DUNU ZEN and KBEAR Believe
Comparing these two IEMs was very interesting practice for me as I had to overcome expectation bias in my head.
As you all may already know, if expectation bias rears it's head... namely, that if you think it will/should sound better or vice versa, it very often does.
For example, if an IEM "A" costs $700 versus $200 "B", many will naturally have a strong expectation bias towards the item A.
When you start listening the two, you already established in your head that A will outperform the B and your judgement becomes cloudy.
I think ongoing discussion about the MT300 is very interesting in a positive sense.
I had a strong expectation bias against it after measuring the frequency response and it almost sounded much worse thereafter.
All I could think was 14dbs of this -6dbs of that without much corroboration to establish credibility of what I was actually hearing.
Having said that my MT300 is on a burn-in station for next 1900 hours or so until I re-deploy lol.
Also I feel that having quite differing opinions is a good thing and often useful when done in a civilized manner.
Ok, enough of that and let's get back to my findings, starting from the Dunu Zen:
Pat Metheny's "KIN (<-->)" passed through the multi-layered percussion wall, and the saxophone and guitar squeezed half a step forward, penetrating my ears with a vibrant and dynamic sound. Even in a performance with such a large number of sounds, the timbre of each sound is clear and easily identifiable, so when listening with the Zen, all the relationship between each part is neatly organized, and the feeling of turbidity is not a concern. Since the recording emphasizes the acoustic feel, the depth is not odd. The bass has a fairly propulsive sound, but its sharpness followed by abundant texture deserves a special mention.
Now with the KBEAR Believe, it's immediately apparent layering isn't as adept as micro dynamic seems to be a bit compromised. However all the other aspect of sound, be it speed, imaging, timbre, decay all seem to be quite evenly matched. Zen is overall bit wetter and dimensional sounding, with bit more ambient pickups of the venue, but I find their technical abilities pretty close.
Rachel Podger's solo performance by Bach's violin concerto brought out an exhilarating sound by both, and I was able to enjoy the fresh tone unique to period instruments. Even in this song, the solo violin does not have thin lines down to the low notes, and each note has a rich expression. From my past experience with Dunu products, for me, they are very good at reproducing core melodies such as vocals, guitars, and violins with rich and fresh tones.
The goodness of this quality is exactly exhibited here, and its characteristics can be enjoyed beyond the boundaries of the genre.
With the KB Believe, you can clearly see that the sound pressure and timbre are neatly aligned and there are no unnatural parts in the distribution of overtones.
Overall sound is well damped and pleasant. Zen slightly edges ahead of the Believe in terms of pure emotional pull and musical enjoyment, but the gap here is even smaller than the above with a "KIN".
I can think of various IEMs that appeal to the flashiness of the moment I listen to them, but in reality, there are not so many IEMs that I never get tired of listening for a long time. This two definitely belongs to the latter. I would like to recommend it to all acoustic music fans who are looking for a sound signature that can be used for a long time.
. I might give it a shot, but im pretty bad at it.
