-rowan-
1000+ Head-Fier
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Last (slightly belated) mail call of 2024:
Dunu DK3001BD Brain Dance
Came for the treble, stayed for the bass
This time, I decided I needed to hold off on early impressions and take a little more time to get my head around this set. And what a fascinating set it is.
Yeah, it's a treble fest - brighter, showier, more energetic than Cantor. Think of it as Cantor's younger cousin.
Along with it, an abundance of imaging and positional cues.
It is not overtly bassy. On the DC Elite, it comes across as more balanced than anything.
But even on the DCE - and more so with the powerbank - I could already discern a cavernous rumble that hinted at a much larger reserve of bass, and it piqued my interest.
So I threw it on the Enleum HPA-23RM and let it rip. And what a metamorphosis.
In current mode, its sub bass is thunderous and bottomless. Great dynamics.
You know how some sub bass-focused IEMs can get a bit one-note, thudding and thumping along? Not this one. Driven to its max, it has no shortage of visceral impact but somehow also the control, nimbleness and lightness to convey texture, detail and nuance.
Mids are textured and detailed, indexing for clarity rather than lushness. Not the most forward for vocals, especially when that bass driver is going for it. But with bass quality like this, one almost doesn't care.
Plays it safe in the sibilance region - perhaps too safe even (is there such a thing?) There seems to be a careful dip in the sibilance region, such that recordings that are reliably sibilant don't as much as hiss, which comes across as almost unnatural. Not sure how I feel about this yet. Admittedly, the effect is more obvious in current mode than voltage mode, so YMMV.
Burn in
BD is another set that benefits from burn in (imo anyway) and it feels like the drivers have broken in and stabilised enough for me to feel confident about my impressions of it.
Out of the box, I thought it lacked some coherency and bass definition and texture. It has about 50 hours on it now and bass is noticeably faster and and more elastic while tightening up texturally as well.
Tips
This is the first time that Dunu's S&S tips have worked for me.
I remember being so excited when they launched the grey S&S tips, because I liked the inverted tip mod that its form factor seems to have been derived from... so I ordered two boxes, but was never able to achieve a seal with them. Not sure what the difference is with the clear tips, but they simply do it on the BD for me.
Cable
Haven’t felt compelled to roll yet. I'm usually a fan of these old school 2-pin connectors that can fit recessed sockets (ask me about how they also make it easier and safer to remove cables from IEMs) but I can't help feeling like Dunu missed an opportunity here with the design.
Impedance adapter
The 4.4mm balanced variable impedance adapter arrived meantime so I tried it as well, but honestly it isn't for me. Yes, it makes the bass bigger and fatter, but at the expense of the mids and highs. Music simply sounds less interesting and less fully realised without that extra treble and midrange information. The difference was already palpable at as low as 10 ohms, although I went as high as 80.
(The last IEM that I regularly enjoyed with an impedance adapter with was the CK100 Pro, one of the last Audio Technica IEMs to be made in Japan, before the Fukushima quake iirc. It had extremely hot treble, even by my standards way back then and let's just say they don't make them like that anymore.)
As far as the Drain Brance goes, its bass is best served by lots of power - failing which, I suppose one could try EQ.
Tl;dr - Source sensitive. Bass driver scales up like crazy. I can't get enough of it.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Dunu DK3001BD Brain Dance
Came for the treble, stayed for the bass
This time, I decided I needed to hold off on early impressions and take a little more time to get my head around this set. And what a fascinating set it is.
Yeah, it's a treble fest - brighter, showier, more energetic than Cantor. Think of it as Cantor's younger cousin.
Along with it, an abundance of imaging and positional cues.
It is not overtly bassy. On the DC Elite, it comes across as more balanced than anything.
But even on the DCE - and more so with the powerbank - I could already discern a cavernous rumble that hinted at a much larger reserve of bass, and it piqued my interest.
So I threw it on the Enleum HPA-23RM and let it rip. And what a metamorphosis.
In current mode, its sub bass is thunderous and bottomless. Great dynamics.
You know how some sub bass-focused IEMs can get a bit one-note, thudding and thumping along? Not this one. Driven to its max, it has no shortage of visceral impact but somehow also the control, nimbleness and lightness to convey texture, detail and nuance.
Mids are textured and detailed, indexing for clarity rather than lushness. Not the most forward for vocals, especially when that bass driver is going for it. But with bass quality like this, one almost doesn't care.
Plays it safe in the sibilance region - perhaps too safe even (is there such a thing?) There seems to be a careful dip in the sibilance region, such that recordings that are reliably sibilant don't as much as hiss, which comes across as almost unnatural. Not sure how I feel about this yet. Admittedly, the effect is more obvious in current mode than voltage mode, so YMMV.
Burn in
BD is another set that benefits from burn in (imo anyway) and it feels like the drivers have broken in and stabilised enough for me to feel confident about my impressions of it.
Out of the box, I thought it lacked some coherency and bass definition and texture. It has about 50 hours on it now and bass is noticeably faster and and more elastic while tightening up texturally as well.
Tips
This is the first time that Dunu's S&S tips have worked for me.
I remember being so excited when they launched the grey S&S tips, because I liked the inverted tip mod that its form factor seems to have been derived from... so I ordered two boxes, but was never able to achieve a seal with them. Not sure what the difference is with the clear tips, but they simply do it on the BD for me.
Cable
Haven’t felt compelled to roll yet. I'm usually a fan of these old school 2-pin connectors that can fit recessed sockets (ask me about how they also make it easier and safer to remove cables from IEMs) but I can't help feeling like Dunu missed an opportunity here with the design.
Impedance adapter
The 4.4mm balanced variable impedance adapter arrived meantime so I tried it as well, but honestly it isn't for me. Yes, it makes the bass bigger and fatter, but at the expense of the mids and highs. Music simply sounds less interesting and less fully realised without that extra treble and midrange information. The difference was already palpable at as low as 10 ohms, although I went as high as 80.
(The last IEM that I regularly enjoyed with an impedance adapter with was the CK100 Pro, one of the last Audio Technica IEMs to be made in Japan, before the Fukushima quake iirc. It had extremely hot treble, even by my standards way back then and let's just say they don't make them like that anymore.)
As far as the Drain Brance goes, its bass is best served by lots of power - failing which, I suppose one could try EQ.
Tl;dr - Source sensitive. Bass driver scales up like crazy. I can't get enough of it.
Happy New Year, everyone!
