These headphones require a STRONG NECK - Moondrop VENUS

Planar Magnetic headphones have usually been resrved for luxary headphones for discerning audiophiles, but it seems like Moondrop's new VENUS headset could be something more obtainable for the average person. Will Adam be impressed by his sound or is the Waifu on the box the best thing about this product?

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

FOLLOW US ELSEWHERE
---------------------------------------------------

CHAPTERS
---------------------------------------------------
0:00 Who's Moondrop?
1:34 Looking at the box and specs
3:07 Unboxing
4:46 Design and build quality
8:47 Sponsor - Manscaped
9:11 Audio quality impressions
11:28 Labs results and comparisons
13:33 Pricing and competition
14:29 Overall thoughts
15:18 Outro

[GK_Squid]

$50 says he takes this home and we see it end up being found in an extreme tech upgrade 10 years down the road

[jctai]

Great to see the efforts of the new lab finally coming to fruition and we get to see 'normalized' results in the audiophile world. I really like how the graphs were presented with breakdown of what constitutes 'presence' vs 'brilliance' Good job!

[lionkrupke]

7:07 that's how electrostatic drivers work not planars. Planar magnetics work like this: the diaphram has windings on it that are like the coil in a dynamic driver. If a current is applied to it it induces a magnetic field which is attracted or repelled by the magnets on each side and because of that the diaphram starts to move and make sound. I hope that helps.

[Skiptrac]

*Sigh* I hate that he said "18 ohms is kinda hard to drive".

This has NO context and is factually false information. The Moondrop Venus are rated at 18 Ohms, 100dBa/mW Sensitivity. You have 2 factors to how "Easy" it is to drive a Headphone. Resistance and Sensitivity. The lower your Resistance (Ohms) the easier it is to drive. The Higher your Sensitivity (dBa/mW) the easier it is to drive. At 100dBa/mW it takes 1mW of power to output 100dB of sound, and at 18 Ohms, that's REALLY easy. And, 100dB of sound is VERY loud.

For context, a pair of Apple Earpods is rated at 32Ohms, 104dBa/mW. So, in a way, it's EASIER to drive the Venus than it is OG Earpods. Please @ShortCircuit team, next time you do a Wired headphone or IEM review, please keep this in mind.

[amentia]

Okay, this beginning was kinda crap... they actually go down to 20Hz on the frequency response quite well (2:30); 18Ω of impedance is actually below average, but that is not a good way to measure how easy they are to drive alone, since you need to also consider the sensitivity (2:40)

[yeahthatsright]

I absolutely LOVE the fact that you guys can include proper frequency response graphs now. This just changed the quality of your guys reviews so so much!!!! Keep it up and please keep doing more of these headphone reviews! Please do the Monoprice Monolith M1070 and M1570! Absolutely nobody is really talking about those two headphones despite how massively popular their M1060 was.

[improvisedradio]

18Ohms should be able to run just fine from any device. The sensitivity however can change how well they can be driven. I understand this is the chill channel but would like to see a bit more understanding of driving headphones. Otherwise very enjoyable! Wish I could try these out as I love planar magnetic headphones and speakers.

[JoFreddieRevDr]

Do you have any idea what you are talking about? 18 ohms IS Not high, what the f are you going on about? Yes 80 Ohms might give some devices a problem, but if your device can't drive 18 Ohms, it is a POS you need to bin.

[sayacee]

lmao at the tesla logo, such foreshadowing

[Gobeman]

Hoping to see (if you somehow manage to get one) a review on the Audeze Maxwell. As its finally shipping around the world finally. Overall a pretty decent wireless headset with 80 hours of battery. for some odd 300 usd

[PaulTheFox]

18ohm impedance is really really low for over ear headphones, a normal value for impedance for gaming headsets for reference is 32ohm and my DT770 pro's are 80ohm, high impedance would be 250ohm+

[JesseArt]

I'm happy to see planar magnetic headphones becoming more present on the average consumer market. For me, they always seemed like unobtanium until recently. That said, as a budget-minded individual, I'm not sure what to try first. Drop and HIFIMAN have several entry level headphones, the HE-X4 at $129, HE4XX at $189 and the HE5XX at $229 (USD), listed on their website. Could you guys possibly do a video comparison on the most affordable entry level planar magnetic headphones? The HE-X4 may seem like a bargain, but is it worth it to just save for a bit longer and get the HE4XX? What sets the HE4XX apart from the HE5XX? Is it worth the extra price premium?

[bastien-]

You guys always show graphs and talk about numbered specs & EQs to represent sounds. But those are meaningless for the majority of people who don't already know what they represent. Instead, you should provide examples of what those different number ranges represent. Show us where an acoustic guitar lands on the graph/EQ, or vocals, or drums, etc. When you say "At such-and-such khz...", show us what real world sounds actually happen there.

[AnimotionTheRock]

"18 Ohms isn't the easiest thing to drive"
...That's one of the lowest impedance level you can have in a headphone.
the iphone earbuds are 18 ohms.

[tylerkwiatkowski]

Love how he explained how different genres of music sounded on the headphones. Helps a lot as for a consumer that wants to enjoy their own music

[sidesaladaudio]

Love the labs and more audio science focus when it comes to headphone reviews (still super jealous of having the 5128. I want to experiment with one so bad), but there are errors and in some cases misleading information that you may want to iron out as you guys progress in audio reviews. Overall though, keep it up!

[MrTubby]

Why can't you guys hire someone that actually knows something about audio

[RaphaelTsang]

I was very tempted to pick up a pair of these when I was in Hong Kong a couple months ago, but the stores that carried it were just a bit far away from where I was staying...they were selling for around $450 USD, which seemed like a much more reasonable pricepoint for these, maybe I'll pick up a pair the next time I fly back to HK :)

[nachot]

The reason Sony, audio Technica and Sennheiser do not build stuff completely from metals is the weight. They have known for decades and this is precisely the main issue the Airpods max have. It looks fancy, but necks use muscles to maintain the posture in the end.

[vianhoho]

14:17 what you should've been looking at are the Edition XS instead of the Sundara. They're IIRC $499 and sound-wise, they directly compete against the Venus.

I honestly need to try the XS again because it's been so long but the Venus is legit for a brand's first planar headphone 👌🏼