DUNU Titan S Impressions
I wanted to directly A/B these with the Moondrop Aria, but it doesn’t seem I’ll be able to do that soon so I’ll just discuss what I think about these IEMs. My unit is a pre-production sample; however, I don’t believe any major changes are expected. The first couple minutes I listened to the Titan S, I could tell they were at least “good”. Further listening here and there over the last few weeks tells me they’re not much more than that, but such is the plight of budget IEMs.
Generally, the Titan S has a Harman-oriented tonality with some minor deviations that make it perceptively hit closer to a reference sound. The bass shelf, for example, eschews some quantity relative to the Moondrop Aria for a less warm, more controlled response. The midrange of the Titan S is pretty solid as well. It can get sort of in-your-face at times, but never to the point of which it’s offensive. That in mind, I find it’s pretty reminiscent of the universal Viento-B’s upper-midrange (just, you know, without the sibilance). The treble is where things get a little spicy. It’s relatively smooth sailing until the upper-treble. Here, there’s definitely a peak à la the Moondrop single-DD IEMs, but graphs can be deceiving. The peak of the Titan S actually sounds noticeably greater in amplitude relative to my KXXS which has something of a haziness to treble decay. On one hand…this does lend to better perceived extension. Conversely, it lends to a slightly metallic timbre. I wish this had been dampened some more; still, it does play into the cleaner tonality that the Titan S is going for against the Moondrop Aria. I don’t expect class-leading treble at this price point anyways. Similarly, technicalities are more or less what you’d expect. Head-to-head with the KXXS, I find the two to be about par for detail with the KXXS sporting slightly more expansive imaging. I do recall the KXXS being slightly more technical than the Aria, though, so I think that the Titan S is perfectly competitive in the technical department.
What more is there to say? I’ll reiterate: the Titan S is just… good . And I say this in the best sense possible. It makes no glaring mistakes as far as I can tell, and it’s a given that the build quality is going to be solid because this is DUNU we’re talking about. I can totally see this being a worthy alternative to the Aria for listeners who are after a slightly cleaner, more analytical sound. Shoutout to DUNU for sending these in for evaluation.
Score: 5/10
All critical listening was done with the stock tips, the stock cable, and my iBasso DX300.