Almost the entire market (well at least the good stuff) is limited run only. So usually preorder or buy 2nd hand at a massive markup… or just don’t bother.
I’ve been meaning to get my sister her first over ear IEM for a long time. She loves her music, has never had a good fit with buds. She has a condition where she is indoors maybe more than she’d like.
For bang for buck as an intro to try IEM shapes I was about to get a Moondrop model for her birthday, probably with future upgrades based on fit and sound feedback from her.
Then the Mele dropped, the exact day I was shopping.
Instant buy, shipped to England. I knew I would get fantastic sound and fit without any quirky tuning, and for less than Arias.
So I was already so glad for the gift that the Meles are. I had to order mine second batch, but I can wait.
Then Moondrop pulls this pervy soft-porn double entendre. I’d be so ashamed to have recommended them to my sister. I am of a mind that this is telling of character. Basement monster incel nonsense. You can only pull that kind of rubbish if you are safely assuming you have few female customers, that a female perspective of the image doesn’t even exist. What women would want to see an avatar they could associate with being “comically” abused.
Keeping my money out of the paychecks of the clowns responsible is the icing on the cake after getting a better price on a better product already.
I say this as someone who has considerable respect for what Moondrop puts out at the price they do. I think the value is great, never had QC problems myself.
But they really muddied the water here, and I won’t be recommending their sets to newcomers. Previously the Aria / used Starfields would be an easy rec for quite a few folks.
How wonderful that in the nick of time, there’s an even easier, even better rec. Can’t wait for batch 2, or 3, or whatever I managed to get into, to ship.
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… wait what happened 
You can only pull that kind of rubbish if you are safely assuming you have few female customers
Yeah agreed, the waifu stuff has always seemed odd to me. It’s kinda funny in theory, to just wear the weeb banner on your sleeve (box) like that, but the waifu stuff has gotta be alienating for women in the hobby. There’s gotta be a more elegant way to toe the line of weeb aesthetics with a different image.
I guess the other thing I should clarify, is nothing they’d illustrated until that recent one (that I know of) offended me at all. Female characters being either cute or elegant. I’d buy IEMs with buff dudes doing charming or macho things on the side if they sounded good. The images were a harmless choice of brand identity the same as if all their products came with various poses of a grim reaper, a rambo/commando character, muscley guy with a turtle neck and a rose in his teeth in various stages of serenading, etc. Just characters people can like or find corny / wish they weren’t on the product. Just something on the market for people with different tastes.
But for crying out in the image in question… apart from the obvious semen, her tights are all torn up and she looks unhappy. F*ck that. That’s something on the market for different characters.
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holy shit WHAT? WHAT DID I MISS
You gonna have go travel a bit up… Like 100 posts 
shit hitted the fan
Edit: 100, 30…whos counting right?
Moondrop did the ‘hold my beer’ moment
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I’m now done with Moondrop. And I’ve bought almost every IEM they’ve made.
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Was actually about to buy a second had Aria just to hear how it fare against my library, until the shit show. Nope. gonna use the funds to buy me wife some good dinner.
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Muuuuuch better use of funds IMO 
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Got a question!
So as some of you know, I recently got a Fiio Q3 DAC/AMP. It’s also my very first dac and amp.
I would like to ask, I’ve been using the Q3 on my laptop when I work and I’ll use my Sony A55 together with the Q3 when I’m away from my desk. When I plug the Q3 to the A55, it’ll be treated as an AMP right? and when I plug the Q3 to my laptop, it’ll act both as a DAC and an AMP? Am I right so far?
I’ve been realizing that I’m getting different sounding when I listened to both configurations back to back. Using the Q3 alone makes the imaging and soundstage pretty great and also more detailed, while using it on the A55 makes it more intimate while retaining that soundstage and kinda clearer on the mids(?) but less detail.
I may need to listen more on my A55/Q3 combo.
They should be dead close. Both times Q3 will be DAC/AMP since it’s through USB (digital source).
It’s maybe placebo?
Probably. I am using apple music lossless on my laptop while I’m of course, using local flac and DSD files on my A55. Exact same music library. Both still sounded wonderful so it’s still a plus!
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Well I did it! Dethonray Honey H1 is on its way! It’ll feel nice and assuring to finally have something truly dedicated to drive my stuff with.
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are you using the line in from your A55 to the Q3? if so, you’re bypassing the dac in the Q3
Yeah, you are bypassing the Sony and just using it as a transport.
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Yep, you’ll be using the dac and amp sections of the q3
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