I've been looking for a good pair of portables to complement my ATH-EM9d (which are nice, but they provide no isolation and they lack bass, which meant they aren't suitable for many genres or movie-watching). Ideally I wanted something I can travel with that would isolate the cabin noise on trains and airplanes. I already own several full-sized cans and have never enjoyed dragging those around when I travel, so I started looking into IEMs.
After reading an extensive number of reviews, I narrowed down my choices to the Xiaomi Piston 3, Yamaha EPH-100, and the Dunu DN-1000 (I know they each belong to very different price tiers, but I wanted to know how big the differences are in sound quality before deciding how much I actually want to spend, heh).
Well, the Xiaomi Piston 3 hasn't arrived yet so I can't offer a comparison, but between the Yamaha EPH-100 and the Dunu DN-1000, the Dunu easily won by a huge margin (sorry Yamaha, looks like I'll be returning you...) Below are my impressions.
Accessories, Craftsmanship, & Comfort
Dunu threw in just about everything except the kitchen sink - frankly given the sound quality at the price I got it at ($160 brand new from Amazon), I would have been happy with half of the included accessories. There are eartips of all shapes and sizes, an accessory pouch, a hard carrying case, and two adapters (one for airline, which is perfect for what I need).
Craftsmanship on the Dunu appears to be excellent - the entire housing is metal and seems to be very solidly constructed. I did wish the cable were user-replaceable mainly because the housing seem difficult to disassemble and if anything goes wrong with the cable, I won't know what to do. But other than that, can't complain.
Comfort-wise, I found the foam tips to provide the best long-term comfort as well as the best seal. The housing is quite large and heavy for an IEM, and I found all the silicone tips to require the use of spacers to provide proper seal and comfort (and even then they don't seal as well, or are as comfortable, as the foam tips). The best silicone tip combination I found was the use of blue or red spacers coupled with the wide-bore single-flange (semi-transparent) black silicone tips.
Sound Quality
Just absolutely breathtaking! These are the first BA-based IEM's I have tried, and I was just blown away by the detail and clarity present in the treble and mid-range. I had read some reviews saying that the BA drivers made the treble brittle and unpleasant, but I didn't find this to be the case. At least based on the materials I listen to, I didn't find the treble to be harsh or sibilant. There's just the right amount of sparkle without being offensive.
The bass is thunderous and goes down really deep, which is definitely a trait I like (I love sub-bass over mid-bass, as I am used to the AKG K550/K553). That said, there's just a little bit too much of it sometimes and I feel the bass could be a bit tighter (the K553 is about how I like my bass, and I do feel the bass is tighter on that). The texture of the bass on the DN-1000 is fairly fluid and dynamic, which is in stark contrast to the fast and crystalline texture of its BA-based mids and treble. The effect is most comparable to listening to speakers that have separate tweeter & subwoofer units, that's the best way I can describe it. It takes some getting used to, as I have never heard this quality in a headphone before.
This may be less of an issue when I am traveling, though, since as a general rule bass needs to be enhanced when there's background noise. I have a feeling I'll find the sound signature of the DN-1000 to be just perfect when I am on a train or airplane.
All in all, very happy with my purchase and looking forward to updating my impressions with further listening.
