Introduction

Anyone who has been in the market for in-ear monitors (IEMs) in the last few years has no doubt heard of MOONDROP. The Asian audio brand started in 2015 and recently gone beyond IEMs to offer keyboards, mechanical switches, DAC/amp sources, and even a phone! However, the first of these non-IEM product lines from MOONDROP has been over-ear headphones, with the planar magnetic VENUS and the dynamic driver VOID making news for different reasons. Since then we have seen the more affordable planar magnetic PARA, the closed-back DD set JOKER, and even a Chinese-exclusive Bluetooth wireless set of headphones! You will notice all the releases after the VENUS have been more affordable, although we are still waiting for the mythical MOONZERO e-stat, which has yet to be launched since originally mentioned two years ago. Today we are taking a look at MOONDROP's new flagship headphones, and it happens to surpass the VENUS in a lot of ways.


The COSMO is an open-back set that uses newly developed planar magnetic drivers that MOONDROP claims to have been developed with similar, if not better, audio engineering prowess—an ultrathin diaphragm, pure silver traces, simulation-backed design and assembly, and even an optimized diaphragm tensioning method to reduce distortion further—as many flagship sets that cost a lot more than the COSMO does. It launched earlier this year and MOONDROP clearly was having very stringent quality checks throughout given the limited stock until recently. A quick look here shows the COSMO certainly borrows from the same design language that gave us the VENUS and PARA before, going for an all-aluminium build with massive ear cups to house the large drivers and the excessive number of magnets inside. There's clearly a lot to go through here, especially with MOONDROP pricing the COSMO to be highly competitive if all the claims are valid, so let's thank SHENZHENAUDIO for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp and begin this review with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

I've unboxed four MOONDROP headphones even before the COSMO came in, so I already had an idea of what to expect—a large cardboard box with a female character illustrated on the front. This one is white and has the product name on the front too, with a spec sheet on the back along with the factory-rated frequency response curve and renders of the headphones as well as of the split-up driver assembly itself. There is some more info on the sides of the inner box which is black cardboard and slides off easily as seen above. This box is plainer with just the MOONDROP logo on the front, adopts a two-piece design with the thick lid lifting to reveal the contents neatly packed inside. The accessory box comes placed at the top over the headband section of the headphones, which in turn are inside a shaped cutout in the cardboard box with a fabric lining to prevent any scratches or damage during transit.


The accessory box comes clearly marked and contains paperwork in the form of a user manual, a postcard with the illustration used on the product box, a warranty/registration card, and a QC card to help reassure customers. The manual goes over the design, use, and maintenance of the COSMO, and then we see two plastic pouches that contain the cable as well as a cable adapter. MOONDROP does not provide any storage/carry case, so you may want to consider an aftermarket solution or simply use the product box to store the headphones when not in use.