Moonbuds Heron vs Moonbuds Nightshade

Moonbuds Bunting (stellar mids)

This is the second moonbuds that I bought.
And its a absolute delight to my ears
At 160$ plus shipping I feel it's a steal for the quality sound that these buds produce

Brilliant right out of the box. But after a small amount of burn in the sound opens up even more making imaging top notch
I know you can't compare the imaging of IEMs and earbuds
But I can safely say these easily cross 150$ range when compared to IEMs.

Box and technical specs of the product

Specifications
Driver : 14.8mm,
Impedance: 16 ohm
Wire: Hand braided Silver plated copper yellow and grey( only one choice
Splitter and slider are of top quality
Cable Length: 1.2m
Plug: 3.5mm Gold plated silver Kevlar texture.

Box contents
Earbuds
Lots of foam tips,
Leather cable organizer,
One faux leather durable Carry pouch.
One cotton pouch

Overall premium package and good material used no complains here.

Brief sound subscription
So these have a very unique balanced sound presentation
Balanced (not flat) with mids forward with slight bump in sub bass. Bass is neutral so is treble. But the highs are every well presented providing enough details making the sound fun.

I can say fun balanced presentation.

Song
Little black submarines (acoustic)
Sweet sweet vocals. Forward and smooth. I can easily say male vocals are the best under 200$
Brilling box guitars strings So clean I want to listen to them all day long.


Song
Gold on the ceiling by the black keys

I love rock and have to admit these buds are doing rock wonderfully well.
Vocals forward even in huge amount of distortion that is present in this song. Crystal clear distortion from electric guitar and synthesizer. Drum set is very accurate. Despite being balanced sound the sub bass helps in good fun sound production

Song
Mahive from highway

Sub bass is in good quantity
Ar rehman vocals clean and accurate.
Details in the song are crystal clear.
Very melodic sound

Song
Yu hi chala chal from swadesh
Again bass guitar is just brilliant.
Drumset very accurate sound.
Vocals presentation forward and sweet.
Box guitars sound the good kind of sibilant if you know what I mean.
Even the electric guitar the distortion is very clean.

Song
Tu hi re from Bombay
Vocals forward both male and female. Good lush and buttery smooth texture in vocals
It's a slow instrumental song, you can easily make out each note and riff present, imaging is top notch.
Sound stage is this song seems wider then other songs.

Sound stage is not too wide but wider than most IEMs under 200$ but airy and clean. Being and earbuds this category is not comparable to IEMs.

Imaging
As I have said earlier. Imaging in all moonbuds line up is just unquestionably awesome. Very accurate. As I said earlier easily good for over 300$ in earbuds and 150$ if compared to IEMs

Conclusion.

If you are not willing to experiment on a whole lot of ear buds. But you want to get on earbuds express and are willing to spend under 200$ for a good quality sound
Don't search. This is it. Buy blindly.
Personally I love these and keep them in my daily pouch with willsound mk2.

Maker
https://www.facebook.com/MoonbudsOfficial/

Review by
https://www.facebook.com/Shotmoviemusic/

Introduction
Earbuds can’t replace IEMs, yes it’s a bold statement but true, still Earbuds are everywhere from 5$ trap to 300 $ trash. I think choosing an Earbud over IEM depends on convenience. Personally I am also an Earbud fan but prefer using them only when listening in a quite environment. Today for review I got the Moonbuds Heron from one of my audiophile friend and after spending a week writing this review. The unit almost completed 200 hours burn-in and I have used normal thin foam cousin for this review.

Buying Link – Contact manufacturer through his Facebook page Here.

Specifications
Driver : 14.8mm,
Impedance: 32Ω,
SPL: unknown (But not too sensitive),
Wire: Beautiful hand braided SPC wire,
Cable Length: 1m,
Plug: 3.5mm Gold plated

What’s inside the Box
Moonbuds Heron Earbud,
Lots of foam tips,
Leather cable organizer,
1 durable Carry pouch.

Source
Moonbuds Heron is very easy to drive and most of the device can run it easily. I have used my Fiio Q5 and RealMe C1 phone with Heron.

Presentation, Design & Build Quality
The presentation is elegant and simple, hand crafted Earbud with Yuin shell and beautifully braided SPC cable. Yuin shells are best in terms of fit and comfort. Top to bottom the design and built is stylish. But I am concern with the cable; it’s a bit softer side and may not last long after daily torture. Though this issue is not a major one as it’s totally made to order Earbud, and you can request manufacturer to build(Cable) it as per you requirement. The chin slider is beautiful but bulky. Supplied case is also premium in quality. Overall Moonbuds Heron is a premium Earbud indeed.

Sound
Sonically Monnbuds Heron is close to neutral. I am not calling it neutral because, it failed to extend itself in both upper and lower frequency. I would rather call it flat. Good to see that how consistent it’s all over the frequency though Heron was quite engaging to me.

Bass
Bass is tight and punchy, texture is also very good. Quantity is not that much but quality is good. Emphasis on sub-bass region than mid bass and rumble is there. Speed is not that fast but sufficient. Listening the album ‘Daft Punk’ on Heron was quite amazing. The amount of quality bass is sufficient for bass lovers too.

Mids
Mids in Heron is transparent and almost natural. Mids where Heron actually proved why it’s priced more than 100 $. Both male and female vocals are clear and no particular emphasis noticed. The song ‘Moon over Bourbon Street’ on Heron was smooth and lush, for vocals performance only Heron worth its price any day.

Treble
Upper frequency is also well extended and no noticeable emphasis is there. No sibilance at all while listening for long sessions. But with treble demanding tracks the sparkle was missing. The treble is a bit dry. For treble sensitive people Heron could be a best option.

Soundstage & Imaging
Soundstage and imaging in Heron is not widest and it’s expected from a flat sounding Earbud but I would say its normal. Instrument separation is very good and Heron performed well with busy tracks like ‘I don’t want to know’ by Fleetwood Mac.

Conclusion
Price is a factor while considering Moonbuds Earbuds but please consider them as luxury not necessity. It’s like a made to order custom jewelry from a skilled craftsman. Heron performed well and can beat a 250$ IEM sound wise easily. If you really appreciate an Earbud over IEM, just go and grab the Heron and it will blow you away.

TOTL Earbuds Impressions Time :-

Moonbuds Nightshade (mx500 shells - 15.4mm driver -500 ohms) vs Moonbuds Heron (yuin shells - 14.8mm driver - 32 ohms)
The Green Tea coloured bud in the pics is Heron while the Red, White and Blue cabled buds is the Nightshade.

Gears used :- v20, cayin c5, topping nx4 dsd dacamp and zishan z1 (surprised by the sound they produce compared to their cost).

Note :- I am not technically sound and your opinion may vary. This is my first ever impression/ mini review. Also, I am here to learn so let me know ways in which I can improve it for similar future posts and learn more as well. I have purchased these 2 earbuds and have no monetary gain in doing this review/ impression.

I have been eyeing these Moonbuds for quite sometime now..... Most of my audio buddies know how big of a fan I am of these Moonbuds after hearing his entry level crescents, and listening to my friends Bunting!!.... They offer amazing sound for the money charged.....!!

I have discovered the world of earbuds quite late, that too due to the insistence of friend of mine within the Indian Audiophile community a d then decided to get the emx500 after I was amazed by monks for their price to performance ratio. My earbuds journey started from there and hasn't stopped ever since!!

Glad I got to know Moon Harvester and his craft. How is it?? Exceptional in one word!!

Coming to these 2 TOTL Moonbuds..... These are 2 gems from the Moonbuds stable, each of which is very capable in its own right. While Heron shines with lesser power, nightshade requires serious amount of juice to power it. I think the sensitivity of Heron is much higher than Nightshade which makes it easier to drive. Also Heron has smaller Yuin shells which would fit most of the people, while god blessed me with big elephant ears and the mx500 shells fit me very well.

Coming to the sound straightaway......

Bass :- While Nightshade has better depth in mid bass and sub bass, maybe very slightly boomy for some, I loved it totally since it had a different flavour, while Heron has tighter bass. Definition is slightly better in Heron..... I can clearly hear the lower bass notes on bass guitar on many tracks which went unnoticed earlier, and that was a revelation! Overall the Nightshade is definitely bassier of the two.

Mids :- While Heron has delicious and mostly linear mids which are quite detailed, mids on nightshade has a slight peak on upper mids (some sections of the strings and claps come out with slight aggression), still not losing out on details..... !!

Treble :- Here I feel the winner is Heron since it has slightly better sparkle, and both are non-fatiguing (read as no sharp/piercing treble). I felt that the extension is better on Heron.

Soundstage :- My definition of soundstage of the instruments is the spread around my head that gives you a greater 3d feel (please correct me if I am wrong here, since I am not technically sound and this is my first review )
So, nightshade has brilliant soundstage both in height and width.... While Heron's soundstage was also quite good, it lost to Nightshade by a very small margin. As in I feel nighshade has a better reproduction of a concert hall than Heron (confirmed this by hearing a South Indian classical piece by the great Violinist T. N. Krishnan)

Tonality - while Heron is completely neutral imo, Nightshade is a bit warmer relatively. Also I found the sound of nightshade to be leaning slightly towards a v-shaped signature compared to heron. Both offer a very clean sound, with Heron sounding a trifle bit more cleaner than Nightshade.

Imaging :- I understand imaging as a well defined/better separation of left and right panning of arrangements. Here I feel that Heron beats Nightshade by a score of 10 to 8.5.

Separation and detailing :- Both offer amazing separation and detailed presentation as I could figure out few more layers of arrangement in both, which I had missed earlier. Again, heron is marginally better in this aspect compared to nightshade.

Both are quite good earbuds imho, but I rate Heron as 9.5/10, while nightshade gets a 9/10 for me (purely due to its massive soundstage and overall engaging sound) when amped properly ( since it has an impedance of 500ohm plus I felt it is less sensitive than Heron).

I have a few more Moonbuds, Airman and Heavenly Sounds buds en route and a few others which need more listening time after which I will post my impressions on them too. Hope this helps all those intending to get into TOTL buds.

Hope this was helpful.
Cheers,
Vishy.