Moondrop Aria: Still the King of $80 in 2023?

Pros

• Solid build quality
• Excellent tonality
• Satisfying bass
• Natural and warm midrange
• Engaging and lively vocals vocals
• Minimal harshness/peaks 

Cons

• Slightly shouty after extended period of listening
• Grainy treble 
• Subpar cable 

Source(s)

• Truthear Shio

Ear tips

• SpinFit CP145 

Packaging

• Packaging is quite luxurious, with a beautiful box. 
• However, mine do not come with filter & tweezers as I bought mine from another owner.
• Comes with a decent amount of accessories

• IEM.
• Hard case. 
• Eartips. 
• 3 pairs of silicone tips (S, M, L)
• Cable
• Braided but will tangle fairly easily, not really good in my opinion, but usable.
• Tweezers (not included in picture)
• Filters (not included in picture)

Build Quality

• Metal body.
• Has some weight to it but not overly heavy. 

Fit

• Nozzle is on the shorter and narrower side, fit is not as deep but it is quite comfortable.

Tonality

• Tuned to Harman target
• Good amount of bass, warm midrange, relaxing treble with some sparkle. 
• Pleasant, easy to listen 
• Inoffensive but engaging as well .

Bass

• Good amount of decently textured and defined bass.
• Mid bass is slightly more prominent compared to sub bass. 
• Fairly deep sub bass rumble paired with punchy and impactful mid bass.
• Quite snappy and satisfying bass overall. 

Midrange

• Rich and warm midrange.
• Has a somewhat heavy note weight and density to it.  
• Both male and female vocals are quite forward, they sound lively and energetic.
• A little shouty and fatiguing to me after a long listening session.
• Female vocals are slightly more forward than male vocals, but I don’t find it too recessed.
• Instruments sound really natural across the lower and upper midrange.

Treble

• Treble is somewhat grainy and not the smoothest, but overall relaxed with some sparkle. 
• Not much sibilance or peaks due to its laid-back nature.
• Details in the treble are fairly good.

Technicalities

Detail Retrieval

• Resolution is fairly solid, decent detail retrieval overall. Personally, I think this sets a good benchmark for how resolving an IEM should be in this price range. 

Soundstage

• Soundstage is good, slightly on the wider side, with decent height and depth.

Imaging

• Imaging and accuracy is alright, I am still able to tell where the instruments and vocals come from,
• Gaming:
• Apex Legends: Sound of footsteps and gunfire can be pinpointed. I am able to judge them in terms of distance and direction roughly but not exactly. 

Separation

• Separation is surprisingly decent for a single DD in this price range. 
• Feels a little bit congested in very tracks but it is fine throughout most busy tracks.

Conclusion

• Is the Moondrop Aria still the king of $80 nowadays? 
• Personally, I would say no, as this price bracket definitely became much more competitive over the ears.
• There are many other types of good IEMs with different tuning available now, like the Truthear Hexa.
• But the Aria still has a rather safe and enjoyable tuning that is suitable even for starters.
• In my opinion, the Aria is still good and worth the money even at 2023.  

• If you're new to the hobby and want to blind buy your first IEM (I would still suggest trying out IEMs if possible).
• Try to look out of sales or a used Aria if you don't mind.
• Moondrop Aria is a fairly old model so it can be found quite easily.
• However, I heard about QC issues such as paint chipping and channel imbalance so be careful about those issues as well. For my unit, I did not encounter any issue for sound, but it does have the paint chipping issue as mine are used for quite a long time.

Thanks for reading!