So Moondrop sells the top headphone equipped with earpads that make Cosmo sound very badly and the buyer has to work hard to find aftermarket pads in order to achieve better results. One would assume that these tests should have been done by Moondrop.
Indeed, the violin sounds a little “raw” with the VENUS ; a little more finesse and smoothness would be welcome, especially for your ears sensitive to high frequencies; my old ears are more forgiving; although with the PARA, the highs are “too much” and the violin sounds quite thin, and with the COSMO equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads, the little bump level at 3 Khz gives a certain harshness to the violin sound, not very pleasant to hear.
As I said in my previous post, I hope that the Dekoni's Elite hybrid HE pads, that I'll be receiving on Friday May 17, will further improve the COSMO's tonality, to a value “close to perfection” for my old ears.
EDIT: In the same style of video, but even more varied for musical instruments, in a humorous style; to test your favorite headphones with a wide variety of musical instruments.
So, I received my Dekoni Elite Hybrid pads (for Hifiman HE series), and I installed them on my Venus headphones. First - the install is a bit difficult - these pads are built for a headphone with noticeably less ring diameter than the Venus. Obviously, you have to remove the plastic insert (the part that 'locks' into the Hifiman series headphones). Then you have to carefully manipulate the flap of leather while stretching the earpad from the inside (quite a lot) to finally get the pads to install.
I'm listening to them for the first time now, but first impressions are that there is significantly more smoothness to the mids/upper mids/treble response coupled with slightly better resolution and instrument placement (listening to "Symphonic Sondheim"). I'm really not noticing much, if any, change in bass extension or response (the graph led me to belief I'd lose a couple db there - so far that's not been a problem). I do wear glasses usually, so perhaps the same db bump in the lower bass area is keeping these fairly consistent with the stock pads in this respect.
The overall impression is increased resolution/imaging coupled with a smoother frequency response from about (I would guess) 800-900hz and upwards.
The pads are physically a bit more comfortable given the velour against the skin - hopefully that will mitigate the sweat issue with the stock pads. On the other hand, the ear 'holes' are 10mm smaller, so you will feel these around your ears (unlike the stock pads). So far, they've been comfortable overall, but I don't have much time on them at all yet.
On the negative side, the pads I received are noticeably different in 'thickness' - one is much thicker than the other all around, as if production 'stuffed' one much fuller with memory foam than the other. I'm contacting Dekoni about this as $70 earpads shouldn't have this kind of variation.
Not my genre - but the 'immediacy' of Venus' response would, I think, be great for that...
Venus is not a "sitting in the middle of a concert hall" set of headphones (like my HE1000v2 set). The soundstage is not compressed or flat (it's quite 3d) - but you are much closer to the stage at the concert, if that makes sense.
Imho, from what I've been able to hear, the VENUS (with its stock pads), with its slightly V-shaped sound signature, should do the trick; its bass dynamics are good, especially if you lightly unseal the pads on their front with the temples of a pair of glasses; its soundstage is wide; it's better suited than the PARA, which is too mid-centric and high-pitched.
Not the COSMO (and its stock pads).
Indeed, the violin sounds a little “raw” with the VENUS ; a little more finesse and smoothness would be welcome, especially for your ears sensitive to high frequencies; my old ears are more forgiving; although with the PARA, the highs are “too much” and the violin sounds quite thin, and with the COSMO equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads, the little bump level at 3 Khz gives a certain harshness to the violin sound, not very pleasant to hear. As I said in my previous post, I hope that the Dekoni's Elite hybrid HE pads, that I'll be receiving on Friday May 17, will further improve the COSMO's tonality, to a value “close to perfection” for my old ears.
EDIT: In the same style of video, but even more varied for musical instruments, in a humorous style; to test your favorite headphones with a wide variety of musical instruments.
What I underlined in bold in my post quoted above is unfortunately not verified, for my old ears.
Just goes to show that apparently beautiful RF curves are not always a guarantee of what you will hear with your own ears.
I'm a little disappointed by these Dekoni's Elite Hybrid HE pads used on the COSMO compared to the PARA's hybrid pads used on the same COSMO headphone.
The external dimensions of these pads are identical: mounting them on the magnetized perforated metal plate (common to both PARA and COSMO) is a breeze.
I'm rather disappointed with these DEKONI Elite Hybrid HE pads, as the tonality doesn't correspond, for my 58-year-old ears, to what I'd hoped for when looking at the comparative RF curves (1st spoiler below). However, a closer look (at these RF curves) reveals a few explanations for this disappointment.
To keep things simple, I compared the COSMO re-equipped with these DEKONI's Elite Hybrid HE pads with the same COSMO headphone re-equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads; but also with the VENUS and its stock pads and the PARA with its EP-100A Upgrade pads (sounding a little less brilliant in the highs than the hybrid stock pads).
To make things easier to understand, I'll compare these headphones using the following three listening criteria:
Sound consistency (=fullness of sound; the opposite of thin or thin sound) Clarity of sound (the opposite of dark sound) High frequency brilliance (the opposite of veiled)
The PARA sounds like a clear headphone, brilliant in the high frequencies, but lacking body and consistency.
The VENUS sounds like a headphone with body and consistency, but with a slight lack of clarity and with high frequencies that are quite prominent, but less brilliant than those of the PARA.
The COSMO re-equipped with DEKONI's Elite Hybrid HE pads bears a certain resemblance to the sound of the VENUS, i.e. like headphones sounding with body and consistency, but with, like the VENUS, a slight lack of clarity; high frequencies are, on the contrary of VENUS, slightly recessed on the COSMO re-equipped with DEKONI's Elite Hybrid HE pads.
This is reflected in the soundstage, which is less open than that of the VENUS (and also that of the COSMO equipped with PARA's hybrid pads). The sound is a little too dull for my taste (at least for my old ears, more indulgent at high frequencies)...
The COSMO re-equipped with the PARA's Hybrid pads has a slightly less consistent and full sound than the VENUS and the COSMO equipped with the DEKONI's Elite Hybrid HE pads, but more consistent and full, with more body, than that of the PARA.
The clarity is good, but less pronounced (less highlighted) than that of the PARA, but more present than for the VENUS and the COSMO equipped with DEKONI's Elite Hybrid HE pads, which for my old ears is appreciable and makes for example more clear and realistic a snare drum and less dull a female voice which emerges more clearly and distinctly.
The treble of the COSMO equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads seems to me, on various cymbals, to be the most natural, less artificial than those of the VENUS (quite typed), with a little more presence than those of the COSMO equipped with the Dekoni's Elite Hybrid HE pads (while I expected the opposite, that is to say to have a little more treble with the DEKONI's hybrid HE pads); this results in a less dull, more open and airy sound for the soundstage with the PARA hybrid pads versus the DEKONI Elite Hybrid Elite HE pads.
Note that the highs of the COSMO equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads are significantly less brilliant than those of the PARA: the cymbals are dazzling with the PARA and sparkle a lot in the extreme highs; they are quite distinctive and highlighted with the VENUS; On the contrary, they are a little dull and distant with the COSMO equipped with DEKONI's Elite Hybrid HE pads; finally, they are rather well balanced with the COSMO equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads, although for my old ears, a hint of additional shine would not have displeased me.
Other useful comparisons.
EDIT: you may have noticed that I've just changed the thread title.
For the COSMO, I've specified: Moondrop COSMO Planar (re-equipped with the PARA Hybrid pads): new flagship.
Indeed, the COSMO fully deserves the title of new flagship of the Moondrop brand (which costs the already substantial sum of 900 US Dollars and 1000 Euros in Europe), on the sine qua none condition of using other pads than those delivered in stock, which are bad (I have no other word to describe them) ; my personal preference (for my audition) is for PARA's hybrid pads (to re-equip the COSMO so that it sounds good); the DEKONI's Elite Hybrid HE pads didn't convince me; it may be different for you, with your own hearing, which isn't necessarily mine.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained; don't hesitate to make your own experiment.
To conclude this post: it would be very much appreciated if MOONDROP delivered a second pair of pads with its COSMO (as with the PARA); and why not the hybrid ones pads delivered in stock with the PARA (which don't cost much to produce); this would be a real plus for the image of the Moondrop brand and the COSMO headphone, and could only make people want to buy this excellent headphone even more (in return for this salutary change of pads).
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