Unique Melody 3DT Impressions
This was sent to me with filters pre-installed by
@tgx78, so I listened and measured the 3DT with those first. The 3DT has a solid, upper-midrange oriented tuning with the filters. There is a noticeable bump at the presence region and it leans slightly V-shaped, perhaps. Detailing is about a B- grade; it sounds fairly compressed for dynamics, but presents a pretty smooth listen. Pretty alright overall, even if it's not $300 competitive. Now let’s talk about the 3DT without the filters. I hate to say it, but the stock 3DT is...actually mildly painful for me to listen to. A popular point of comparison seems to be the Moondrop Blessing 2, so I'll run with that.
The bass on the 3DT is okay. Texture, slam, and decay are all right about where they should be, with a noticeable lead over the Blessing 2’s dry bass tactility. I do get the impression that the 3DT’s bass attack is slightly more blunted than its midrange and treble (and it’s definitely less controlled than the Blessing 2’s bass), but it’s not the end of the world. This slight sense of disjointedness could just be the result of tonality.
Along the lines of tonality, unfortunately, the 3DT stumbles hard as we move into the midrange. The upper-midrange of the 3DT rises with more amplitude than the Blessing 2 in the pinna compensation and instead of sloping off properly, it
rises into 5kHz. Where have I heard this before? Right - the Tin Audio T5, an IEM some readers will recall that I didn’t care much for, comes to mind. This poorly articulated transition lends to what I generally describe as a “glassy” quality to female vocalists where there’s too much emphasis on breaths and it sounds like they’re completely stuck singing in head voice. Danielle Bradbery and Thomas Rhett’s “Goodbye Summer” is a good example. Her voice, which normally has a lighter, slightly ethereal tone, sounds straight uncanny on the 3DT.
The treble on the 3DT is also something of a double-edged sword. It’s decently extended, more than the Blessing 2’s treble, but holy moly, it’s jagged, tinny, and it gets increasingly unpleasant the more I listen. The Blessing 2’s treble is pretty gritty to be sure, but at least it’s fairly smooth tonally with just minor peaks at 6kHz and 8kHz. I don't need to sine sweep
this to know it has some pesky peaks in the upper-treble. It also sounds to be dipped in odd spots it shouldn't be, lending to cymbals sounding like crumpled aluminum foil; lightweight, hollowed like a wafer, and slightly spiky. Hard pass.
Timbre here is also just OK. Due to the tonal irregularities, admittedly, stuff doesn't really sound correct for me from the midrange and up, especially compared to my Genelec G2 reference speakers. That glassy sheen to the upper-midrange brings out a sort of metallic edge to decay, exacerbating the slight digital artifacts to Taeyeon's voice on "I Found You" and on Loona's "Eclipse". A shame given the 3DT
does have a good sense of vibrancy to attack that makes the Blessing 2 come off cold. Treble on the 3DT is also tinged with metal, sounding
okay on cursory listen, but slowly sticking out like a sore thumb, hence the crumpled aluminum foil analogy. Detail on the 3DT is alright for the price, but it's no Blessing 2. Notes sound larger, grander on the 3DT; consequently, it neither layers as well nor does it have the same positional accuracy that the Blessing 2 is acclaimed for. Technical performance on the stock 3DT is definitely better than with the filters, though, so I'd say you're looking at around B+ grade technicalities.
And therein lies my (and tgx78's) dilemna. The filter mod fixes the tonal issues, but you're going to take a hit in technicalities; vice versa without the filter. Ultimately, what I hear is a compromised IEM that started off as good idea, but that was bottlenecked by its implementation. It's just not my cup of tea, sorry.
Score: 4/10
