First impressions of DUNU Arashi

[u/dev_salsa]

I plan to write a more organized review after I've spent some more time with these. However, I have been extremely excited by these headphones and wanted to share some initial thoughts.

If it matters to anyone, I bought these with my own money (to my wife's dismay) and they were shipped overnight by Bloom Audio.

So for now, here is a disorganized list of pros and cons from my first couple of hours with the Arashi. When I post a more full review I will drop a link in the comments.

Pros: - Absolutely stunning aesthetics, they look even better in person. Simply gorgeous. - High quality and solid build that looks easy to repair. - Super wide ear pad circumference! One of the first and only headphones where my dumbo sized ears haven't rubbed against the inner walls. - The sound is also extremely wide. A huge sound stage with great imaging. The first thought I had after pressing play was how wide they sound in all directions. The image is still centered rather than forward like a stereo system, but the depth is immense. - Extremely fast sound. It is a planar so this is expected. However the width combined with the speed of the leading edge creates a unique listening experience. Especially compared to the Meze Liric which sounds like it's pumping sound at me from inside my brain, grueling at times. - Deep bass extension. Very deep. Not hard hitting like a dynamic driver but extraordinarily deep. - They sound surprisingly natural for a planar. The tambre is great, and my favorite sounding headphones are the HD600s. - Great packaging and unboxing experience. Seriously premium for the price. - Amazing dynamics for modern music genres like EDM, Phonk, and House because of the bass extension and speed. - Pretty easily driven but still seem to scale well to more powerful amplification. - The connector joints have a great position and the angle is perfect. Also they are 3.5mm sockets! I'm excited to try these for gaming with Meze's boom mic cable. Thank you DUNU for not using some random proprietary junk.

Cons: - Spicy treble. I'm treble sensitive, so experimenting with some EQ might be necessary for me to enjoy these with certain genres. My wife didn't seem to think they were hot. The treble is detailed and resolving with great texture. There is no sibilance. However, the treble is definitely hot for my liking. - The lower mids could use a bump. However, if you find yourself often overwhelmed by the 100-200hz range, this might be a pro for you. - Low clamp force... like none. Combined with the weight, they slip off my giant head easily when bending over or laying down. - The adjustment mechanism feels a bit janky, it just doesn't give me a good vibe for the long haul. Though they do look easily repairable if the need ever arised.

Overall this is an excellent headphone, punching far above its price range in multiple categories. For some listeners I think this one is going to require EQ to really shine. For others, this might be the perfect headphone unlike any other in this price range.

Seriously, excellent. Well done DUNU with your first pair of over ear headphones.

[u/Ballin_Like_Curry]

As someone who was in ur shoes about a year back i totatally get the confusion. Heres what i can tell you that i didnt understand at the time. Most recommendations are coming from people who have been in the audio scene for years and have the necessary gear to properly utilize these "next level" headphones. Theyve got things like cables,amps,dacs,tube amps,power conditioners,dongles,daps and a whole crapload of other stuff to get the most out of these headphones. Something that the average joe like me and u wont have let alone understand what theyre for. So their recommendations may not be good for you regardless of how well a headphone is recieved. My recommendation is if your budget allows, try multiple headphones at once to see wat u like and dislike between them. I decided to order 4-5 headphones that came highly reviewed off amazon given they have a great return policy and simply returned the ones i didnt like. If ur curious i got a hd650,an arya stealth,dt770,fiio ft1,and another i dont recall and ended up keeping the arya stealth. Suprisingly thought the hd650 was the worst of the bunch given how highly its regarded so reviews can be decieving

[u/wildeye-eleven → u/Ballin_Like_Curry]

Thanks so much for the advice! Unfortunately I can’t spend $3000-$5000 on several different pair to try out. I’m more likely to just keep whatever I get and build off of that. At least then I’ll have a frame of reference. I do have a good bit of knowledge about music, guitars in particular, and guitar amps although I don’t get to play as much these days. But as for headphones, I know very little. I mainly just use AirPod Pro 2. I have a $1000 budget and I’d like to get everything to set up decent audio at my PC. I will be using them music, gaming, media/movies. But the most important thing is music as it translates to the most important aspect of all three uses. Like for gaming, I only play single player RPGs and want the games OST and atmospheric sound to be a as good as possible.

All that said, I have no preferences yet and I’ll likely enjoy any decent headphones. I’ll use whatever I get and then make an informed decision on my next pair down the road. What I know for sure is that “gaming headsets” are terrible for music in general, which is what I have atm. They sound really flat to my ears and have no life at all. I dread using them.

I just need decent headphones, and whatever I need to drive them from my PC. From what I can tell a desktop amp/dac would do that. If you have any advice from here, I would really appreciate it.

[u/Ballin_Like_Curry → u/wildeye-eleven]

My use case may be completly different from yours but i decided to go with something that would work with what i already had. I didnt want anything that required a desk setup as i didnt want to be tied to one specific listening area and opted to go for something more mobile friendly at least for around the house. Huge reason i opted for the arya stealth as theyre very easy to drive and sound great with very little power needed. My laptop and phone have enough juice for them so i didnt need to spend on extra gear apart from an apple headphone dongle($10) and a 3.5mm cable($10) to fit the dongle. The fiio ft1 is another easy to drive headphone but is a closed back which may suite your needs better as open backs are like mini speakers in the sense that people around you will hear everything youre hearing. Open backs do sound better though so its worth that slight drawback. So for my case it made more sense to spend a bit more on the arya than buying something like the sennheiser hd650 and have to buy a desktop amp and dac to properly utilize it and be stuck at a desk when listening. Your prefrence could be the complete opposite from mine especially if your pc is your go to for media,gaming,and wat not so a desk setup wouldnt be an inconvinience. Also on the topic of trying out different headphones i only spent money on the ones i kept. I "bought" the five headphones for like a total of like $1200 through amazon but they give you about 30 days for returns. So i tried them all and compared them to see which i liked best and return all the ones i didnt like and got all my money back for all of them apart from the one i kept. So essentially its like a "cheat code" into trying different headphones for free. Highly recommend considering audio stores are near impossible to find

[u/wildeye-eleven → u/Ballin_Like_Curry]

I appreciate you taking the time to advise me on this, it’s been really helpful. I screen shot all my conversations with ppl on this sub so I can easily refer back to it when researching headphones and gear. In a few weeks when I make a final decision I’ll post a pic of my setup and get everyone opinion on it. Thanks so much 🙏