Dunu Kima Review

The Kima is a $109 new in-ear monitor (IEM) from Dunu, a brand that I have enjoyed most of their product offerings over the past few years. The Kima was shipped to me by Dunu directly for review, and can be purchased at a variety of different store fronts including Amazon and Headphones.com in the US.

The Kima is made from an all-metal housing with a flexible and attractive 4-braided shiny white colored set of plastic-molded wires. The connectors terminate in an angled 2-pin variety, and fit nicely into the shell. 

This product is powered by a 10mm diamond-like carbon (DLC) dynamic driver, and features two vent ports on the ear-side of each of the shells. Engraved on the shell one one side is the product name, Kima, and on the other side, a mysterious and strange "Criz Faction" marking. There's no real back story to what this means, except -- "Kima began with an idea - gathering the greatest protectors from the legendary CRIZ FACTION and bringing them under one banner.".

In general use, I found the Kima to be extremely comfortable and easy to wear. I used them with SpinFit CP100 tips that I normally use for a lot of IEMs I wear. They had no issues with discomfort, fatigue, or slippage. It was a pleasant experience all around to wear.

Sound Impressions

The Kima has a well-balanced tuning that many of the major brands out of China are striving for now. I think many of the audio community have really shown that this type of balanced-tuning works and sells, and it seems like every release has similar style now. That said, Dunu has been doing this for a while now, and this type of sound isn't too different than their older releases either.

I found that the Kima shared a lot of similarities from a sound balance standpoint to the Dunu Zen, one of their higher-end single dynamic driver in-ears that came out a couple years ago that I still really enjoy today, and one that I still listen to every so often. (I can't say that about many of the products I review)

There's definitely some trickle down effects from these more expensive Dunu products, but I will say that the Zen is still a much better overall experience than the Kima, with great dynamics, great punch, resolution, and crispness to upper notes. In this $900 to $100 comparison, the Kima does sound a little flat at times and it doesn't have the big dynamic sound swings that the Zen can provide. 

But, for the $100 range, I enjoy the Kima. It has little flaws overall compared to many of its competitors. It has good level of bass, with some punch and subbass performance that is good. The resolution is solid for the price and the midrange and treble tuning is free of distractions with no peaks and shrills to worry about. Perhaps, the upper mid-range is a tad forward for my tastes, and that can make some vocals and piano songs come off a little too strong, but that's been a trademark for many of Dunu's products and I will give it to them for keeping their tuning choices aligned. 

Perhaps that's why my favorite Dunu is still the SA6, for its more relaxed tuning in this area, but regardless, I do find the Kima to be a good recommendation for its solid tuning, good build quality, and the typical Dunu quality and abundance of included accessories.

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