DUNU Crater (DN-17) Quick Review

DUNU Crater (DN-17) Quick Review

Thanks to Frogbeats for the sample

Brief:  Dunu go for a W shaped generalist.

Price:  I believe circa £50

Specification:  Dynamic Driver 10mm, SPL 102 +- 2dB, Impedance 16 Ohms, Frequency Response 16Hz ~22KHz, Noise Attenuation 26dB, Weight 20g, Plug size 3.5mm, Cord Length 1.2m

Accessories:  8 pairs of tips, 2 cases, a cleaning cloth, a 3.5mm to 6.25mm jack, an airplane adapter, a shirt clip and the attached cable tie.

Build Quality:  Superb.  Metal blobs of solidness that look most sturdy.

Isolation:  Rather decent for a dynamic.  Easily enough for normal out and about activities and certainly enough to make you road kill it you aren’t paying attention.  You won’t hear traffic.  Maybe not quite enough for use on a long flight though.

Comfort/Fit:  Comfort was fine once they were in but I did have some issue with venting or the lack thereof.  I had thought these were open but my ears tell me closed and I did have to play about with the tips to get one just right.  Once I did it was fine but prior to that it was impossible to get them sitting just right to make them sound their best.  Given the tip selection you should be okay.

Aesthetics:  Very pretty.  The box photo has these looking black but they are actually more like a shiny pewter.  More of a dark silver than it is black and I think they are most attractive.  Of course these things are somewhat subjective.

Sound:  Competent rather than great.  They do shine in terms of soundstage and instrument separation more than they did anywhere else.  The lows were good but nothing stunning, they did reach rather low but it felt like they were tuned to output most at the lowest notes and much less higher up.  It felt like a small sub working to the max.  Then there was a bit of a gap and the mids appeared.  The mids are very focused but not exactly what I’d call forward.  It felt more like a W shaped sound with a bit of a gap between the lows, mids and highs.  The highs were reasonable butt at few times felt a bit hard and didn’t extend terribly well.  They were on the whole reasonable but nothing great given the competition.  Still the soundstage and instrument separation were very, very good.

Value:  On sound alone they are so so but the whole package is great.  The accessory bundle and in particular that metal case is stunning.  It’s a fantastic all round package here as usual from Dunu.

Pro’s:   Great bundle, Solid construction, Look pretty, that metal case

Con’s:  A bit of venting trouble, sound is only competent for the money.