this brand, and I wished they had kept to the same style for the Starfield’s packaging. Yet, we get a pretty nicely designed sleeve with pictures of the night sky littered with stars – fitting to the Starfield theme, sliding out into a blue cardboard box with glittery accents all over and the moondrop logo on top.

Inside, we see the Starfields in the flesh, displayed without its cable in a carboard insert with a carry case beneath.

Under the insert are a pair of nippers and some filters for when you want to replace dirty filters in the Starfield’s nozzle. These filters are merely for dust and earwax protection and they serve no tuning or sound dampening purpose. Inside the case, lies the eartips for the Starfield and the cable.

CABLE

Moondrop is certainly more well-known for their iems than their cables, because this cable kinda sucks. The feel of the rubber is a bit stiff, the circle Y splitter with the Moondrop feels glued on and there are overmold plastic bits on one of the 2pin connectors. According to Moondrop, they added the “pearlescent powder” on the cable to have it glitter like the Starfield but to be honest, I don’t see it. It just looks like a purple/bluish colored cable and the color makes it look cheaper than it already is. Either they need to add more of that powder stuff or just give me a standard cable, though I appreciate the effort in trying to keep starry night theme consistent. I also liked the jack design, its an L style jack, with good strain relief and looks kinda cool, given that most jacks on cables I see nowadays are black plastic or some metal tube with a fake carbon stripe over it.

ACCESSORIES

As you can see from the close-up shot, the glitter powder stuff they added on the cable is very minimal and is barely seen unless under some very specific light conditions, and under normal light, it might as well not be there.

The carrying case is of a semi hard plastic material, with a cross-stitched texture giving it a distinct look, with “Moondrop Co.” printed on top in gold. Somehow, the printed text is a bit hard to see in a lot of light conditions, and the printing feels a bit low quality. The golden zipper gives a nice ornament feel to it though. I would also like to complain about the size of the case, it can store the Starfields fine despite being a bit cramped, and if anyone throws on a thick 16-braid cable on their Starfields than this case won’t suffice.

Still, I applaud Moondrop for doing something different instead of the usual useless pleather pouch other brands throw in or this generic flip-pouch thing I start to see chi-fi brands throwing in.

APPEARANCE

And of course, here’s the Moondrop Starfield.

Hot damn, these things are sexy. In fact, I’m willing to say this is the best looking universal IEM, surpassing the Shozy Hibiki SE with its fancy stabilized wood inserts and only rivaled by high level custom paintjobs from the likes of artisan CIEM makers like Custom Art:

The CustomArt FiBAE 4. Look at this and tell me the Moondrop Starfield doesn’t come close to emulating it or even surpassing it.

Not only does the starry livery glitter as you hold it in different angles, it also changes color from a brilliant cobalt to a more lavender shade. The Starfield text reminds me of the way the Hibiki (SE) has a subtle signature on its right faceplate and the star design on the Starfield’s left faceplate breaks the monotony of the sea of blue adorning the IEM’s body. This is almost like ear jewelry, we should just start wearing these instead of earrings, they’re even more useful as they make sound!

To make a long story short, I absolutely love it. The Starfield’s exterior is pure sex, the best type of eye-candy I’ve seen at this price point. Nay, its quite frankly, once again, the best looking IEM you’ll have short of buying customs and paying extra for exotic cosmetic choices. Even people who hate glitter should take a look at this because the glitter is done quite subtlely and is just enough to shimmer under the light.

But, beauty is more often than not, fragile. And indeed, the Starfield’s paint job is fragile. In my 3 weeks of owning it, I found that the paint job withstands day-to-day use fine, and fears of the IEMs rubbing against each other scraping the paint should be alleviated. However, while on a tour, I dropped my Starfields onto concrete and lo and behold, tiny spots of paint chips. The damage is not enough to ruin the review pics I take, but I can’t exactly photoshop blemishes in real life, and it hurts to see such a beautiful thing be damaged. So for those looking for a pair of beaters, I suggest you find another, perhaps the Shozy Form 1.1 ? The Starfield should be confined to indoor use only if you want to keep the looks, or very very very careful handling out and about. Hopefully, Moondrop can fine-tune their painting method and make it more durable for the next release, or at least spray some glossy top coat over it.

The nippers and spare filters, some warranty cards and an instruction manual all in Chinese. You are given 2 pairs of S,M,L sized eartips. I don’t know why they didn’t give us more tip variety rather than just throw in the same thing again but apparently, this is a Moondrop thing because the higher end Moondrop S8 comes with 2 S,M,L pairs of eartip also, but a different type.

The eartips included are pretty trash, just some gray silicone thing that’s uncomfortable and doesn’t seal my ears correctly. I use the Spinfit CP145 for testing and impressions and have never looked back. The CP145 brings the sound a bit closer to my ears, narrowing the soundstage abit but still at an acceptable level and is very comfortable thanks to its soft silicone. An alternative are Accoustune AET08 tips which make the overall sound a bit more loose, with less separation of instruments but an even more relaxed fit and sonic presentation. Do note that the Starfield’s bore is flush without a lip so looser tips will slip off.

SOUND

Enough about the looks, let’s get into the sound of the Starfield, and, well, it really is something beautiful.

Moondrop is famous for tuning their IEMs to the Harman target, but they do take liberties when it comes to the highs and it works quite well here. If I had to describe it, I would say this is Harman tuning with thicker, more full-bodied and slightly backwards mids, basically addressing the original Harman signature’s weakness.

BASS

The Starfield’s low-end is competent, though not the star of the show. It has a thick texture and is pretty soft-sounding, with little decay and is pretty fast. Bass slams are just enough to breath life and musicality into tracks, but is definitely on the more reserved side. Thanks to this tuning, you hear an inoffensive low end with almost no midbass bleed, keeping the other frequencies from becoming distorted.

"Bass slams are just enough to breath life and musicality into tracks, but is definitely on the more reserved side".

MIDS

Here is where the Starfield shines the brightest. One of the best implementations of midrange I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. Vocals are detailed but oh so sweet and lush, not overbearing and in your face like other mid centric IEMs. There is a sort of self-control I see with the Starfield when handling mids, as it never oversteps the boundaries of becoming too warm while also being very luscious at the same time. Positioning wise, vocals are not as forward as you’d think it would be, but is very elusive and tasteful. Unlike most other mid-centric chi-fi sets which sounds like they just boosted anything from 500hz to 2k willy nilly making for a congested, bloated presentation, the Starfield’s midrange knows what to emphasize and what not to, a precision in tuning rarely seen in the industry.

"The Starfield’s midrange knows what to emphasize and what not to, a precision in tuning rarely seen in the industry".

HIGHS

I’m glad that Moondrop went with a pretty minimal approach with the high frequencies, as it makes for a very comfortable, non fatiguing signature. I feel like I can listen to the Starfield for hours, and in fact I have on a road trip; it isn’t blaring in your ears to try and create a false sense of clarity or extra detail, because quite frankly its high quality mid-range already gives you a decent amount of subtleties to indulge. There’s enough treble energy to give cymbals the sizzle needed and 808’s in trap music a bit of flair when called for, but it is definitely tuned to Moondrop’s vision of a warm, relaxed and casual sound.

"There’s enough treble energy to give cymbals the sizzle needed and 808's in trap music a bit of flair when called for, but it is definitely tuned to Moondrop’s vision of a warm, relaxed and casual sound".

SOUNDSTAGE

For sure, the soundstage of the Starfield is only average, though its lax tuning helps it feel more spacious than it really is. Eartips also change the way your ears perceive the stage, with single flange tips giving a shallow fit in the ear creating a more loose sound, while tips like Spinfit and double flanges make the Starfields have a more focus and narrow staging.

"The soundstage of the Starfield is only average, though its lax tuning helps it feel more spacious than it really is".

SONGS

Mariya Takeuchi - Plastic Love

The Starfield’s sound is almost made for city pop and 80’s Japanese music, for it takes the warm nature of the recordings and uses it to its advantage. Mariya Takeuchi’s voice is placed just behind the main melody, but is very clear and isolated, allowing me to hear clearly the syllables in Mariya Takeuchi’s voice where normally with other IEMs it would get loss in the song. Overall, a lovely rendition of this timeless classic.

potsu - bossa uh

Lofi once again favours the Starfield, potsu’s bossa uh has a great opening that is smooth and transient, then transitioning to a more upbeat melody with added cymbals, drums and 808s showing that the Starfield can be very lively in the upper registers when the need arises while still maintaining a lovely warm sound.

Receptor & Avenax - I Don't Mind

Screw it, lets see how the Starfield handles something traditionally V-shaped IEMs do much better in portraying. Frankly, its pretty good. I wish the Starfield had a bit more bite in its portrayal of the drums and synths in this DnB track but it doesn’t offend my ears. I can still headbang to EDM with the Starfield and that means it can work with modern genres, although I can certainly think of better IEMs for the job.

COMPARISONS

BLON BL-03

Practically everyone and their mother on audio forums has owned or at least heard of this IEM, and for good reason thanks to its bang for buck factor and OPPOTY and DRIAMS, and how can we forget LETMUSICBURN. The BL-03’s mids fall behind the Starfield, being a bit thin and backwards though not by too much, with some finer subtleties lost. I wouldn’t dismiss the BLON though, as it has a more aggressive bass profile making it better for EDM, though the soundstage is just a little bit behind the Starfield.

Moondrop KXXS

Moondrop makes it sound like the Starfield is different to the KXXS, what with the CNT vs DLC dynamic driver but to my ears, they sound mostly the same with the exception of midrange tuning. The KXXS has much more forward vocals, reaching shouty territory a lot of times in Plastic Love, and the standout vocals create a bit too much of a contrast from other apsects of music. Perhaps the KXXS is closer to the authentic Harman signature, but I personally prefer the Starfield’s more conservative approach, where vocals blend well with the track yet also keeps the positive aspects of the KXXS’s vocal presentation.

Shozy Form 1.1

Shozy has matured from the gimmicky and experimental tuning of the Hibiki. The berrylium driver inside the 1.1 gives it quite rich detail though its quite shy in terms of showing it. It certainly is a decent set, much better for general listening and it also has a non fatiguing signature. However, I feel like the 1.1’s treble is just a bit lacking, making it easy to listen to but just a bit too dull for my taste. There’s also a lack of air, not just compared to the Starfield, but just in general, which makes me feel like the Form 1.1 is a bit congested.

CONCLUSION

"Certainly a pleasing IEM, this Starfield is. It’s one of the rare cases where I can find myself getting lost in the music, stop worrying about the technicalities and just enjoy the moment, not a lot of IEMs can do that, not even the Moondrop S8 which supposedly has similar tuning (review coming probably). For anyone wanting an introduction to the Harman signature, or are weeaboos, or just looking for a beautiful gift for a loved one, the Starfield is a perfect candidate. Just never drop it because you’ll feel the regret once you do."