haha, oh man, would have been too cool!
Don´t we all need and deserve that 
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A big shout out to HiFiGo for sending out a pair of loaner Pandamon 2.0s for a little photo shoot and impressions write up!
Of course, I’m nursing a really nasty case of the flu and a double ear infection at the moment, I can’t hear a damn thing out of either of my ears and the right one just perforated on Friday night so, no IEMs in there for quite a while 
I’m hoping to be be able to hear again but the end of the week so I can share my impressions.
Hope everyone is doing well!
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I heard using foam tips and inserting into your nostrils allows you to bypass your ears’ HRTF. Give it a go and please report back with photo evidence thanks.
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Get feeling better bud🤙. The wife and I are getting over sinus infections. Can’t wait to hear your impressions
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Feel better, chief!
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Thanks, man, I appreciate that - I really hope you and the fam get better soon!
@GooberBM Appreciate you, brother
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Good evening, everyone! I’d like to take a moment to shout out HiFiGo for sending out a pair of the Kinera Celest Pandamon 2.0 for photos and review! This was delayed heavily due to me coming down with a nasty flu, resulting in a double ear infection… yikes! I had to wait at least 2 weeks for my ears to fully heal, I wanted to give these a proper go and keep it as fair as possible.
I will have a full length review out soon on all the expected outlets like here, of course, and HeadFi. But for now, my initial impressions are… not the most positive unfortunately. For me personally, I value timbre and tonality over everything. No matter how technical, comfortable, beautiful or well-tuned an IEM is, if the timbre is unnatural or distracting, it immediately throws me off. The SPD driver in the Pandamon 2.0 proves to be very technical, with a high level of detail retrieval and plenty of resolution, but unfortunately it suffers from poor timbre and tonality to my ears so, that’s a deal breaker.
Luckily, it isn’t all bad and I know for a fact that there is a market for these in the hobby.
Please stay tuned for a more in depth review, also going over the entire packaging and build of these stunning budget IEMs!
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Great shots and usefully honest first take.
They look like little mana potions!
Is the tray a resin creation of Mrs. Dom?
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Thank you so much, John!
I had to look up what a mana potion was, hahaha it did not disappoint!
Yup! One of Mrs.'s beautiful creations, in fact, she was about to throw this one away… I cleaned it up and I said “No way, this is way too pretty. I’ll make good use of it!”
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Celest Pandamon 2.0 - A pretty shell and a dream…
Now, I want to preface this entire thing by saying this;
#1. I hate being negative, but at the same time, I have to keep it real here.
#2. While I don’t enjoy these IEMs, I can certainly see which crowd would like them.
With all that being said, I’d like to thank HiFiGo for sending the Celest Pandamon 2.0 out for review and a little photo sesh, it’s much appreciated! If you’d like to give the Pandamon 2.0 a try, please follow these unaffiliated links and get the wallets out! I guess I have to change my disclaimer now lol
HiFiGo：
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ98TQ1Z/celest+pandamon+2.0/
Amazon JP:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0CZ91BFX5/celest+pandamon+2.0/
Aliexpress：
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006811792383.html
You can also find all of the technical specs on the set using the links above as I usually don’t like to bog down my impressions with those numbers. It just makes the articles way longer than they need to be in my humble opinion.
Disclaimer
Summary
Test tracks
- Give Life Back to Music - daft punk - Overall clarity
- Infinity Repeating - daft punk - Lower mids control
- Voyager - daft punk - Bass line clarity/busy track layering
- Overnight - Parcels - mid bass punch
- Tieduprightnow - Parcels - bass line/sibilance test
- Everyroad -Parcels - Imaging/Sub bass @ 7 minute mark
- Daytime - Lunar Vacation - Staging/female vocals w/ heavy bass
- Days - No Vacation - Vibe test/treble energy
- Fruiting Body - Goon - Sub bass
- Wavy Maze - Goon - Mid bass
- Together - Maggie Rodgers - Female Vocals
- Slide Tackle - Japanese Breakfast - Sibilance test/consonants harshness
- Decode - Paramore - Vibe test/stage depth
- Vinta - Crumb - Stage depth/layering
- Kim’s Caravan - Courtney Barnett - Female Vocals/resolution test
- Small Poppies - Courtney Barnett - Distorted Guitar
- Lifelong Song - Men I Trust - Sub/mid bass texture
- One and Only - Adele - Female Vocals/consonants harshness test
- Waves - Wild Painting - Overall Enjoyment and stage depth/width/Bass guitar speed
- Not the One - Highnoon - Female Vocals
- Cowboy Killer - Varsity - Layering
- Alone in My Principles - Varsity - Distorted female vocals
- Summer Madness - Kool & The Gang - Treble Harshness
- They Are Growing - Renata Zeiguer - Mid bass impact
Sources
- Apple Music Streaming Hi-Res Lossless when available
- Topping D10s + Topping L30
- Moondrop Dawn 4.4
- Dunu DTC 500
- FiiO BTR7 BT
Disclaimer
Well, I guess I’m a reviewer! But just because that’s changed, doesn’t mean I’ve lost my integrity. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own and always will be. This is strictly fun for me and I’ll never compromise for any company or retailer. Rest assured, these thoughts are as legit as they come.
TLDR; I’d like to say that I’ve only ever tried one other IEM from Kinera and that was the Imperial Loki which I did not enjoy, HOWEVER, I understood the assignment on that IEM. I got it. The crowd was there for that earphone, I just wasn’t part of the group and that’s totally fine. The Pandamon 2.0 is similar with a boosted upper mid-range providing impressive detail retrieval that could probably rival lots of sets triple its price. However, the problem with the set lies in the same area, unfortunately. IEMs are all about compromise, right, and the way Celest has achieved that impressive technical punch is by boosting the upper mid-range to the point where vocals, guitars, and cymbals all sound unnaturally thing, splashy and scratchy in terms of their timbre and tonality. I have no doubt in my mind that someone, somewhere, would happily give up timbre for that extra bit of detail in their music, but I’m just not that guy. The Pandamon 2.0 is a beautifully built and presented IEM, which by itself, earns the $60 price tag in my opinion, but it makes too many sacrifices to achieve the sound it’s going for. If you’re looking for a budget IEM under $100 that uses an SPD driver, or if you just want to try out an SPD driver to see what they’re all about, the Pandamon 2.0 Is probably you’re best bet. But, if you’re looking for an under $100 IEM with fantastic technical ability that doesn’t have to sacrifice in the timbre and tonality department at all, I’d suggest the stuff from Simgot, most notably the 500LM.
We’ll start off with the packaging/presentation of the Pandamon 2.0 which is fantastic for a budget iEM. The Pandamon 2.0 will come in two options for your cable terminations, 3.5 and 4.4 which is pretty damn sweet for a sub $100 IEM to offer that in the first place, plus, the stock cable is actually quite nice and I would have no issues using it my self on this set and others so bravo, Celest.
You also get a small, circular case which isn’t anything special but again, if we’re comparing it to other sub $100 IEMs, even some right at $100, lots of those other popular releases don’t offer even a small pouch. The stock tips aren’t anything special or notable, I’m sure they’ll get the job done for most folks, but I landed on the SS20 tips from Whizzer to offer the best comfort and sonic properties. Those tips are so fantastic… Anyways, in conclusion, the Pandamon 2.0 knocks it out of the park when it comes to the packaging and presentation.
Speaking of presentation, just look at those faceplates…
wowzers. Very pretty. These are built very well, not just for a budget set, but just in general and I have to commend Celest yet again because they always hit when it comes to the design of their IEMs. Their sound sigs may not mesh with me well, but their IEM designs sure do. My wife also quite likes them as well and she has a background in resin design so she knows what she’s talking about. The orange tray in the marque image at the top is her creation actually!
Bass
Unfortunately, the bass on the Pandamon 2.0 just doesn’t do it for me. The weird thing is, I don’t mind planar bass at all, I actually quite enjoy the snappy nature of it. Funny enough, the IEM that really got me back into the hobby after a few year-long hiatus was the Timeless and my brain really adjusted to that sound over the 6 months I wore them every single day as my EDC, not to mention, that was the only IEM I had at the time. I have no issues with planar timbre or bass most of the time…. But the Pandamon 2.0 falls flat here in my opinion. There just isn’t enough of it here to balance out the rest of the frequency range. The focus is obviously more so in the mids here, so the bass really does take a back seat here on songs like FRUITING BODY, WAVY MAZE, THEY ARE GROWING, and the first few daft punk songs of my playlists. To be fair, the mid-bass thump on THEY ARE GROWING and Give Life Back to Music isn’t terrible, let me make sure that’s completely clear. I don’t think this IEM has bad bass, I just think there simply isn’t enough of it to satisfy even this non-bass head. I actually think that if the upper-mid and treble were tuned relative to the bass in this case, you’d have some actually nice melodies shooting into your noggin here. The Mid-bass kick is fast and snappy, and pulls and releases on bass guitar are still very groovy and do a decent job at driving the music forward. The sub-bass, however, just can’t be redeemed. I can barely hear it on my tracks here and to be quite honest, I’d need at least another 6-8 dB at LEAST.
Mids
The most contentious part of this IEM lives here, in the mids. Specifically in the upper mids, going passed 3k into 5, and 6k territory. I am not sensitive to the typical peaks like 5k and 8k, but more so around 3.2k to be exact. If this is too boosted, forget it, my brain latches on to it and just simply can’t let go. So, here we are, the area where I can’t get past. I won’t go on and start referencing songs from my playlist because quite frankly, none of them sound good here if we’re strictly focusing on the mids. The timbre is off, it’s hollow, thin, and just plain off tonally. The notes lack weight to my ears, especially the vocals of the song, but they’re also forward and jarring at times. In the effort of not sounding completely negative, I will say that the details and resolution are impressive here, punching above it’s weight in vocal clarity and texture, however, the staging is very closed in to my ears which gives this very claustrophobic effect that I am just not fond of and it does cause some muddying of busier tracks like, Decode, which isn’t even that busy.
Treble
I have to be honest, I don’t have much to say about the treble. I feel as though It’s on the darker side and not very well extended at all causing the dynamics of songs to be off-putting sometimes. Cymbals have this huge initial crash and SPLASH to them but then disappear in an instant. Vocals do stay at the front and center of the performance, but the backing instruments just get lost in the shuffle and become something like an afterthought. All in all, this IEM just doesn’t sound balanced tonally due to the shift in the treble coming from the mids.
My last review was of the Symphonium Crimson so the next IEM that was due for an impression had some HUGE shoes to fill when It came to the treble department, but still, I tempered my expectations due to the pricing category and this still disappointed me. I think the Pandamon 2.0 is lacking air, causing a closed-in effect in the music as well, forcing you to focus on the mids and upper mids. Whether you think that is a good thing or a bad thing, is completely up to you of course.
Technicalities
I will say, this is where the Pandamon 2.0 regains some respect from me. As I’ve already said the detail retrieval and overall resolution are both pretty killer for the price category. However, the timbre, tonality, stage, and layering are all very lackluster. I’ll continue to say this until I’m blue in the face, the SPD timbre is not for me, it is a crunchy, thin, and some what off-putting. The stage is very closed in on my HRTF so that makes the presentation pretty intimate, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it also causes issues with the layering of the music being played. Various instruments, guitars, bass, piano, vocals, etc. are all on top of each other with the vocals being right up in your face. If you are looking for a very very vocal and detail forward IEM, this would probably suit you but if you’re anything like myself, the sacrifices this IEM makes to present those vocals and details so forwardly are very apparent and quite frankly, unnecessary.
Source differences
The Pandamon 2.0 did react to different sources in my experience but not to the point where these magically became fantastic IEMs. On my desktop setup, the set came off as the most balanced, and that is where a majority of my impressions came from. For whatever reason, listening to them on the BTR7 was a disaster and quite frankly, unlistenable for me personally. Vocals became shrill, and even thinner somehow. The Dunu DTU 500 faired better than the BTR7 since it’s a warmer source, and it did help thicken up the lower mids a little bit and make the upper-mid range tolerable, however, the layering became even worse and there was a nasty peak somewhere I couldn’t quite put my finger on in the lower treble. I’d stick with a more neutral source with these if possible.
In summary, what do I think of the Pandamon 2.0? Well, unfortunately, my thoughts are mostly negative and it really comes down to the timbre and tonal balance of the set. The treble being on the darker side means this IEM isn’t for treble heads, and the mid-range being unnatural in its timbre means it isn’t for mid-heads, so who is it for? I simply don’t know, quite frankly - Maybe folks that want to experience a higher degree of detail but don’t have the money to spend over $200 for the big planar and hybrid boys? Yes. I would say that’s the crowd this IEM is aiming for. But, with the likes of the Simgots, Kiwi Ears, & Truthears being of this world, the Celest Pandamon 2.0 is a very pretty face with a dream of competing with the big boys, but ultimately, comes up short.
Thanks so much for reading! Cheers!
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Polished AF, photos and write-up. Super helpful. 
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Really great review. Polished and honest with nice photos. Good job! 
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Thanks so much, Gentlemen! @rattlingblanketwoman @NiteRiter
I’m glad I could be of help for the community
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The most recent pick-up: EPZ Q1 Pro
An interesting little set of IEMs with a not-so-interesting graph…
Just looking at it on paper, so to speak, I was afraid that these would be a touch shouty for me, considering the obvious lack of bass relative to the pinna gain. But… no? It’s weird. In-ear, they sound slightly warm and intimate with decent vocal reproduction, with no harshness to be heard nor shout. I am very confused but this is just a classic example of graphs don’t tell the whole story.
Side note, I am very impressed with the build quality of the shells and the included cable.
Nicely done, EPZ, nicely done.
Thank you @VIVIDICI_111 
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A very special shout out to my buddy @Jaytiss for sending out the Muse M4 to me. I have to say, this little device has been impressing me this past week.
Todays set up;
Muse M4 w/ Juzear 41T
The 41T is already a darker IEM in the treble with a more forward pinna region and a long slopping low end response so the M4 is like a match made in heaven for the 41T, it highlights all of the best areas of the 41T.
So far, I’ve experienced a slight but noticeable boost in the lower mids/mid bass on almost all of my sets so far, with a thicker presentation down low but added clarity and a slightly thinner presentation around the upper-mids, I am not complaining lol I would say that comparing the M4 to say the BTR7, the BTR7 has overall a better technical presentation with better clarity and texture, where the M4 more so highlights the fun parts of whatever IEM that’s plugged into it.
I’ll definitely be doing more testing and maybe even a small review of this thing, that’s how impressed I am.
Cheers 
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Man, I have to be honest with you guys, the Davinci from Dunu x Gizaudio wasn’t something I was particularly interested in, I just thought it was another collab release to add to the never ending collab IEM list. But the more I see the graph and the more I read about the different techniques being used like the 5 way crossover and the 5 separate acoustic tubes, I can’t lie, it has me more and more interested as the days go on.
Now that they’ve been officially cleared and productions has assumingly been able to fulfill the first wave of orders, I am hoping I get my review pair any day now and I’ll make sure I report back on my impressions asap + some obligatory photos because damn those shells are pretty!
Any one else getting on this hype train?
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Even if have to stick a clip on the back of this to make it ultra on-the-move-friendly, it’s something I might try to check out at some point.
Playing from a very affordable DAP, or my desktop sources, my Serials sound more to my liking than they do through my Q5K. Whatever light coloration DACs can add I do feel that the 5K doesn’t emphasize the bass warmth as much as other sources I’ve tried lately.
The obvious answer would be to PEQ the low end, it’s the Q5K after all, but when I mess with EQ it’s hard to hear the difference, and then before I know it I’ve hit clown levels of difference and so I tone it back down and then it’s a matter of “is the EQ on or off right now?” and it’s just a few too many mind games for me.
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I really like the look, the graph, the impressions… I’d be excited to hear what you think about them, and to see the photos!
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You already know that I am quite excited about them! Looking forward to more impressions and getting them in my ear holes at some point!
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