Moondrop Space Travel Review (2) – Closer To God

As much as I’ve raved about Moondrop’s wired IEMs, I didn’t like Moondrop’s prior TWS offering, the $189 Moondrop Alice, and wouldn’t have expected much from the uber-budget ($25), Airpod-style Space Travel. However, Jürgen (who’s generally indifferent to TWS)) positively raved about these and insisted on getting me a pair to audition. With some qualifications, I’m glad he did.

The Moondrop Space Travel are generic looking, but lightweight and comfortable for extended sessions; touch controls work reliably, but (puzzlingly) you cannot control volume with the phones. Battery life is rated at only 4hrs (with up to 12hrs for the case), which is really low for this day and age—these would not work well for long plane trips. The clear plastic case has no top cover, which makes the buds hard to remove and allows all forms of grime and lint to enter if you store in your pocket. It’s a truly baffling design decision.

Moondrop makes much ado about the ANC technology on the Space Travel, which ostensibly abandons feedback and utilizes a “feedforward solution,” which reduces noise without losing bass. The ANC mode does in fact work pretty well and sounded about as detailed and open as the transparency mode; despite the shallow fit the wide shells provide for good seal and exclusion of wind and outside noise. Call quality is good. The voice prompts for noise cancelling, regular and transparency modes (“sh”, “eh” and “heh”) are a panic.

There is ostensibly an accompanying app, the Link 2.0, but as with the Alice I couldn’t get the damn thing to work—you can’t find it on Google Play Store and the apk download from the site doesn’t seem able to find the buds. FWIW, Jurgen got the app to work on his Iphone and states it has three useful bass tunings.

So, mixed marks on the externalities, but how do they sound? Pretty good, actually.  Despite the big 12mm drivers they don’t play very loud (a pet peeve of mine), and they sound veiled, artificially lean and unengaging at lower volumes, without a ton of detail. Crank ‘em up, however, and they transform into a livelier, much more revealing and open presentation, with a neutral, articulate (if still leanish) tonality.

Bass, in default mode, is well-sculpted and fast, though not deep or punchy; mids are slightly recessed while high end has limited extension but is free from glare or sharpness. Soundstage is wide and somewhat low-ceilinged but immersive; instruments are cleanly separated and drums have good snap and crackle. Orchestral and other busy passages are unexpectedly well sorted out–these actually image as well as any budget TWS you’ll hear.

Sonically, Moondrop seems to be going for the Apple/Samsung type of mass-market tuning—smooth, coherent, without enhanced frequencies. As such, it’s quite successful—compared to $150 Galaxy Buds Plus the Space Travel lack some bass throb [in “Reference” or default mode…there is also a “Basshead” mode] and present less high-end information, but actually have the more natural-sounding timbre, although they can’t play in the same league as champs like the $100 Cambridge Melanomia or $100 Lypertek Tevi, both of which have more body/dynamic slam and play louder.

Jürgen actually posited these things as Wall of Fame material, which for me is a stretch—their quirky design and (esp.) short battery preclude daily driver use, while they miss just a bit of the crispness and drive of top sets. Factor in the price, however, and they do have their considerable appeal—they are a nicely built, cohesive sounding piece with class-leading imaging. Plus those voice prompts are worth the price of admission…

The Moondrop Space Travel were kindly provided by SHENZHENZAUDIO for my review – and I thank them for that. You can get them here.

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