Moondrop Cosmo

New flagship open-back over-ear planar headphone of Moondrop. I've tried it on Shanghai International Headphone Exhibition (March 30-31, 2024). It will soon be available in China. It's VERY HARD to drive and a bit heavy

For further info please meet 水月雨Moondrop's Trend - bilibili.

I tried to invite lead engineer of Moondrop to make a brief introduction here and fill in some parameters such as sensitivity, impedance, and weight (provide FR and some more interesting technical details if possible)

As a product that has received high attention from Chinese audiophiles, I believe it deserves to be shared with you guys

Sha1rholder said:

New flagship open-back over-ear planar headphone of Moondrop. I've tried it on Shanghai International Headphone Exhibition (March 30-31, 2024). It will soon be available in China. It's VERY HARD to drive and a bit heavy

For further info please meet 水月雨Moondrop's Trend - bilibili.

Click to expand...

Hi, there.

Very difficult to drive, the Cosmo, you say ... I'm not surprised, given the thinness of the Cosmo's diaphragm (0.5 um) and the supposedly very thin thickness of the pure silver metal tracks (most likely < 1 um) .
(Nb: the VENUS's diaphragm is 2 um thick and the Venus's pure silver metal tracks are 1 um thick; the Venus's sensitivity is officially 100 dB / 1Vrms - constant impedance 18 Ohm , evening 82.5 dB / 1 mW, which isn't much and requires a powerful amplifier on this 18 Ohm load).

So, is the COSMO even harder to drive than the VENUS (which I own)?
As difficult to drive as a Hifimann Susvara?

As for the sound (and tone), I'm very familiar with the VENUS, which I love: very high-performance, very resolute headphones: the criticism that can be levelled at the VENUS is that it has a little too much treble (about 3 dB) around 6-8 KHz, and also at 13 KHz (but at my age (58), I hear 13 KHz very poorly, unlike a younger ear).
Looking at the Cosmo's displayed frequency response, the treble seems to be better controlled than with the VENUS, but one gets the impression that the COSMO lacks bass and sub-bass (a bit like the PARA) especially compared to the VENUS.

What was your impression of listening to the Cosmo, compared with the Venus also present at the Shanghai meeting at the end of March?

Thank you in advance for your impressions and clarifications.



Moondrop Cosmo (new fagship) (left) and Monndrop Venus (old flagship) (right).

eric65 said:

Hi, there.

Very difficult to drive, the Cosmo, you say ... I'm not surprised, given the thinness of the Cosmo's diaphragm (0.5 um) and the supposedly very thin thickness of the pure silver metal tracks (most likely < 1 um) .
(Nb: the VENUS's diaphragm is 2 um thick and the Venus's pure silver metal tracks are 1 um thick; the Venus's sensitivity is officially 100 dB / 1Vrms - constant impedance 18 Ohm , evening 82.5 dB / 1 mW, which isn't much and requires a powerful amplifier on this 18 Ohm load).

So, is the COSMO even harder to drive than the VENUS (which I own)?
As difficult to drive as a Hifimann Susvara?

As for the sound (and tone), I'm very familiar with the VENUS, which I love: very high-performance, very resolute headphones: the criticism that can be levelled at the VENUS is that it has a little too much treble (about 3 dB) around 6-8 KHz, and also at 13 KHz (but at my age (58), I hear 13 KHz very poorly, unlike a younger ear).
Looking at the Cosmo's displayed frequency response, the treble seems to be better controlled than with the VENUS, but one gets the impression that the COSMO lacks bass and sub-bass (a bit like the PARA) especially compared to the VENUS.

What was your impression of listening to the Cosmo, compared with the Venus also present at the Shanghai meeting at the end of March?

Thank you in advance for your impressions and clarifications.

Moondrop Cosmo (new fagship) (left) and Monndrop Venus (old flagship) (right).

Click to expand...

Cosmo's tuning left me an impression as "wateriness"（寡淡、平淡）. It provides similar tuning as Para. The transverse soundstage was very narrow and jammed and I can't separate or localize where does the sound of specific instruments come from.

I tried it on different amps: Yulong Aurora 钰龙欧若拉 (4w at 32Ω), Hifiman EF500 (4.5w at 32Ω), Fiio K19 (8w at 32Ω), and a prototype amp from Dunu 达音科 that is not yet available. I found Cosmo's sound varied a lot in different amps. Better amps SIGNIFICANTLY improved its performance, but even with the best amp I tried, Cosmo can't get rid of the shortcomings of narrow soundstage and poor imaging.

I do hope my ear was not performing well at that time. It's possible because of the huge noise in the exhibition.



Me: "(Cosmo's sound) differed a lot in different amps"

Moondrop CEO replied:"Yep, we didn't bring the amps capable to drive it well"
"The amps are too heavy"

Sha1rholder said:

Cosmo's tuning left me an impression as "wateriness"（寡淡、平淡）. It provides similar tuning as Para. The transverse soundstage was very narrow and jammed and I can't separate or localize where does the sound of specific instruments come from.

I tried it on different amps: Yulong Aurora 钰龙欧若拉 (4w at 32Ω), Hifiman EF500 (4.5w at 32Ω), Fiio K19 (8w at 32Ω), and a prototype amp from Dunu 达音科 that is not yet available. I found Cosmo's sound varied a lot in different amps. Better amps SIGNIFICANTLY improved its performance, but even with the best amp I tried, Cosmo can't get rid of the shortcomings of narrow soundstage and poor imaging.

I do hope my ear was not performing well at that time. It's possible because of the huge noise in the exhibition.

Me: "(Cosmo's sound) differed a lot in different amps"

Moondrop CEO replied:"Yep, we didn't bring the amps capable to drive it well"
"The amps are too heavy"

Click to expand...

Hi.

Thank you for your reply.

The fact that the sound quality of the COSMO varies a lot (and even considerably) from one amplifier to another is rather a guarantee of the great sound quality of the headphones, which, if they were bad, would sound the same whatever the amplifier.

You're right to talk about the conditions under which headphones are listened to in a very noisy environment (public show at Shangai); in my experience, you lose a lot in a noisy enviroment when it comes to appreciating the sound quality of headphones: noise also means less bass perception and a sound that can quickly become sour, bland and muddled, especially if the amplifier is undersized.

The problem with the COSMO will probably be the same as with the Hifiman Susvara: optimum sound quality can only be achieved with an amplifier that is both powerful and also, with an high quality in terms of timbre: I've easily experienced this with my VIVA 2A3 amplifier (2 x 3 Watt on 50 Ohm) and my PC's basic sound card, with VENUS headphones.

As for the soundstage of the VENUS, which I like a lot, in addition to being much better with the Viva2A3 amplifier than with the PC's basic sound card, it takes on even more volume (spherical) with the VENUS's pads slightly unsealed on their front (which also increases bass dynamics and the bass SPL level by around 3 dB).

The soundstage of the VENUS is large and voluminous, outside the head (spherically) (not inside the head); it's very immersive, but the imaging isn't very precise for instrument separation; I don't mind too much.

Otherwise, I find this review of the VENUS (below) very informative and fair; I may wait for the future review of the COSMO by the same reviewer before deciding whether or not to buy the COSMO.

https://unheardlab.com/2023/02/17/moondrop-venus-the-silvery-one-measurement-and-review/

Hi all.

Latest information (price in US Dollar and specifications) on the COSMO, here : https://www.head-fi.org/threads/moo...lanar-new-flagship-coming-soon.970569/page-22

check here https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9oibVRD8sa3dkcVM-ymgAA (if u can read Chinese) for detailed info about COSMO

You guys might want to try CFA3 on these hard to drive bois.

After any future reviews the review goes, then I will think about buying these or other decent planars on the market... Or better yet, wait for MoonZero estats.

Excited to hear more reviews of the unit! Cosmo is priced nicely especially depending on how good it is.

Hi.

Frequency response of Moondrop COSMO planar headphones (stock pads).




For comparison :

Frequency response of Moondrop VENUS planar headphones (stock pads).




Frequency response of Moondrop PARA planar headphones (stock pads: hybrid pads).



Read more here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/moo...nar-new-flagship.970569/page-26#post-18093578

and now (update) here : https://www.head-fi.org/threads/moo...nar-new-flagship.970569/page-26#post-18099239