Dunu TITAN 5: TITAN 1's Beefy Big Brother
A Review On:
Rated # 541in
In-Ear
See all 1 reviews Review Details: Audio Quality
Comfort
Design
Isolation
Value
[img]http://cdn.head-fi.org/e/e3/50x50px-NS-e32476ff_image.jpeg[/img]
By
nmatheis
Posted 18 hours, 54 minutes ago · 225 Views ·
2 Comments
Pros: Retuned with more more bass. Increased isolation. Attractive design. Above average soundstage.
Cons: More conventional soundstage. Larger earpiece strain reliefs. Heavier earpieces.
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Dunu's teaser for the forthcoming Titan 5.
INTRODUCTION
I'm going to let you in on a secret: I never tried the original Dunu TITAN 1. Why? The many excellent reviews were balanced out by reports of weak bass and aggressive highs. These discrepancies made me leery of trying them. But when I saw Fiio sponsor a tour for the EX1 (basically a Fiio-branded TITAN 1 -
LINK to review), I signed up. Here was my chance to hear one of the most hyped IEM of 2015. If I didn't like it, no worries. If I did like it, maybe I'd end up buying it. Either way, I'd find out if the hype was deserved. Okay, okay. I'm not talking about the TITAN 5, you say. You're right. This is the convoluted back story into how I stumbled into reviewing the TITAN 5 (T5 from here on out).
So, to pick up where I left off...
With Dunu on my mind, I stumbled on a thread (
LINK) announcing Dunu's new hybrids. I'm a previous DN-1000 owner and hybrid believer, so when I saw the announcement I contacted Vivian at Dunu and asked if I could get some review loaners to review and then tour in the US & Canada. Those of you who know me, know I love to tour the gear I get for review. It's a great way to let some of my fellow Head-Fi members try out new gear before they commit to buying it. They can also share their experience with the Head-Fi community. It's been a lot of fun so far. Anyways, Vivian told me that while the new hybrids were still in pre-production mode, she could send me the new T3 and T5 for review. Since I was getting the Fiio EX1 in for review, I thought it would be a lot of fun to get the new T3 & T5 in at the same time and see what I thought of them. So I told Vivian yes, and here we are.
Here's some information about DUNU from their Brand Story page:
DUNU: Delicate, Unique & Utmost
With advanced technology and hi-end equipments, DUNU desires to be able to provide Delicate, Unique ＆ Utmost products for Hi-Fi embracers. Delicate means extremely quality demanding on product process, from every little component to product manufacturing. DUNU has complete production line and equipments, including precise equipments, B&K frequency machine, IMD sputter, CNC machine, anechoic room, etc. Concerning design of product, DUNU also devotes to create unique outer appearance and balance in all sound frequency.
Utmost is not only the expectation on products, but also the pursuit of an Earphone Manufacturer. The founder of DUNU, himself, has years experience in OEM/ODM earphone products in which many worldwide famous earphone Brands are included. However, in order to create the most enjoyable earphone on his own, DUNU’s president establishes the brand “DUNU” and implants many hi-end equipments and hires talented employees. From then on, DUNU takes the lead in developing the first Chinese made metal earphone, developing 5.8mm Driver unit and produce the very first Chinese Balance Armature Earphone, in 2014 DUNU release China first triple driver Dynamic and Balance Armature Hybrid earphone, All these preparation are to step on the world stage and to challenge renowned earphone brands. The ultimate goal of DUNU is to provide worldwide HI-FI embracers our Delicate, Unique & Utmost earphone products.
Dunu's Website:
LINK.
Dedicated Dunu TITAN thread:
LINK.
DISCLAIMER
There is no financial incentive from Dunu for writing this review. I am in no way affiliated with Dunu, and this is my honest opinion of the TITAN 5. I would like to thank Dunu for giving me a chance to test drive and tour the TITAN 5, and I hope my feedback proves useful for my fellow Head-Fi members as well as for Dunu.
ABOUT ME
I'm a 43 year old father who loves music. While I listen mostly to electronic and metal these days, I do listen to a wide variety of music - from electronic (Autechre, Boards of Canada) to modern/minimalist composition (John Cage, Philip Glass) to alternative rock (Flaming Lips, Radiohead) to jazz (John Coltrane and Miles Davis) to metal (Behemoth, King Diamond) to classic rock (Eagles, Rush).
I'm primarily a portable audio enthusiast. My portable music journey started with the venerable Sony Cassette Walkman and then progressed to portable CD players, minidisc recorders (still have my Sharp DR7), and finally on to DAPs like the Rio Karma, iRiver IHP-1xx, iPod 5.5, iPhones, and the newer crop of DAPs from Fiio and iBasso.
Being a portable audio enthusiast, I typically listen with IEMs but am enjoying listening with full-size headphones more and more and tend to like u-shaped sound signatures, although I break out v-shaped IEM & HP from time to time for fun.
As with a lot of people my age, I've got some hearing issues. I've got mild tinnitus and suffer from allergies, which can affect hearing in my right ear. I'll admit it, I'm not blessed with a pair of golden ears. That said, I've been listening to portable gear for a long time and feel confident in assessing audio gear - just wanted to be transparent up front.
SPECS
- Driver: 13mm titanium coated dynamic
- Frequency Response: 10Hz-40KHz
- SPL: 108±2dB
- Impedance: 32Ω
- Plug: 3.5mm Gold-plated L-plug
- Cord Length: 1.2m
- Weight: 24g
PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES
I'll let the packaging speak for itself. It's essentially the same as the TITAN 1, so if you've seen that you'll know what to expect.
Front
Inside (This is a great opportunity for you to exercise your imagination and pretend that this is the T5 box)
Carry case
Tips
Not pictured: Shirt clip + 1/8" plug adapter.
So you get the T5, Heir and Hybrid style tips in S, M, and L, the hard carry case, a shirt clip, and an 1/8" plug adapter. Not bad. I'll say right now that I'm not a fan of Heir style tips. They always seem to slip out of my ear canals. The Hybrid style tips are grippier and stay put in my ears much better, so that's what I gravitated towards. While the hard case works very well with the EX1, the T5's housings are just a bit too big to allow the case to close properly. There were many times where I had to reposition the T5 in order to get the lid to snap shut. I'd suggest Dunu include a slightly taller case in the future. Just another 5mm would make all the difference and wouldn't add too much bulk. I didn't try the shirt clip with T5, but I've used the same clip with my DN-1000, and it works just fine.
BUILD & ERGONOMICS
The T5 are a half in-ear design, which allows them to include a large driver without compromising on comfort. I'll walk through the various design and ergonomic features of the T5 in pictorial format below.
Here's an view of the T5's inner face.
It's a nice all-metal design. My only comfort concern can be seen in this picture. The seam where the front and back housing meet, while not overtly sharp, does tend to end up digging into my ears a bit during long listening sessions. It doesn't bother me during shorter listening sessions and is really only an issue during longer sessions. It's not a major issue, but I thought I'd mention it. My thought is that it digs in due to the heavier housings, as this wasn't an issue with the EX1. Vivian did let me know that I'll be receiving an additional accessory to make the T5 even more comfortable. It should arrive soon, and I'll update this review as needed with pics and my thoughts on the new accessory.
T5 vs. EX1
Those of you familiar with the T1 (or EX1) are looking at that picture, thinking where did all the vent holes go? Yup, Dunu eliminated most of the vent holes with the T5, and it's definitely noticeable in the soundstage department. While T5 has a nice (if conventional) soundstage, it lacks the open, airy sound that made the originals really stand out from the crowd. A couple more things I'd like to point out in the picture above are the brushed metal inner housing and color coding on the original. I'd love it if the entire housing was brushed metal. I much prefer the more subdued, less reflective aesthetics of brushed metal. I'd also love to see the color coding carried over to the T5 but with less candy-like colors - a nice dark red for right and black for left would be classy and useful, since the L/R identifiers are very low contrast.
Detachable cables
Dunu designed the T5 with detachable cables. This means you don't need to worry so much about them shorting out, since Dunu will offer replacements (and compatible upgrade cables designed for their new hybrids). It also means the housing and strain reliefs needed to be bigger to accommodate the connectors and caused a 33% weight increase over the originals. As mentioned above, this did lead to some discomfort issues for me over time, but I'm hoping Dunu's new accessory will help abate that issue. A bonus is that you can now wear them over ear without inverting channels. Since they're a chiral / handed / sided design, you just need to swap L/R channels if you want to wear them over ear. Incidentally, the connectors are very similar to VSONIC's VSD series connectors. I tried to swap them, but they didn't quite fit and I didn't want to force them. Dunu's implementation is much better in my opinion, being quite easy to remove and connect whereas VSONIC's connectors often got stuck and had many reports of cutting out over time. I've been listening to the T5 for quite a while now and have had absolutely no issues with the connectors. I'm looking forward to what Dunu's upgrade cables bring to the table.
To illustrate the difference size, here are some pictures. Fiio EX1 on top. T3 & T5 on bottom.
Y-splitter and chin slider
3.5mm L-plug
Dunu's awesome cable management feature. Wish all my IEM had this!
Here's what T5 look like worn down vs. over ear.
While they're designed to be worn down, they can be worn over ear fairly easily - although I'd again reiterate that the original's smaller strain reliefs made over ear wear even more comfortable.
To sum up: I like the overall design / build but question the need for detachable cables. It seems IEM manufacturers caught detachable cable fever recently. Quite honestly, I'd take the smaller housing and strain reliefs and associated lighter weight of the original any day. EX1 disappeared in my ears much better than the new design. That said, I'm sure the detachable cable will be attractive to many prospective buyers who've also caught detachable cable fever. Beyond that, the vent hole redesign leaves me wondering what T5's tuning would sound like with the open, airy soundstage of the originals, which I suspect leaving in the numerous vent holes would've retained. Perhaps in the next iteration...
SOUND
I'm going to keep this section simple. There are more reviews coming soon. So if this isn't detailed enough or doesn't answer all your questions, just hold on and I'm sure one of those will answer your questions. You can always hit up the TITAN thread, where those of us who've gotten early access have been describing their experience. In particular, I'd suggest you start on page 150 with this post (
LINK). There's some good discussion and FR graphs after that which will help you decide which TITAN is right for you.
I mainly listen to experimental electronic and metal and use those genres to evaluate HP & IEM. During my time with the T5, I mainly used them with the Fiio X5, Shanling M3 DAP (
LINK to review), and the newly released Shanling M2 I have in for testing and US tour (
LINK to the M2 thread I started).
I know a lot of people are asking themselves how the new TITANs differentiate themselves from the original beyond the physical redesign. Reviews from people I trust (
EXAMPLE) indicate that T1 and EX1 sound identical, so the EX1 will be my T1 surrogate for this review. As mentioned above, I'm going to keep it simple with some notes I took while listening to my Fiio X5.
Fiio EX1
It's the hardest to drive, has the worst isolation, but has the most unique sound. Regarding driving power, a comfortable listening level in a quiet rom was 35 on Low Gain out of my X5. That actually indicates to me that the X5 isn't actually hard to drive - just harder to drive than the other TITANs. To get an initial sense of isolation, I snapped my fingers by my ears while music was playing. The snaps were dulled but still clearly audible. Later I listened to them while walking in my neighborhood, and while they were definitely less isolating than my other IEM it wasn't night and day. It certainly wasn't egregious, and I clearly had a better sense of environmental awareness. Soundstage was open and airy for an IEM at any price point. I was quite impressed with the holographic sound. It actually reminded me a bit of my HiFiMan HE400 in this respect. Not the same mind you but reminiscent nonetheless. The basic sound signature is a u-curve. Bass is relatively flat with just enough mid-bass emphasis to add a bit of punch - definitely neither weak nor boomy. Mids are neutral and clear but are a bit lacking in sweetness and emotion. The upper end is a bit edgy but didn't verge into sibilant territory for me and is something I could easily be happy with.
Quite honestly, the EX1 exceeded my expectations, pushing a lot of the right buttons for me. Soundstage was fantastic, providing a very holographic listening experience. Bass was deep enough for a satisfying listen with electronic music but also fast enough to keep up with the rapid fire kick drums oft employed in metal music. Mids were definitely the weak point but were present enough not to call EX1 recessed. They're the aspect of EX1 most ripe for improvement. While the upper end was a touch harsh, it wasn't as aggressive as I was expecting and provided a good level of detail without veering into fatiguing territory. I see what the hype was about now. EX1 sounds nice!
Ok, now we have our baseline. How do the new TITANs compare?
Dunu TITAN 3
T3 are the easiest to drive of the bunch. To get a comparable volume, I was able to turn my X5's volume down to 28 while listening in a quiet room. Isolation is on par with typical dynamic IEM. I could barely hear my fingers snapping when music was playing and environmental noise in my neighborhood was mostly blocked. Soundstage is much more conventional. Gone is the original's very open, airy almost holographic sound. T3's sound signature is just on the warm side of neutral. Bass sounds similar to the EX1's but a bit flatter. Nonetheless, it was still satisfying with a wide range of music. The key difference is the mids, which are more present vs. EX1. Whereas the EX1's mids were neutral, the T3 brings them forward - especially the upper mids. This makes female vocals pop. Those of you who know me know I'm a big Bjork fan and routinely use her Biophila album when testing new IEM. T3 were hands-down the best of the TITANs for bringing out the best in Bjork's voice. EX1 and T5 were still satisfying but failed to convey the same emotional presence the T3 did. Similar to the low end, the T3's upper end sounds similar to EX1 but takes the edge off. If you thought the originals were a bit on the harsh side, T3 should solve that issue for you.
Dunu TITAN 5
T5 are just a bit harder to drive than T3. To get a comparable volume, I had to turn my X5's volume up to 30 while listening in a quiet room. Isolation is identical to T3, so on par with typical dynamic IEM. Soundstage is still quite conventional, but I found the soundstage larger vs. T3. And just like the T3, you'll be missing the original's open, airy sound. T5's sound signature is a mild v-shape. Bass is the star of the show. It's more prominent than the other TITANs but is well-done - not loose or boomy. The mids are neutral and remind me of the EX1, whereas the upper end is quite reminiscent of the T3. Revisiting Bjork for a minute - where T3 really made Bjork's voice pop, the T5 made the bass drops more satisfying. But when switching to The Eagles, I found the T5's bass made the bass guitar more prominent than I was used to. EX1 and T3 feel truer to the music in this respect.
TLDR
- T3 takes the general EX1 sound, adds in more prominent mids (especially upper mids), more refined upper end, and better isolation. It also brings a much more conventional soundstage.
- T5 takes the general EX1 sound but adds in more prominent bass, more refined upper end, and better isolation. It also brings a much more conventional soundstage but not as much of a compromise as T3.
SUMMARY
So what do I think of the TITAN lineup? Well, first of all I'm going to admit that I'm saddened that it took me this long to hear the originals. The EX1 are a superb IEM. Sure they've got a few flaws, but their open, airy soundstage and well-balanced sound signature more than make up for the small amount of harshness up top. They're also a very comfortable IEM. Hearing the T3 & T5 makes me confident in saying that Dunu's made a good case for product differentiation in the TITAN lineup. I could see people gravitating towards the different models based on their sound signature, soundstage, and isolation preferences. Personally, I gravitate towards EX1 for it's open, airy sound and T3 for improving the original's sound with improved mids. While I like the T5 and think it's a solid IEM, it just doesn't call out to me like the others do.
What did I feel could be improved? I'd love to see what the T3 & T5 would sound like with the same tuning but additional vent holes to give them a more open soundstage - even at the expense of decreased isolation. I also question the validity of using detachable cables, which adds complexity, added weight, and larger housings. This resulted in he new TITANs being less comfortable than the originals for me. I'd also like to see a thicker carry case, as the larger housing make it difficult to close which wasn't a problem with the EX1. Beyond that, I think all three TITANs are great IEM. It's just a matter of choosing which suits your needs.
I'd like to give a hearty thanks to Vivian at Dunu for giving me the chance to review and tour the TITAN 3 and TITAN 5. I really enjoyed my time with them. Be on the lookout for a US & Canada tour opportunity!
