đŸ”¶ SJY Moonlight

Headphones
21

I really am interested in getting these as my next headphones, the
only planar i ever had was the Sundaras and I wasn’t a fan of them but i haven’t given up on Planars yet, it’s still early for me.

I hope to read more reviews and maybe get good insights for a informed decision.

22

Just received my pair today and I am currently listening to Led Zeppelin. I will give my impressions once I have spent some time with them. :wink:

Wiim Pro>Bifrost 2/64>Burson Soloist 3XP> Schiit Gjallarhorn mono blocks

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7 Likes
23

Loving Ananda Nano plugged to my daps, is Moonlight harder to drive?:roll_eyes::sweat_smile:

3 Likes
24

Using mono blocks was a personal preference /w Starry Night v1, and so I decided to try it with Moonlight lol. You can drive them with less powerful amps, but they do need something in the 2.5 watt + range to sound their best in my opinion. With my Burson Soloist 3XP powering them set to medium I have to turn the volume up to 90% with some tracks. I will try it set to high gain, but the noise floor on that amp is not great at that setting (when set to integrated amp mode). Luckily there are a lot of powerful sub $1,000 and sub $600 offerings now in the headphone amp space. I also have a Topping L70, but I am currently using it as a preamp for my TV setup. I will try it on that too to see how well it plays with that class of amp. You made a good choice of headphone though :wink:, happy listening.

*Just set it to high gain now, and yes that works much better. No issues with noise floor due to Moonlight not having a high sensitivity. Also just to clarify I am running RCA from my Bifrost to the Soloist, so if I was using XLR that would help as well. I will test that out too as I have a pair of decent XLR cables lying around. I would also test it on my Asgard 3, but I loaned it to a friend, but given the fact that they drove the Starry Night V1 well, I would say that it has enough power to get a decent presentation out of the Moonlight. I might be getting this hybrid amp next year xDuoo TA20 Plus Balanced Tube Headphone Amplifier – Apos Audio . Another early adopter said that hybrid tube amps work well with Moonlight, and it was one of the amps that Z used in his review.

2 Likes
25

Curious as to how well this would pair with Moonlight HIFIMAN EF600 Desktop R2R DAC/Amp Headphone Stand – Apos Audio
Anyone planning on powering Moonlight with the EF600?

26

The Topping A70pro seems to make sense to pair with Moonlight provided that the A70pro sounds good, lol. TOPPING A70 Pro Fully Balanced Headphone Amplifier – Apos Audio
Between 12 and 17 watts of power (32 ohms & 16 ohms) should due the trick, but I have not listened to the A70pro. I would recommend buying it from a retailer with a good return policy just in case it doesn’t pair well with the Moonlight. If anyone with experience with the A70pro wants to chime in it would be much appreciated! Having another sub $500 option for an amp to power the Moonlight well would be nice.

2 Likes
27

Nice colour mix! :+1:

1 Like
28

Thanks, I almost missed being able to pick my color because I didn’t see the SJY Audio email right away. :rofl:

29

It’s kind of like the ZMF headphones in that the center piece often clashes with the wood cups, IMO. But every so often, the center and the wood just line up, colour wise. :+1:

1 Like
30

Decided to throw on some Queen, and
 I am hearing more detail in each song than I did with my Arya. I am going to have to do an AB later on to make sure I am not going crazy here. lol

31

Do you listen to any (modern) jazz or electronic (house/ambient/techno) at all, by chance? Those are my main two genres, with some progressive & alternative rock thrown in as well. I tend to like sub bass biased transducers, slight u-shape for the most part, though I easily adapt to all sorts of frequency responses except for decidedly bass-shy ones. Thanks for sharing your impressions to date. Really appreciated.

1 Like
32

Not my two genres of choice, but Moonlight does have good bass extension; although within the SJY offerings the Starry Night has a bit more slam depending on what you power it with. This is not to say that the Moonlight is lean on bass, but open back headphones normally lose out to closed backs in that category when all other factors are equal. These do sound good with Bass heavy music in my opinion, but they need a decent amount of power to get them there. Listening to some of REN’s catalog it definitely delivers when powered with a Soloist 3XP. Hopefully this helps, and let me know if you have any other questions.

1 Like
33

Which progressive & alternative rock tracks do you listen to?

34

Anything Radiohead
Porcupine Tree, that kind of thing mostly. Occasionally art/prog metal like Tool but not into metal beyond that.

35

Will give them full go at metal, jazz, electronica, rock and much more when I have Moonlight.

1 Like
36

Already listened to Unleash The Archers on Moonlight :wink: , let me know what you think.

Call Me little Sunshine by Ghost I really enjoyed on Moonlight

1 Like
37

Just listened to Creep, Creep (Acoustic Version), and No Surprises. :+1: :+1:

  • Moonlight has good instrument separation so songs that normally sound clustered (couldn’t think of a better term) you are able to clearly make everything out in the track. Your chain will play a part in this, but this is my experience thus far. The more complex the track the more you notice it.
2 Likes
38

Not planar but 32 ohm dynamics seem to work well
. Idk bout planar though, I’ll just stick to my a90D

1 Like
39

using the Tube amp to preamp the a90D might yield some interesting results though, lol.

1 Like
40

If I didn’t already have a class A amp, I would have loved to pair Moonlight with this Schiit Audio: Audio Products Designed and Built in Texas and California