The wireless audio market is a highly competitive one, and my personal hypothesis has been that in order to survive, the majority of products generally sound at least decent. I really put this one to the test recently with the OTTO Pastel which far from perfect – in fact, I would only recommend it to those who are not critical at all about their listening and would be happy to listen to a cheap mono radio playing in the corner of a room. But that was only AU$17 for a set of over-the-ear headphones with ANC which is a big stretch, financially speaking.

But that test was inspired by an earlier acquisition, fuelled by the OzBargain mantra of “buy now, ask questions later”. Rewind to late November 2024, to this posting which promised a pair of MOONDROP Space Travel ANC Bluetooth earbuds for just shy of AU$29, all inclusive. In the past, I’ve been burned by listing where sellers confused ENC with ANC – the former being a form of noise cancelling, but of the captured audio from the microphones instead of cancelling the noise you might hear (which is the latter). But this listing was genuine and MOONDROP are a fairly well known name in the Chi-Fi scene for offering pretty well tuned IEMs. How would this budget offering fare?

Unboxing

The product being named “space travel” is somewhat space themed, but I’m not sure exactly how. The box it comes in is shrink wrapped with a clear plastic cover on the front showcasing the charging case holding the earbuds. The transparency does remind me of the clear electronics craze of the late 90s, when clear Nintendo Gameboys were all the rage. But then again, the off-white beige plastic also reminds me of the 90s.

The back of the box lists the full specifications of the unit – including Bluetooth v5.3 connectivity, AAC and SBC codec support and 4 (earbuds) + 12 (case) hour battery life. The item has a barcode number of 6972585501491.

The case is definitely aesthetically unique and the design does optimise space and keep things simple, without such affordances as a full lid to cover the case or multiple indicator LEDs. On the front is just one indicator LED which shines to indicate charging and changes colour to indicate critical battery.

On the back is the MOONDROP logo in orange, but otherwise, the case is a pleasing contrast between clear and off-white beige.

The stems are visible and accessible from the sides, as the only way to extricate the earbuds from the case.

The top is open to the elements, albeit with a nice touch in the clear plastic moulding which clearly shows the left and right indications.

Power comes in from underneath, which also lists the key specifications including 37mAh 3.7V battery in each earbud and 380mAh 3.7V battery in the case. The unit carries FCC, CE approvals, with the FCC identifier of 2AY45-MD-TWS-022 filed by their legal entity, Chengdu ShuiYueYu Technology Co.,Ltd. (a literal phonetic transliteration of the three Chinese characters that appear in their logo, representing water, moon and rain). From the internal photos, this unit uses a Bluetrum BT8892E chipset (presumably a close relative to the BT8892A).

Also included are three other sizes of tip and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable.

In terms of paperwork, a thick multilingual manual booklet is included, alongside a QC inspection card, an illustration of the suggested way to wear the earbuds and Chinese support and tips leaflets.

The earbuds have left and right indicators printed on them in orange, with a grey and orange colour scheme and a mecha-style angular graphics along the back of the stems. The stems themselves have a rounded square profile, with the top having a noticeable seam.

The earbuds have holes and slots, the rear slots likely for the feedforward noise cancellation while the front ones may be used for a bit of bass extension. The holes towards the bottom may be used for call audio microphones. The earbud tips are made of the standard black silicone, but the cross-section of the aperture is a larger ovular shape rather than round as in most other TWS earbuds.

The charging contacts, of which there are two, are positioned on the bottom of the rounded-square stem. These are contacted by pogo pins recessed in the charging case, with a magnet providing the downward force to keep the earbuds in the case and against the charging contacts. I’d have to say that they are quite striking – in a world where most earbuds are rounded rather than angular, and black rather than beige, this really does stand out.

User Experience

On the whole, it would seem the Space Travel TWS set suffers some of the common drawbacks of low-end, cost-optimised designs. The first is that it simply doesn’t remember the last mode it is used in – it always boots up in “normal” mode, requiring two long presses to get it into ANC mode (my preferred mode). This may also be a “feature” to try and prolong battery life, which I found a little more limited than more serious products. Another commonality is that the maximum volume is relatively limited and while it does play loud enough for my liking, there’s not much headroom for those who really like their music loud. On the upside, this should be a