Simphonio Dragon 2+ ( 2plus ) Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simphonio Dragon 2+ (aka 2Plus)

The Earbud with Clear and Spacious Sound

 

Introduction:

Simphonio was formed by a group of professional and experienced audio engineers and young- innovative audiophiles, who have created a number of products. The company Simphonio is located in Dongguan City, Guangdong, China.

They have recently released two products, the Simphonio Xcited2 In-Ear Monitor and the Simphonio Dragon 2+ an earbud with a 15.4mm diameter dynamic driver, which I will now review.

Webpage: www.simphonio.com

 

 

 

Disclaimer:

First of all, a big thanks to Simphonio for providing me a review sample of the Dragon 2+. I am not affiliated with Simphonio or any third person beyond this review and these words reflect my true, unaltered opinions about the product.

 

The Price:

The Simphonio Dragon2+ is available on Penon Audio for 319,90 USD.

Purchase link: https://penonaudio.com/simphonio-dragon-2plus.html

 

Package and Accessories:

The Simphonio Dragon 2+ comes in flat square shaped brow card box that has a patterned surface with Simphonio logo. This box is wrapped with a white paper packing that sports some Simphonio brandings on the front (logo & company) and technical information’s at the back.

This box contains the following items;

  • 1 pcs x Simphonio Dragon 2+ Earphone
  • 2 pairs x Full foams
  • 2 pairs x Donut foams
  • 1 pcs x 2.5mm female to 3.5mm male adapter
  • 1 pcs x Leather carry pouch
  • 1 pcs x Warranty Card

The Simphoni Dragon 2+ comes with 4 pairs of foams tips (2 full foam + 2 donut foams), a 2.5mm female to 3.5mm male adapter, which is a nice addition and a leather carry pouch.

There leather carry pouch looks very premium and esthetic, but isn’t very protective against impacts.

 

Design, Fit and Build Quality:

The Simphonio Dragon 2+ earbud has a very familiar looking housing, with a pretty similar shape to the Yuin PK. The surface of the plastic housing is in dark grey and has a glimmering texture, which differs it from regular eabuds with plastic housing.

On the top of the Dragon 2+ are 2 small channels, from what one is closed and the other seems to be open.

The inner side of the housing sports the brand name printed in white color.

On the outer side of both housings are left & right markings.

The cable of the Simphonio Dragon 2plus is made of 6N purity OFC (Oxygen Free Cooper) material. The cable is made of two separate cables; one with black plastic coating and one with transparent isolation.

The metal Y splitter has the Dragon+ branding.

The Simphonio Dragon 2plus comes with a 4 pole 2.5mm TRSS balanced headphone jack, which has a strait profile. This headphone jack has a strait profiled metal housing, which sport the Simphonio branding and a sprig like strain relief.

The 2.5mm female to 3.5mm male adapter is made of the same wire material and is a nice addition.

The housing profile of the Simphonio Dragon 2+ is one of my favorites, which is sits very comfortable in my ears.

 

 

Technical Specifications:

  • Driver: 15.8mm Dynamic Neodymium magnet
  • Frequency Response:20-25000 Hz
  • Impedance: 16Ω
  • Output Sound Pressure Level:110±3dB/mW
  • Maximum Input Power:3mW
  • Cable Length: 1.2M 6N OFC
  • Weight: 14g

 

 

Sources:

a) In Ear Monitor : Simphonio Dragon 2plus, Astrotec Lyra Collection, Shozy BK (Balanced

b) DAP/DAC         : Cayin N5II, Chord Mojo, Hifiman HM603s, Sony WM1A, Fiio M7, Hidizs DH1000

 c) Albums & Tracks used for this review:

  • Celine Dion – Power of Love (Spotify)
  • London Grammar – Interlud (Live) (Flac 24bit/44kHz)
  • Laura Pergolizzi – Lost On You “Live at Harvard and Stone” (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Minor Empire – BulbulumAltinKafeste (Spotify)
  • Casey Abrams – Robot Lover (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Vivaldi – Le QuarttroStagioni “The Four Season” (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Steve Srauss – Mr. Bones (Flac 16bit/44kHz)
  • Otto Liebert& Luna Negra – The River (DSF) – Binaural Recording
  • Future Heroes – Another World (Tidal Hi-fi)
  • Lorde – Team (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
  • Tom Player – Resonace Theory “Album” (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Liquid Tension Experiment 2 – Acid Rain (Spotify)
  • Opeth – Damnation (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Metallica – Sad bu True (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
  • Megadeth – Sweeting Bullets (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Porcupine Tree – Deadwing “Album”  (Spotify)

 

 

The Sound:

The Simphonio Dragon 2plus is an earbud with a pretty balanced sound signature that tends to sound slightly bright. The brightness of the highs and the upper midrange tuning leads to a very wide soundstage.

 

Bass:

In terms of subbass, it extends pretty well and doesn’t show aggressiveness or dominance in the overall presentation. The Simphonio Dragon 2+ sounds very control and has good speed. For example, it is possible to follow the bass lines of the song Acid Rain, performed in Liquid Tension Experiment. But please not that it is producing bass within the limits of an earbud.

The rendering of detail and texture is on a high level and fulfills the price that is asked for.

Quantity wise, it can’t handle some sort of music, which needs weighty bass like techno, rap or hip-hop. The midbass region adds some thickness and warmness in an acceptable level and they don’t dominate the rest of the sound spectrum.

 

Mid:

The most accurate word, which could describe the midrange of Simphonio Dragon 2+, is “Crystal Clear”. Midrange of the Dragon 2+ is very revealing and transparent and there is an excellent detail retrieval, which is presented in a natural way. Although they have forwardness, they are not replaced right in front of the listener or they are not too far from the listener in terms of positioning.

There is an exception for female vocals, which may become prominent thanks to Dragon 2plus’s upfront upper midrange presentation. For example, there is no harshness during Celine Dion is saying “the sound of your HEARTBEATING” or “I’ m your LADY”, which could fatigue your ears. The Female vocals are more successful and sharing more emotional than those of male ones and there is also no remarkable sibilance despite of the pronounced upper midrange, well done Simphonio!

One more thing that should worth to mention is that electro guitar strings and riffs are very realistic and energetic, which makes the Simphonio Dragon2+ very suitable with genres like progressive rock or metal music.

The midbass region of Dragon 2+ is not thick or too thin in terms of tonality, which shows also nice sparkle, especially in acoustic songs. The overall timbre tends to stay in the north of neutral that carries quite amazing micro detail.

 

 

Treble:

Airiness is the key word regarding Simphonio Dragon 2+’s treble region. Dragon 2+ has a well extended and crisp treble presentation, where instruments like cymbals and flutes sounding lifelike, with a slightly hint of thinness.

It’s possible that some people can find the treble presentation slightly bright, but it doesn’t show harshness at all, depending the type of music. The upper treble range is the star of the show, so that additional airiness can be heard in genres like metal music and sub genres. Instruments like crash cymbals are have good extension in song like Megadeth’s “Sweating Bullets”. But when pace of music increased, they become a bit distorted. However, treble region is not fatiguing, even in the album “Deadwing” by Porcupine Tree (This album’s record is a little bit bright and it may be sounded harsh with earbuds that tends to sound bright).

 

Soundstage:

The soundstage of the Simphonio Dragon 2+ has a headphone-like expansive soundstage, which results in excellent imaging and separation of instruments. There is enough space for positioning of vocals and instruments thanks to its impressive depth and width, even in complex songs like Alboran Trio’s Cingue Lunghissimi Minuti. The Dragon2+ is a very good earbud for electronic music and binaural recordings, which benefits from a wide and deep soundstage.

 

 

 

Comparisons:

Simphonio Dragon 2+ vs Astrotec Lyra Collection

In terms of sound, those two earbuds are quite having a quite different sound signature with similar technical capabilities. The first difference is in their tonality, where the Simphonio Dragon2+ shows a relative bright and the Astrotec Lyra Collection a warmer presentation. None of them can be called as neutral because both of them have coloration in specific areas. For example, the bass of Astrotec Lyra Collection has more quantity than those of the Simphonio Dragon2+. The midbass are of the Lyra has additional body in comparison with Dragon 2+.

The Simphonio Dragon 2plus has the faster bass response, which is a good ability with genres that need speed in this area.

Midrange of both earbuds is pretty upfront, but the Dragon2+ has more forwardness, than those of the Lyra Collection, especially with female vocals and sharing a detailed and transparent midrange. The Dragon 2+ sounds slightly more transparent thanks to its airier presentation and more capable imaging. Instruments like piano sounds slightly more realistic with the Lyra Collection because of the additional body that comes from the midbass area.  The Astrotec Lyra Collection sounds more realistic and emotional with acoustic guitars, while the Dragon2+ excels better with electric guitars because of the more energetic and crispier presentation.

The treble range of the Simphonio Dragon2+ has more presence than those of the Astrotec Lyra Collection, which result in to an airier presentation and additional sparkle, especially in upper treble region. When it comes to detail retrieval, both earbuds have great ability to give high level of detail, but the Dragon2+ is superior to the Astrotec Lyra Collection in overall performance.

When it comes to the soundstage performance, I can easily say that both of this earbuds sharing a very spacious and out of the head presentation. The Astrotec Lyra Collection has the wider stage, while the Simphonio Dragon2+ performs better for soundstage depth.

 

Simphonio Dragon2+ verus Shozy BK (aka Shozy Stardust) 

It’s not fair to compare these earbuds but I think that Shozy BK is a quite capable earbud independently of its price tag.

The Shozy BK sounds warmer than Simphonio Dragon 2+, but it is not that Astrotec Lyra kind of warmness. In terms of subbass depth, they are almost identical, the main difference is the midbass quantity, which is adding more body to the overall presentation of the Shozy BK, but not that much body as Lyra Collection has. The tonality of Shozy BK’s midrange is thicker, fuller and near analogue sounding, while the Simphonio Dragon 2+ is more transparent, detailed and it portrays more technicality rather than musicality.

Their upper midrange presentation is pretty identical, so that both earbuds are very good with their vocal presentation. The Simphonio Dragon 2+ sounds slightly better with female vocals, while the Shozy BK sounds thicker with male vocals. The difference of vocal performance between the two is pretty identical.

Treble region of the Simphonio Dragon 2+ is more pronounced than those of the Shozy BK, which is adding more air and sparkle to the overall presentation. When it comes to detail retrieval, the Dragon2+ is superior o the Shozy BK, which is otherwise very talented for its price tag. The Shozy BK’s treble characteristic makes it more suitable for longer listening periods with a wide variety of music genres.

When it comes to soundstage performance, the Simphonio Dragon2+ has the wider and deeper sound presentation. Technical abilities like instrument separation and imaging is better with Simphonio Dragon2+ thanks to its superior upper frequency performance. The difference in the price tag shows itself most in this regarding.

 

Conclusion

The Simphonio Dragon2+ is a very capable earbud that has very transparent midrange and can produce high level of micro detail. The bass tuning is not appropriate for certain genres, but is good enough for genres like jazz and acoustic music. Expansive soundstage and amazing instrument separation is the strength of Simphonio Dragon2+, along with its fatigue free treble presentation.

 

Pros and Cons:

  • + Excellent clarity and detail retrieval
  • + Good treble & upper midrange control
  • + Wide Soundstage
  • + Fit
  • + 2.5mm Balanced jack + Adaptor

 

  • – Bass is missing slightly depth
  • – It’s not the cheapest earbud

 

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *