MoonDrop Crescent

The widely known Crescent has finally reached my hands, and I took my time with them and used them daily before I constructed my opinion about them.

The Crescent performed above my expectations when it comes to bass - beefy and powerful, even when the sub-bass isn't the deepest, and also when it comes to crispness and detail in the treble. However, they do seem to have lower sensitivity, or higher impedance, compared to most of the earphones in my collection, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. On the one hand, it means no electrical noise is picked up from the audio source. This is quite rare in the budget audio market. On the other hand, these earphones get nowhere near most budget earphones when it comes to loudness, so without an amplified source, you won't be able to squeeze the maximum potential out of them. Do take this into consideration.

These earphones are quite good and can suit a wide range of users. However, I feel that given the disadvantages, these earphones would probably not be my go-to recommendation for a $30 pair of earphones for most purposes, but as always, it's up to you to decide whether to get them, or wait for the next budget miracle.

NOTE: This review discusses the specific pair of MoonDrop Crescent that I received, which seems to differ in sound signature to pairs previously reviewed by other parties. My pair, however, does not show any signs of being defective. It might just be a single unit or batch with that frequency response, but it's also entirely possible that MoonDrop has made permanent alterations to this model. Keep that in mind when comparing my opinion to that of others.

I had to use the L-size tips to get a good seal. Overall, these earphones are really comfortable when properly sealed, something you might have trouble with because of their unusually weighty housings. As for me, I found them unnoticeably sliding out slightly, which makes the bass sound weaker, so I have to push them in from time to time.

The bass is about what I would expect from dynamic micro-drivers, but provides some extra oomph. The lows are warm and have punchy mid-bass, but lacks extension and doesn't actually go too low when it comes to sub-bass. Still, the bass is very stable and has great quality to it, and even performs exceptionally when playing bass-heavy electronic music thanks to a solid mid-bass. In contrast to what I was expecting to experience from earphones in the micro-driver category, the mid-bass on these earphones was very dominant and upfront, and could even overshadow the mids sometimes.

The mids take a back seat when it comes to loudness and emphasis. Depending on the audio content that you're playing, the mids can either be pleasant and smooth (even a bit distant sometimes) when it comes to pop and rock, or be overshadowed by the mid-bass rumble and sharp upper-treble in the case of electronic music and certain types of metal music. They sure seem to handle complex music styles quite nicely, though, which gets rare for single-driver earphones in general.

The treble has two sides: On the one hand, it's crisp and exposes much detail. On the other hand, I can definitely pick up some pierce in certain sounds, like high-hats, cymbals and high-pitched digital samples, especially when you boost up the volume to compensate for the tame mids. Despite that, I do appreciate the fineness of that treble, as it puts a lot of other earphones in that price point to shame in that aspect.