Dunu Zen Pro iem Review - f**k me these are good

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by rhythmdevils, Nov 23, 2021.

  1. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    God damn it good write-up. I don't strictly need these.. do I.. I guess I could get away with the excuse of getting them for Christmas/New Year :confused:
     
  2. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    If you don’t think this is the best evar iem illl post a video of myself dancing naked wearing the LCD-4
     
  3. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    If anyone sees any Black Friday deals on these please post!
     
  4. jaker782

    jaker782 Friend

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  5. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    I got an email from Dunu saying the Zen Pro would be $749 on Black Friday.
     
  6. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Totally self serving question - was the PI2AES used to drive the Yggdrasill? :D
     
  7. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Always! I love that little box!
     
  8. roshambo123

    roshambo123 Friend

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    Could you define Asian taste FR? Specifically does Asian mean Japanese market? How does that differ from American and EU FR preferences?
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  10. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    I've been listening to the Zen Pro constantly since writing this, and it has yet to ever exhibit harshness in the upper mids or treble, even when paired with the upward tilting FR of the Shanling M6 Pro which is a bit bright and lean sounding DAP.

    That's a sign of true neutrality. When you can add a colored piece of gear upstream and it stays neutral sounding, because the headphone has got wiggle room. When a headphone has problem spots already, there is no room to push it any further and colored upstream gear will make the headphones problematic.

    I am also still constantly impressed by its resolving ability, and stand by everything I wrote in this review.
     
  11. Augmentin

    Augmentin MOT - DUNU IEM Company

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    Just wanted to clarify a few things in the blurb @rhythmdevils reposted about the driver's development. The following is a very simplified diagram of a cutaway of a ZEN / ZEN PRO driver.

    [​IMG]
    1. Mg/Al alloy dome -- From a profile view, the 'W' of the dome can be seen. This was the biggest process challenge to be overcome during the development process. When we were developing the LUNA, we wanted to implement this shape of dome, but the Be kept cracking during the forming process at the crease where the voice coil was meant to attach (point 3). Thus, the LUNA remained a rounded dome design. ZEN succeeded in having a dome that didn't crack, but it was thicker than we desired. ZEN PRO's dome is thinner/lighter overall because of changes in the alloy composition. It retains its stiffness. The t-aC DLC coating was thickened in order to reinforce strength and reduce the probability of failure. Even though these changes seem modest, they contributed to most of the cost increase because of how much they involved dramatic changes in the manufacturing process.
    2. Polyurethane-based soft surround -- It is essentially the same across the ZEN and ZEN PRO. It is designed such that it contributes negligibly to the sound response, and doesn't introduce any additional bending/rocking modes into the driver.
    3. Voice coil -- It is also the same between the ZEN and ZEN PRO, same coil windings, wire thickness, and length, hence the same sensitivity/impedance. What is different is the air gap dimensions.
    4. External 'ring-type' magnet -- While it is typical for speakers to use an external magnet design, most earphones and small headphones use an 'internal' magnet schema for packaging reasons. The external design allows us to increase sensitivity even with such a big dome, but more specifically allows us to subtly modulate the response character of the driver even in the absence of acoustic damping. The 'lift' to the 400-800 Hz region of the frequency response is a direct consequence of tweaks to the air gap. Changes to the air gap alter the uniformity and maximum intensity of the magnetic field across the voice coil.
     
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  12. Claud

    Claud Living the ORFAS dream

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    Ordered one from Chinese vendor, then saw it on Amazon. Same price. Kicked myself. Will probably arrive in January.
     
  13. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

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    You can get it at headphones.com for the same price. Tempted to cancel and order locally
     
  14. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    I just did this exact thing. (Sorry Dunu). It wound up being cheaper on headphones.com too. The grand total was 749. On the Dunu website during the sale they were priced at 749 but the grand total was 8-something. Plus headphones.com includes free 2 day shipping.

    I wanted to support Dunu but these are already expensive. Hopefully they’re still profiting off headphones.com.
     
  15. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

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    Can't go wrong either way. I asked about cancelling and they said their shipment arrived in the US, so the shipping speed is the same as headphones.com within 2-3 days. So I kept the order and cancelled on headphones.com.
     
  16. limesoft

    limesoft Friend

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    I can see peaks @8 and 12khz on a few measurements online - aren’t they troublesome especially as there’s some dips around them? They look more uneven especially compared to Andromda/Sony ierm7 I’m worried they will exacerbate some treble harshness. Similar to Focal Clears which I found uneven, slightly lean and metallic up top
     
  17. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    No peaks at all to my human ears, not even small ones. I don’t trust iem measurements for shit. But you’ll have to decide what to trust. More human impressions are coming from the loaner tour.
     
  18. limesoft

    limesoft Friend

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    Hm interesting - i look forward to more impressions. Reading some mixed ones around the places .. I guess my baseline of Andromeda/HD650 is the one I'm looking for in relation to the Dunus - some comparisons to the Focal Clear make me concerned as I don't rate those headphones highly.
     
  19. limesoft

    limesoft Friend

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    Please share your impressions on the IFI Gryphon once you get it - I was tempted by it but the competition/price has me perplexed a little so I'm holding off. I want it to blow my socks off (so it should for that price), but I know it won't quite reach there as it's topology is nothing groundbreaking (based on old ifi gear that I already have - pleasant sounding but I'm not going to write home about it)
     
  20. PacoTaco

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    I'm considering ordering a pair of my own tomorrow. It's between this and the focal clears.
     

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