Moondrop Variations is an impressive IEM both in terms of technicality and tuning, and I'm more than lucky to get it in a basically brand new state as a third-hand buyer + 33% off.
The second-hand buyer told me he got it from a friend and is now selling it since he prefers his Tanchjim Origin more. This got me a little worried since an Origin only costs around β
the price of a Variation but after the discount, it's basically the same. Spec-wise an Origin should be inferior, but the discount pulled down the cost to almost the same, which makes the deal hard to miss.
My first impression of the Variation is that it has a very technically astounding signature: the depth is spacious, the instruments are clearly separated, and the frequencies are confined in their range with virtually no leak. However, its tuning is very boring.
At first, I thought it was caused by my switch from dt990 pro and Aria Snow, which both have a brighter and vocal focus tuning, to the Variation, which most reviews described as warm and unique. It was not to my liking, and it felt like something was missing from its βenunciationβ and the vocals were flying over my head.
Since I'm its third owner I didn't consider burning it in at first, but later, out of desperation to improve it even a little bit more, I gave it the 8-hour treatment. It changed everything.
After burning the Variation in, it excels in every way possible. Both male and female vocals sounded vivid and smooth, the instruments are arrayed around you, and that unique thud of its bass genuinely stands out: it's strong but not obnoxious and spread out but not muddy; this refined tuning is impeccable. Most importantly no DAC and amp is even required to achieve this. The hype is real.
It also explains the weird frequency response graph, which is vastly different from what you will see in today's Harman-filled market. It's almost like only products from 2021 can be this creative, and that dip in the frequency response graph makes a lot more sense to work with the overall flatter curve to keep everything sharp and clean and complement its concise technicality.