Sound characteristics & design

When designing the black dragon iem v2, we looked for a way to provide the great detail and resolution of our Silver Dragon line, and still maintain the full sound & enhanced bottom end of our Black Dragon line. We also needed to embrace these improvements in a cost effective way so everyone can unleash their music with the dragon cables and their JH Audio iems.

This forced a new direction for Moon Audio in cable creation which included working with plated metals. We found that when we increased the quantity of plating to around a 15-18% ratio, we were able to maximize and apply both sound characteristics of silver and copper to the black dragon. We feel this enhanced the sonic attributes & characteristics of the black dragon to its maximum potential and we believe you will agree!

The V2 design is a stranded, silver plated copper design which marries all the sonic characteristics & strengths of our Silver & Black dragon iem cables. With some audio cables, adding silver plated copper can make the cable sound harsh in the top frequency range. This is NOT the case with our Black Dragon as the heavy silver plating provides a very smooth, detailed top end with a great sense of presentation. This is in large part due to the 15-18% ratio we landed upon during our design & testing phase.

We also found the midrange to be warmer & lush without sounding too laid back yet maintains the full sound spectrum & dimension. Most importantly, the powerful bottom end of the black dragon iem v1 has even been improved upon to our ears.  To reiterate: this new design is a stranded, silver plated copper design and not similar to the silver plated tinsel wire used in the JH Audio stock JH cables. The purity and density of our conductors are far superior & much more expensive to design, engineer and produce.  You will be amazed at the sound quality improvements over the JH Audio stock cables.

Redesign of the JH Audio connections & iem sockets

The cable connections and IEM sockets of the JH Audio 4pin connection style iems were also redesigned by Moon Audio. The Astell & Kern and JH Audio iems with the 4 pin connection style include: the Angie, Angie II, Rosie, Roxanne, Roxanne II,  Layla, and Layla II. This 4pin connection socket upgrade has improved the durability of the connections & sockets for long term use & enjoyment.

First, we improved the threaded locking section and the nut as we are now using anodized aluminum for durability and better tolerance. The male and female pins utilize a proprietary metal combination called ARCAP.  It is essentially a high yield copper based metal that does not contain iron so it is not magnetic. It also has very high tensile strength and it is resistant to chemical corrosion. This is very important for those of you who will use the cable and IEMs at the gym or on stage if you are in a band as it will be much more durable and resistant to flex failure from constant movement and/or wear & tear.

The pins now are also gold plated and the attenuator pod was improved to provide better tolerances and tracking. The improved markings on the cable help match left to right and the attenuators are now recessed to prevent them from being altered by accident. The pod shape was improved to a smoother shape and this is a new feature of all the overmolds.

3 standard premolded cable options are available.

1. a 2.5mm balanced 4 pole gold straight mini plug for use with the balanced output of the Astell and Kern players, RAL players & ALO amps. The entire body is molded to prevent the face of the connector to short to chassis ground. This will eliminate issues of ground shorts.

2. a 3.5mm straight 3 pole stereo single ended connection for use with most common portable devices.

3. a 3.5mm right angle 3 pole stereo single ended connection for use with most common portable devices.

Both of the 3.5mm connectors have extended necks to vanquish most portable devices that have a deep connector socket hole.

We will also offer custom termination options as usual in the future. The Premolded connections are available for immediate shipment, and custom terminations will be available in a few weeks.

In the future, we will also be offering a version with no Attenuator pod. This will be used when JH Audio converts all of there existing IEMs over to the new 4 pin design.

Now offering custom resistor options

We now offer a fixed resistor option for your Layla, Angie or Roxanne. Take a picture of your pod setting on your stock cable and send it in and we will closely match a resistor to your pod setting for a permanent voicing.

For much better matching: set your pod, send in your cable and we can build you a cable with a perfect match.

Available Amplifier Connections

Available connector options for Black Dragon IEM V2 Headphone Cable