It’s somewhat common knowledge by now that you’d be splitting hairs comparing the Kanas Pro, KXXS and Starfield given that they are, more likely than not, using the same drivers. With the sonic differences only manifesting due to the slightly different tunings created by the housing and/or dampening material within the sound enclosure.

Post-publish edit: Moondrop has reached out to clarify that the Kanas Pro and the KXXS share similar diaphragms but not the same driver design, while the Starfield shares a similar driver design to the KXXS but uses a different diaphragm altogether.

That said, it’s only in direct A-B(-C) comparison that I’ve managed to isolate the relative differences (or lack thereof) between the three. First, the Kanas Pro was audibly the worst amongst them, sporting the most blunted transients and therefore the lowest resolution by a small margin. Though I feel like I have to put up a reminder that the word “worst” used here is in a relative context, and the Kanas Pro is by no means a bad IEM.

The Kanas Pro is also the warmest of the three, most probably due to the extra bass combined with lower presence past 5kHz. Whether this is also the root cause of the lower perceived resolution is not for me to say, but there may be a relation here.

The big head-scratcher would be between the KXXS and the Starfield. There are differences mind you, for instance the KXXS is a tad more upper-midrange-forward and thus just a hair shoutier as a result. But at the end of the day, the differences simply aren’t as significant as with the Kanas Pro and so I’d consider the two as “functionally identical”.

Yes, you heard that right. The $190 KXXS is basically the same sound-wise to the $110 Starfield.