The Dark Magician has in a matter of weeks gone from unknown to the new "King of the Hill " in the single DD world.
The DM is an earphone that I believe gets its inspiration, from what has been the reference under 300usd for a single DD.
Iām talking of course of the Tanchjim Oxygen, that over the last 3 years ,has carved its place well in what a properly tuned DD should be.
Much like the Blon 03 that shook the budget IEM market, the Oxygen is an astonishingly good IEM, with a tonality, timbre and mid reproduction that is borderline flawless when you consider itās all done with one driver.
The DM had taken that base and Improved upon it.
Firstly the bass is mainly mid-bass oriented and just slightly above neutral. And as one might imagine with this type of tuning, the transition into the mids is exemplary, bringing texture and bass detail to another level.
Itās not without its flaws, and I would have liked a little more quantity, just enough to bring a little extra weight to some musical genres and render male voices at least to me as perfect as the Oxygen does it.
Next the midrange of the DM is its strength to my ears.
Itās what caught my attention when I first listened to it, itās open, huge, 3D sounding, and full of detail.
This is the type of midrange you can listen to for hours without fatigue.
Finally the treble response of the DM I s again bordering perfection, letās not forget this is a single DD, but the fact itās around 4db lower than the Oxygen , makes it for some people resolve the problem of the extra brightness, basically thereās no sibilance, energy levels are more coherent, so although there are occasions where you might want to falter it, cymbals sometimes are a little fuzzy, I remind you all this is a single DD.
With regards to technicalities the DM is very goodā¦detailā¦ ultimate detail if again we remember itās a single DD, soundstage excellent, Imaging and layering impressive , detail retrival crazy good.
Overall if what you want is a super capable single DD with regards to texture, details, female vocal reproduction, the DM ticks the right boxes, if you want something with a warmer tonality, with that extra bass weight that makes things sound not as clinical then the Oxygen is still the one.
There is one more suprise " contender ", the Moondrop Kato, yes you read that right, the Kato is capable of bringing together some of the positive characteristics of the Oxygen and DM and offer it at a price of around 200usd, which brings me to the cost of the DM.
At 600usd it finds some very stiff competition , the likes of SHUOER EJ07m, AĆ¼R Audio Neon, Softears RSV and a few others that can I my opinion bring to the table the same as the DM and also give a sense of better value for money.
Of course that is relativeā¦one pays what one beliefs something is worth and for me the DM should be a earphone of 350 to 400 USD at most.
Iāve got a TC44B min DAC for portable, and use the Marantz SACD 30n DAC for bedroom listening. I may pick up another higher quality mobile or desktop DAC at some point.
