Moondrop Illumination

disclaimer:  I was sent the Solis and Illumination for review as part of the lending library from Moondrop Labs.  I have received no compensation for this review, nor was either in-ear given to me for the purpose of these reviews.  If anything, I lost roughly $50 on postage and insurance costs.    If  you have an interest in Moondrop products, Please see their website or facebook page for more information.  To purchase moondrop products, visit your favorite reseller.

 

Unboxing / Packaging:

I received both the Illumination and the Solis in their soft cases with a few extra tips and alcohol preps for cleaning them up as these are tour sample units.   For that reason, I am forgoing the unboxing notes as these two were far from retail packaging and already well traveled by the time they arrived in my possession.  One was even missing some of the tips so I can’t speak to the accessories that come in the retail packaging.

Build/Fit:

What is not to like about a CNC milled titanium shell that is then TiN coated in a brilliant gold that should be more durable than gold plate and equally unlikely to tarnish?  Well there is the finger print issue, but other than being a print magnet, they are certainly a pretty shell.  Shells are two piece affairs with a flat outer plate and a formed inner shell/nozzle combination with a row of vents on the underside (four immediately beneath the nozzle and another under the bi-pin connector).   Shells are small and fairly thin but the shelf the driver sits in and the nozzle’s upward rake help it seat fairly deeply in ear.   Nozzles do not have a lip for tip retention, but I had no problems with tips moving once installed.  Possibly a larger issue is the lack of any kind of screen or grate over the nozzles to prevent debris entering the earpiece.  This is arguably a good thing as nothing obstructs the sound, but it does mean care must be taken to prevent crud from getting in.  The same could be said of the large vents as small particles could easily enter the housings.  These should probably be stored in their protective case immediately when not in use to prevent such issues.  One would expect a solid titanium shell to be fairly heavy, but it really weighs little more than the Solis and with its tip-up style wear weight distribution is quite good and comfort is not compromised at all.  I had no trouble with wearing the Illumination for extended periods and found the size and weight both of little concern unless you have extremely small ears.

 

Internals:

The Illumination can be thought of as the Kxxs series taken to its top-most point.  The driver is an 11mm dynamic driver that uses a liquid crystal polymer diaphragm with a PEEK suspension and a 0.35mm Daikoku made coil and n52 magnet.  Daikoku Japan makes magnetic structures for precision equipment and has been an OEM for a lot of other companies you probably would recognize in the electronics industry.   The Coil itself is copper clad aluminum wire which at first sounds like a cost cutting measure but since a magnetic field is only generated at the surface of the wire, this is actually a performance enhancement.    The inner shell also contains a patented acoustic chamber that acts as a damper and helps tune the driver.   Nominal impedance is 25Ω (the 259 listing on the Moondrop webpage is a typo).  with a sensitivity of 124dB/mW.   I found the Illumination easy to drive, but it does scale quite a bit with better sources and definitely appreciated at least the boost to high power mode when using the LG phone to drive it.   I would list it as usable without an amp, but better with at least a little more power than the average phone will provide.

Cable:

This cable is just cool and I really like the engineering.  The cable itself is 6N OCC silver plated copper in a clear casing so nothing really special there, but the jack is a different story.   It is a two part design using a 4 pin connector and my sample came with 2.5mm balanced, 3.5mm single ended, and 4.4mm balanced connectors with it.  No more changing cables, just trade out the jack and it works equally well with pretty much every dap, tablet, phone etc you might have.   The fact that all three jacks are of the 90º type that I prefer anyway is just icing on the cake.  I may check and see if Moondrop plans to offer the cable for sale by itself as I’d like to have a bi-pin and mmcx in my inventory (yeah, its that good a system).   The cable itself is 2 strands twisted together from the jack to the splitter (brushed aluminum) and then single strands with earhooks (no memory wire) and .78mm bi-pin connectors at top.  Again, pretty common stuff above the jack but still a well made, well designed cable.

 

Sound:

Bass:

The Illumination has good sub-bass impact as expected from a dynamic driver but it is not as elevated as the FR seems to suggest to my ear.  The focus instead is a mild mid-bass elevation and good solid bass texture throughout the range.   Extension is quite good with roll-off only detectable in the lower 20Hz range where it becomes first non-descript and then a bit quieter than the rest of the signature.   Decay is slightly slower than attack which gives notes good weight and a natural tone if a little lingering warmth in the process.

 

Mids:

Transition from mid-bass to mids is clean despite the additional warmth and weight imparted by the decay speed.   Lower mids have nice note weight and male vocals are well reproduced with good energy and stand nearly equal with the higher voices in the mix.  Guitar growl is good but not quite as sharp edged as it needs to be.  I don’t think this is lack of detail, but instead a bit of smoothing in that warmth that masks.   Detail is better in the mids than the lows for sure, but stops short of the resolving power of some of the better hybrids in this price range.  Strings are well voiced and the added energy in the upper-mids particularly helps violin timbre which in my mind is one of the strengths of the illumination.

 

Treble:

Lower treble plateaus at the level of the upper-mid rise before dropping back once into the true treble range and then finally rolling off at what is a bit over 12kHz to my ear.    Most of the treble energy is in that lower treble plateau and gives the Illumination some balance as up to this point it has been a bit warm.  This brings back a little brightness but not overwhelmingly so. The drop off in treble does keep the Illumination from getting strident, but also limits it as well as snare rattle is a little flat and cymbals could use a touch more energy as well.  Overall its very polite, but perhaps a bit too much so when your stated aim is duplicating the Stax which is patently unforgiving.

 

Soundstage / Imaging:

Stage size is only average with a bit more width than depth and reasonable height.  Luckily instrument separation is above average and helps counter some of the stage size when seating the orchestra.  I found the seating to be slightly shallow and wider than absolutely correct but still very much in line with the positions expected.   Imaging is about average as well, not bad, but not pinpoint precise and it seems to have sort of a donut hole right in the dead center front where movements cease and then start again as they exit the far side which makes tracking sort of stutter at times .   The other issue is the illumination despite all the technological advances is still a dynamic driver and still subject to compression as passages get more complex.   Lots of fast, detailed lows will cause some mud to appear and thickening as well.

 

Thoughts / Conclusion:

The conclusion on the Illumination is one of those good news, bad news moments.  I think it does a lot well, but nothing smashingly so and there in lies the problem.   There are other single dynamics that behave very similarly and share a lot of the same tonality at lower price points including some of Moondrop’s own models like the Kxxs as well as other makers like the Tanchjim Oxygen and Etymotic models.  Sure build is better on the Illumination than on any of the others mentioned, and the Titanium shell is a higher quality, more durable material, but it will be up to the consumer to decide if improved materials and a better cable are enough to justify the price difference between something like the KXXs and the Illumination.    Having said that, Hifiman has developed quite a following for another similar model, the Re2000s that also sits roughly at the same price point so this indicates that a market for the Illumination is out there to be had.    This one is worth a try for sure, but not a “go buy it now” recommendation as it shares too many features with others in the market space to earn a “you gotta have one of these in your collection”.