Come with me as I share my thoughts on the Dunu Falcon Ultra, Dunu’s update to the Dunu Falcon Pro and a collaboration with Angelears priced at $239. With Dunu’s long standing in the market with over 20 years of experience, how does the Falcon’s single dynamic stack against the tough $200 crowd? Let’s find out!
IMPRESSIONS:
- Compact yet absolutely wonderful unboxing and inclusions
- Very premium build quality with a surprisingly well implemented MMCX connector
- Somewhat disappointingly stiff cable with a very effective modular design
- Warm U-Shaped sound signature (on blue nozzle)
- Punchy, impactful and soothing bass presentation
- Warm, slightly recessed but decently articulate midrange
- Snappy, potentially shouty upper midrange
- Smooth with decent microdetail retrieval
- Sufficiently airy
- Surprisingly good separation and layering for a single DD IEM
While not my first tango with Dunu’s single DD, this certainly gives me a good idea of what Dunu stands for as a company which focuses on sheer refinement on their products because almost every single thing about the Dunu Falcon Ultra sounds well thought out with the exception for one thing.
Before that, I just want to take the time to commend Dunu for not skimping out on giving us some of the best tips in the market which are the Dunu S&S and Candy. The SA6 MKII I reviewed a while back came with the said tips and were the start of my love for the S&S. The Falcon Ultra relived that love, and with an even better perception due to the nature of the IEMs pairing perfectly to what the tips do.
Not only did they treat us to an incredible set of inclusions, they also gave us one of the cleanest-looking blue IEMs in the market today. The way the chrome shines against the light as you adore this masterpiece will put you in awe. Pair that with the fact that the build quality of this thing is insane makes it an almost perfectly built IEM, almost making me forget this was using an MMCX cable. Probably my biggest gripe for the Ultra is how easily these contracts paint chipping, but that’s the cost of having a shiny chrome metal build I guess.
What I’m not as impressed with was the cable. It’s not a bad cable, all things considered. But it was just so stiff and memory-prone that I could not properly enjoy listening to it without the looming dread of the cable tangling by itself and doing some weird gymnastics in my pocket. Where the cable shines is the implementation of the modular jack. Similar to the SA6 MKII, it uses Dunu Q-Lock but in a lite version that allows for a very snug fit into the cable. The fact that they also made it into an L-plug makes it infinitely better than modular jacks that are straight plug and WILL get loose over time. I’ve had my own fair share of straight jack modular plugs going loose, so I know the struggle.
But with my mixed feelings about its build, you might expect that I too would have mixed feelings about its sound to which I say, I do indeed. In all fairness, the Falcon Ultra is a wonderful implementation of Dunu’s strength of single DD IEMs. Out of all the Single DD or “Single DD” IEMs (I’m looking at you, BQEYZ), the Falcon Ultra is the most mature sounding with a very consistent sound to the entire frequency. Rich, thick bass that colors the midrange in a natural way. The midrange itself having a very soothing but still respectable amount of nuance and the treble being forward but not too intrusive. To top that all off, its technical detailing is not bad and can even compete with hybrids in this set. I’d even say that I’d take this over most hybrids up to $400 with exceptions such as the Canon II, but that’s besides the point. This set is genuinely one of the most refined warm-centric single DD set I’ve heard.
Where this somewhat falls apart is the tuning nozzle. With this whole trend of tuning nozzles, switches, filters and the like being so prevalent, Dunu wanted a piece of the pie with the Falcon Ultra to which I can respect. However, I have to be real when I say that the gold filter sounds like absolute dog water. Emphasis on the water as everything sounded drowned out on the gold nozzle. I like me a warm sound signature every once in a while. However, I was genuinely disappointed with how the Falcon Ultra sounded when I first let it into my lugholes. I almost completely dismissed this set to be inferior to every single set I’ve heard in this price range and would categorize it to be $100 and nothing more. This was before I found out that the last person using the Falcon Ultra was using the gold nozzles and switched it to the stock nozzle to which my opinions about it changed drastically. It was genuinely so muddy sounding on the gold nozzle that it did not sound any better than my $79 Simgot EA500.
The Dunu Falcon Ultra is a highly refined-sounding IEM with a superb set of inclusions and a crazy good build quality. While I may not be a fan of the gold nozzle, the MMCX connector and the stiff cable, the Falcon Ultra has impressed more than disappointed with it setting a standard for how good a single DD can be.
STAY TUNED FOR THE VIDEO REVIEW!
Thank you for reading my thoughts on the Dunu Falcon Ultra. Thank you to HiFiGo for sending the Falcon Ultra to me and my fellow reviewers in exchange for our honest thoughts. If you’d like to order one, consider using the non-affiliated link below:https://hifigo.com/products/dunu-falcon-ultra
If you have any questions or concerns, contact me on my Facebook page or on my email at obodioreviews@gmail.com
