Moondrop just became a problem for every other gaming headset — GM-01 Pro Review — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00This is the Moonrop Gravity Maestro GM01
2. 0:03Pro. It's their budget gaming headset
3. 0:04and we got a chance to try this one
4. 0:06recently at the Shenzhen International
5. 0:07Audio Show and we left fairly impressed.
6. 0:10In my opinion, the GM01 Pro is something
7. 0:13that most folks should take a look at
8. 0:15and pay attention to because they've
9. 0:17done so much right with this headset.
10. 0:20This is another one that's impeccable
11. 0:21value and they also did a lot of things
12. 0:24for the enthusiast in this one. And as
13. 0:26usual, I have a couple things to say. My
14. 0:28dog is scratching. Hello buddy.
15. 0:33Okay, so just some details here. At the
16. 0:35time of filming this, I am not aware of
17. 0:37what the price is in North America. When
18. 0:39this was announced at the Shenzhen
19. 0:40International Audio Show, the local
20. 0:42region pricing had it at the equivalent
21. 0:43of around $50. I expect it'll be higher
22. 0:46than that if you're buying it in the US
23. 0:47because of reasons. But I still would
24. 0:50imagine this is under $100, probably
25. 0:52closer to like, you know, $60, $70,
26. 0:54something like that. And in my opinion,
27. 0:56this is competitive even if it were $100
28. 0:59or more. It's competing with, you know,
29. 1:01stuff like the HyperX Cloud 3 Wireless S
30. 1:04and other gaming headsets of that
31. 1:06nature. Now, this unit was sent to me by
32. 1:08Moonrop for review, but of course, I
33. 1:10haven't been paid to say anything in
34. 1:11particular about it, and all thoughts
35. 1:12and opinions here are my own as usual.
36. 1:15So, first things first, build quality,
37. 1:17design, and comfort. All of this is
38. 1:19actually very good. I'm mostly impressed
39. 1:21with the build quality here. It all
40. 1:23looks and feels nice. It feels sturdy.
41. 1:26And for the looks, it's got this black
42. 1:27and gold aesthetic to it. I believe
43. 1:29there's a white one and a nonpro. The
44. 1:31nonpro, I think, is not available in
45. 1:33international regions. Um, but this
46. 1:35aesthetic, the black and gold one, I
47. 1:36think looks pretty good. I'm definitely
48. 1:38not a fan of the markings on the side of
49. 1:40the cup. I think that looks goddy and
50. 1:41stupid. I would definitely not choose to
51. 1:44have that on there. Uh, so maybe they
52. 1:46can make a version of this that doesn't
53. 1:47have that. I'm sure there's they're
54. 1:48probably thinking of all kinds of things
55. 1:50that they can put on there. Let's put a
56. 1:51waifu that's in the shape of Herbert on
57. 1:53there. Let's Let's make it happen. and
58. 1:54drop. Let's go. I have a couple of
59. 1:56gripes, which is that the cups are a
60. 1:58little bit too small for my larger than
61. 2:00average ears. It's not uncomfortable.
62. 2:01It's actually very comfortable, but the
63. 2:03other thing is that it doesn't have cup
64. 2:04swivel. And that's something where
65. 2:06larger-headed folks like myself may have
66. 2:08a bit of a challenge. But when I put
67. 2:09this on, it's actually comfortable
68. 2:12enough. Like, it doesn't fit in a weird
69. 2:14spot where I would need to have cup
70. 2:16swivel. So, I think they got the
71. 2:17placement and the angle of the cups
72. 2:19pretty good, at least for my head. For
73. 2:21the pad, if you compare this material,
74. 2:24it's kind of like a clothlike material
75. 2:26to the pads that you get on the HyperX
76. 2:28Cloud 3 Wireless. These are so much
77. 2:30nicer feeling on the side of the head.
78. 2:31The Cloud 3 Wireless has more of this
79. 2:34kind of like springy spongy leather,
80. 2:36whereas this one is just this really
81. 2:37nice compliant uh cloth covered pad. And
82. 2:42uh yeah, it it feels great. My ears do
83. 2:44touch the inside of the baffle and they
84. 2:46do touch the side of the pad because
85. 2:48again, these are smaller cups and
86. 2:50smaller pads. as a result as well, but
87. 2:51it's not uncomfortable at all because
88. 2:53it's also really lightweight. I do have
89. 2:55a potential dealbreaker though and it's
90. 2:56something that I noticed after spending
91. 2:57a longer time with it. When I put this
92. 2:59headphone on and if I'm shaking my head
93. 3:03for whatever reason, say I'm, you know,
94. 3:06on a call and I'm like aggressively
95. 3:07disagreeing with somebody, which is
96. 3:09something I'm, you know, bound to do,
97. 3:11um, I notice that like it kind of moves
98. 3:13a little bit on my head and the movement
99. 3:16causes this sound with the pad. It
100. 3:19causes this little squeaking sound
101. 3:22[music] almost like what it sounds like
102. 3:23when you're eating undercooked string
103. 3:25beans or cheese curds. As a Canadian,
104. 3:27I'm a cheese curds kind of guy. And you
105. 3:29know that feeling of cheese curds in
106. 3:30your teeth? It's got that kind of sound
107. 3:32to it when you when you move it on your
108. 3:34head and I notice that when I'm shaking
109. 3:35my head. So maybe this is just a signal
110. 3:37that I be less disagreeable. Obviously,
111. 3:39it's wireless. Uh you get a dongle with
112. 3:41this, a 2.4 GHz dongle. It does also
113. 3:43have Bluetooth available in it, and you
114. 3:45just uh tap the button uh twice to
115. 3:48change the modes. And there's also a
116. 3:49microphone on it. Now, for the
117. 3:50microphone quality, it's not
118. 3:52particularly good. Let me just switch
119. 3:53over to that now. So, this is what the
120. 3:55microphone on the Moonrop GM01 Pro
121. 3:57sounds like. In my opinion, this is not
122. 3:59a very good sounding microphone. It
123. 4:00sounds particularly low res and a little
124. 4:03bit nasly, a little bit honky, and not
125. 4:07great. If you care about the sound of
126. 4:08your voice as how other people are
127. 4:10hearing you, you're probably going to
128. 4:11want to get something standalone. And
129. 4:12lastly, you do get a volume wheel and a
130. 4:14mic mute button. The thing with the
131. 4:16volume wheel is that when you turn this
132. 4:18headphone on, uh, you you actually
133. 4:20probably want to turn this on without
134. 4:21having it on your head because if you
135. 4:23have the volume wheel up or maxed, the
136. 4:26sound that it makes, the headphone makes
137. 4:28when you turn it on is rather loud. Um,
138. 4:30so I would just turn it on without it
139. 4:33being on your head and then place it on
140. 4:34your head just in case you turn the
141. 4:35volume up at one point and uh, yeah,
142. 4:38forgot to turn it down. But uh, yeah,
143. 4:39that's basically it for the build design
144. 4:41and the comfort. I think it's great and
145. 4:43um it's really cool that this is a
146. 4:44wireless headset that's like super cheap
147. 4:47and has all these functions and features
148. 4:49and uh and it's comfortable. I I think
149. 4:52that's very good. But the thing that we
150. 4:53are all super picky nerds about is of
151. 4:55course the sound quality. And that's
152. 4:57where this is very surprising. I think
153. 5:00people approach these products with this
154. 5:02erroneous idea of like it's a gaming
155. 5:04headset so it's good for gaming. But I
156. 5:06think this is rather good for music as
157. 5:09well. And then they give you a bunch of
158. 5:11gaming presets depictions in their web
159. 5:15app. And I'll show you guys that in a
160. 5:16minute. But the main thing I want to
161. 5:18focus on with this headphone is that
162. 5:19like this is extremely competent at this
163. 5:22price for music listening just as like a
164. 5:25general sound signature that that they
165. 5:27give you here. So what does it actually
166. 5:29sound like? Well, it's V-shaped, but
167. 5:31it's smart V-shaped. So for the bass,
168. 5:33you get an emphasized subbase, which
169. 5:34gives it that kind of thumpy
170. 5:36characteristic, but it's not so elevated
171. 5:38in the subbase that it sounds super
172. 5:40sluggish and slow. It doesn't drown out
173. 5:42the rest of the response. It doesn't,
174. 5:44you know, muddy up or clutter up the
175. 5:46mid-range or the transition between the
176. 5:47bass and the mid-range, making it still
177. 5:49sound sufficiently lively and energetic
178. 5:51and tonally rich. It's not so overboard
179. 5:53in the bass that it's going to drown out
180. 5:55the tonal complexity of, you know,
181. 5:57fundamental tones in that region. And I
182. 5:59actually really quite like the bass
183. 6:01presentation here. I think it's maybe a
184. 6:03bit strong in the subbase, but again,
185. 6:05for this kind of device, uh, I think
186. 6:07they did a really good job with the
187. 6:09voicing here of that bass response. For
188. 6:10the mid-range, it's pulled back a bit in
189. 6:12favor of the bass and treble, but for
190. 6:13the tambberal composition of the
191. 6:16mid-range, it's fantastic. It's got a
192. 6:18ton of clarity, especially for the ear
193. 6:20gain rise in the upper mid-range between
194. 6:211 and 3 kHz, but it doesn't make things
195. 6:23sound shouty or glary or anything like
196. 6:26that at all. So, I love the way the
197. 6:27mid-range is handled here. I think there
198. 6:29is bound to be some positional and
199. 6:31response variation across different
200. 6:32people. And there's probably also going
201. 6:34to be some unit variation for this as
202. 6:35well because I've seen some uh some
203. 6:38frequency responses of this headphone
204. 6:40that show it to be a bit more forward in
205. 6:41the upper mids. But for this unit and on
206. 6:44my test equipment and on my head and
207. 6:45ears, I have no issues with the ear gain
208. 6:48being too forward. So, uh it sounds
209. 6:50really clear and really good for that
210. 6:52region. Uh and then the treble it's
211. 6:54elevated and this is where yeah I have
212. 6:57some issues but I think on the whole the
213. 7:00bass and treble elevation is at least
214. 7:02reasonably proportional. Uh I do hear a
215. 7:04bit of forwardness there at around 6 kHz
216. 7:05or like 6 to 7 kHz. Don't make the joke.
217. 7:08And I also hear quite a bit of
218. 7:09forwardness in the upper treble like
219. 7:11close to 13 kHz. Um and uh so these are
220. 7:14regions where yeah it can be a bit
221. 7:17fatiguing for me. It can be a bit sort
222. 7:18of brilliant and sparkly and overly
223. 7:20splashy maybe a little bit on the
224. 7:22sibilent side. And then for symbol hits,
225. 7:24it's the upper edges of the symbol tones
226. 7:25that kind of dominate a little bit,
227. 7:27making it that airy, shimmery, crashy
228. 7:29kind of stuff coming through. And that
229. 7:30does tend to mask some of the tonal
230. 7:32complexity that you should get for
231. 7:34percussive hits of any kind. Um, so this
232. 7:36is very much dominated by that sort of
233. 7:38upper treble uh airy stuff, at least for
234. 7:40me. But you guys are going to ask me
235. 7:42about how the sound stage is and the
236. 7:43spaciousness effect, and I'm not going
237. 7:45to tell you because you deserve better
238. 7:46than that. Uh, no, it's it's it's fine.
239. 7:48I mean, this is this doesn't sound
240. 7:50intimate or claustrophobic, but it also
241. 7:52isn't going to convey the openness
242. 7:54effects of, you know, low acoustic
243. 7:56impedance headphones. So, this is a
244. 7:58closeback, of course, right? With the
245. 7:59GM01 Pro, as I've been saying, I think
246. 8:01they did a really good job with the
247. 8:02tuning of this headphone for music. It
248. 8:05sounds good for most music that I throw
249. 8:09at it. Yes, if you listen really
250. 8:11closely, you can hear some of those, you
251. 8:13know, more etched moments in the treble,
252. 8:15but this this it's not like this isn't
253. 8:17incisive and revealing of your music.
254. 8:19And it has a ton of clarity again for
255. 8:21that mid-range to come through that, you
256. 8:23know, I have a pretty easy time
257. 8:25recommending this just as a music
258. 8:26headphone. And even if you're not
259. 8:28considering it for gaming, and when you
260. 8:30hold this up to the competition, it's it
261. 8:32kind of puts a lot of it to shame. But
262. 8:34that's just the default stuff here. You
263. 8:37also get a web app with this. And the
264. 8:39web app for Moonrop is quite good. So
265. 8:43the first thing that I want to show you
266. 8:44guys here, the first thing that you'll
267. 8:46see with this web app is yes, it has
268. 8:47full parametric EQ. And this is yet
269. 8:49again an example of Moonrop delivering
270. 8:52the things that people want, that
271. 8:54enthusiasts want, where all these other
272. 8:57brands are just doing graphic EQ or
273. 8:58they're doing like three filters or
274. 9:00they're doing some halfbaked PEQ at home
275. 9:02version of this because oh, parametric
276. 9:04EQ is too complicated for the average
277. 9:06person. No, it's not. Stop that. Moonrop
278. 9:08is delivering this. It's giving people
279. 9:10what they want and it's super easy to
280. 9:12use. So full parametric EQ, you will be
281. 9:14confronted with a frequency response of
282. 9:16the headphone. I just want to stress
283. 9:18that like that is not the frequency
284. 9:20response of the headphone. That's the
285. 9:21frequency response of the marketing. So
286. 9:23that might be like the reference
287. 9:24frequency response, but you know the the
288. 9:27actual device itself like the unit that
289. 9:29you have is going to be a bit different
290. 9:31in a couple of spots. And it'll also be
291. 9:34different on your head. So don't make
292. 9:36adjustments based on this graph because
293. 9:39I think it can be tempting to do that.
294. 9:41Uh you know you're going to see uh you
295. 9:43can add targets to this and it'll be
296. 9:45tempting to kind of you know correct the
297. 9:47response to given targets depending on
298. 9:48what you want to do. I just want to say
299. 9:50that like the default response out of
300. 9:52the box that you get here is like just
301. 9:53as good as any generic target that you
302. 9:55would want to try and hit. So really
303. 9:57what I suggest doing here is use tone
304. 10:00generation to figure out what the
305. 10:02response is doing on your head at your
306. 10:03eardrum and then make the equalization
307. 10:05adjustments based on that. So like use
308. 10:07tone generation above like you know 2
309. 10:09kHz above 1 kHz basically figure out
310. 10:12where things are louder and quieter and
311. 10:14then if you hear any major peaks major
312. 10:16resonances maybe drop that down in that
313. 10:18spot by a few dB. you know, if you want
314. 10:20to make it a more specific adjustment
315. 10:22because it's a narrow band resonance,
316. 10:24you would increase the Q value here. Um,
317. 10:26so for example, what I've done is at
318. 10:28around 6.5 kHz, I've got a notch by
319. 10:32about 5dB, close to 5dB with a Q value
320. 10:34of four. And then I've also got a bit of
321. 10:37a boost at around 8.5 kHz, also with a Q
322. 10:40value of four or four and a half. And
323. 10:42then I drop the upper treble around 13
324. 10:43kHz by around 5dB with a fairly narrow Q
325. 10:46value at around 6.5. And this is based
326. 10:48on how this is responding on my head
327. 10:50specifically. And I'll show you guys
328. 10:52that in a moment. Um, but one other
329. 10:54thing that's interesting about this web
330. 10:55app is you see this little default box
331. 10:58here in the corner. Uh, that's that's a
332. 11:01way for you to get the sound profile
333. 11:05ranges for different games that you
334. 11:07might be playing. So, they got Valerant,
335. 11:08Delta 4, CS2, Call of Duty, PUBG, Game
336. 11:12of Game for Peace. I don't know what
337. 11:13that is. And then Siege. Uh, but say
338. 11:16you're looking at the Valerant preset.
339. 11:18It highlights a number of regions where
340. 11:19I assume that game engine is creating
341. 11:22things like footsteps and then switching
342. 11:24to CS2. You can see that there's the gun
343. 11:26region in the treble. They have they
344. 11:27have an immersion region in the bass.
345. 11:29So, in my view, despite most people
346. 11:31asking me whenever I'm talking about
347. 11:33gaming headsets or regular headphones,
348. 11:35they'll ask me like, is this good for
349. 11:37gaming? Is this good for whatever? This
350. 11:39is a headset where the web app is what
351. 11:41makes it good for gaming because it
352. 11:43helps visualize for you how to improve
353. 11:47certain regions that might be highly
354. 11:49relevant to you. Most other headphones,
355. 11:51mo most other headsets don't do this.
356. 11:54Like yes, you still have to be
357. 11:55intelligent about how you are adjusting
358. 11:57things here. And I again I want to
359. 11:59stress that tone generation is the best
360. 12:01way to do this. But this tool seems
361. 12:03incredibly useful to me if you're the
362. 12:05kind of person who's going to engage
363. 12:07with it. and I think you should. So, it
364. 12:09might look a bit complicated to the
365. 12:11uninitiated, but you're a smart person.
366. 12:13You can figure this out. Parametric EQ
367. 12:15is something that anybody can figure
368. 12:16out. And once you start using it, you
369. 12:18will never want to go back to any of
370. 12:19those other options like the graphic EQ,
371. 12:21the fixed band EQs that exist in most
372. 12:23other products. So, this is a massive
373. 12:25win for Moonrop. Massive thumbs up on
374. 12:27this tool. My only warning here is that
375. 12:29the visualization of the frequency
376. 12:31response you see here is not actually
377. 12:33the frequency response you're dealing
378. 12:34with when it comes to the product that
379. 12:36you are actually like the unit that you
380. 12:38are actually listening to or its
381. 12:39response on your actual head because
382. 12:41headphone behavior varies from head to
383. 12:43head and you need to understand how this
384. 12:45device is behaving on your head to be
385. 12:47able to make those adjustments
386. 12:48appropriately and speaking of which
387. 12:50here's how this headphone behaves on my
388. 12:52head and actually I was looking at this
389. 12:54the response here is wideband close to
390. 12:57what I had on the 5 and 28. Like there's
391. 12:58an elevated bass response. The mids are
392. 13:00quite good and then there's a
393. 13:02forwardness, you know, at around 6 kHz
394. 13:03and then some, you know, brighter upper
395. 13:05treble as well. There are of course
396. 13:06notable differences in the treble when
397. 13:08you look more at the specifics. But
398. 13:09again, they have a web app with
399. 13:10parametric EQ available where I can fix
400. 13:12these issues. So, I just wanted to
401. 13:13highlight this to show that if I were to
402. 13:15adjust the response based on what I see
403. 13:17on the web app for the response that
404. 13:19they give you here to one of the targets
405. 13:21that you might specify these features
406. 13:24that are highly relevant to me because
407. 13:25that's how I'm actually hearing the
408. 13:26headphone. It wouldn't be obvious based
409. 13:28on the web app that I should be reducing
410. 13:30these features or correcting the
411. 13:31response in this way. But apart from
412. 13:32that, I love the way that they've
413. 13:34handled this product. um to the point
414. 13:36where I think this does eat the lunch of
415. 13:39the HyperX Cloud 3 Wireless S. Like,
416. 13:43yeah, I liked the Cloud 3 Wireless S,
417. 13:45but this is a more enthusiast focused
418. 13:48device. Um, and it's at least as good.
419. 13:51It's at least as competent, and the
420. 13:53comfort is better because it doesn't
421. 13:55have the sort of spongy, springy pad
422. 13:56feeling that those ones have. And
423. 13:58there's really not that much else I can
424. 13:59compare it to. Like, yeah, this is
425. 14:01better than the Fractal Scape. Is it
426. 14:03better than the Maxwell? I mean, I would
427. 14:04rather use this than the Maxwell because
428. 14:06it's lighter and more comfortable. And
429. 14:08of course, you know, the web app has
430. 14:09full parametric EQ. So, you know, and
431. 14:12compared to Moonrop's own Edge version
432. 14:14one because they have the version two
433. 14:16now available, this sounds much better
434. 14:18by default. Like the Edge was this
435. 14:20shouty, dark kind of honky presentation
436. 14:22that I really didn't like. This one
437. 14:24sounds so much better. So, just if if
438. 14:27all you've taken away from this is, oh,
439. 14:29another cheap Moondrop product. I bet it
440. 14:30doesn't sound any better than the Edge.
441. 14:32This is this is way better than the
442. 14:34Edge. No comparison. So my conclusion
443. 14:37here is that this is insanely good for
444. 14:38the price. Moonrop is again absolutely
445. 14:41nailing it when it comes to providing
446. 14:43features for enthusiasts. The things
447. 14:44that you know PE nerds like me care
448. 14:47about like parametric EQ. And then the
449. 14:48web app has these other interesting
450. 14:50features that I hope they build out more
451. 14:51because I think they'll be actually
452. 14:53useful to gamers rather than the
453. 14:55gimmicks or the generic sound profiles
454. 14:57that you get with vast majority of
455. 14:59gaming headsets. So, this is just
456. 15:00something I'm extremely impressed by and
457. 15:02one that I'm going to be recommending
458. 15:03for a while to come. As always, if you
459. 15:05guys want to support what we're doing
460. 15:06here, check out the YouTube memberships.
461. 15:07That's where you can chat with me during
462. 15:09the live streams that I do when I test
463. 15:10these products. You can see some of the
464. 15:12behind the scenes testing and measuring
465. 15:13of these products and get a sense of how
466. 15:15the review is going to go before it goes
467. 15:17live on the channel. For those of you
468. 15:18guys who are already joining me there, I
469. 15:19really appreciate the support and I look
470. 15:21forward to seeing more of you guys in
471. 15:22live streams in the future. And that's
472. 15:24going to do it for me. Thanks for taking
473. 15:25the time to watch this video and I will
474. 15:26see you guys in the next one. Bye for
475. 15:27now.