HarmonicDyne P.D.1. In-Ear Monitors Impressions

The HarmonicDyne P.D.1. is an all-new IEM from Linsoul and features a hybrid design consisting of a dynamic driver and a planar magnetic driver. Each driver is 10mm in diameter and is an unique multi-driver offering that typically isn't designed. 

The P.D.1. retails for $379 USD and is available currently on Linsoul, Amazon, and Drop.com. This review sample was provided free to me by Linsoul for the purpose of giving my own opinion to this new release.

Unboxing

I'll start with the packaging. The box design is has an all-white and artistic look to it with a textured wall-paper feel to it. The box opens up like a large jewelry box and displays the IEM shells, a fake-leather case, and 2 types of tips, each with 3 sized pairs. There is also a metal placard card with the branding engraved into it.

The case is pretty poorly built in my opinion. It's soft and easily crushable despite looking like a decent round "leather" case from the outside. It opens up with two buttoned straps on the side. One of the buttons already popped off of mine after using it twice. I never felt it securely held and closed correctly and this new design needs to go back to the drawing board.

The cables are probably the brightest part of this review (spoiler!). HarmonicDyne includes two cables: a silver-braided 3.5mm cable and a silver/copper-braided 4.4mm cable. Both of these terminate in mmcx connectors with a curved handle, and the stereo connector is also curved at a 45 degree angle. The cable also features metal splitters and metal chin straps. Both cables are well built and easy to use and look great. Again, these are my two favorite things of this entire product.

The IEM shell itself is an all-metal design featuring a small pin hole vent on the inner side near the nozzle, and three larger vent holes at the bottom corner of each channel. The metal nozzles have a medium insertion depth and diameter and I had no problems getting any tips to fit and fit comfortably into my ears. They look bigger and bulkier than they actually are. In fact, these are pretty light weight given how I imagined they would be.

Now, on to the sound.

Three words: Please try again.

As some may know, I have a deep appreciation and love for planar magnetic over-ear headphones. I own several, and love a variety of Hifiman and Audeze headphones, but the same can't always be said for in-ear versions. Yes, I've owned a few in the past, including Audeze iSines and Unique Melody ME1, but they were just not very good without some level of EQ, and even then, I felt they trailed their multi-BA counterparts with the exception of perhaps the LCD-i4.

So now that the planar discussion is out of the way, I'd like to take you back in-time several months to a year when I provided impressions of a few Shuoer IEMs. All of them had a very distinct and, in my opinion, mediocre and analog sound signature. The Tape Pro comes to the mind the most here, and for all the negative reviews it received over the past 6 months or so, the P.D.1. here took nearly the same exact tuning and put it on a different driver configuration.

It's arguably even worse given that I think the combination of the dynamic driver and planar driver brings the cost up by 2.5X while providing equally hum-dum sound quality. In fact, I found this combination of drivers to sound rather mushy, slow, and unresolving.

When I first put these on, I was immediately reminded of how an AM radio sounded, static tuning included. The P.D.1. has this very analog, lo-fi sound to it that perhaps one who wants to re-enact the days prior to hi-res or even FM radio existed. And yes, I do listen to AM talk/news radio still, and FM as well. This has that feel to me.

There's a significant veil with ultra-haze on any song that features female vocals in it. The bass levels graphed are deceiving as well. I don't feel like this IEM has the levels of bass that is depicted, and it sounds more neutral in some ways than not. Yes there's impact and a little bit of rumble, but I don't see these as ultra-bass heavy.

I feel this IEM performs better with acoustic male music. But even then, there's a strange tinge to edges of strings. It becomes even more present when you throw in female vocals. When I listened to "Black Water" from Of Monsters and Men, the edgy noise shows up constantly, whether it was with the brass instruments, the guitars, or the vocals.

In the end, I really can't recommend this IEM. It has all the issues I found with the Shuoer Tape Pro, but with a larger price tag. The only redeeming factor here is that it comes with two nicely made cables. But I don't recommend buying this just for cables.