Receive The Blessing…2

Pros: Gorgeous faceplates
Good build quality
Good price/performance ratio
Great accessories
Good fit/comfort
Surprisingly good bass with a new cable

Cons: Cable – also the cable, oh, and the cable
Highs are quite sibilant/sharp
Mids can be a tad metallic and distant
Cable

Overview:

Bless you. That was quite the sneeze. Oh, bless you two. Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last 3 years, you’ve probably heard of the Moondrop Blessing 2 (B2.) This is the IEM that broke the IEM market by offering kilobuck IEM performance for only $320. The B2 has 1DD for bass & 4 BAs for mids and highs on each side so it’s a hybrid IEM. But, time marches on and a lot of really talented new IEMs have come out since the Blessing 2 broke the IEM market. So, can the Blessing 2 still hack it?

Accessories/Earpads/Eartips (10/10):

Since my B2 was used it didn’t come with the typical Moondrop Waifu sleeve. I’m cool with that since the box it came in is much classier in nature. The leather-ish case inside is really nice and holds the B2 and ear tips and cable and is really good quality. The B2 comes with a headphone splitter (which I’ve never understood the point of) and two sets of ear tips. Overall, these are all of the accessories an IEM should come with as a baseline. Good job Moondrop – no complaints. That said, I’ll still be using my Spinfit W1 because used ear tips gross me out and the W1 has an excellent fit with good bass response, etc. (available Here).

Cable (1/10):

Oh, there are the complaints. Good, I was worried for a second. This is hands-down the shittiest cable I’ve ever seen with an IEM (and I try not to cuss on reviews.) I’m trying to think of a worse one, and I cannot. It’s like Moondrop took two pieces of copper and coated them in something plastic, then attached connectors to it. It’s extremely tangly and it has nothing but memory retention. It’s thin and doesn’t sound good either. For the sound portion of the review, I’m going to use my Kinera Leyding (Here) modular cable because the stock cable doesn’t do these IEMs justice – a literal disservice to the Blessing 2. If you get a B2 and you hate the cable also, you don’t have to spend $70 on the Leyding, you can grab a much better cable for only $18 from Linsoul (Here)

Build Quality/Comfort (10/10):

Cable aside, the build quality on the B2 is really phenomenal, especially with the green faceplates on mine. The blue and red also look good and the stainless steel options are also really nice, though easier to scratch than the resin on the wood versions. I have nothing to complain about on the build quality of the B2, they’re solid and don’t feel cheap – the Moondrop Chu they are not.

I also have no issues with the comfort. They fit pretty well in my ears, they’re not gigantic like the Thieaudio Monarch Mk2 and they’re not tiny like the Final A5000 or Chu. These are a comfortable IEM and they should fit just about everyone’s ears easily.

Sound:

I’ve already compared these to the Final A5000 in my review for that, so feel free to check out that review if you want to know how these faired against those brand-new IEMs. I still have a set of SA6 on my desk, so I’ll be comparing the B2 to them. Looking at the squig.link, the SA6 with the bass switch on (the only way they should make these) has quite a bit more bass and sub-bass than the B2. Their mids are pretty similar and the B2 has far more neutral highs than the SA6 with a peak at 8k followed by a pretty massive dip after (which is fine, most music is under 8k anyway.) I am powering both of these through my Shanling M6 Ultra on balanced 4.4mm output through Tidal HiFi. The B2 are the hardest IEMs to drive that I’ve ever seen, I have them at 43/100, which is even higher than the Monarch, so battery life will suffer a bit.

Lows (15/20):

Starting off with the Mid-bass/Sub-bass test I’m using David Guetta’s “I’m Good (Blue).” Wow, the B2 must respond well to a balanced, high-quality cable because they sound much bassier today than a couple of days ago when I tested them against the A5000. It’s still not UM MEST Mk2 level or Symphonium Meteor level, but the bass drums are surprisingly impactful and the sub-bass can be heard quite clearly. Is the stock cable really the biggest B2 weakness? The sub-bass, while having a nice rumble, won’t take your breath away, but it is present and it sounds good without any bass bloat or extra reverb – really nice. These are definitely not basshead IEMs, but they are still good.

Up next is Demon Hunter’s “I Am A Stone,” which I use to test whether the bass is too strong and overwhelms the mids. It’s a good thing I’m not testing mids here because they sound pretty flat and distant. The bass instruments come in quite strongly and don’t quite overwhelm the mids, but since the mids sound so far away, likely in the name of soundstage, the bass can be heard at about the same volume as the mids.

Mids (13/20):

Weaving The Fate’s “The Fall” is a test song for guitars and vocals. As with “I Am A Stone,” the mids sound pretty distant, and they are a bit crashy and unclean. The clean guitars sound good though and the vocals can be heard clearly if a tad overwhelmed at times. Overall, you’re unlikely to be mad at the B2 on songs like this – though it is a tad tinny.

Staind’s “Something to Remind You” has clean electric guitars and wonderful vocals. The B2 does a decent job with this song – the bass doesn’t overwhelm the mids, and the vocals and guitars sound accurate if a little metallic. There’s a bit of extra reverb in the lower registers of the vocals. Overall, for the price, these still do a really good job here.

To test classical mids, I’m using The Piano Guys’ “Code Name Vivaldi.” Classical instruments sound really good on the B2 (at least with this cable) – they have a warm, wonderful presentation and I’m really impressed here. The piano sounds full-bodied and forward, the strings come in clearly and with good separation. The B2 excels with classical in the mids – very surprised (much better than the HD 600 I reviewed earlier.) Definitely one of its best songs so far.

Highs (8/20):

To test sibilance on headphones I use Panic! At The Disco’s “High Hopes. AHHHHH, that’s rough. There’s so much sibilance! Painful – can’t finish the song painful. That bump in the 3-4k region is brutal on this song. Hard pass – if you hate sibilance, PASS.

The first highs test song I’ll be using is Dream Theater’s “The Alien,” which I use to test and see if the cymbals/high-hats/snare can be clearly heard and distinguished from the rest of the music. Somewhat surprisingly, I can clearly hear the cymbals in the intro. This is the elevated highs in the 4-6k range allowing decent highs presentation – on par with the SA6, but not quite as clean. The B2 is $200 less than the SA6, so that’s saying something.

Michelle McLaughlin’s “Across The Burren” is another of my favorite highs/sharpness test songs as it can easily sound painful on some headphones. Sharpness. Definitely some sharpness, this is one of the reasons I preferred the A5000 over this. It’s not the worst I’ve ever heard, but it’s somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Soundstage/ Instrument Separation (4/10):

The soundstage on these is pretty decent, somewhere around a small, intimate room’s worth of soundstage, but not massive like you can find on some headphones (if that’s something you’re looking for.) They do come across a little flat on songs like NF’s “The Search,” which should be large and boomy, but feels like Mario 3 on the B2. Instrument separation is about middle ground, the A5000 is better somehow, despite only having one driver.

Comparisons:

The bass between these two is pretty similar quality-wise, but the SA6 has slightly more sub-bass, just not a lot. The B2 has a slightly bigger soundstage than the SA6, but the instrument separation is better on the SA6. The SA6 has slightly less sibilance than the B2 – the SA6 also has slightly better quality highs with more distinct cymbals, but it’s pretty close. Overall, these two are pretty close, though the SA6 has the advantage in quite a few areas. Unfortunately, that means that the TRUTHEAR HEXA and Final A5000 are probably going to be better than either for less $$$. Giants rise and then fall to the new giant. I hear the Aful Performer 5 is also better, but there are mixed thoughts on that.

Conclusion:

The King is Dead, Long Live the King! The B2 has a massive reputation to live up to, and it just can’t quite hack it anymore. Some young whippersnappers have come along and taken its throne. The young have replaced the old – the circle of life continues. Insert whatever idiom you want here, but the fact is that while still quite good for the price, the Blessing 2 has been defeated by newer, cheaper IEMs. And yet, it’s still better looking than the HEXA and the A5000, so it still deserves a place in your rotation, just get a new cable.

Headphone Scoring (v3):
Accessories / Earpads / Eartips (10 pts):	10​
Cable (10 pts):	1​
Build Quality/ Design / Comfort (10 pts):	10​
Lows (20 pts):	15​
Mids (20 pts):	13​
Highs (20 pts):	8​
Soundstage / Instrument Separation (10 pts):	4​
Total:	61​