Moondrop CHU II High Performance Dynamic Driver IEMs Interchangeable Cable in-Ear Headphone

By Hi-Tek HQ – Real Tech. No Hype.Let’s be honest—these aren't endgame IEMs. They won't make you cry in FLAC or hear ghost notes in Beethoven’s 9th. But they will make you do a double take when you realize they cost less than a pizza and sound better than some $80 hypetrash.I mean… think about what $20 gets you nowadays:• A streaming service you’ll forget to cancel• A gas station lunch that fights back• Or these—a pair of metal-shelled, Spring Tip-equipped, properly tuned IEMs that might just ruin mainstream earbuds for you permanently.---🔧 Specs & Build – Fancy on a Fast-Food BudgetDriver: 10mm dynamicImpedance: 18Ω — easy to power, even from a potatoSensitivity: 120dB — gets loud enough to drown out poor life choicesCable: Decent quality, no microphonics and no you can't tow your car with it.Shell: Aluminum alloy—lightweight, sleek, and way too nice for this priceEartips: Includes Moondrop Spring Tips (seriously, those cost $10 alone)—Moondrop essentially gave you a free IEM with your Spring Tips purchase. It’s like ordering fries and finding a chicken sandwich in the bag.---🎧 Sound – Budget Harman Done (Mostly) Right✅ The Good:Tuning: U-shaped with clarity up top and a tasteful bass lift. It’s not reference-grade, but it knows what it's trying to be.Vocals & Detail: Clean, articulate, surprisingly coherent. You’ll hear background layers you didn’t expect at this price.Treble: Bright, sparkly, mostly well-behaved. It tries hard to be impressive without stabbing you in the ears.Imaging: Narrow stage, but good left-right separation. Like a well-behaved studio apartment.❌ The Bad:Bass Control: Starts tight, ends flabby. Play Kendrick Lamar – DNA at 2:00 and the bass gets messy like a toddler with pudding.Treble Peaks: Slight zing around 7–8k. Not icepick-sharp, but borderline fatiguing on long sessions.---🎮 Gaming Test – “Footsteps? Kinda.”Plugged into a Fosi K7, the Chu II handled ambient cues fine. In Hogwarts Legacy and God of War, you’ll catch enough detail to feel immersed. But in Call of Duty?Let’s just say: you'll know someone’s near. You just won’t know if they’re upstairs, behind you, or breathing down your neck with a shotgun. Not competitive-tier, but usable.For ranked or sweaty lobbies, use a something else instead. These are for chill vibes, not killstreaks.---🎼 Audiophile Cred – The Gateway DrugFor new audiophiles? This is the gateway IEM that opens Pandora’s box. You’ll love it—until you start hearing its limitations... and the next thing you know, you’re buying a DAC, a stack, and justifying $300 cables to your spouse.For veterans? It’s your backup set. Your glovebox IEM. Your “hey listen to this” intro for friends stuck in EarPod purgatory.---💬 Final Verdict – Hi-Tek HQ Says:The Chu II is the kid who shows up to the gym with solid form, decent muscle, and great potential… but never does leg day. It’s admirable. It’s capable. But it’s not complete.Yet for $20? It’s criminal how good this is. If you have a heartbeat and two ears, buy it. Worst case? You score Spring Tips and get a free IEM in the box.🟢 Buy it if:You want clean, confident sound with a touch of sparkleYou’re just starting out in the hobbyYou want to gift something that makes people say “Wait... this is $20?!”🔴 Skip it if:You crave thunderous bass or holographic soundstageYou already own better and have no use for a sidepiece🔊 Score: 8.3/10 – Honest value, slight flaws, big impact.💼 Reviewed by Hi-Tek HQ – Come for the Sound. Stay for the Sanity Check.

Wow these IEM's feel amazing. Thought they would be made of cheap plastic it feels like sturdy metal. I was a bit reluctant to pull the trigger given the many reviews that these break after light use, but first impression wise these are great. Will have to see how durable they are over time. For now it's a really solid pair of headphones. Unlike a lot of the other IEM's the design is sleek and simple.. It also comes with a few tips to change to fit your ears. The wire feels pretty good as well. Sound is also amazing, great range and base.

Just as an FYI these IEM's come disassembled. The ear tips and the cable have to be inserted on each driver manually by the purchaser or somebody they can convince to do it for them. If you're clumsy and bad with tiny wires and ear gels with tiny holes that have to be angled in on really big stems, these earphones may not be for you.Sure they sound great, but they're kind of tough to assemble if you're clumsy. I barely was able to do it without damaging anything and the ear gels are in particular tough to get in. You have to roll back the flaps from the stem and FORCE the opening in over the earbud's neck at an angle, and keep applying pressure from your fingertips the whole time while sliding the stem over and around the neck.On the flip side, if you're okay with all this, these are very modular and repairable IEM's as the cable and even the filters are easily user changeable if you're not clumsy. That said, it has its flaws. The L-plug on the end of the included cable is NOT phone case friendly (my 2024 Moto G Stylus still has a headphone jack, as does the 2025 one which also has waterproofing) and sound skips out if I try to plug it into my phone with the case one.Also, the L-plug shortens the length of the cable when I'm using it with most devices, as they sit across from me in a straight line rather than at an angle. A straight plug would've been better if they were only going to include one cable. Also, the cable isn't quite long enough, so I had to buy a 3 foot extension cable. If the cable had a straight plug instead of an L plug, I might not have needed to do that.Other than these issues, the Moondrop Chu 2 is a great deal and has very good sound that's similar to the popular Harman curve. Yes it has a slight v-shape and the vocals are slightly recessed, as audiophile reviewers mention, but it's only really a problem with music and in my experience more of an issue with male vocalists than female ones. For most uses, the Moondrop Chu 2 are good all-rounders with good sound quality. Music, games, video, speech, it's good at all of them with no real weaknesses. I can't speak to positioning in competitive games though, because I don't play those.Lastly, I'd like to say that their noise isolation is actually pretty good so long as you pick the right eartips. Ones that are snug enough to seal without being uncomfortable or hard to take out. There are 3 sizes of eartips included. small, medium, and large. I use large for my left ear canal, and medium for my right ear because they're different sizes. This is good enough to seal to where I can hear the iem's just fine even if there's a fan on next to my while the air conditioner is also on. I can also hear them well when I have a personal fan next to me and an exhaust fan blowing out the window. These are great summer earphones that keep your ears cool while blocking out most ambient noise.Overall, I like these IEM's and recommend them to those who want cheap, but not too cheap earphones that are pretty good at everything, and don't mind having to assemble them. I only wish that the box had a picture of the earphones on them instead of a random anime girl carrying a baby panda on her back. Nobody in my family knew what the package was, and it's actually kind of confusing. That picture on the box makes it look like anime goods or perfume / makeup from Asia marketed towards girls or basically anything other than earphones.