These days, wired earbuds are far and few among the products that show up at the Digit Test Centre. Much of this can be attributed to the rise of TWS earbuds in India. After the pandemic, there has been a surge in demand for wireless earbuds. Much of this has to do with smartphone manufacturers toning down the inclusion of 3.5 mm jacks on their devices. Now, this increased the demand for these earbuds, which in turn increased the competition amongst manufacturers, which drove down the cost of these earbuds in the mass market. This circle of demand, supply, and competition has driven wired earbuds into a niche that a few explore.
So, when the Moondrop Chu wired earbuds showed up at the Digit Test Centre, everyone was intrigued. I spent a good amount of time with the earbuds, using them daily at home with my MacBook Air (M1, 2020). And in this article, I bring to you my experience of using the Moondrop Chu wired earbuds.
Moondrop CHU earbuds are designed in the typical IEM fashion. The casing on the buds is metallic, giving it a robust feel. The in-line controls also carry the same metallic build and give these earbuds a sense of robustness which, when we consider the price of these earbuds at the time of writing, is awesome!
The wire has a translucent outer sheathing, giving them a nice look and feel, at the same time being robust. I put these earbuds through a LOT of challenging weather conditions and usage, but these refused to budge in terms of quality.
The angled 3.5 mm jack is gold plated and has very good tolerances, which again goes to show that these earbuds bring much more to the table than you would expect for this price.
As for the fit of these earbuds, the buds, due to their metallic casing, are a bit on the heavier side. But their design made them fit really well in my ears. I had to cycle through some of the included ear tips, but as soon as I got the right fit, the buds were snug in my ears. The fit helped with the overall isolation and sound leak from the buds. When I was out for my runs, the included ear hooks helped provide extra support and keep the earbuds in place. The control cluster, as I mentioned, had a robust build, and the buttons were also clicky and responsive.
Even during long periods of using the earbuds, I experienced minimal fatigue. The buds stayed in place for the most part, and when I needed external support, I put on the ear hooks, which were easy to mount and remove from the wires. The material used for the ear hooks was also soft rubber, which meant that I did not experience any irritation on the skin.
I passed these earbuds around amongst the folks at the Test Centre, and most of the folks found the earbuds to be well fitting. The fit is not like the typical IEM fit, but for being what it is, it is excellent, especially for the price of ₹ 1,990.
In terms of performance, the Moondrop CHU performs as well as you’d expect a Chi-Fi IEM to perform. As you can see from our sound signature graph, the earbuds have a subtle U-shaped sound signature. There is a boost to the low frequencies, with the highs also seeing a significant boost to make up for the introduction of the thump of the lower frequencies. The mids come pretty close to our benchmark reading of Pink Noise. The brand heavily advertises the dynamic drivers in these earbuds, and it shows why!
Now, what does it mean when you are listening to these earbuds? Well, you get a well-rounded frequency response. This means that you will be able to enjoy multiple different genres of music without having to play around with EQ settings a lot. If you are a fan of rock/metal music, then you might be able to catch some detail loss with the sounds of some of the very high-pitched instruments, but you should be fine for the most part. The boost in the higher frequencies is not enough to introduce sibilance, which means that if you are planning to wear these for longer listening sessions, then you will get through them without any discomfort, at least from the sound perspective.
Coming to the performance of the microphone on these earbuds. Well, I have one thing to say – The performance is way beyond my expectations. In some of the most challenging situations where I have seen TWS earbuds that are priced two times higher than these struggle, these earbuds shined through. If you are standing in the middle of a crowded traffic signal and trying out these earbuds, then you will have a thing or two to complain about. Otherwise, I hardly think you will find any negatives when using the mic of these earbuds.
Well, if you are looking for a pair of Chi-Fi IEMs around the ₹2,000 mark, then you should definitely have the Moondrop CHU at the top of your list. I would say give it a try before getting them for yourself to ensure that you are getting the best fit. But if you decide to go in blind, then I don’t think it would be a problem to get the right fit after going through some of the different ear tips that are included with these earbuds. As for the sound, they sound great for the price they are retailing at. You can not obviously expect professional-grade audio from a pair of TWS that costs this much. So, if you set your expectations straight, then I can confidently say, Moondrop CHU will live up to them. Moondrop CHU is available in India for ₹1,990 on headphonezone.in.