Design
There’s no point in me taking photos of the set of DRUM that I was supplied with as it was a set of engineering sample so some edges were not refined yet to the point of production. The DRUM comes in 5 colors; shadow black, sterling silver, shine orange, meadow green and turkish blue, and whilst the more ‘daring’ individuals will opt for the more vivid orange, green or blue, the colors are quite subtle.
The main sound chamber of the DRUM does look a bit large at first, as you will looking to stick it into your ear holes, but they are more ‘stubbly’, being quite short so that they don’t stick out of your ears. The angled sound tube when fitted with the correct pair of earbuds for your ears, and there are several sizes supplied, are actually very comfortable to wear; a slight twist of the sound chamber gets the earbuds to snuggly fit in your ears. In the few days of commuting with the DRUM, not once have they fallen off or felt slightly loose in my ears.
Sound Quality
Let’s get down to the business end of the DRUM. The first thing you will notice with the DRUM is it’s deep bass. As advertised by TUNAI, the bass of the DRUM is very accurate, you can hear the clear definition of the bass, from punchy to the deep rolls. With such a small set of earphones, it is only natural that the bass of the DRUM will still lacking compared to on-ear or over-ear headphones, but the bass is still well pronounced, and to be honest more pronounced than the Piston 4. The downside hear is that the bass could be a little bit more louder, a bit more thunderous, but then the bass distinction will probably get lost in all that low frequency.
After a few minutes of the using the DRUM you will notice how big the soundscape it creates, it almost feels like sounds are being produced in ear cups an inch or so away from my ears.
A downside to many earphones which I have used has been the lack of control in the mid-tones, most of the time being drowned out by either or both the bass and treble. In the DRUM’s case I was pleasantly surprised how rich the mid-tones were; vocals were well pronounced and did not feel washed out.
If I was to really nit pick and mention a downside of the DRUM then I might pick on its treble. Even though the higher notes are well pronounced, they are quite sharp so a snare on high volume can be quite piercing. Having said that these high notes are still very precise.
Just as I write this I get a call on my phone, so what better time to test out the in-line microphone. The microphone is crisp and clear, my voice is actually quite low but the microphone picked up my voice with ease.
