Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the right channel of the MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK placed into an artificial ear mold with the included size M Spring tip installed. I have average-sized ears, and the ear mold above represents my own experiences well enough as a proxy. Size M silicone tips are my go-to for testing, since foam tips are not included by some brands as was the case here. This photo also illustrates the clean carbon fiber faceplates used here which fits in nicely with the DUSK name scheme too. These are larger than average, especially on the faceplate side, but the shells are designed such that they should be plenty manageable to most ears. The 5.7 mm nozzle might still be an issue for those with small ear canals, but this is still nothing compared to many other sets in the market today. The nozzle also fits in at a comfortable angle while being long enough to help obtain a deep fit. Indeed, I had an excellent fit and seal here to where I can't really fault the DUSK from a fit and seal perspective aside from the lack of ear tip choices. I highly recommend tip-rolling if you find yourself fiddling with the DUSK over time; there is also a possibility some aftermarket tips may result in a more satisfying bass output. The resin shells also help keep the mass low at ~6.1 g each side to where the DUSK is not physically fatiguing either. Add to this the overall ergonomic shell design and both cables having pre-formed ear hooks which loop around the ears well enough to add more support points, and we have a set of IEMs that the average consumer should not have to worry about for fit and comfort.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

The MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK employs a tribrid driver configuration in that there are three different driver types here for a total of six drivers per side. The Blessing 3 went with a 2 DD/4 BA configuration where the balanced armature drivers are responsible for the mids and highs (two each). The DUSK swaps the tweeter BA drivers in favor of two micro-planar magnetic drivers to specifically avoid a 6 kHz peak the former set had. The other drivers are the same as in the Blessing 3, including the two BA mid drivers as well as the dual 10 mm dynamic driver for the bass that MOONDROP refers to as H.O.D.D.D.U.S or Horizontally Opposed Dual Dynamic Drivers Unit System. It's effectively two of the same drivers in a push-pull configuration and has been used in multiple MOONDROP IEMs to good success. We do not get further information over the composition of the drivers themselves, although there are physical band-pass filters and the shells contribute towards the 2+2+2 crossover/frequency distribution used here. The MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK has a rated impedance of ~14.5 Ω and sensitivity of 119 dB/Vrms (100.6 dB/mW) although these numbers are measured at 1 kHz and may well be different in the bass or treble. It's not the hardest to drive using the analog cable despite the relatively lower sensitivity, and the digital cable has an integrated amplifier stage with the DAC to further simplify things.

Frequency Measurement and Listening

I will mention that I have a general preference for a warm-neutral signature with a slightly elevated bass, smooth treble range, detailed mids, and good tonal separation. I also generally prefer instrumental music over vocals, with favored genres including jazz and classical music.


Our reproducible testing methodology begins with a calibrated IEC711 audio coupler/artificial ear that IEMs can feed into enough for decent isolation. The audio coupler feeds into a USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running and the earphones connected to the laptop through a capable and transparent DAC/amp—I used the Questyle M15 here. I begin with an impulse measurement to test for signal fidelity, calibrate the sound card and channel output, account for floor noise, and finally test the frequency response of each channel separately. Octave smoothing is at the 1/12th setting, which nets a good balance of detail and noise not being identified as useful data. Also, the default tuning was used for testing, and no app-based settings were chosen unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is tested thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the three individual measurements for statistical accuracy. For IEMs, I am also using the appropriate ear mold fitted to the audio coupler for a separate test to compare how the IEMs fare when installed in a pinna geometry instead of just the audio coupler. The raw data is then exported from REW and plotted in OriginPro for easier comparison.


I know it might be hard to focus on anything else but that bass shelf but let's hold off long enough so I can get some disclaimers out of the way. The IEC711 is such that you can't really compare these results with most other test setups, especially those using a head and torso simulator (HATS). The raw dB numbers are also quite contingent on the set volume, gain levels, and sensitivity of the system. What is more useful information is how the left and right channels work across the rated frequency response in the MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK. The left channel was separately tested from the right one, and colored differently for contrast. I did my best to ensure an identical fit for both inside the IEC711 orifice, so note how the two channels are quite similar to each other across the entire useful 20 Hz to 20 kHz range! Keep in mind that resonance peak matching at 8 kHz can introduce some measurement artifacts and, as it stands, I did not notice any channel imbalance in the ears despite what the tiny discrepancies in these measurements might suggest. Measurements taken after 50 hours of testing, which included these playing a mix of various songs as well as white or pink noise and sine sweeps, showed no difference. There was no perceived burn-in effect thus, and none was measurable, either. The response with the anthropomorphic pinna in place matched the ideal scenario in the coupler relatively well, and here too I need to point out that the insertion depth can change how the resonance peak and frequency response thereafter behaves even with the fact that these couplers aren't the most accurate in this range. The new DUSK has had some people question MOONDROP's quality control when it comes to channel matching based on one of the earlier reviews done on a B&K 5128 system which is not the easiest to get a consistent seal in the first place. Thereafter, we've seen other reviewers share good matching as well as MOONDROP showing its internal process for the same, so I'd like to believe retail units are more likely to be similar to my review sample than otherwise.



Here is the average frequency response for both channels of the MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK using both the analog and digital (DSP Default profile) cables plotted against Crinacle's preference target, given he is credited for tuning the DUSK, taken from VSG.squig.link. This is in addition to a second graph using a newer target that's based on a more scientific methodology involving a -10 dB tilt (-1 dB/octave) applied to the diffuse field target for the newer, more reliable B&K 5128 but then compensated for my exact 711 coupler instead. Do scroll down to the targets in my database linked above and see the new 5128 section to the left where you can click on the yellow question mark for a brief primer. The bottom line is this target is closer to what many people are likely to prefer out of IEMs and headphones alike. I have chosen to plot this graph with the frequency response normalized/compensated to the target to make it easier to see how the new DUSK is tuned as well as how the two cables make for a different sound signature.

The DUSK in its analog tuning is a definite improvement over the MOONDROP Blessing 3—I recommend going through that review too for added context—in terms of addressing the two major issues I had with the latter—lean bass and overly emphasized upper mids. This is not to say it's solved everything perfectly as I still found the mid-bass to not be as impactful as I'd like, especially with bass guitars. Looking at the blue line above shows that the bass shelf starts around 200 Hz, thus allowing for most of the energy to be in the sub-bass, with the mid-bass and lower mids slightly recessed compared to even Crinacle's own target. The ear gain starts earlier than his target recommends too, although this is highly subjective for preference. For example, I like how the DUSK in the analog mode works with my acoustic jazz library. Others may find some vocals being overly forward. There's also a slight 5 kHz peak which can be annoying if you are sensitive to this region, albeit the 6 kHz peak from the Blessing 3 was worse and the drivers being changed to planar magnetic units here seems to help address this. Unfortunately, this change also means a fairly typical planar magnetic treble including a couple of ungainly peaks that can take away from the rest of the tonal balance and even disrupt timbre. The end result is a set that is decent, certainly improves upon what it was based off, but has its own compromises to where the MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK would be hard to recommend if you are going to just use it in analog mode without any EQ.

This is where the digital cable comes in and also where I try once again to persuade people to use EQ. There have already been a lot of discussions online about whether a digital cable using digital signal processing/EQ is good or not. The MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK just happens to be the latest and most attention-grabbing set to do this, but it is far from being the first to use DSP. Almost every single wireless set of headphones/earphones uses DSP to help achieve the desired final tuning. We have also had wired IEMs using digital cables before, not all of which use DSP, and these seemed to be accepted fine, so I am not sure what the inherent issue is now. There will always be people against EQ for various reasons, be it thinking it takes away from how IEMs/headphones are supposed to sound, thinking it is a crutch used alongside ineffective analog tuning, finding it inaccessible or hard to do themselves, and so on. The latter set at least should be fine with a DSP cable provided the implementation is good, although we saw before how the app is less-than-ideal here and the DAC chip used in the DUSK's digital cable is also not the best. I had issues with the Free DSP cable (the standalone product) randomly cutting off for ~0.5 s at a time when changing tracks, although this time the DUSK's cable seems to not do so—perhaps a firmware update has helped fix this issue. Some have also noticed noise from the DAC itself and this seems to be dependent on the person and the music track alike. These two aspects are potential issues regardless of whether you plan to use the app or no, so please be aware of them. For what it is worth, the EQ profiles for the DUSK are published online in case you wish to replicate this with your own analog source and thus skip the MOONDROP-related hassles.

If you do happen to still go ahead, then congratulations as the MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK with the digital cable is one of the best tuned IEMs on the market regardless of price point. If anything, it has a tonality that extremely expensive IEMs strive to achieve purely via acoustic engineering and often can't do so for a variety of reasons. The DSP Default EQ profile further improves upon the stock tonality of the DUSK to take it from a decent set to a highly competitive one, at least if the app and DAC implementations are to be placed aside for the moment. The DUSK is now more natural sounding across a wider variety of genres while still being deliberately colored to keep it engaging. The bass shelf now goes higher with the leanness in the bass/lower mids fully addressed. The ear gain starts later which, as scientific studies suggest, is more likely to have the mids sound "correct" for most people. The treble harshness is also slightly reduced albeit I'd definitely do something about that upper treble peak separately, since the MOONDROP app doesn't seem to allow for it easily. If anything, I would like to think that people will see the improvements available via EQ, acknowledge the challenges associated with this particular implementation, and hopefully learn to EQ themselves without as many limitations. In the meantime, the digital cable, despite the usability concerns, is still a positive overall as far as I am concerned. The DUSK now has a more natural timbre—still not as good as a single DD set, mind you—while improving the strengths of the Blessing 3's dynamic and impactful bass. Add to this good detail retrieval, excellent imaging across the board, as well an accurate soundstage, and now you see why I mentioned the DUSK (w/EQ) is a highly competitive set of IEMs.



Remember those other EQ profiles available in the app? The DSP Harman profile is fairly self-explanatory and re-tunes the MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK to match the latest Harman in-ear target. If you are a fan of the Harman target then this is as good as it gets to compliance, although you might as well have saved the money and gone for something less expensive such as the Truthear NOVA since both sets now sound similar enough to me. I also would never personally use these with my music library for reasons I've explained in the NOVA review but at least people can try it for themselves now. Likewise, we have three other DSP profiles helping make the DUSK more V-shaped, add in an ungodly amount of bass combined with a slightly darker treble, and attempt a weird take on the Diffuse Field w/tilt tuning that doesn't really seem to do what it says. I wasn't a fan of any of these profiles personally and thus I am happy the DSP Default profile—the best of the lot—comes pre-loaded on the cable allowing users to not have to deal with the app while helping iOS users not feel like they are missing out.


The MOONDROP Blessing 3 is a direct comparison to the MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK, although I have been using it as a comparison already over the course of this review, so let me just say there is no reason to get the Blessing 3 anymore when the DUSK exists for a 12.5% price increase. It's better sounding even without the digital cable, the faceplate won't have fingerprints all over it, and the DUSK is more likely to have a higher re-sale value too should this be a factor for you. Two other recently released sets that merit discussion are the AFUL Acoustics Performer 8, a 1 DD + 7 BA hybrid set that costs the exact same the DUSK. It uses a lot of the same cool engineering that went in the less expensive Performer 5, although I found it to be a touch too tame in the upper mids to where I'd personally have gone for the Performer 5, saved the money, and enjoyed a very similar sound signature that is still quite smooth without coming off overly damped. The Performer 8 might do better with a price cut, the DUSK simply takes over with the DSP Default tuning. Then there's the ThieAudio Hype 4 which is one of ThieAudio's new Hype series of hybrid IEMs and happens to be the best one of the three in my opinion—the less expensive Hype 2 is too close in pricing to the better sounding Hype 4 whereas the Hype 10 has a more natural timbre and is more resolving but costs significantly more. The Hype 4 has more bass and treble than the DUSK to where it feels like a miniature Monarch MK3 in tonality. It's not for everyone but those who like it, really like it, to the point where I can absolutely see people not only finding the Hype 4 more engaging than the DUSK but also finding it perhaps a better buy if you were purely going by the analog tuning. The DUSK does have the digital cable to fall back upon and showcase the power of EQ, although you could do the same with the Hype 4 too if you took the time. In this case, I'd say the DUSK is a better buy purely from a convenience point of view, albeit the previously mentioned caveats regarding the digital cable need to be considered strongly.