My take on Kotori Dauntless. While Tonality will be hit or miss depending of your tonal taste, the technicalities a sure extremely impressive.
KOTORI DAUNTLESS NO BS REVIEW
TONALITY: 7/10
TECHNICALITIES: 8.8/10
CONSTRUCTION: 9/10
SOUND BENEFIT: 8/10
TONALITY
Bright neutral-treble-centric to vivid W shape with tamed bass response, the Kotori put all its energy and talent in treble region, favorizing an open, detailed and energic signature with razor sharp clarity.
TECHNICALITIES
Excellent for the price, and it seem this is the goal of the tuning: take full advantage of attack speed without bass veil. This DD is fast, very fast and well controlled too. Resolution is high. Transparency is above average. The Dauntless is a couragous IEM that can deal with busiest jazz rock or symphony track whitout loosing it's edge in definition and articulation in attack, all concentrate in upper range.
BASS is flat with notable tamed sub-bass response that doesn't feel lacking in extension but sure did in body, rumble, impact and presence. Bass line are far away in the background, well textured and clear enough but easily drowned when hgiher number of instrument come in. Their slight bump in kick and upper bass lower mids presence, this permit to have minimal punch in rock and jazz but not enough to make big kick of pop, soul or rap music club-like or heavy in slam enough. This is serious AF bass, not particularly bad in quality, just lacking in quantity for being really versatile. In fact, if your familiar with Hifiman RE600 bass, it's even better in extension and without any distortion, muffling, bleed in mids.
MIDS are on the dry, clean and detailed side, with great transparency but intimate presentation. They are thin and lack in body and well rounded warmth. Their presence is pushed in upper mids, but some instruments like saxophone sound surprisingly good, wide and airy, yet transparent and textured. Mids texture and crispness are boosted to the detriment of density and wideness of timbre. Female vocal sound fowards but have minimal sibilance, timbre is on the abrasive side here and a bit boxy.
TREBLE is extremely impressive, yet it might be too audacious it's approach of dynamic amplitude too. This will be too much for must people apart treble head and those that prefer analytical sound. It isn't a disaster since the attack is very fast and well controlled, another highlight of the Dauntless, but it does affect overall balance and can make percussion distracting being too fowards, even if again, i've heard worst in that aspect. Its very snappy and sharp highs, whithout lotta decay and brilliance strangely. It does extend far though and pick up tremendous amount of micro details effortlessly. One thing that save the highs from being too brutal is that while sibilance occur, it's mostly in recording that have some in first place, as well their no splashyness to be found due to good attack control so cymbals will not create a distortion nightmare. In fact, we have BA life treble here, and as said, for percussions it can go spectacular, especially solo drum in jazz which is fully restitute in all it's speed glory, from toms and kick to hit hat and cymbals, all perfectly define, textured, yet accurate in attack-timing and benefiting from extra treble air, cause yes, this is an airy open treble too.
SPATIALITY is all about deepness, with average wideness, it doesnt feel stock in your head but not far from it.
IMAGING is very good, though strangely dealed with since high harmonic instrument are better separated and have more sens of space than mids and bass instruments (sub-4khz).
COMPARISONS
VS HZsound Hearth Mirror
Well, let's begin by sayin HZ seem smooth sounding after going some time with the Dauntless, which should tell you alot since they are very vivid and energic brigh IEM, but better rounded on they edge and as a whole. Second things that hit is sub bass weight and presence, but these doesn't make them feel bass, just fuller-weighty and more extended in bass presentation. In fact, kick have more punch with the Dauntless here, making HZ bass feel like a warmer round slam. Tonality is more balanced in it's W shape with HZ, less spiky and shouty on top. Yet, cymbals feel a bit more splashy with HZ, in a smoothed way. Did it mean attack is faster with the Dauntless? Thats possible due to concentration of energy on top while HZ disperse the energy in mids and bass presence too. This is the thing here, Dauntless mids feel very distant compared to HZ, dryer, lighter, flatter in dynamic too. Back to the treble, their mroe air on top with the Dauntless, but its more spike, less full in restitution and more fatiguing. Timbre crually lack density with the Dauntless as well as texture balance, which both are better with HZ Mirror. Unbeatable sub-100$ king of high end balance between technical and tonal prowess.
So, if you want a more technical sounding HZM, with less soul and versatility, Dauntless might be the winner here for you.
VS Moondrop Aria
So different here, the Aria being way smoother, more organic and open in presentation, with denser yet more clean and transparent timbre. Dauntless is the tonal opposite, having no sub bass boost at all, nor fowarded mids presence, and all it's energy spike seem where the Aria smoothen it's curve like snap and abrasiveness in texture. Bass is warmer and less textured with Aria, weightier but not as dry-punchy, mids are fuller but not as clean even if less distant and better layered the definition isn't as sharpen in higher harmonic. For vocal and acoustic instrument like violin, piano, the natural yet polished mids of Aria will do better while for rock electric guitar will sound better and more define with the Dauntless. Soundstage is way wider and taller with the Aria, while imaging is a bit more blurry, vaporous even if richer is sounds layers separation.
All in all, its clear for me that Aria is miles ahead in term of balance, attack weigth and timbre, but hey, if you find them boring the Dauntless are sure to wake you up!
CONCLUSION
When i feel an audio company got tremendous potential, I get excited inside...but this doesn't mean this translate positively into my critical hearing judgment outside. In fact, i might become even more severe and no BS, so this promising company can excell in their futur tuning.
Dauntless is one of those rare new audio company that I feel have immense potential. While this time their tuning might please only a niche audiophile target, the approach is at the same time bold and mature, it doesn't go safe at all and follow a specific tuning ideal that will magnify energy and details of music with great vividness.
If you weight your sound benefit with amount of clarity-details, complex dynamic timing and sharpness of imaging, the Dauntless sure deliver extremely high value in that regard.
For natural tonal balance lover, it will be another story.
