Moondrop Kanas Pro Review (2) – Testing the Hype
Pros — Exquisite tonal accuracy in midrange and treble; quality build; great cable.
Cons — Uneven tonality: too much dry (sub-) bass relative to midrange and treble; recessed lower midrange and thin vocals lacking air; earpieces are big & heavy, and may be uncomfortable for some.
You find an alternative review by Biodegraded HERE and another one by Loomis HERE. For more photos, we offer a dedicated Audio Porn HERE.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Moondrop Kanas Pro is a well-built, single dynamic driver earphone aiming to follow the Harman Target curve. It has a warm, overly strong very-low end fighting against recessed neutral mids and treble…this hostile interaction throws the tonality out of balance and becomes quickly fatiguing to my ears.
INTRODUCTION
Moondrop is a Chinese company that is not located in the Shenzen/Guangdong area but in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Sichuan is famous for its hot, spicy, oily, very delicious foods, its relaxed lifestyle, and its Giant Panda Breeding facility. People who live there never want to leave. The city has its very own “Digital Square”, that is two huge department stores at an intersection that feature hundred of high tech dealers. During my eleven trips to the city, in my professional past, I dipped into Chinese high tech never seen in the west. It is not surprising that Chengdu provides enough fertile soil for tech companies such a Moondrop.
SPECIFICATIONS
Name: Kanas Pro
Type: in ear
Driver: dynamic
Sensitivity: 110 dB
Impendence: 32 ohm
Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 20000 Hz
Cable Length: 1.2m
Plug Type: L-shape
Color: silver
Price: $179.80 (at the time of this review):
Purchase Link: Wooeasy Earphones Store
PHYSICAL THINGS
In the box are the earpieces, 5 pairs of silicone rubber tips, a 2-pin cable, and a microfibre storage bag. The earpieces are big, silver, and heavy, and they could be smaller and lighter for a single-dynamic-driver earphone. Build is stellar as far as I can tell. Cable is soft and pliable and feels well: an outstanding one that is much better in terms of haptic than the one included with the $600 Sennheiser IE 500 PRO [review]. The large earpieces fit well and are reasonably comfortable, despite their weight. Isolation is what you make out of it, and it was good in my case using the largest included silicone eartips. I used low-impedance sources such as my iPhone SE with or without the Audioquest Dragonfly amp/dac. The Moondrop Kanas Pro is harder to drive than most multis/hybrids, certainly harder than the Ikko OH1 or the Simgot EM2 — it certainly benefits from amplification.
TONALITY AND TECHNICALITIES
JK’s tonal preference and testing practice
While much has been said about the Kanas Pro’s sound, the biggest differences in opinion are on the low end: one person doesn’t find the bass strong enough, another one does not like the punch coming from the very low end, and Biodegraded, in his quick thoughts review, finds the bass generally too much.
True is that there is a bass boost by 5-8 dB above neutral at the sub-bass/bass transition and that the very low end is pounding but also blunt and plump as it lacks texture. Focus remains good into the sub-bass, which is rather dry. Mid-bass is still above neutral which adds some warmth to the image. My problem is also that the bass is simply too strong relative to the rest of the frequency spectrum so that it overwhelms the lower mids and makes the sound somewhat tuby (“it adds depth by removing width”). In the end, the sound comes across closed-in (as opposed to open). This low end can be fatiguing to some.
In contrast to the warm low end, the midrange is neutral, reasonably smooth, refined and with good tonal accuracy — and well resolving. The dominating low-end pushes male voice of the lower midrange back. These voices are generally well crafted but way too thin for my liking and the price. Female voices in the upper midrange remain relatively smooth (but also thin) and and don’t get sharpened by excess energy in this area. The Chi-Fi shoutiness in the upper midrange is strictly avoided but at the expense a more vivid midrange. My problem is that when I turn the volume up so that the bass is just right, then the voices are far back. If I then turn up the volume to bring the voices closer, the bass is too much. Treble remains neutral, reasonably well resolving, but not smooth. Cymbals decay well but are somewhat polite. No real unpleasantries up there. A 12 kHz peak has to help out adding a bit of sparkle to the sound (but also some scratchiness) that is otherwise blunted by the bass.
Technicalities (macro-/microdynamics, clarity, resolution, layering, imaging) are all good but overshadowed by the tonal imbalance. As said, soundstage width suffers from the bass and the image needs a bit more air. Space is well mapped out.
SIMILAR GRAPHS, DIFFERENT SOUNDS
There are two more earphones reviewed on this blog that feature similar frequency responses as the Moondrop Kanas Pro, but they have different sounds. The first is the Ikko OH1 [review]: I perceive it as more v-shaped. the Kanas Pro has more refined midrange and treble, the OH1 has more very low end. There second model is the Simgot EM2 [my review | review Loomis Johnson ] which I perceive as much more neutral, brighter (upper midrange forward), and less bassy sounding. The Simgots also have the best clarity of the three.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The Moondrop Kanas PRO are certainly well built, solid performers but they lack homogeneity in that their strong and warm low-end does not match the neutral rest of the frequency spectrum. The disjointed bass works for blocking out the ambient noise at the daily commute (if you can handle the big and heavy earpieces), but it may not do so in the silence of your home, except perhaps for classical music that does not rely much on bass. Considering the Kanas Pro’s obvious shortcomings, the hype is clearly unwarranted in my opinion. And, quite frankly, the Moondrop Kanas Pro are pricey when compared to the more cohesive sounding $100 iBasso IT01 (mine are right now in repair, hence no detailed comparison) or the $30 Moondrop Crescent [my review]. I just find that less bass and more mids would make for a better as more balanced sounding earphone. In the end, the opportunity was missed to create the legacy which the Kanas Pro are claimed to be (by some).
DISCLAIMER
This pair of Kanas Moodrop Pro was supplied by Wooeasy Earphones Store for THREE independent and critical reviews by the authors of Audio Reviews. I thank them and apologize for the realism in my review. You find the review by Biodegraded HERE. Review by Loomis Johnson to follow.
Our generic standard disclaimer
