In the German HiFi community, we sometimes do tours. Usually a brand, a vendor or a community member sends a sample unit out and it gets passed around in the community between trusted members. At the end it returns to the owner and every participant shares their impressions.
Even if the gear often isn’t really what one is interested in, it is still a great opportunity to learn something about one’s taste or discover something new.
As the Chief Representative of Variation (heh, get it?) I feel called out.
That set has the Sub Bass, the Mids (oh my god female vocals) and a Treble to die for.
The B2 is a mere Pesant in the presence of the Variations.
With respect
~ zero ~
Representative of the Trinity
This is where we disagree 
the rest is true imo
I would lie if I said the Female Vocals the Variations produces were not the best I have ever heard 
Maybe they just hit my personal HRTF for the vocals 
You do not understand me. I’m talking about the fun sound in the Moondrop kits, not the qualities of the kit itself. Maybe you just like it, as I like PD1! 
Variations + female kpop group discographies = Personal Endgame 
The B2 is only good for korean ballad and korean drama OSTs for me personally.
I was talking mids in general, more than female vocals in specific.
With scooped lower mids, you cant say they have mids to die for. For me, anything with a kickdrum or bass guitar was killed by Variations, and that’s the only part that triggered me. Regarding female vocals, it’s far from the best replays to my personal preference, but I was very ok with it as I found them very neutral. That 3k pinna is a moondrop special and either you love it or you don’t.
And yes, I can understand why Variations is great for Kpop. When it hits you right, it hits you right, and it has insane value for a tribid.
And I’m greatfull that you guys found your endgame as well 
The Tea honestly works well with Kpop just by seeing the frequency graphs alone and I would love to get my hands on it at that price range. Especially after reading everyone’s impressions about it.
If the staging and instrument separations are good, they should be able to handle even the most busy sounding kpop songs. Having wonderful vocals, especially female vocals, is the cherry on top. (Without the sibilance of course since I have the FD5 with me. nymz will know.)
One thing to note is that, kpop group songs tend to favour more either on the warm or very bright sounding side of it. The treble in some of their recordings can be a bit harsh which is why I prefer a slightly darker treble for my listening.
Yes, it has those 
Oh, it’s not like FD5, that’s for sure. I returned FD5 because of that. But FD5 has more bass and maybe a bit more stage (due to being semi-open). Imaging and detail will be better on Teas. FD5 has better Timbre due to single DD master-race.
If you ever consider go up the ladder, and seeing you love variations, you might wanna check out EJ07m as well or RSV if you going for that full BA sweeteness. EJ07 would be my pick for those bright tracks, but it’s very dark, so I’m afraid it would be too dark for you.
I have a lot of stuff coming next week/christmas, so I can test some weeb tracks for you guys with those if you need me to 
@nymz hi, what is your use case for RSV against Tea? I mean from the graph it looks like tonally similar set- so more like an improvement potentially than something for totally different music
I use RSV everyday, Teas a bit less. Their tuning is different. Mids and noteweight feel close, but rest is different.
Bass is DD vs BA. RSV has more elevation and feels an hair warmer, while Teas come out when called. Sub-bass is better on teas due to DD nature. Slam is different on both as well, due to RSV’s being “fake slam” (BA) - still impactfull, but a DD is a DD. RSV’s bass is almost as good as it gets for a full BA set, but they are competing on different fields.
Treble is the major difference to my ears. RSV is sparkly and never hot, never shouty, never sibilant, even though it has more elevation. Extension is also better. Teas feel darker.
Technicalities is a whole different level. RSV eats Teas for lunch, but also costs more than double.
Now this…
Is a different story 
I got the VR3000 for the tips, but they didn’t come with a proper tip case. I was looking on thingiverse, but can’t find any IEM tip cases… does anyone know a good 3d printable tip case design?
This will work for now, but could need some work (something easy to print without hinges and clamps):
A fellow connoisseur 
Something that I‘ve noticed btw ist that KPop Songs (and JPop as well) usually have a very high Production quality.
One thing that came with me delving deep into this hobby is that I now easily hear when a track is badly recorded/mixed/mastered. It never really spoiled my enjoyment, but I definitely have a bigger appreciation for quality production now.
Oh don’t worry, it was all meant to me personally anyway
The Variations to me just take everything I loved about the B2:D, put it on steroids, removed the issues I had with it (Coherency first and foremost) and mixed it with the Sennheiser HD600. I could go the other way around; HD600 on steroids with Sub-bass and better treble in an IEM shell.
The scoop in the lower mids only affects some really deep male vocals for me. They don’t sound thin to my ears, but rather „distant“.
But for those cases, that‘s what I got my ThieAudio Oracle for. And on days where I crave a bit more mid-bass, Bravery it is. 
Ok, no shouer for me as I don’t need upgrade (love tea more and more), but more of a supplement for different occasions (electronic music, maybe jazz).
Speaking music genre/artist wise you would say - tea for hip hop/classic rock, RSV for indie, female, metal?
Don’t buy anything else, just enjoy. For every genre you listed. Enjoy it, taste it. Teas are insane for 300usd.
Tea Cult baby
You’ve got yourself a great setup there
Glad you found your Mojo 
Monarch OG?
Actually, yeah. Although, when I tried the Monarch Mk1, I preferred my Variations over it. Something about it sounded cleaner, which I appreciated. I expected the Monarch to be more resolving than the Variations, but it wasn’t.
In hindsight, I‘m glad I never blind-bought the Monarch and went with the Variations.
I have to admit though: the Monarch Mk2 looks tempting.
For sure. Seeing it graphs very close to EJ07m, I wanna pull the trigger. BUT, fit is for sure a problem so I’ll have to skip it…
