Moondrop Aria 2 review: a credible upgrade

Fans of in-ear monitors (IEMs) have certainly been eating good these last few years, and among the more prominent manufacturers serving up inexpensive earbuds, Moondrop, has been on a tear. Today, we’re looking at the Moondrop Aria 2, a higher-end model in the fan-favorite’s lineup. But are the earbuds a worthy upgrade? Let’s listen.

Editor’s note: this is the first version of the article. Updates will follow as the market changes.

What’s it like to use Moondrop Aria 2?

Using the Moondrop Aria 2 is as straightforward as it gets with IEMs, as the form of the earbuds is pretty standard. However, as the earbud housings are milled out of zinc alloy, you’re going to have to deal with some extra heft. Weighing in at 11.8g each, these earbuds need to be securely fit to avoid the pitfalls of having more massive buds. If you have exceptionally small ears, or if you’re very sensitive to pressure: these may not be the buds for you. Still, it would not surprise me if the Moondrop Aria 2 ends up among the best IEMs out there for most people.

The housing of the earbuds is replete with pressure vents, and uses a brass nozzle with removable/replaceable filters so you can more easily maintain your purchase should it get crusted up with gunk. This is a pretty nice feature that could stand to be a bit more common in IEMs. I’m not wild about the perfect cylinder shape of the nozzle, but the ear tips cushion it enough that I was able to wear the Moondrop Aria 2 far longer than I thought I would. Inside the packaging are three sizes of ear tips in total, so if you find that the Moondrop Aria 2 doesn’t fit your ears at first, be sure to give those other sizes a go.

For those of you looking for workout buddies, the Moondrop Aria 2 has no ingress protection rating, meaning there’s no guarantee they’ll survive moisture or dust. That said, I haven’t fried any IEMs yet with just sweat, so you should be fine to take these to band practice or on a commute. That said, if you need to take these on the go, you’ll need to figure out how to connect them to your source if your smartphone doesn’t have a headphone jack.

Included in the packaging is a rigid leather-clad case, which has a mesh netting in the lid to hold the alternate connector. I find that it tends to fly out at the drop of a hat, so I strongly suggest stuffing it in a safe place if you feel like you’re going to need it.

How does the Moondrop Aria 2 connect?

Like most IEMs, the Moondrop Aria 2 connects to source devices with a 3.5mm TRS plug. This comes at the end of a y-shaped, braided 1.2m cable that connects to each earbud with an unusually snug 2-pin connector. However, that does mean that you can replace the cable should a cat, computer chair, or other calamity befalls it. Additionally, in the packaging there is an alternate plug that enables the use of the earbuds with a 4.4mm balanced connection. Simply unscrew the collar, and disconnect the 3.5mm plug — then you can follow the same steps in reverse to install the new one. Just be aware that you might need to use a fair amount of force to disconnect the end of the cable from the 4-pin interconnect in the terminations, so you’ll have to exercise caution when swapping. It’s probably best to do this once and forget about making the change often. Also, line up the arrows before pressing the new plugs on, otherwise you’ll be in for a bad time.

Because of this, the Moondrop Aria 2 are a really good fit for someone who owns a Digital Audio Player (DAP). Many of these have a balanced output in the hopes of lowering distortion, and the Aria 2 is a really good match for such a use case. That said, the 3.5mm connection works just fine for critical listening.

How well do the Moondrop Aria 2 block out noise?

The Moondrop Aria 2 is an excellent set of isolating earbuds, as a good seal is very easy to achieve — despite the rather high mass of each earbud. You can expect about 61% of outside noise to be attenuated by the time it would normally reach your eardrum. Of course, the Moondrop Aria 2’s isolation isn’t uniform, and the ear tips are much better at preventing high-frequency sound from reaching your ears than low-frequency noise. You may find that your experience varies depending on how well the earphones fit you.

How does the Moondrop Aria 2 sound?

There’s no two ways about it, the Moondrop Aria 2 will sound great to most people who use them.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the sound of the Moondrop Aria 2 was assessed by the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics.

With extremely high mean opinion scores (MOS) for Timbre and Distortion, the Moondrop Aria 2 is extremely well-rated for perceived sound quality. Though the Immersiveness score appears to be a little bit behind the others, 3.8 really isn’t bad for this one, as many products struggle here. We find that many IEMs that compete with this product score very similarly here, and the above is no surprise to us.

Reviewer’s notes

I had a decent time with the Moondrop Aria 2, as it doesn’t need an amp, nor does it struggle with getting a usable listening level with pretty much any device. Even if you’re stuck using a cheap dongle from Apple or Google, you’re not going to run into any issues here.

It’s not any mystery to me why so many people like these earbuds: they sound great. Outside of a little dip in the mids and some deviation in the highs, these earbuds sound pretty close to what I like in my IEMs. Tracks like Psychedelic Porn Crumpets’ “Mr & Mrs Misanthrope” are unencumbered by extreme deviations in emphasis, so the kick drums don’t overpower the rest of the lows in the track too much. Additionally, the background melody is something that tends to get lost a bit with more bass-heavy tunings. With the Moondrop Aria 2, it’s far easier to pick out. Though the illusion of 3D space in mixes wasn’t exactly mind-blowing, the Moondrop Aria 2 acquits itself decently here — just don’t expect a ton in this regard.

The earbuds aren’t miracle workers, however, so be sure to adjust your expectations accordingly if you’re listening to a lot of loud music from the depths of the loudness wars era. You’re going to get your best results from higher-quality streaming services or your own local library of music. If you fall into a group of people that loves higher bass emphasis, you may want to try your hand at equalizing your in-ears. I found that the response of the earphones was fairly forgiving to reserved bass shelves, just be sure to adjust your preamp gain accordingly if that isn’t handled for you in your app.

Having a decent seal meant that outside noise didn’t gum up the works as much as it sometimes can, and this helped me fight the temptation to adjust the EQ settings. Though tolerant of some movement, you really don’t need it. Sometimes reviewing excellent products will sound anticlimactic or boring, but the best thing I can say about an IEM is that I don’t need to tinker with it — or that only a light hand is necessary to get what I want out of it. This category in particular has a lot of really awesome products in terms of sound quality, and the Moondrop Aria 2 hangs tough amongst the best of them.

Objective Measurements

The Moondrop Aria 2 loosely complies to our preference curve, but it still has some notable departures from it — enough that warrant exploration. Still, this is one of those charts that doesn’t have ear-meltingly bad issues revealed upon closer inspection, just a few foibles that may or may not diverge from your desired frequency response.

There’s a dip around 500Hz that we’ve seen elsewhere that’s probably not worth equalizing out, as it generally makes the closest frequencies below it seem a bit louder by comparison. Beyond that, there’s only a couple places where I’d like to tone down the emphasis. For example, there’s a pretty consistent overemphasis from 1kHz to 3kHz by about 3dB that could use a little tamping down. Additionally, there’s a bit of extra energy from 3.5 to 6.5kHz that could get knocked down a bit if the illusion of extra detail or room effects isn’t something that you’re constantly wishing you had more of. On the whole, though, this is a respectable measurement.

Can you use the Moondrop Aria 2 for phone calls?

As the Moondrop Aria 2 does not have a microphone in-line, you cannot use the earbuds for phone calls. However, if you’re at a computer, you can either use the onboard mic or an external mic to handle your chats, video calls, or huddles.

Should you buy the Moondrop Aria 2?

Though the Moondrop Aria 2 is a bit on the expensive side for IEMs, it’s every bit as capable as you’d want for a pair of in-ears. Though they’re considerably weighty, the ear hook design and snug fit meant that they were able to meet my ears fairly well, and without much discomfort. The hype around these earbuds is earned. If you own a DAP or other source with a balanced output, these should be on your shortlist for the swappable termination alone.

This is one of the better products in the IEM category that I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing in the past year or so. If you’re looking to make the upgrade from something like the Chu II for something a lot more durable, the Moondrop Aria 2 should definitely get a look.

What should you get instead of the Moondrop Aria 2?

For those looking for wired IEMs, there’s really no shortage of really awesome options on the market. Much of what makes one set more worthy than another are generally deviations in frequency response and price. However, there’s also a lot of tradeoffs introduced by the choices made with the Moondrop Aria 2 that’s worthy of consideration. For example, the Moondrop Chu II ($18.99 at Amazon), Tangzu Wan’er S.G. ($24.99 at Amazon), and KZ ZS10 Pro ($49.99 at Amazon) all have lighter casings and therefore less force applied to the ear canals from the movement of the buds themselves.

If price is no object, I prefer the Sennheiser IE200 ($119 at Amazon). Though it’s a bit more money, the IE200 has a more pleasing response to me, and isn’t quite as bulky as the Moondrop Aria 2. Still, it may not be the best choice for everyone, especially if you’re looking for a bargain.

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