I always have a soft spot for a pure dynamic driver headphone, despite my preferences for a planar magnetic over-ear, due to a more natural decay sound and generally a more lush and weighted sound. Now that said, that's an generalization, but for the most part, there's a beauty to a Sennheiser HD600 or one of the Foster Biodynamic driver-based headphones that I can't easily get from one of my Hifimans.
In the case of in-ear monitors, a lot of single dynamic drivers tend to not really do it for me. They seem to have limitations in one way or another that make having a multi-driver-based in-ear a better selection to capture the entire frequency response better. There's always some exceptions, like the Dunu Zen, which I absolutely adore despite its limitations. Its punchy, got great decay, and awesome dynamics.
But for the most part, I believe most of the limitations are due to a single driver configuration. There's been a lot of dynamic driver iems lately that are hitting the entry level market that are actually well tuned for their price points. But what happens when you throw in two dynamic drivers into it? This isn't a novel concept, and it's been done many times. Even my Galaxy Buds true-wireless in-ears have two tiny DD drivers in them. And my Empire Ears Odin has dual DD woofers as well, but its vastly expensive and huge to wear.
Anyway, I'm here to review the HarmonicDyne Devil today. It's a dual dynamic driver IEM that features a pair for 10mm DD drivers and retails for $199. This is available on Linsoul.com and as a disclaimer, this was provided by them for review.
Unboxing
The Devil comes with a black zip up ballistic nylon style case with the branding on the top. It also comes with a series of tips, and a 2-pin cable that is sheathed in cloth. The cable terminates with an angled 4.4mm balanced stereo jack, but you can also get it with a normal 3.5mm stereo jack.
The IEM itself is absolutely stunning. It's build quality is fantastic. The Devil is made from CNC machined 7075 aluminum, which is a step up in quality from the more standard 6000 series aluminum you see in most of these types of products. It's probably massive overkill for this type of product though, but its an alloy I'm used to working with in my day job as an aerospace materials engineer for airplane structural parts. (Hence, overkill)
The shell design is pretty large, but it still fits comfortably in my smaller ears. I had no problems wearing it for lengthy periods of time without discomfort and never felt that it was insecure or any other issues with the tips included in the box.
I get a little bit of driver flex when pushing these into my ears on the left side, but not on the right channel. This is relatively common for dynamic driver IEMs, and I even experience it on my flagship Odin in-ears.
Sound
The Devil is a very well-balanced tuned in-ear much like many new products coming to my review desk lately. It has a slightly elevated bass level with an evenly weight bass and mid-range response, and a neutral and smooth treble range. It has some treble extension past 10KHz, and is not fatiguing.
I took a listen to these versus a couple other dynamic driver IEMs of similar tuning that I own here. One was the Dunu Zen, mentioned earlier, and the other is the Thieaudio Exlir, which I reviewed not too long ago. The Elixir and Devil are both from Linsoul house brands, and have similar pricing and so they are a great side-by-side competition. The Zen is quite a bit more expensive, and is in many ways, a superior IEM in many different facets of tuning and technical ability that I don't need to characterize here.
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I found the Elixir to have good tuning, but I do find that it is perhaps a little too restrained and dampened to really enjoy the dynamic driver. It was smooth and coherent, but missing a little punch and decay.
The Devil, when compared to this, is more resolving, has more weight and punch, and a little bit more sound stage depth and width. It's an improvement upon the Elixir for sure in every way. I actually find it is pretty resolving for this price point, and was surprised to hear little nuances in music like little audible sounds in GoGo Penguin's various tracks in their self-titled release.
If I had to give some faults of the Devil, I think its mostly due to a yearning for more slam, and more dynamic response. It's good, but not great. Its not a Dunu Zen or Luna. But, in general, I enjoy this IEM quite a bit. Its a dual dynamic driver done well.
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