Intro
This is going to be a very different style post than usual. I’m introducing two new segments to this site: First Impressions and EQ.
Normally, these two new segments will not necessarily be put together, but in the case of the Moondrop Stellaris, it makes sense. You’ll find out why further down.
First Impressions
When the Moondrop Stellaris was first announced, I for one was hoping for a Kato style of tuning, but with the technicalities of a planar driver. However, this wasn’t the case. The graph of the Stellaris was published and everyone freaked out.
The online over-reaction was that you could have hearing damage, to permanent tinnitus, to going full-on deaf after listening to the stellaris – it was ridiculous.
In my experience with planar drivers, they can sound somewhat different than what the frequency response graph might indicate. Sharp peaks or lows can sound less intense than what the graph displays because of the speed of the driver – at least that’s what I was hoping for.
In a way, the tuning of the Stellaris is definitely not Kato-like, but it isn’t near as bad as the online over-reactions would indicate.
The bass is well tuned. Combine that with the speed of the planar driver and it’s quite amazing – the bass just gets overshadowed by the upper mids and treble. Speaking of upper mids, there is a strange peak at 2.2kHz that destroys any sense of natural timbre and gives the Stellaris thin, dominating upper mids. The tonal balance is ruined here, spoiling even the best parts of the Stellaris.
The party piece of the Stellaris is at 10kHz and above, where the extension goes off the charts with anywhere from +10 to +15db (and also varies with different targets). While I don’t mind this super boost in the very upper treble, I can definitely see where some might find it much too intense – it’s really down to personal preference here. The upper treble extension combined with the upper mids boost create extreme levels of detail retrieval. It’s like getting shot in the ears with a firehose – there’s so much detail to hear and process all at once and it’s pretty incredible. I was amazed listening to the piano in a GoGo Penguin song. You could actually hear the sustain pedal being used – the piano strings and their harmonics were naturally blending in and out with each other as the string vibrations shifted phase and pitch. It was like sticking your head into a grand piano while they were recording it – it was unbelievably great and I’ve never heard anything quite like that before.
That leads to the technical capabilities of the Stellaris, and they are absolutely superb. It has great imaging, stage, instrument separation, and as previously stated, insane levels of detail retrieval.
Last, these are very heavy IEMs with long nozzles. Sizing down to the smallest ear tips provided a medium to deep insertion (nowhere near as deep as any Etymotics) and helped manage the weight. While they look like they would be a trainwreck for comfort, they really weren’t that bad!
EQ
Because the Moondrop Stellaris has such amazing technical abilities as well as a strange tuning, this made it a perfect candidate for our good friend, EQ.
While I haven’t yet listened to an IEM in the $500–$1,000+ category, I imagine that this level of technical ability from the Stellaris would be about right for that price range. What better to model a sound signature after than the well regarded $1,000 ThieAudio Monarch MkII.
These adjustments are all made using a Qudelix 5K and the parametric EQ function.
Starting with the bass, I added a 2db low shelf filter at 200Hz to enhance the bass a little bit. From there, the lower mid range was raised up almost 2db to help even out the contrast from the bass and upper mid range. At 2.2kHz, there is -7.1db to smooth out that upper mid range and to bring back a more natural timbre – something the Stellaris struggles with naturally. Also to improve timbre, there is -6db at 8k. The rest pretty much follows the Monarch MkII tuning until the very upper treble, which I left in stock form to help keep the remarkable imaging, staging, and any crazy upper harmonics in that area.
This EQ tuning has turned the Stellaris into something phenomenal. This EQing even helps decrease the awareness of planar timbre – while it’s still there, it is now minimized. I really do imagine that this is what very high end IEMs sound like. With EQ, the Stellaris went from being kind of a mess to something that I really do enjoy.