Tunai DRUM Bass Enhanced Audiophile Earphones

Product: Tunai DRUM Bass Enhanced Audiophile Earphones
Provided By: Tunai Creative
Price: Kickstarter Options Here!

Introduction:

I've reviewed a few Tunai products over the last couple of years and have been quite impressed with the innovation of the Firefly, the quality and convenience of the CLIP and today we are looking at their latest (upcoming) product - the DRUM. Right now, this project is on Kickstarter and the pricing options make it very attractive. Let's face it though, there is a metric tonne of earphones on the market and they all have pretty solid claims. Some are geared toward athletic use, others for comfort and others claim to be built for the audiophile. The price range is all over the map - making it great for consumers. You'll always be able to afford something to stick in your ears as they range from $2.99 to well over a $1,000 for some high-end custom-fit monitors.

The DRUM has impressive claims as they are trying to be "High-Resolution Bass Enhanced Audiophile Earphones". We'll get into what that means here in a little bit, but more important, we'll cover how they sound, feel and what you can expect from this $39.99 USD (MSRP) set of earphones. On Kickstarter they are currently available from $9.99 and up - so if you like the way this sounds, you should get after it and snag a pair. That being said, let's look at what you'll be getting with the retail package.

First Impressions:

To be fair, I'm currently looking at a prototype sample of the DRUM and don't even have a retail package. The difference between my prototype sample and the finished product is the fit and finish of the unit and how the colored portion and the main housing fit together. My sample has a bit of a burr and a tiny gap between the two pieces on the outside edge. What we are talking about here today is the audio quality primarily. Still, I thought I'd share some of the packaging and what to expect if you back the project. 

The package is slick and the DRUM comes in a metal box with elegant graphics and all the main features clearly shown. While my sample arrived in a little pouch, I'm told the final package will be very classy and give you a place to securely store your earphones should you ever be required to take them out of your ears.

The sample I received was "Turkish blue", and they are very comfortable in my ear-holes. They are quite large though, and if you have small ears the housing may come in contact with your ears - making them less comfortable. In my sample, and in the retail package, are several different sizes of ear-tips to help them fit everyone, but the large driver size may make them not work for some people. Everyone that has tried my set (with properly cleaned ear-tips - ewww!) has found them to work well, but I could see that the size and shape could cause a few people discomfort.

As previously mentioned, the DRUM are quite a bit larger than my Sennheiser Momentum In-Ears and marginally larger than the Optoma NuForce NE800M. The size of the housing is directly related to the rather large drivers they have crammed into the DRUM. They feature a 13mm dynamic driver that is designed to produce better bass and help set them apart in this crowded market. The fact that they claim "audiophile" quality in a $40 package has me a bit skeptical. With many bass-enhanced products, the bass overpowers the treble, but Tunai has tried to balance this with the 8um diaphragm to product crisp and clean treble. For the record, a human hair is 100um.

The "Hi-Resolution" audio is achieved with a large 13mm driver, separate voice coil and the 8um diaphragm. We'll share our thoughts here soon as to how all of this stacks up for the listening experience. While the focus is on the earphones themselves, they do present as a wired headset with a call answer/hang-up button that doubles as a play/pause button during media playback. The microphone on these is adequate as well and I had no complaints when talking on the phone using these as my headset.

On the next page, we'll cover the listening experience after two weeks of testing.