MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK Headphones Review

The MOONDROP Crinacle DUSK are stylish IEMs. Their bodies are made of transparent and white marbled resin, and each bud is covered with a black carbon fiber fascia. Each bud contains three drivers: a dynamic driver, a balanced armature driver, and a planar magnetic driver. They come with two audio cables: a standard analog cable with a 3.5mm jack and a USB-C cable that includes DSP power so you can apply EQs to your audio. They ship with five EQ presets to start with, but you can create your own presets using the Android app (sorry, iOS users) and then flash those presets to the cable. Like other MOONDROP headphones, the box and manuals include waifu-style cartoons.

The MOONDROP DUSK have a comfortable fit for most people. They come with three different sizes of silicone tips so you'll likely be able to find a set that fits your anatomy. The tips form a good seal with your ear without applying too much pressure to the inside of your ear canal. Any pressure they apply is evenly spread across the whole surface area of the tip. On the other hand, the cable, which curls behind your ears as is common with IEMs, can rub against your skin and become uncomfortable over time. They're a little heavier than most IEMs we've tested but not as heavy as the THIEAUDIO Monarch MKIII, so you shouldn't feel fatigued when wearing them.

The USB-C cable that comes with the buds offers passable controls. There are only three buttons on the control surface: a center button, which plays or pauses your audio, and plus and minus buttons, which control the volume of your audio. The buttons are easy to use, but if you're not paying attention to the orientation of the cable, you might get the plus and minus buttons confused with one another. Pushing the buttons provides obvious tactile feedback so you know when you've entered a command.

The MOONDROP DUSK are very portable, like most in-ears. They'll fit in most pockets and bags with ease.

The MOONDROP DUSK come with a great case that's similar to other cases from the brand, such as the one that comes with the MOONDROP Blessing 3. It's a hard shell case with a leatherette exterior and soft cloth interior. All of the materials used feel premium. It closes with a zipper, and on the inside you'll find a small pouch to store any small accessories in.

The MOONDROP DUSK have a great build quality. The silicone tips feel robust and flexible, so they'll adjust to your ear canal without becoming strained. The bodies of each bud are made from high-quality medical resin with a carbon fiber fascia, giving them a premium feel. Like many other IEMs, the pins that connect the cable to the body of each bud are small and could be damaged easily. It's worth being cautious when plugging or unplugging the tiny connectors. These buds also don't have an IP rating, so these aren't a good choice for taking out with you on a rainy day.

Like the MOONDROP Blessing 3, the MOONDROP DUSK have a stable fit. Once you've found the right silicone tip size for your anatomy, they sit snugly in your ear. Just make sure the tips aren't too big, or they can become dislodged. The cable that wraps around your ears helps keep them in place when you move around. They'll stay in your ears even when headbanging to your favorite Rage Against the Machine tunes.

• MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK
• Detachable cable
• 3x sets of silicone tips
• 2-pin airplane adapter
• Hard-shell carrying case
• 47-in/1.2m detachable TRS cable
• 47-in/1.2m detachable USB-C cable
• Manuals

The MOONDROP DUSK have a warm sound profile. They've added low- and mid-bass for extra thump and rumble, which is great for fans of dance music and hip-hop. The mid-range generally reproduces audio accurately, but the treble is a little recessed, which you might find smooth or dull, depending on your tastes. If you use the USB-C cable to listen to audio and have an Android device, you also gain access to an EQ with several presets that change the sound slightly.

Since these headphones can be connected to your devices via an analog cable or a digital USB-C cable, it's important to note that we used the analog connection for our frequency response tests and the USB-C cable for all other tests. Features such as the microphone are only available via USB-C. That said, the cables have similar frequency responses.

These buds have remarkable frequency response consistency. They're among the best we've tested, so once you get a good fit, you can be assured of consistent audio with every wear. 

The MOONDROP DUSK have fantastic compliance with our bass target. There's plenty of low-bass on tap, so kick drums in songs like Last Bloom by Floating Points have plenty of thump. You might find those boomy kick drums overpower mixes slightly, but since the bass response is relatively flat throughout, without any sharp peaks or dips, it still feels controlled. The mid-bass and high-bass are virtually flat, so you won't hear random notes jumping out at you unnaturally.

The mid-range target compliance is amazing. There's a wide dip between the low- and mid-mids that can ever so slightly thin out instruments like guitars, but the rest of those regions are virtually flat, so it's hard to notice. The high-mids are slightly boosted, which brings vocals to the front of busy pop mixes. In songs like Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele, her vocals sound suitably prominent and powerful for a belting pop singer without ever becoming annoyingly harsh.

The treble target compliance is decent. The entire range is de-emphasized a little, which gives these IEMs a slightly warm tonality. There aren't any narrow dips or peaks in the low-treble, but the entire range is recessed, so instruments like electric guitars lose a little detail. The mid-treble is also reduced, which makes percussion sounds like cymbals a touch dull. On the plus side, sibilants like S and T sounds are never piercing.

The peaks and dips performance is excellent. The bass- and mid-ranges follow their own sound profile especially well. There's a little more deviation from the mid-treble range and up, but that's to be expected since that part of the frequency range is hugely affected by the shape of your particular ear anatomy. You might find some sounds like cymbals a little uneven, veering between slightly piercing or slightly dull, but it won't be a big problem.

The buds have outstanding imaging, which is in line with what we've come to expect from MOONDROP, who typically have very good quality control and ergonomics. There's a small peak in the mid-range phase response, but it's not audible with real-life material. Our unit's drivers are well-matched in group delay, amplitude, frequency, and phase response. They produce a tight bass and transparent treble, and objects like voices are accurately placed in the stereo field. Still, imaging varies between units.

These buds have a bad passive soundstage. That's to be expected from IEMs, because their design means that audio can't interact with your outer ear. The result is the headphones are unable to render audio with a sense of width. Audio feels less like it's coming from two speakers in a room and more like it's coming from inside your head.

These IEMs have good weighted harmonic distortion performance. All frequencies fall within good levels. The broad peak from the mid-mid to mid-treble won't be audible to most listeners. Overall, you can expect clean and pure audio reproduction from these headphones.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration. We used the analog connection for our frequency response tests and the USB-C cable for all other tests.

These headphones have okay noise isolation. They don't have ANC, so you're reliant on the passive isolation formed by the seal between the silicone tips and your ears. That seal blocks out almost no bass-range sounds: you'll definitely hear the engine of a passing bus along with your audio. The buds fare much better with mid-range sounds like office chatter, so they're a fair choice for wearing at the office. And they do a very good job blocking out high-pitched sounds like fan whine. It's worth noting that the peak in the low-bass is an artifact of our testing process: you won't hear rumble added to your audio.

These IEMs do a passable job of blocking out everyday sounds. They won't isolate you from the rumble of an airplane engine or buses on the street, but they'll greatly reduce the sounds of your chatty coworkers and that AC over in the corner. The peak in the low-bass is an artifact of our testing process.

The leakage performance is superb. Any audio that does escape is concentrated in the bass and treble regions, so it won't sound very detailed or comprehensible to anyone nearby. But you'd have to be blasting your tunes dangerously loud for people to hear what you were listening to in the first place.

If you use the USB-C cable to connect these buds to your device, you gain access to a reasonably good microphone. The recording quality is adequate. Your voice doesn't sound full-bodied, but it's captured with enough presence and detail to be clear to whoever you're talking to.

The mic has passable noise handling. It doesn't do a good job of separating your voice from any noise around you. In a chatty office, your voice will still be clear to the person you're talking to, but if you're making a call in a very loud place like a subway station, you'll be drowned out by the roar of a passing train.

Unlike most IEMs, such as the MOONDROP Blessing 3, the MOONDROP DUSK come with a sub-par app that only works on Android devices. The app allows you to change the EQ settings stored in the USB-C cable, and to run firmware updates. There are five EQ presets to choose from, and you can also build your own, but you can't customize one of the existing presets. That said, the EQ is fully parametric, allowing you to change the gain, frequency, and bandwidth of each node. You can also browse for publicly-shared EQ presets using the app.

The MOONDROP DUSK come with two cables: a 47-in/1.2-m detachable TRS cable and a 47-in/1.2-m detachable USB-C cable. The TRS cable plugs into standard 1/8 in / 3.5mm ports. The USB-C cable works with phones and computers that have USB-C ports and includes some DSP to change the sound of these IEMs. The DSP works regardless of your phone's OS, but you can only customize the sound using Android. Android users also have a few presets to pick from.

If you connect these to your PC with the analog TRS cable, you can receive audio, but you'll need an external mic if you plan to chat while gaming. On the other hand, if you connect them to your PC via their USB-C cable, you can use the built-in mic for full audio and microphone capability.

The USB-C cable doesn't work with PlayStation, so you'll have to use the analog TRS cable if you plan to game with these buds. If you plug these into your PlayStation's AUX port you'll be able to receive audio, but they don't have a mic, so you'll need to add one if you want to chat while you game.

The USB-C cable is not compatible with Xbox. You can plug the TRS cable into your Xbox controller's AUX port, but they can only receive audio as they don't have a microphone.