Dunu DN-17 Crater

I would like to thank DUNU for being extremely generous and sending me yet more gear for review! It was a bit of a surprise to receive these headphones, as I was not aware of entering any contest or anything of that sort and was not expecting them. However I do of course welcome new gear for testing, so it was a lovely surprise to see these at my door.

For this review I will be using the DUNU DN-17’s with my Burson 160 Headphone amp paired with a Music Streamer II+ as well as testing on my 2010 MacBook Pro. I feel that testing these headphones out of the desktop setup will enable me to squeeze every ounce of pleasure out of these headphones, were as testing with my laptop will be a much more real world scenario, since a lot of people will be using these headphones with something similar.

For those of you who are unaware DUNU is a newer audio company who is aiming to make budget minded IEMs for both audiophiles and general consumers alike. Most of their products are aimed at people who enjoy bass but don’t let that deter you some of their products are quite good for the price and may satisfy more then that nitch of “bass-head’.



So what’s included with the DUNU DN-17 Crater’s? Well quite a few things actually. Packaging was adequate in my opinion; nothing special about it but it was done well. The box is nicely designed and reflects on them for wanting to target the budget-minded consumer. It appears visually attractive with a simple design to it that is almost Apple like. But enough about the shipping and box what’s inside? Well how about the following:

• Leather Carrying Pouch
• Hard Plastic Carrying Case
• 2.5mm to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter
• Shirt Clip For Headphone Wire
• Airline headphone Jack Adapter
• DUNU Microfiber Cleaning Cloth
• 8 Tip Pairs Of Different Sizes

The DN-17s have a more normal shape to them then some of the other DUNU in ear monitors (IEMs) I think they look great in terms of pure visual design and is of more attractive design then the DN-12 and DN-16 in my opinion. The comfort however was a little less so then the other DUNU models. Due to being a little smaller I found myself finding that they just are not as comfortable as some of the other models. Don’t get me wrong though these are not extremely uncomfortable they are just not as good as some of the other DUNU models in this respect, Certainly not bad.

One thing that is fascinating is that according to DUNU these wires are made of silver. Now this is quite an impressive feat for a consumer-marketed product. Now as some of you may be aware a lot of higher end cables for headphones or otherwise tend to use silver since it is a better conductor, will that in practice affect the sound? You’ll have to see, so read on!


In the next part here I’m going to break down the review of the actual sound quality into sections because I feel that it portrays the information people looking for more effectively. I do this because I feel that it is easier for the readers to find what interest them faster. If you have any comments, advice, or even criticism let me know, I want to hear from you!

Soundstage: Soundstage has always been a very important thing for me. I want the music to take into account the acoustical space in which it was recorded and for the headphones or speakers to be able to reproduce the sound of the room and not just the instruments. I want to be able to hear the placement of the instruments in that room so to speak.

I feel that these headphones do in deed have a decent soundstage, nothing to be wowed about but certainly not bad for an IEM. The sound stage itself is just ok, not large or anything, you certainly won’t feel like your in a cathedral but its placement of instruments is fairly good. One thing that these DN-17s do well is center placement. With some headphones I’ve heard the soundstage was wide but really lacked a center image making the sound rather odd to listen too. However the DN-17s do not suffer from that problem, center image is fantastic and one of the strong points of these!

Bass: This is definitely a place that DUNU in general seems to have nailed. The DN-17s are no exception. Bass is very well extended and not at all sloppy sounding. I would not go so far as to say that it’s a super tight bass but it is above average. Detail in this area is great and you won’t have to worry about added bass bleeding into the mid range either. Again DUNU markets most of their headphones to the bass head audiophile and they have nailed bass reproduction!

Mids: Some things here that I like and some that I don’t like. The lower mids are clean, detailed and have the appropriate sound level. That’s were things starting going downhill a little. About dead center in the middle frequencies it sounds like the volume is boosted a little which can make some vocals edgy and harsh sounding. Then we get to the upper mids and it seems to drop out a lot and losses a lot of detail. This tends to make it sound a little scratchy too.

Highs: Balance is once again restored in terms of sound levels. Detail is returned and it’s very musical. It has a very soft sound to it, which is very nice and pleasing. It has detail but does not throw it in your face instead it lets it out gently as it whispers into your ears. However extension is not the best, it is however better then the DN-16s and DN-12s in my opinion. Although rated to extend to about 22KHz in my opinion it really starts dropping off around the 17KHz region. Leaving some of the highest frequencies lacking.

Overall: Very good, and it has its strengths such as bass clarity and punch, as well as soundstage center imaging and instrument placement. However it also has its weaknesses, chief among them would be the horrible upper mids, which lack detail and sound levels and are not at all complemented by the boosted center mids which can make it sound painful with some vocalist. Do the pros out weigh the cons? I guess it depends on the type of music you listen too. For a lot of music I would say that these are very good. Pianos have a very nice sound on these and head banging music will sound great as well! But vocal jazz or folk music is not its strong suits.


The first thing you will notice going from the DN-16 to the DN-17 is that it has a better and smoother overall sound balance. I’ve always felt the DN-16s balance was rather odd but the DN-17s have solved this problem. Though in my opinion the DN-12s still have a slightly better overall sound balance.

Although the DN-12 may have a better balance it lacks things that both the DN-16s and DN-17s both have, and that’s detail. If your upgrading from the DN-12 your going to immediately notice tighter bass and better clarity as well as more detail across the board. How does the DN-17 stack up against the DN-16 in this regard? Well I’d say quite well I would say that the DN-16 still has a leg up on the DN-17 in terms of bass punch and detail overall.

One place were the DN-17s definitely have a leg up on the DN-16s in my opinion is in the fact that they are laid back. I often found the DN-16s a tad bright for my taste and the DN-17s work on that. With it being more relaxing and more something I want to put on to relax too.

So if I could only have one, which would it be? I think it would depend a lot on what I’m listening to and what mood I’m in. For my taste in music, listening to a lot of folk and vocal jazz I’d have to stick with the DN-16s however I would say they are both very good and I can totally see someone liking the DN-17s more for other types of music. Heavy rock, metal, maybe even rap or types of alternative may sound better on the DN-17s and I do prefer them on a lot of music so its more a matter of taste since I find that they are both are on the same grounds of overall quality.


I’m very interested, as I’m sure you are too on how much the DUNU DN-17s are going to cost when they release. Unfortunately I’m not able to provide you with that information. How much do I think they are worth? Well in terms of pure sound quality, I’d price them similarly to the DN-16s if I were DUNU. I think asking more then $100 would be asking too much for them. But I don’t want to speculate too much on that.

Another question you might have is when the release date is? Well I've asked DUNU and they said that they are aiming for a March release, so if these sound like your ideal headphones then you'll be waiting till then. Another thing I want to point out is that these headphones really need to be burned in. When I first heard these I thought they sounded awful, so I put at a decent sound level and let I burn in for about 50 hours and they really changed. So keep that in mind if you buy these!

Build  Quality: The build quality of the Dunu DN-17’s are very good for the most part. The driver casing is metal and reflective. IT does not feel cheap. The driver tip is also of high quality. No problems with the mesh or surrounding parts. However, the opening of the “port tube” that opens up into the rear of the IEM has some problems. Some material from within the driver was coming out (a few strands). The port itself also isn’t super finely shapped, but that is something that really matters to the perfectionists themselves. However the DN-17 is too durable with too much metal. It drops fast and even with weeks of using them, placing them on the table as one normally would, would make them hit the table due to their mass. And when the drivers hit together, it creates a sound that worries the user.  I would say that the build materials should be rethought next time around. They are good but too heavy when taken out., and cause mishaps because most earbuds are not as heavy.
 
Read the Review Here:
http://www.pandatechreview.com/dunu-dn-17-review/

Microphonics: The cables do make a sound sadly. They aren’t noisy to the point that moving yourself while sitting down creates unbearable noise , but walking around with them in the usual position creates a bit too much noise. Wearing them over and behind the ears is recommended. Demo pic below.

Cable Tangling:  The cables are also a bit easier to tangling that usual and it is even harder to get them loose. The plastic material used on the cables creates more friction than most cables and makes it hard to slide past each other, the heavy drivers make it harder to untangle as well

Isolation: How well the tips fit your ears and which tips you use make this different for some, but the standard tips that came on the DN17 by default fit me extremely well. They block out a very good amount of noise with music playing. Conversation, trains, regular cars go by without any problem.  Harley’s and other motorcycles still pose a problem however.  The DN17’s do not leak much sound either. The “port tube” may make some think that it leaks, but that is not the case.

In Ear feel: The body despite being heavy, doesn’t have any ill effects when in the ear. It fits well and doesn’t  block anything really, it may be a bit too long for sleeping with your ear to the pillow though. They stay in the ear easy, but again, everyone’s ears are different.

Tips: The default tip fit me very well. No problems, they were firm and fit well with the Crater. However the same can not be said about the double flanges. The double flanges were not made and do not fit the DN17 Crater in any way. I was a bit baffled that they were even included when they didn’t even secure onto the IEM.

Sound Quality: I have tried and used these with many different genres of songs. They were EDM, metal, pop, rock, hard rock, jpop, jrock, classical, house, dubstep, jazz , rap, R&B and anything really.

Highs: Harsh and uncontrolled is the only way to describe it. They got better than initial thoughts but are still in bad shape despite constant burn in. They get to a point when the high that is shown to you as a listener is just a plain high frequency and not even the song anymore. They come in at bad times and are like I said, uncontrolled. They don’t end in the right spots and start in the wrong ones as well. For the high pitched cymbal hits and other quick high frequency hits and pops, they work well, but when you need to rely on the highs to come out and show themselves, is when it fails. They are harsh, and are not accurate. They in terms of quantity are abundant. Songs that may require some more high frequency, get it.

Mids: The mids and vocals prefer those with more intimate voices, mainly females and males with a good soft but slightly assertive voice such as the lead singer from Electric Light Orchestra or Adam Leviine from Maroon 5. The preference isn’t night and day but is there. The upper regions of the mids and vocal regions are also harsh. They are sharp and become uncomfortable even when the volume is low. The mids themselves have decent depth. They aren’t too shallow or deep. But if I had to pick , they are still on the shallower side of things. They don’t have authority to them and are often over run by background sounds and instruments around. They are also not very clear, it takes a bit more effort to descipher the words to a song you don’t know. Instruments at this range also are hard to tell apart. The sound from instruments will sometimes just blend into a sonic burst of frequency rather than the instrument itself if you are not paying attention. The instruments in this range and the vocals clash frequently producing a unclear lower end of the vocal range and a much too free upper vocal range that gets near to the high frequency cousin that leads to piercing and sharpness. However, when the number of instruments or people reduce, the mids are very well pronounced, this is more typical in jazz.

Lows: The Dunu’s strongest point is there lows. They are of decent tightness and punch. They don’t generally overtake and run into the other ranges and give you bass overload or leaking into the mids but it does happen every now and then. They are of decent depth but their extension and range is very short. The mid bass is the most prominent, with the upper base being a bit lower and lower bass being very hard to detect. Very consumer oriented, although it is not boomy.  They are a good addition to the rest of the music without overpowering or underpowering, but they are also not the right combination, lower bass and some upper bass is needed.

Seperation: The Dunu’s do not favor multiple instrument setups, the separation is very  abysmal and hard to hear apart.

Soundstage: I was quite surprised at the soundstage of the DN17 crater, it isn’t as wide as a full open but for an IEM it is a good feature and thing to have. The soundstage isn’t very artificial but has moments when you “reach the outrebounds” and get that feeling of fakeness coming back to you.There is a slight pulling back effect, think of Slogic by Ultrasone. While Slogic moves you back noticeably, these pull you back a tiny bit. Dunu simply presents you with a soundstage on a IEM.

Burn in: These have been burned in for approx. 50-60 hours. Burn in did help drastically, but they stopped past 10 hours.  Extensive burn in is not needed.

Sibilance: There was some at first, but it later was gone for the most part. The sharp highs replaced it though.

Initial Impressions: This is where when I first got the IEMs, I would wear them and quickly jot down my thoughts on them, randomized thought, messy language and bad grammar, just quick notes.

Testing: Most of the time spent with the DN17 was directly out of an iPod Touch 2G. It was also tested with the Audio-gd NFB 12.1, Custom Objective 2 amplifier,FiiO E5, and Arcam rPAC. The end review was written by the follow:

ComputeràS/PDIFàAudio-gd NFB 12.1 Fixed line out w/ Dual Wolfson WM8741àOFEC audio RCA cableàCustome Objective 2 with Burr Brown OPA2228.
The dark blue unit to the right is a custom Objective 2 Amplifier with a Burr Brown OPA2228 and JRC NJM4556.

Driveability: The DN-17’s are extremely easy to drive as the specs may indicate. Getting to an almost loud volume brings the iPod volume controls to about half.

Amp: These do not need an amp at all. They are earbuds and are meant to be portable. These IEM’s do not warrant carrying around an amp with you.

Conclusion: The sound Quality of the DN17’s in my opinion for the price of $83 is not favorable for most genres. The DN17 loses out and gets unbearable with any song that gets too complex in instruments. That is its main problem. I have found that the best genres are simple classic, rap and hip hop, and especially Jazz where the not as congested mid range and light use of the high frequency range and good soundstage helps the most. The sound gets extremely unbearable and metallic with more instruments and the different frequency ranges start pouring and mxing into each other.

Specs:
Driver:10mm
Sound Pressure: 102+-2dB
Impendance:16 ohm
Freq. Responce: 16Hz-22KHz
Noise Attenuation: 26dB
Weight: 20g
Plug size: 3.5mm Gold platted
Cord length:1.2m

PRICE: $83USD

Rating Section:
Build Quality: 9/10 (solid, but should make driver lighter in future)

Isolation: 9/10 (depends on ears)

In ear feel:8.5/10

Ease of use:7/10 (heavy driver and frictional cables)

Microphonics:7.5/10

Sound Quality: 6/10

Value:6.5/10

The rating sections scores are dependent on the price of the IEM's.

Comments, both negative and positive are welcome, questions or anything whatsoever!