Moondrop Quark2 Review

Introduction

As someone who believes DSP tuned IEMs, TWS and headphones are the future of portable audio, I have been fascinated
to see what Moondrop will do next.

They have been at the forefront of usb-C enabled DSP audio in the past year with some excellent releases of both cables like the C-DSP and FreeDSP usb-c cables as well as some amazing IEMs in various price ranges from the Chu II DSP, to the May and ultimately the Dusk with its optional usb-C cable with prebuilt DSP tuning.

So now Moondrop have released the Quark 2 as the upgrade to one of their earliest experiments with DSP tuned IEMs the original Quark. This new iteration promises significant improvements in sonic performance and features, maintaining an incredible price point of just $16.99.

So it is any better? Read on to find out.

So lets start with the unboxing:

Unboxing, Packaging and Accessories

The Moondrop Quark 2 comes in very basic box, including the IEMs, a Type-C cable, and a user manual.

The back of the box proudly shows the frequency response:

I would say this is the cheapest packaging I have seen for an IEM, but I personally think if they can save some money on the packaging and pass that saving on the public that is great:

Even the box looks ‘shocked’ (or at least looks a bit like a shocked Emoji ):

But all basic essentials are provided:

While I found the cable looks very cheap it does seem to be well-made, I would not expect it to fall apart:

The IEM shells are bullet style and look good for the price:

One of features of this IEM are the holes on the back:

The eartips provided are ok, but I will be suggesting later that you swap these eartips for some better ones:

But finally the IEM with the eartips looks pretty good:

Ear comfort and fit

I personally did not find the combination of the bullet style with the short length of the stalk of the IEM and the supplied eartips worked for me. I did ask my wife who has much smaller ears to try them, and she found they worked ok for her but did fall out of her ears a bit too easy for her.

So, for me to get a good seal for me, I had to switch to some Large Foam eartips and really stick the Quark 2 into my ear. By doing that, I got a good pretty good long term comfort and a mostly balanced sound as you will read later on in my subjective section later on, so I do think the fit and eartip selection will make a huge difference to how this IEM works for you.

To give you an idea of the shape comparisons here are 2 other small (and similar priced) IEMs, the Tanchjim One and Soncie Meory SM1 Lite with the Quark 2.

So for me the angle on the Tanchjim provide me with a much better fit that then straight bullet style of the Quark 2:

I have a classic bullet style IEM the Etymotics ER2XR which has much longer and ‘grippy’ eartips (some dual and triple flange eartips) and I believe Moondrop should have provided different eartips with Quark 2.

Features

The Quark2 is equipped with a specially developed 7.8mm dynamic driver featuring a Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) composite diaphragm and a flexible suspension.

The Quark2 incorporates an advanced DSP (Digital Signal Processing) system within its Type-C terminated cable. This 40nm SOC includes a DSP, CPU, RAM, and decoding AMP architecture, supporting PCM 32-Bit/384kHz audio signal processing.

Here is the quark 2 connected to my Macbook - showing an impressive support for various formats :

Microphone and Media control

The Type-C terminated cable includes a built-in microphone and three-button media control keys. While its great to have a microphone on such a cheap IEM, I didn’t find the microphone to be that good and only used it on a few calls as people told me I sounded “muffled” compared to my normal work microphone.

The three button control though worked well controlling playback and volume on every device I tried including a Macbook Pro and an iPhone:

Sound impressions

This might be the most controversial aspect of this review, but as you read earlier I found for my ears it was difficult to get good bass seal with the supplied eartips but once I switched to large foam ear tips I had much better luck with the bass, but it did affect the treble, so your mileage may vary.

At that point and before doing an extended listening session I decided to listen to a “frequency sweep” a few times just to be sure as I had ‘problems’ with other bullet shaped IEM’s in the past where the insertion depth can greatly change the treble, so in my case (and others might find this too), everything beyond 6K had greatly reduced treble leading to it sounding very dull and boring, so I decided to use some EQ with a simple treble shelf increasing the treble and this greatly balanced out the sound.

No EQ available in the Moondrop Link App

Sadly, even though the Quark2 is an usb-c with DSP and a DAC, Moondrop have choosen not to expose any EQ capabilities within the Moondrop Link App, so if you need EQ

So these sound impressions where with the foam tips and with a very simple treble boost on my Macbook, nothing to complicated, but it definitely provided significant benefit to me.

Bass

The Moondrop Quark 2 provides excellent sub-bass extension with a nice controlled level of bass, giving tracks like Hans Zimmer’s “Time” from the Inception soundtrack a deep, resonant foundation without overpowering the delicate orchestration.

Midrange

I feel the midrange is fantastic with the quark 2, everything is tonally to me in the right place and really amazing what it can sound like for a sub $20 IEM. Vocals, especially female vocals, were slightly forward in the mix. This is well demonstrated in Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You,” where her voice comes through with clarity and emotion, enhancing the intimacy of the track.

Treble

The treble as I mentioned is tuned slightly dark by default, but it significantly benefits from a small treble boost and ensuring that there is no harshness or sibilance. On tracks like Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five,” the cymbals are smooth and refined, providing a relaxed listening experience.

Soundstage/Imaging

The soundstage is reasonably spacious for an IEM in this price range, with accurate imaging that places instruments well within the mix. In Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” the guitar strums and vocals are presented with a good sense of space and depth.

Specifications

• Driver Unit: 7.8mm Dynamic Driver
• Diaphragm: LCP Composite
• Frequency Response: 10Hz-20kHz
• Effective Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz
• Impedance: 16Ω@1kHz
• Sensitivity: 103dB/Vrms@1kHz
• Termination: Type-C with integrated DSP
• Cable: Fixed Type-C cable with built-in microphone and media controls
• Price: $16.99

Measurements

Initially when I spotted the frequency response on the back of the box I was very excited this seem like it would be an instant recommendation, but this is one example where measurements do not necessarily align with the physical reality of an IEM. By physical reality I feel the shape and angle of the Quarks affects insert depth and that affects the seal and for me the solution ultimately affected the treble.

But measuring these on my 711 clone coupler they do measure very well so for a significant amount of people these will sound amazing:

The treble region you can see it does drop off significantly which is what I was hearing also.

Also, It shows excellent match to Harman and excellent channel balance.

Note: I would guess they were tuned against a similar coupler to mine as I have not seen a better matching IEM.

Measurement comparisons:

Here are the quarks compared with some other similar priced ‘Harman’ tuned IEMs:

Also comparing the Quark 2 with the original Quark you can see Moondrop tuned the bass to be much more balanced, which for me makes the quark 2 a much better IEM: Note: I did not measure the original Quark so this comparison are from Super reviews

Distortion measurement

The Quark 2 has fantastic distortion measurements also:

Rating

I have given the Quark 2 a pragmatic 4-star rating. For the price, if you are looking for a Harman tuned IEM with slightly recessed treble this might be the perfect IEM for you and If I could guarantee it would fit more people ears, I would actually give it a 5-star rating, but I do think the fit will not suit everyone and will cause audio issues for some people.

Conclusion

The Moondrop Quark2 can depending on how you like bullet styles IEM be an exceptional pair of budget IEMs that offer substantial improvements over their predecessor. With its integrated DSP, these earbuds deliver a high-quality audio experience at an unbeatable price. Designed

Whether you’re a music enthusiast, a gamer, or someone looking for reliable earbuds for daily use, the Quark2 DSP is an excellent choice.