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DUNU SA6 review : Make way for the mid range king

DUNU as a brand has been making some excellent earphones since their inception. Their DN-1000 and DN2000/J in 2012-13 were the IEMs to get and were considered some of the best earphones one can buy. They were succeeded by the DK-2002 and 3001. The 3001 was excellent when it comes to sound. In the mean time Titan series were the flag bearer at the lower mid range. They held back for few years and have been introducing earphones in every bracket since last couple of years.

They tried a single BA earphone back in 2013/14 but it was not much popular and DUNU concentrated on hybrid and dynamic driver earphones. But later last year they came up with an all BA “STUDIO” lineup with SA3 (3BA) and SA6 (6BA) earphones with semi custom shells. Both saw a change in ergonomics compared to DUNU’s mainstream design language.

SA6 leads this series with 6BA drivers per earpiece. Priced at $549 it comes in 3 color choices for back plates, Red, Blue and Yellow but the smoked shells is unchanged. Unlike any other DUNU earphone SA6 houses a tuning switch (we will talk about this later). It faces tough competition from plenty of BA based earphones in this price range like Fibae 3, BGVP DM8, UM mini MEST and TSMR 5 pro.

Get one for yourself from these places:

https://penonaudio.com/dunu-studio-sa6.html

https://www.dunu-topsound.com/product-page/studio-sa6

PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES:-

DUNU SA6 comes in a small and tidy retail box with a simple packaging. It does not have any trickiness to it leading into a fairly simple unboxing experience. The paper cover has an appealing color scheme, maybe DUNU tried to give it a similar color scheme as the earphones back plate. First accessory that greets us is the zipper carry case, it is of semi hard type (I wonder what happened to the hard cases DUNU used to provide). The IEM and cables are placed inside this case. All the accessories are placed inside a paper box placed under the case. There are 3 set of of silicone tips in S/M/L sizes (Blue core smoked body, white core transparent body and all blue) but it is hard to distinguish their bore sizes. Two additional quick-switch plugs, cleaning tool, quarter inch adapter and couple of documents end the list of things out of the box.

HOW IS THE CABLE:-

Most of the Chinese brands have been shipping their earphones with good cables these days, both aesthetically and functionally. DUNU SA6 takes it even further with an excellent stock cable. SA6 ships with a classy looking 8 Core, High-Purity, Monocrystalline, Silver-Plated Copper cable with patented dunu quick-switch modular plug system. The 8 core cable looks strong and can withstand some abuse. It has a skin friendly layer of TPU on each core which is fairly supple but is bouncy and a bit on the stiffer side, it does not generate a lot of microphonics but is slightly on the higher side compared to other cables. The biggest USP of this cable are the additional quick-switch plugs and unlike the cheaper models. Both 4.4mm and 2.5mm balanced plugs come out of the box.

All in all a good stock cable which is ready to be used with a variety of sources.

BUILD AND FIT :-

DUNU has been using metal housings for their premium earphones but the SA lineup has gone with a semi custom resin shell which gives it a nice and sturdy still a very ergonomically feel inside the ear. The ergonomically designed wing provides nice traction inside the ear. Ergonomically it is fairly comfortable but can get a bit difficult to keep inside the ear after a few hours. The resin shell is strong enough. It will not survive drops on marble or concrete floors though. Aesthetical highlight of the SA6 is its stabilized wooden back plate. It’s precisely cut and dyed separately giving each plate its unique pattern and color.

Thanks to the resin shell SA6 are very light and stays inside the ear without any problem. The shell is made with hand-poured uv acrylic resin from Germany using 3D printing technology. The shell is not as big as DM7 or even the SA3 and will fit most ears without much problem. There is a single pressure releasing vent for the lower end drivers.

Even though it has a three bore design the nozzle is not very wide and one can fit t200 to t400 size tips easily. Tips out of the box are good but a wide bore tips do give it more flavor. Sound isolation is very good with stock tips. It blocks out a lot of ambient noise.

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ABOUT AUTHOR

Suman Sourav Meher

Suman Sourav Meher

My humble audiophile journey started in 2010, when I was in college, where I fell in love with the elements, nuances, and variations of this mesmerizing world. The ability of tiny earphones to recreate amazing sounds made my bad days tolerable and good days better! Now I am a full-time audiophile with a preference for musical tracks, especially vocals and engaging ones. I must admit I am addicted, but not to drugs or alcohol, but to earphones. Come join me as I share my experiences, bad or good, and let’s have some fun!

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