MOONDROP Stellaris Review

I'm pretty sure everyone agrees that 2022 is the year where planar IEMs are suddenly being vomited left and right from brands everywhere. And here is MOONDROP, one of the most known brands in the community, to come out with their own rendition of a planar IEM, the Stellaris.

UNBOXING

For anyone who has owned a MOONDROP product or knows about them, you know they always deliver a certain level of quality for their packaging (and of course how can we forget there's a waifu). The packaging is more or less the same with the KATO, minus the flaps and that one cardboard piece before unveiling its contents.

They also included 2 types of tips, which are foam and Softears tips. *This was a review unit and tips were already not there when I received it. I am using my own tips*

BUILD & FIT

I'm pretty sure everyone knows MOONDROP always likes to make their IEMs super aesthetic, and this definitely is the same as well. This IEM's design shares its traits with the Starfields and the shell is finished with a glossy iridescent color, with gold color accents for the moon and stars.

But other than the painted faceplate, the whole headshell is made of metal and (unsuprisingly) big. I have not tested the Diokos nor the Timeless 7Hz, but it seems that Planars are associated with a bigger chassis build. The said planar driver is 14.5mm but then again, I have personally tested the LETSHUOER S12 and that has 14.8mm drivers, and they are SMALL. But MOONDROP did claim they have acoustic cavities inside, which explains the bigger shape and emphasis on the front cavity.

In terms of fit, this is a hefty boi. The long nozzle makes the fitting style similar to the IER-Z1R. You would need it to go somewhat deep into your ear canals to have a good seal and fit. Personally, I've worn it for a session for an hour with size M tips (I'm usually size L for most tips) and there is slight discomfort after that long. As of finishing writing this review I have listened to it for almost 3 hours and I've taken them off a few times due to the discomfort. But other than that, I would say fit is more universally accepted since the majority of the weight will be directed to your ear canals.

But again, take that in mind because not everybody likes their ear canals jammed with something for long periods of time.

SOUND

Source used : Foobar2000 -> VE Avani (Realtek ALC5686) -> S.M.S.L. SH-6 Amplifier -> Stock Stellaris with Final Audio type E eartips (size M)

(FR courtesy of HBB)

The sound signature is being advertised as having the VSDF Target Response, said to deliver more realism to the sound, but personally I beg to differ.

Overall, the Stellaris has a neutral bright signature. Emphasis on the word bright. Mids and highs are considered to be more upfront than anything. The technicalities make this a little hard to review after listening to many genres of songs because it makes things transparent and forces out the nuances of a track's mixing and mastering

BASS

Getting it straight out of the way, low end is good (thanks to the technicality) but not that emphasized on this pair of IEM.

• Slightly recessed presence of subbass with textured rumbliness. In EDM songs the rumble presents itself in a delicate manner. In RnB and hip-hop the 808s rumble with a very specific type of tone depending on the type of 808 sample they use. If the MOONDROP Variations are being used to compare subbass : If Variations are a 10, this one is sort of a 3.

• Midbass has a flat-response type of impact when tested with songs that have powerful kick drums, having more airy-ness than thump to it.

• Bass notes also having very fast decay, hence complex and fast basslines will be given more resolution

• Despite its toned-down characteristics, it shows amazing tone definition overall with micro-details overall

MIDS

The part where most parts of the song live, and we have a lot to talk about here. Overall presence of whatever that lives in the mids are very focused, albeit whether if every type of elements sounds good or not is another story.

1. Vocals

There's a few extra things I want to cover for vocals, so let's just start out with one weird thing I noticed.

*Weird exception*

First things first, J-pop are sometimes unlistenable due to it having constant borderline sibilant, harsh nature added with busy tracks. Personally, the sibilance and sharp esses will most likely be there when female vocals are present, emphasized even more if they have higher pitched voices.

• Aimer is one of the exceptions due to her deep voice

• Kana Hanazawa is already on the borderline of having sibilance in certain tracks

• LiSA albums are just a hit or miss, some sound sharp some do not.

• YOASOBI's Lilas esses also has some slight harshness on the esses

However, listening to other female vocals from other genres, even with certain songs that have falsettos, there were little to no instances of sibilance and harshness.

After this, switching to male J-pop songs, such as the BOOTLEG album from Kenshi Yonezu, there were also some hints of overly-brightness and sharpness, hence : My personal conclusion with this the female vocal sibilance & sharpness is most likely due to the mixing and mastering of the vocal tracks.

If you're listening to J-pop on YouTube, this problem that I mention will not be prevalent from my testing (due to compression)

***ADDITIONAL NOTES***

This IEM is tested with various tracks such as J-pop, soul, jazz, RnB etc. tracks of FLAC quality. I noticed when the soon to be mentioned sibilance and sharpness was less if listening through YouTube because of the obvious, more compressed format.

For the sake of simplicity, the review will all solely be based on what I listened to on my FLAC tracks.

But other than this aforementioned case, vocals in general mostly sound forward and presented in a very transparent way. However, for certain songs, vocals will also sound slightly cold and have some slight metallic twang to it.

Again, I would say this is all more dependent on the mix at this point due to the Stellaris being such a transparent and technical IEM.

2. Instruments

In general, instruments in the midrange will have a strong but flat presence, only to be felt more intimate by the details complementing it.

The best way I can describe this is if you edit photos, the overall composition of the photos is very presenting, resolution is literal 8K, the "flat" I mentioned is just something like the saturation of the colors being slightly toned down in certain areas.

• Strings such as electric guitars, when played clean sounds natural with little extension, and those with distortion makes the sound to have a nice texture to it. Violins and bass from Mac Miller's 2009 intro are very presented and well separated due to good technicalities. One thing I would gripe is when listening to certain tracks with nylon guitar strings, plucks and strums might have sibilance to it

• Piano for the most case sounds neutral, transparent, and every keystroke is being felt. The sound of the hammer being struck on the strings, owing to the superb detail retrieval adds to the immersion of it

• Synths will probably shine a lot in this case. Synths from Daft Punk's RAM album sounds more presented than ever (with again, the good detail retrieval)

• Percussion on this hand I would have to say is more reliant on mixes. There are certain songs where the hi-hats sound great - sharp, quick, and bright; and other tracks, the hats are just sibilant. Snares will sound more crunchy and dry in general but overall quite neutral in that sense

HIGHS

• The typical "planar crispiness" is present on this pair, but I would consider it to be a little too much sometimes, especially when the highs are being "in your face"

• Highs sound airy, but sounds more hollow and less natural than what we most associate with such as from the Aria

• Listening to songs from Joji to FKJ to even oldies such as Bee Gees, the amount of detail retrieval it offers just pulls every nuance of notes, artefacts, foleys to the listener with amazing resolution.

• Vocal adlibs & layers that complement songs were deserved a front seat, making the songs more immersive and intimate

• Bells and sounds that resemble xylophones, those types of sound on the high end brings a sense of balance between intimacy, and overall presence within the whole track mix. Sounds of this kind have a sparkle to it

TECHNICALITIES

Detail retrieval will be the main selling point of this IEM. For every type of sound you hear across the frequency, the amount of extra stuff, from string decay, subtle vibratos, to even the addition of that crispiness makes it overall sound superb.

One weird thing is in certain cases, due to the overemphasis of details on songs with very little instruments, the overall song exhibits a sort of hollowness to it. In the most non-offensive but kinda offensive way to put it, it sounds a little bit like a tin-can.

Soundstage wideness is good for its price point, with good separation, imaging, and layering of songs with multiple sounds going off at the same time.

If the IER-Z1R scores 10 in both soundstage and separation, the Stellaris gets a 7 and 8 respectively.

WHAT SOUNDS GOOD?

• Rap songs mainly from Kanye West's discography. Albeit certain songs definitely lack bass, if you don't mind exchanging less intrusive bass for superb details, then this is IEM if for you

• Orchestrated pieces which overall brings every instrument a raw experience, letting you even closer to the musicians

• Soul such as songs from Tom Misch, Masego taking advantage of the technicality of the IEM to make instruments sound even more sparkly

• FKJ (because I don't know how to classify his music) sounds more impactful with the upper-mids and the high end elements jumping at you even more

FINAL THOUGHTS

After a few hours of listening on the Stellaris, what I can say about this is that it really is not for everyone. J-pop is already a big nono for this, however, within the realms of listening to soul, RnB, pop, and rock is very enjoyable, albeit the amount of low-end is definitely reduced significantly. Examples of this is Runaway from Kanye West just sounds less immersive with less bass but the amount of details just waltz in like nobody's business, being transparent enough to even being able to hear the mixing.

Personally, I find the transparency and detail retrieval to be interesting as I can personally visualize how a track is made, but other than that I would still prefer a more laid back tuning than being bombarded with a ton of detail for a long time. This gives me the same experience (in the mids and high ends) as the LETSHUOER S12, where initially everything sounds so immersive, bright and aggressive without being sibilant, but then starts to get a little too much after listening to it for hours.

But don't get me wrong, if you like details and lean more towards the preference of bright IEMs, this is really a good choice, especially with such a strong technical performance for just a little over 100USD.