Moondrop Space Travel 2 review

A cute black cardboard box stickered in Chinese I can’t read, says that these earphones are for cartoon girls or people who like cartoon girls. Also a USB cable and three pair more eartips, this time foam. A charging caddie no bigger than a thumb. Mine are white plastic blobs with sticks that hold some of the electronics. They go in the ear shallow. With this number of buds to choose from, they can be made to hold reasonably. The buds are asymmetrical, the stick points forward, with L/R marks on the top of the sticks obvious. The matte plastic is cute for the price, but could get dirty. I can’t see them standing up to a crush accident, but there’s not much to loose. They are immediately good for comfort, and the stick, size and shallow placement makes them easy to get in and out. A coherent design ethic, like the film 2001—I rate them aesthetically good.

Mine were charged, they immediately said “Hey” to me. No button mechanics, touch the stick near the bud. Taps start and stop sound, short presses cycle noise reduction modes,

‘hey’

transparency

‘huh’

normal mode

‘shee’

noise cancelling

they switch on and off automatically by insertion into ear or charging case. Charging is by pushing into the case, they drain quick, 4 hours reported. Noise‐cancelling depends on a user fitting good eartips, can cut out some mid/low rumble so passable. I had problems with wireless connection sometimes, Bluetooth contention and twin connections appearing (try ‘headset’). They loose signal at distance or when busy, but work from a pocket, so reasonable. Charge is declared as four hours, enough for day‐travel but not all day. They have an app which notably can adjust EQ—outstanding—but only by registering online and over a non‐audiophile five bands.

Overall loudness is outstanding, with median range, high rolloff, and a little low boost. Envelopes are clean. Timing is good and precision outstanding. No compression in swells, mushy likely due to the boosted lows. Acoustic basses bloat a little, mid horns seem to stick out, and a squeal to very high strings, otherwise even‐handed. Paper sound in massed mid/high strings, though not unlistenable. A little echo, may be artificial, but also freedom. It’s clear they go lower that they seem—they can play orchestral drums—and perhaps higher, but they sound rolled off. Colour is there but dull. There is detail, good for this bracket. Scale is median, and positioning good.

These are an unusual sound proposition, frequency‐tuned like mild HiFi. They’re good for voices. Uneven lows, high rolloff and slight dullness/high paper distract from orchestras and rock; pop sources have the same distractions but more acceptable. The precision and underlying range add cinema to soundtracks, and excellent for minimal sources. External EQ removed the low bloom and dullness, made sound outstanding despite the wireless; I couldn’t replicate the external EQ using the app but if you can be bothered gains can be made.