Prototype source: manufacturer sent for testing
Prototype type: Commercially available mass production version
In fact, as early as this month's Shanghai Headphone Exhibition, I heard Aria, when I showed strange satisfaction with its sound, but I never thought about how much it would sell, so this time for Aria's evaluation, may make you think that I am eating the right meal, in fact, it is not.
Aria was the name of the early entry-level headphone product of Water Moon Rain, but at that time, Water Moon Rain did not have such a high popularity in Yaya as it is today. After many years, the name "Aria" has been re-endowed with a new headset product, of course, I have not heard of the old Aria, so I will not speculate whether it is iteration, I only know that this magical headset only sells 399.
MoonDrop/Water Moon Rain Aria in-ear headphones
01. Packaging & Accessories
Aria's packaging box design is still a continuation of the consistent design style of Water Moon Rain, but this time it is no longer limited to the simple line draft, Aria's packaging box is designed with a colorful "Water Moon Ji" color map on the front, the two-dimensional atmosphere is very strong, and the following is the model art font.
The packaging box is not large, but it is very solid compared to the low-end products of the previous water moon rain. Aria's box is designed with an envelope + magnetic flap. Once the cover is removed, the flap can be opened and the headphones can be seen directly. Behind the box are still printed the relevant parameters and frequency response curves of the headphones.
Box front
Open the box
Accessories are not less, this time the water moon rain may be the most conscientious one on the low-end headphones. The storage bag is equipped with the same small round bag as Hoshino, a total of six pairs of silicone sleeves (the same specifications), and an ancestral small tweezer with three pairs of damping and steel mesh that can be replaced, so you don't have to worry about oil ear blocking bias.
Accessories family portrait
02. Appearance and workmanship
The headphone body
Since the kanas series of headphones came out, it seems that the metal headphones of the water moon and rain have formed a fixed, continuous design language, and it is not difficult for you in Aria to see that the product is also based on such a design language. Aria's shell uses an "injection molding metal" cavity, which is actually a mold part... To put it another way.
The overall Aria is predominantly black, accented with gold lines, and if you look closely, you'll see that the multi-faceted backplane design on the kxxs is gone, replaced by a flat backplane. And Aria's cavity paint this time is colored by oxidation, not baking paint, so there is no need to worry about the problem of paint loss, but the font and lines are likely to be silk screen printed, and the possibility of dropping words after long-term use is not ruled out.
Aria backplane partial details
So Aria as a whole is a relatively rough frosted shell to present the texture, the rough here does not refer to the rough workmanship. It can be said that Aria's design and accessories have given a very "luxurious" answer sheet in the low-cost headphones, which is the first time for the manufacturers of Shui Yueyu, who cut the door every day.
Remove the headset cable
In addition, I have been complaining about some problems in the workmanship of Shuiyueyu's low-end headphones, including Hoshino, which was priced at 699 before, which looks good from a distance, and the problem is gradually revealed in the near future. And this time Aria's workmanship performance made me start to re-improve the brand of Water Moon, due to a new set of molds, Aria's workmanship is even better than KXXS and other thousand-dollar headphones, which is indeed unprecedented for Water Moon Rain.
If you look closely at Aria's shell, you will find that there has been a visible improvement in assembly accuracy and processing accuracy, and you will no longer be distressed by KXXS shelling and Hoshino paint loss, Aria has solved all these problems of her predecessors. Since it is still a mold part, the gap in the middle is still wide, but I now think that Shui Yue deliberately stopped.
Details of the workmanship of the headphone cavity part
The cable is also a completely new attempt, and the Aria comes standard with a two-stranded nylon outer headphone cable. Such a cable is necessary for low-end headphones, compared to rubber cables, nylon cables have a unique resistance to pulling. And I'm also curious, when did Shui Yue start to install sliders for the breakout card section?
Dispensing wire
After several generations of iterative optimization of products, Aria's cavity can be said to be the most comfortable type of male-like headphones, the size and volume are very well controlled, and the comfort is not where you need to worry.
The metal headphones of the mold parts still suffer some losses in weight, because the weight of the Aria itself wire is not high, and the main weight comes from the headphone cavity itself.
The total weight of the machine is 34.6g
3. Sound performance
Water Moon Rain headphones, in general, the price and sound performance is proportional, of course, if you say that the silver boat hanging water moon family I have no opinion. Again, this time the price of Aria is something I didn't even imagine.
According to the official introduction, Aria uses an "LCP" diaphragm, the so-called liquid crystal diaphragm, this diaphragm technology can be seen a lot on Sony's headphones at the earliest, of course, Sony is also using it now. We have previously felt the advantages of the LCP diaphragm in the flagship headphones of the Water Moon Rain: Light, so this time the price is only 399 Aria, what surprises can it bring in sound?
An introduction to the structure in the official copy
This review mainly uses a portable player as the front end. Compare references to Water Moon Rain Hoshino, Weser HE01, Anderson Spring. The earbud cover reference is equipped with a silicone sleeve as standard, the headphones have been routinely cooker for 50 hours, and the audition track refers to the "Fun Listening Headphone Review Test Set".
SONY ZX300A Portable Music Player
QP2R portable music player
Listening and style impression: Aria is as good as ever, even on the mobile phone can show a very ideal sound, of course, this price point of the product at most to consider the small tail, in general, the mobile phone is the mainstay, if you eat too much front end, like the silver ship or SSR, in fact, there are some problems.
I describe Aria's voice in one sentence: a water moon rain headphone that is the least water moon style. That's right, in terms of listening style, Aria has little connection with any of the headphones that Shui Yueyu has ever had before. If you describe the sound before the water moon rain more abstractly, it is a "restrained, soft" sound, but this time Aria shows a hard, straightforward voice.
Contrast water moon rain Hoshino
And this difference, the most obvious is the comparison with Hoshino. Aria's overall resolution and sense of sound lines are more than a little better than Hoshino's. And Hoshino's mushy, soft sense of hearing is hard for you to find on Aria, but I still insist that Aria's voice is completely beyond Hoshino's.
Soundstage performance, Aria still continues the previous style, the whole is presented in a slight oval, the horizontal sound field is also more open than Hoshino, but there is no yuyin Chunfeng's particularly open horizontal sound field, after all, Aria still retains a certain longitudinal breadth, Aria if you listen carefully, you will even forget how much it sells.
Contrast the aftersound of spring
Tri-band performance: Aria's sound is more straightforward and tough than any entry-level headphone before the water moon rain. This is manifested in its high frequencies, which are the state of higher density, faster transients and better ductility. Intuitively, Aria's high frequencies are brighter and denser than HE01's. If those low-end loop iron headphones can achieve the high-frequency listening sensation of Aria, it is already very powerful.
So Aria sounds a bit "hard bang" the reason and its high frequency performance has a lot to do with its high frequency performance, Aria's high frequency in my opinion is a new style to try again, this kind of straightforward, hard sound, may not be accepted by the old users of Water Moon Rain, but want to try a straightforward, high degree of reduction of high frequency, then I think I must vote for Aria. But I have to say that in some big dynamic music, Aria's high-frequency control is still not good, and it is easy to be chaotic.
Compare Weiser HE01
In fact, I think one of Aria's obvious competitors is Weiser's HE01, but I still insist that Aria's texture and design are not as good as HE01. Speaking of sound, Aria's midrange is thin overall, without the slightly rounded, thicker sound of Hoshino and KXXS.
So this is also what surprised me a little bit about Aria, Aria is very suitable for some modern music, including Japanese ACG, instrumental solos, have a very good sense of listening, while some ancient recordings, high-frequency information is less, listening to Aria is very flat. So for low-end headphones, I think Aria is an extremely satisfying product for ACG music lovers.
Compared with he01, Aria's mid-frequency performance is a kind of product that sacrifices some of its hearing endurance in exchange for resolution and density, and Aria's mid-frequency density is much better than the products I compared, including the more expensive Hoshino and Haruhi, so it is really a surprise.
Low frequency is still the consistent style of water moon rain, the sense of volume is less, in fact, I am quite in favor of giving more low frequencies on Aria, so that the hard mid and high frequencies can get a certain degree of attenuation, so that the overall tone will sound softer, and Aria's low frequency can only be said to be on the basis of the "water system low frequency" a little more, I think it is still not enough.
As for many people from the curve seem to feel that Aria is more low-frequency than the previous products, and you actually listen to it, you find that it is still "less", and here is a reminder to you, if your Aria after getting started think that the low frequency will appear very blunt and there is no diving, I suggest that you cook for more than 150 hours, and the low frequency will stretch a lot. But of course, no matter how the cooker is, it can't change the low-frequency hearing of Aria itself is also the same hard, transient and denser style.
So it depends on your trade-offs, because to be honest, in Aria's other products at the same price, few people will make such a style of low frequency, one is not very pleasing to entry-level users, and the other is that it will bring some confusion to people who have no listening experience.
Aria frequency response curve
Summary: 399 Aria is definitely another impact on the low-end market products, cross-level sound quality and the overall sound is still quite good, can put their own home Hoshino on the ground to blast the hammer, what reason do you have not to consider it? I think all the users who are considering buying Hoshino should buy Aria.
But I still think Aria is a rather "experimental" thing for Water Moon Rain, because Aria is groundbreaking in sound performance, and it is also very different from all water moon headphones. How do you feel when water moon headphones that are no longer the familiar sound of the water moon appear in front of you?
Advantages: excellent hearing, excellent wearing, rich accessories, excellent quality.
Cons: Slightly higher weight.