Software

I had a few days going back and forth with MOONDROP to get this downloads page updated enough for me to talk more about the software support with the MOONDROP DASH. There are two different devices of interest here—the keyboard and the DAC/amp—and I'll begin with the keyboard since it's the easiest to talk about. There are no first-party software drivers, but the ATmega32U4 is put to good use with an open source firmware that is QMK and VIA compatible. The updated PCBs already have the latest firmware on it to where you won't have to go through the hoops I initially did. Indeed, simply head over to this MOONDROP VIA page on your browser and it should immediately ask you to authorize the keyboard as seen above. This then pulls up VIA support for customizing the MOONDROP DASH to your heart's desire and those who prefer a more standalone program can find the latest VIA release on the Github repository.

The open-source nature of the DASH means anyone who has used VIA before already knows what to do, although I will point to this video which will work as a decent tutorial/starting point for those new to it. The video above also quickly walks through using the MOONDROP DASH with VIA, including with the various layers on offer as well as the extensive key mapping options. You can thus finally get back those volume controls that have been desperately missing on the keyboard and have potentially an entire layer dedicated to it along with media playback too. Enterprising modders can also add in LEDs to the primary PCB and program in lighting support for them! It's still not a handy replacement to having hardware volume/media playback controls on the keyboard itself but does help alleviate my problems in general with the lack of any 1st-party key mapping or configurator.


Now we get to the MoonRiver 2 side of things whereby Windows 10 or newer will automatically recognize the keyboard as well as the DAC/amp and set it as the default sound output as seen above. We see that the default firmware provides PCM playback options up to 32-bit, 384 kHz. The ComTrue CT7601 USB encoder microcontroller comes in handy here, and all your favorite players will recognize the device in WASAPI (Windows Audio Session API) mode accordingly. There should be equivalent drivers pre-configured in newer macOS builds too, but I am not familiar enough to speak on this front.



If you have a device that doesn't accept UAC 2.0, or even if you simply want to try other options, then you will need to install USB audio drivers provided by MOONDROP on the same download page, with the latest version at the time of testing being 6.0.01.4031.02 from August 2022. Installation is trivial as seen above, and these drivers are different from the usual XMOS drivers in that there is no USB audio control panel nor do you get extra playback options—to be fair the default firmware already gives you 16/24/32-bit playback all the way to 384 kHz anyway—but does generate an ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output) device for use with your favorite player of choice as seen above with JRiver.


The download page also provides links to MOONDROP Link, a mobile app that I looked at before in my review of the MOONDROP Sparks TWS earphones. Unfortunately the mobile app—even in its latest release v1.3.3 available as an apk for Android devices—only sees the MoonRiver 2 but does not interact with it, and I tried both the integrated unit as well as the standalone MoonRiver 2. This is a shame because, when it's connected to a compatible portable DAC/amp or dongle such as the MOONDROP Dawn which I also have here and seen in the second GIF above, then you get a plethora of options including gain control, ability to turn the LED on/off, and even volume control! So there was yet another means of volume control available with the MOONDROP DASH that the end user can't avail of because MOONDROP's most expensive source to date doesn't have the app-based functionality that its less-expensive sources do. I urge MOONDROP to see whether the MoonRiver 2 can get a firmware update for compliance with the mobile app sooner than later.