So before I returned the Dunu Blanche I figured I’d give it another good listen. In the process I surprised myself.
I’m no sound or electrical engineer. But for reference, my career is in sociolinguistics. I have to notice small differences in any kind of communication, and I’ve had to train on phonetics for the field on tonal languages which have extremely subtle tone differences on ‘the same’ sounds to mean completely different words. Furthermore, I have to transcribe in the International Phonetic Alphabet in realtime (
http://ipachart.com/) which often has extremely fine differences in phonetics of the human mouth. All to say that I am extremely practiced at sitting and listening to recording after recording after recording of what sounds like the same thing and actually being responsible, with consequences, for correctly transcribing the tones and phonetics with painfully small differences that take multiple listens, sometimes fifty, just to catch. On top of that I was a very dedicated percussionist for a long time known for listening carefully to sound quality, detail, and resonance on everything from triangles to re-tuning six timpani to six new notes in only two
allègre measures in the middle of a symphony. I am extremely sensitive to sound, especially noise pollution. Idiots who leafblow instead of rake are the bane of my, and the songbirds’, existence (I can’t wait for the noisy and smelly fossil fuel era to fade into painful memory). I also clean my ears very carefully lol. I’m sure others have more
bona fides, these are just so that you know what my subjective opinion rests on. I’m specialized in hearing slight differences, of some sorts, as I’m sure many sound engineers, mixers, and musicians are in their own ways.
So, unbalanced connection, on my NW-A105TPS. I switched back and forth quickly, many times, on the same two songs (Over the Hills and Far Away 96/24 FLAC and My Home is in the Delta 11.2896MHz DSD), at the same point of each song. I did it so many times that often I forgot which cable I had plugged in, which was really an opportunity to judge the sound.
An annoying process to be sure. At first, the different impressions were more airiness and detail with the Blanche. Noting the contrasting visual characteristics of copper vs silver I was wary of any parallels I might draw between the auditory and the visual–with silver being a colder, brighter, harsher, more revealing color and copper being warmer, darker–so forth and so on. Also noting the tendency to justify purchases may bias me… When I thought the Blanche was more airy, or with a wider soundstage, or with more instrument separation, I realized the cables were lighter and more comfortable, and the cord organizer wasn’t tightened, thus not up against as much of my neck, and the cords were even a bit colder to the touch, all which one could unconsciously associate with such descriptors. So I would start over and ensure the cords were in the same position, and sure enough that was what I was making an association between with the sound. When I closely isolated various song details, I could not identify what was different but I did have the intuition that something was slightly different. After a long time, a few hours of listening to the same 30 seconds of the same two songs over and over, I came to realize that the Blanche was unpleasant with a small number of high frequency impactful sounds like particularly harsh guitar strums or plucks, some snare drum hits, crash and ride cymbals. In that soundspace, such sounds that had initially seemed a tiny more detailed with the Blanche actually revealed themselves to be harsh, unpleasant, unrefined, even perhaps, distorted. Keep in mind that at this point I was beyond the microscope of these sounds into what AntMan would call the Quantum Realm: very very small scale. These terms are also probably imprecise references vis-à-vis the proper lexicon for such tests and measurements: it wouldn’t shock me if someone laser-penned their powerpoint chart showing me that there was no distortion, harshness, whatever. Anyway, it was more apparent in the poorer Led Zeppelin recording than the higher quality Muddy Waters song (and I don’t mean filetype but rather the quality of the original recording job). Once I heard it, I couldn’t unhear it, and it persevered after controlling every variable I could think of: ear tips, insertion, position, cable position, skin contact, comfort and discomfort, whatever. Compared to the Blanche the stock cable seemed to, in my opinion, work with the headphones in a complimentary way for easier, more enjoyable listening. I had my friend randomly swap the cable and place them in my ear until I said it was positioned correctly (because if I touched it I would be able to feel the connector and know which cable it was). I still heard it and didn’t want to listen anymore. It had become all I could hear. At the risk of exaggeration, the stock cable seems to optimally tame / harness / balance the sound of these IEMs. Of course by now my eyes are Catherine Wheels and I even hear a phone ring blast in The Ocean (Led Zeppelin) around 1:38 (I swear I hear it!)
The big surprise came afterwards. I don’t know why but when I sat down to work I grabbed my FiiO Q3 and plugged it into the walkman, then used the balanced stock cable to the headphones. I wasn’t thinking about the sound anymore but rather consumed by how behind I am now for wasting my time on such a stupid experiment. Anyway the surprise was that after knowing the sound of that song for so long, when I just hit play and it was still on that song my attention immediately came back to the sound: it was junk. Relatively speaking. Muddled, suffocated, and dull. It was so strange. Now of course I was insane by this point, I felt like I knew the thread count of the carpet in the recording studios of these two songs. I put the unbalanced cable back on and it was resolved. Tried a few times and sure enough, the unbalanced was cleaner with more separation and detail. It’s splitting Higgs Bosons of course at this stage, I would have never noticed it a few hours ago. But there you have it.
Keep in mind that the unbalanced is processed by the Walkman only, and the balanced is processed (also?) by the FiiO Q3.
I’m probably just out of my mind. I’ll stop procrastinating now that I’ve boxed up that balanced connection and the Q3 for the auditory joy and simplicity of the unbalanced life. Anyway, my G.A.S. is satiated and I’m now trying to cure the hangover…
