Introduction
What does it take to release a new product? The question appears to be rather silly and superficial. Let's try to answer it.
First, the manufacturer needs to decide which market they are targeting. Second, the manufacturer must determine what kind of technology is trendy.
Lastly, the focus will be on answering questions regarding marketing which determines the packaging, colour, etc. and the final overall price.
But what if you are a manufacturer who does not follow this and instead asks, "What product do I want to make for myself?
In our hobby, the person/company who asks that question matters. When it comes to anything subjective as audio, experience in the field is crucial.
I assume anyone reading this will not be a random individual who happened to stumble upon this review. Chances are you have been in this hobby for a while, and it took you time to learn all the different things about various tonality, driver technology, and cable technology and only after perhaps years of trial and error do you now have a fair confidence grasp of what you like and don't like.
In our hobby, all the best product comes from individuals who ask themselves these questions, spend years in this hobby, and one day decides to have a try for themselves. ZMF, Dan Clark come to mind.
Perpetua is made by such a company, Dita audio. Dita audio was founded back in 2014 by Desmond and Danny Tan.
Dita audio currently sits under Project perfection distribution which manages the distribution of products like STAX and Final.
Dita's audio history goes back to 1971. The parent company behind Dita audio has been around for a while. You can read about them on the Dita web page.
What makes Dita audio unique is that they do not go for what is popular. Their design has based on the philosophy of making very complicated things as simple and elegant as possible.
In the days of multiple driver IEM and tribrid technology IEM, you rarely see single dynamic drivers' releases.
Yet Dita audio is amongst the few companies who stood by this simple design philosophy and continued fine-tuning based on their newly found knowledge.
When Dita releases a product, they always include a cable purpose-built for their IEM.
Dita audio sets the trend for other brands to think of the cables they include with their IEM as it makes impact sound.
Dita Perpetua(PPT) product detail:
There are very few products unboxing I remember in my one and half decade in this hobby. Dita audio unboxing experience always remains memorable and never fails to disappoint.
Opening the PPT packaging once again set a new level of unboxing experience for me. I
normally do not care for such things, but for the first time, I understood the importance of such experiences. I felt a little guilty going through perfectly packaging. It felts like I was destroying a work of art.
The cable is what Dita calls wire over coil with PCOCC conductor. Dita is famous for its swappable plugs named Awesome plug. For this cable, they are still utilizing the same cable concept but a more improved version. Awesome, plug 2 is a smaller version of the original plug.
The driver used in the housing is 12mm in size, connected to the 2-pin plug using a 4N purity silver from a Kondo Audionote. Those of you who are into vinyl would for sure know of this brand.
For a better idea of the driver technology, please view here:
https://ditaaudio.com/blogs/journal/perpetua-the-new-dream-class-flagship-from-dita
Ergonomics:
End of the day, no matter how good the packaging is, how nice the design is, what matters the most is that it sounds good.
And when it comes to anything which sits on the ear, it must also feel comfortable. I've come across amazing-sounding IEM, which I could only tolerate for 10 minutes.
The fit of PPT is comfortable. The metal body is cold to touch, with no sharp edges. It feels heavy due to its metallic housing, but once it is worn and the metal body heats up to body temperature, I forget I was wearing the IEM once I was into the music.
Sound impression:
I will break up the impression into two parts,
- General sound and,
- Scalability.
General sound:
If I were to describe PPT in one word, it would be polite. ASR readers would start laughing at me right now, "what does that mean?"
PPT is polite in the sense that I hear no peaks or any particular emphasis on a certain frequency range which, as a result, will make the timbre of certain instruments stand out more.
Upon first listen, PPT sounds just correct. You will enjoy what you hear, but you will wonder if it's worth the asking price.
In case you are in an audio store, you end up listening to other IEMs in the store, but the moment you do so, you will suddenly understand PPT. To put it simply, PPT makes all the IEM you listen to after listening to PPT as sounding not correct.
PPT vocal can sound forward and warm, should the recording ask for it. PPT can sound headphone-like; the bass has what I consider the perfect decay I've heard in any IEM. It is fast enough to allow me to enjoy complex recordings like Mahler's symphony no.8, but the bass lingers long enough to allow me to get a sense of space the recording space.
Normally, dynamic driver IEM tends to do bass and midrange well, and treble either has peaks or is rolled off. But PPT treble audibly presents with the correct amount of energy.
Listening to Miles Davis Blue, in Green can sound sharp and sibilant on most IEM, forcing me to reduce the volume lower than my usual listening volume. This track sounds perfect on speakers as treble losses some of its energy by the time it reaches your ear. But with IEM, the sound is delivered right to your ear, so the sharpness of Miles horn rings right into your ear canal.
With PPT, you certainly still notice the horn energy, but it is less piercing, and it is more in line to what I hear from speaker setups.
This brings me to the most important two critical aspects of audio gears, timbre and soundstage.
PPT is the only IEM I've experienced where the characteristic of IEM is dependent on the music mastering, allowing for a nearly perfect reproduction of music from and IEM.
For example, listening to the legendary Sony MDR EX1000, the soundstage always remains open and wide, even when perhaps the recording itself does not call for such reproduction. To a large extent, the overall presentation of the recorded music is impacted by EX1000. Is it good or bad it comes to one preference? But long-term listening to EX1000 becomes boring as everything tends to sound the same, whereas PPT will not have that problem.
With PPT, you tend to listen to music more.
Cable performance:
In a future post, I will report on how PPT responds to different cables. I just like the stock cable too much. So this part is TBA.
Scalability/source dependency:
I am a fan of efficient horn speakers. Anyone can design monstrous floor-to-ceiling speakers which require a mini power station to get them to perform.
The portable high-end also seems to suffer from similar design constraints. It appears for one to get the best from their new and not so cheaply purchased IEM, they require to purchase equally expensive DAP and cable just so they can start hearing their IEM.
To a certain extent, PPT is not completely free from such constraints. The best source that I currently own is Cayin N8ii, I also own LP6, P6 calyx M, and Hugo, as well as other sources, they all tend to impact PPT differently.
To my preference N8iii drivers PPT very well. It can make PPT sound fast and agile when using the SS, class A. I prefer the Class A tube pairing with PPT. It can enhance all the best quality of PPT.
I feel PPT still has room to scale even higher, so for now, the limit of performance of PPT is what I'm pairing it with.
So please keep your eyes posted for future impressions as I get to pair PPT with other setups.
Conclusion:
PPT is not an IEM for those who are fresh to this hobby. Those who have been in this hobby will appreciate what PPT has to offer, and it is one of those products that is priced for those who are truly into this hobby.
PPT is not cheap, but one who gets to see the entire package will know why. It is designed with one purpose in mind, to last forever, and upon holding the PPT in your hand, you know what you have in your hand will last a long time.
Its sound is tuned to stand the test of time, just like how a good high-end tube setup never gets outdated, or Vinyl playback never quite disappears.
Some things just never go away, and I believe for any collector, PPT will remain amongst the few IEMs that shall remain relevant in their collection for a very long time.
