Dunu Falcon C – Flies high, strikes hard
Dunu is one of the most popular, fastest-growing Chinese brand that’s been showing a steady success with their products. My experience with Dunu was mainly related to their hybrid models – DN2002 and DK3001. DN2002 had an outstanding performance while DK3001 was even better, for both sound and fit. Then last year I stumbled across a teaser from Dunu, revealing the Falcon-C. As a DD fanboy, I just had to give it a shot. Falcon-C is so far their flagship DD IEM beyond the Titan series and retailed for $219.99.
Packaging
Falcon-C comes in with a pretty nice looking box and we could see it’s qualified for the JP Hi-Res standard. Inside there, it contains the earphone itself, a metal carrying case, 3 pairs of normal eartips, 3 pairs of shorter eartips, 4 pairs of spinfit eartips, 6.3mm adapter, airplane adapter, and some paperwork. I like that they’ve even included Spinfits for default as well as other shapes of silicon tips.
Earpieces
Falcon-C is equipped with a single 9mm CNT dynamic driver with a sturdy housing entirely made of liquid metal. Its shape takes a similar approach as Campfire Audio, though I can see they’ve derived this look from their previous models like DK3001 or so. The earpieces have an MMCX termination and Dunu claim that these were customized to provide a steadier, stronger grip when attached with the cable. Still compatible with the ordinary MMCX cables, of course. Dunu has been pushing black as their main color which is also the same case for the Falcon-C. Matte black color with its grainy texture brings a gentle yet premium feeling to it.
Cable
Cables are made of 4 braids with 6N SPC (Silver-Plated Copper). Cable has quite a nice feeling to it and is pretty smooth. Plugs and splitters are all made of metal and overall well built. There’s an earguide made of shrink tube without the metal rod, providing a better fit. Another part that I’d like to point out is that they’ve also done some upgrades on the cable’s mmcx connectors as well. They’ve used the 2nd generation connectors, which almost look identical to the ordinary ones but has a significantly stronger grip than the normal ones. Also, these don’t turn around by itself, so lesser chance to worn out the MMCX contact area and a more secure attachment.
Sound impressions: Bass
Bass feels elastic and punches with adequate weight to it. Reverbs are highlighted only with a light touch and keeps the overall sound clean. Ultra lows are neat, doing a pretty good job pulling up the bass existence with good thickness though doesn’t pop out aggressively. It also maintains a good balance between bass solidity and smoothness which results into an organic, tightly controlled thud. It gives me an impression that Falcon-C puts more attention on the sub-bass, keeping the sound weighty but doesn’t take the main role of the overall sound. Feels manly but has a gentle touch with good stability.
Sound impressions: Mids/highs, etc.
Falcon-C’s tuning that pops out the most would be in the mids. It has a pretty interesting yet attractive tuning where it feels like multiple layers are stacked up, resulting in a transparent and super lightweight feeling but doesn’t really feel empty – mids are quite rich and full, in fact. Vocals take a small step forward from other frequencies but not drastically. I much appreciate Falcon-C for being able to keep the mids full without making the atmosphere stuffy at all.
The temperature feels just about neutral but has a pinch of shiny feeling on the upper mids, making the sound to be refreshing and airy enough. Falcon-C goes for a neutral thickness on the mids and well represents both male / female vocals. My only minor complaint about the Falcon-C would be the texture getting a tad grainy on the upper mids. Though stay tuned for the below section where I talk about eartip/cable matching since this could be resolved quite easily. Overall mids flow up with decent stability and did a fairly good job trimming the sibilance area.
Treble takes a small step back with lesser quantity but doesn’t struggle to express the details and reverbs in the highs. It flies swiftly and light, approaching in a soft manner with a crystalline texture. so it’s quite comfortable to listen while keeping the crispy details. Staging is decent or above average, well stretching out both horizontally and vertically. For my taste, I would prefer more depth, but I believe it was for the sake of good balance. Separation and imaging is also up to standard, presenting the sound accurate yet natural.
Eartips & Cable matching
Falcon-C is quite sensitive to eartip/cable matching, so I recommend to roll these around to find the good matching that works for you. Matching with a proper OCC cable (usually bass enhancing ones) will resolve the grainy bits on the upper mids – which is why I highly recommend trying out other cables. For eartips, Final E-Type eartips will add more body to the bass as well as thicker density. I usually prefer JVC Spiral Dots but this would make the upper frequencies a bit harsh so I would stick with eartips with normal sized bores. Rhapsodio E-Pro eartips are also a good choice, naturally bringing the mids closer while boosting the headroom size.
Verdicts
I always found it welcoming when audio brands come up with good performing single DD IEMs. Falcon-C is a solid performer equipped with quality sound and components. I’ve purchased this IEM expecting a certain level of performance, and it surely lived up to my satisfaction. Also tried their previous Titan series (1/3/5) only for a short session and I could say Falcon-C performs significantly better than those. Will keep my fingers crossed to see how Dunu will pursue their DD lineups even further.
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Dunu Falcon-C has been purchased by myself.
I am not affiliated with Dunu and none of my words were modded or asked to be changed.