Reviews by emdeevee

Thanks to the Watercooler Tour here in the USA (thank you @Rockwell75!), I got the opportunity to demo multiple IEMs from one of my favorite makers, Campfire Audio! This tour kit came with everything that’s currently for sale at CFA, so with only a short time to demo, and having listened to many CFA IEMs at each CanJam I’ve attended, and owning a few myself (Trifecta, Clara, Black Star, Dorado currently), I focused all of my time on the Astrolith, which is one of CFA’s newest flagship-level IEMs, and one of its most expensive at $2200 (Trifecta tops that price by $1000 more), along with CFA’s new flagship cable, the Timestream Ultra ($389 retail, also in the tour kit, yeah!).

I was excited to demo this as I had a short listen at CanJam Socal 2024 and really liked it but wondered if the treble would sound too bright or extended, and if the bass would kick enough without a dynamic driver, especially when compared with other CFA releases that do have the very effective CFA DDs of late, including my new Clara with its breathtakingly good bass. The charm for Astrolith is all about pure planar sound – this IEM has 2 planar drivers that need to do everything. With Trifecta, Black Star and now Clara in regular rotation, I’m pretty familiar with CFA’s recent tunings and its general “house” sound, and Astrolith is another sterling example of that house sound tuned to planar drivers.

Astrolith features 2 planar magnetic drivers, one 14.2mm for the low-mids and one 6mm for highs. In my experience, planar are the only non-DD drivers that provide a very similar feel to DD, or at least they can; I know this because I have an Audeze LCDi4 which is planar and can kick like a DD. I also had a great opportunity, thanks also to the WC tour, to demo the Simphonio P0, a single planar IEM which was very impressive. Compared to Simphonio P0, which costs $4500, Astrolith at $2200 is a very competitive offering. As this was a tour unit, I did no unboxing, but I know it’s very similar to most other CFA high-end releases and will come with lots of accessories.

Going from audio memory (which is 1-run short of a no-hitter), Astrolith may have slightly smaller staging than the Simphonio P0, but in all other aspects, it seems to be just as appealing (I did really like the tuning of P0), and maybe even more up my alley from a tuning perspective. This is CFA tuning at its finest; it remains bold and powerful in the bass (sub thru mid), the mids/upper mids rise above the beefy low end with clarity giving way to sparkly, airy treble and the stage is wide and holographic. The tuning is reminiscent of Clara and Trifecta, bringing the most treble of the three. As might be expected of an IEM with two or more drivers of same/similar design, Astrolith’s planar drivers sound absolutely coherent and I can detect no gaps or issues here with the drivers melding perfectly as if there were only one driver.

I hear Astrolith to be a neutral-to-warm Uish-shaped sound, with powerful, elevated bass, highly extended treble, mildly recessed vocal/upper mids, wider-than-deep soundstage with lots of air and separation. It’s a highly engaging and emotional tuning for me, but also quite technically capable. CFA has shown how good it is with same-driver IEMs, like Trifecta, Andromeda, Fathom, etc. and it has done that again with planar drivers in Astrolith.

How is the planar bass on Astrolith? Thunderously deep subbass gives way to punchy midbass giving Astrolith wonderful definition within the bass category, bringing not only high quality, but an also high quantity. I feel like bassheads would appreciate Astrolith for its bass, but it’s not a basshead set, retaining a good balance across the FR. Still, this is elevated bass, not polite and characteristically bombastic. The bass quality here is essentially on par with CFA’s awesome DDs, IMHO.

I realize this isn’t the first CFA planar (Moon Rover and Supermoon were planar), but it is without question, for me, their very best planar effort to-date having heard both of those mentioned. It’s also less warm than its closest sounding siblings (Trifecta and Clara), but still retains a touch of that hallmark warmth that comes with great CFA sets. So for me, Astrolith now figures into the very best of what CFA has produced and sits very firmly in line with my Trifecta and Clara, while offering the most extended, sparkly treble performance of the three by a length!

However, with neutral sources, that extended treble occasionally tickled the undersides of my eyeballs seemingly sounding edgy or sharp on certain treble heavy songs. But with very few heavy treble songs in my library, it was really not a big issue and completely resolved when I used my warmer r2r sources, or if I added an amp to the equation with any device, r2r or delta sigma.

This is the first CFA IEM I’ve heard that truly benefited from amping the source. This raises Astrolith to stratospheric performance levels with everything I could ask for: deep, resolute bass; clear transparent mids; extended treble; huge, holographic CFA staging. Astrolith scaled brilliantly, becoming more expansive sounding and smoothing the edges off the treble. So, for walking around, I can listen amp-free with my L&P P6Pro as this DAP does the treble smoothing itself, and at home, I can plug in a portable amp, and really blow up Astrolith.

The new LOAZ Ari solid-state amp ($2000) I am also currently demoing was absolutely sublime with Astrolith, just pure TOTL sound and pleasure from a very elegant looking device! It also sounded great with the much less expensive KAEI Tap 1 Pro tube amp ($480) which I am also demoing, as well as my own ibasso PB5 tube amp. Either way, my setup works pretty well with Astrolith and I would love to add it to the collection!

Having a Clara and Trifecta, I decided I should do some direct a/b’ing using same source (P6Pro), cable (Timestream Ultra) and tips (BGVP Silicone w/copper bore), with the Astrolith. First, as said prior, Astrolith very much sounds like CFA, and it’s quite similar to Clara and Trifecta in many ways, though certainly closer sounding to Clara than Trifecta. The biggest difference I hear between Clara and Astrolith is a slightly more neutral sound, slightly recessed vocal/mids and slightly larger, more holographic staging of Astrolith, though I might have trouble identifying which was which in a blind test thus the overuse of “slightly”. I’ve read a lot of folks feeling Astrolith was more V-shaped with recessed vocals, and while I do agree the vocals are a bit recessed, I think they are forward enough to be closer to U shape, at least to my ears. I also think the tips I am using helps in this area. Trifecta is a bass king, and outdoes Astrolith and Clara in this manner, IMHO. But Trifecta’s treble loses handily to both Astrolith and Clara. I do think Astrolith is extremely coherent, but if it’s more coherent than the others, especially Trifecta, it’s small degrees of difference.

A note on CFA cabling – since I have a big CFA kit here with the Astrolith, that kit came with, I think, every CFA cable currently available. I believe Astrolith comes with an SPC Timestream flat cable – competent and capable is what I would say about the stock cable. But to truly squeeze the performance out of Astrolith, I found their new Timestream Ultra ($389) to be outstanding! If it came as stock, it would need no switching. This cable is not flat like its siblings, strangely has no Y-split hardware or chin slider, but it works beautifully and is the first CFA cable I think I need to buy!

I really enjoyed my time with Astrolith, which offers its own planar greatness and can stand tall in the TOTL wars from all points. For now, I would have to say at its price, Astrolith is the star of planar TOTL IEMs. It’s also the most power-hungry CFA IEM I have encountered, and I think this helps it with amp scaling. Fit can be tricky, so make sure to find the right tip for yourself and seat the IEM in what should seem to be the right position. For me, I actually fell in love with a new tip from BGVP, silicone with copper bore, which had a great sonic synergy, increasing or moving the mids a little more forward which I like. Another CFA grand slam!!!

With many thanks to the enigmatic Emil Stolecki of Lime Ears, and courtesy of the Audio Geek USA Tour (and extra special thanks to @Dsnuts for the introduction to Lime Ears!), I have had the absolute pleasure of demoing Emil’s latest release, Terra. Hailing from Warsaw, Poland, the Lime Ears Terra is a 6-driver hybrid IEM with a single 7mm dynamic driver and five balanced armatures. This must have been my year to cover Polish IEMs having just recently demoed the Craft Ears Omnium while also owning a Custom Art Fibae 5 (F5)! I think that’s the Polish triumvirate of IEM makers – am I forgetting anyone?? Clearly, Piotr Granicki of Custom Art/PMG is on a very serious roll with his newest APXSE, a $6000 TOTL release that is sweeping through the polls in the Head Fi Watercooler; I have heard them and they deserve all the accolades they are getting. And while Piotr continues to explore the very high-end of the industry, Emil Stolecki and Lime Ears are playing counterpoint with the low-priced, but high-end Terra.

The brainchild of Stolecki - part of the previously mentioned triumvirate that makes up Poland’s IEM audio scene, along with Jed Nowicki of Craft Ears, whose excellent Omnium I recently demoed and reviewed (and of course, the aforementioned Piotr Granicki of Custom Art/PMG Audio rounds out the three) – Lime Ears similarly caters to musicians and audiophiles with high-end IEMs that stand toe-to-toe with his Polish, and global, competition. Coincidentally, I have found working and communicating with these three guys and buying/receiving directly from Poland to also be an absolute pleasure and they are truly talented masters of their craft. So, I am becoming quite the Polish IEM consumer and wow, do they all have a lot to offer, not the least of which is Mr. Stolecki’s Terra, the beauty I’m writing about here.

The Terra, at €1100 euro (available directly from limeears.com), is in the low-end of high-end pricing, or the high-end of mid-fi pricing, depending on your POV. Interestingly, this is essentially the same price as the very well-received F5 which is a 5-driver tribrid (with some planar goodness in its shells). The Terra is also a counterpoint to the F5, with a tuning that is based in the same thick and syrupy sound, but presents a far more open, warm/neutral style that might be said to be around 50% of the way between the F5 and Omnium (neutral/bright) tunings. This does result in an all-around IEM that is beautiful, comfortable and very competitively priced for what it delivers.

In a world of “whose got more drivers”, Terra plays it cool as a hybrid with “just” 6 drivers – a powerful but diminutive 7mm dynamic driver for lows and 5 balanced armatures to round out the rest. Listening to Terra makes me remember what I always think of when listening to my F5, you don’t need giant shells or 10+ drivers to make a banging IEM (just ask Ken Ball of Campfire or Bogdan of Fir!). Though I will say that the Terra does have a large-ish shell, much larger than F5, but it does not affect comfort or fit (for me) whatsoever. It’s wearable for hours on end comfort-wise – but is it worth spending that much time with?? Yes, absolutely, and it belongs right alongside F5 and all of its competition as it sings a beautiful tune!

Out of the box, you are immediately stunned by the beauty of the faceplates and their colorations, which change depending on the angle and type of light they are in. They are mesmerizing and gorgeous evoking colors of autumn! The package comes with a leather puck-style case that can hold the IEMs and cable which appears to be a 4w Effect Audio Ares. TLDR; cable is serviceably good, but not ideal, and a cable upgrade is highly recommended - I had to do the same with my F5 (and felt the same need with the Omnium – some brilliant Polish cable maker needs to emerge and service these talented guys!). The unboxing itself was very nice with a small box (thank you!) that contained everything you need – the IEMs, cable in 4.4 balanced, leather puck case and lots of tips (ultimately, my own Divinus Velvet tips worked best for me). You can see from the pics that it’s a nice package that will easily store.

I did my listening through all of my DAPs, often with a ibasso PB5 tube amp connected. All sounded great, with a nod to the Luxury and Precision P6Pro and the Hifiman EF400, both warm r2r sources that accent the Terra very nicely. Terra was easy to drive on all of my equipment.

So how does Terra sound? To my ears, Terra is a warm-to-neutral tuning with a U to W shaped profile. Bass is tuned more tuned to the sub, but both sub and mid bass are punchy, deep and viscerally satisfying. But this is a very balanced set, not a basshead one, or a specialist. The bass is top quality and in perfect quantity to maintain its balanced sound, but it’s not ground shaking bass. The treble is of equally good quality and extension while never straying into sibilant or fatiguing territory. It’s transparent, clear and crisp yet still smooth treble that creeps up on you, not being the obvious star of the show, but reminding you it’s there to service all of that airy goodness up high along with thwacks and plucks of strings, high hat hits, stray sounds, and did I say air? But this is a very balanced treble that stays very natural and unobtrusive. This all surrounds clear, unveiled and forward mids with vocals dead center with natural expansion, and it is these mids that tend to steal the show in the Terra.

Natural is a good word for Terra’s sound reproduction from top to bottom, actually. Everything sounds natural and not artificial or exaggerated. This also corresponds with the excellent coherence and timbre demonstrated by Terra. And I get no hint of BA timbre. As mentioned, with all that air comes a fairly wide stage with admirable depth that spreads in a linear way and wraps around the ears like an oval mask across your head. Not a 3Dish or super holographic presentation, but one more based in natural sound that wants to highlight the instruments and recordings, not its own technical prowess, not that it lacks technical prowess at all. Its separation, layering and dynamics are superb and reek of TOTL tuning.

I can’t help but compare my F5 to Terra, being they are the same price, have similar driver counts, and are both from Poland! At the outset, F5 is a darker sound which is not as balanced, and it’s a bit more V shaped where Terra is very balanced. Terra has a more open stage with more air, and clearer mids. Thinking of the Polish IEMs I’ve become familiar with, Terra’s tuning is more neutral and balanced. However, Terra has a slightly warm sound to its balance, with thick note weight that sounds fulsome and, yeah, natural. So it really can tick a lot of boxes for most audiophiles or musicians.

I mentioned above that the stock EA cable was good but not great. Thankfully, Terra reacts very well to cable rolling, and even going just from the stock EA Ares to an EA Eros II 8w was a huge improvement. It also sounded great with my other EA Signature 8w, the Cadmus/Ares mix, so it doesn’t necessarily need a Cleo Octa or Chiron, but something better than the stock will significantly boost the experience you can have with Terra.

So, Emil Stolecki and his Lime Ears (gee, I wonder why it’s called Lime, Emil?) has created an affordable high-end set of IEMs in the Terra that compete with sets at twice the price. Terra sits firmly alongside other sets in this price range that also hit higher than their price, like F5 and Penon Voltage, and competes head-on with them offering a brilliant, musical and emotive tuning that doesn’t lack for details or much of anything in its balanced approach. A great, all-around IEM at a competitive price – gotta love it, and gotta keep an eye on Lime Ears and what Emil is working on!

Thanks to Jedrzej (“Jed”) Nowicki, CEO of Craft Ears, and the Audio Geek USA Tour, I have had the extremely fun opportunity to demo the Polish-born, Craft Ears Omnium, the brand’s flagship IEM which retails at €2499 (appx $2700USD). I want to thank Jed profusely for providing this unique, addicting IEM for tour in the USA and for supporting our tours in general! I will be excited to hear what other members have to say about this one, for sure. I will say upfront that, for me, this unique TOTL IEM took me slowly and by surprise!

Omnium is a 7-driver tribrid IEM with 1x DD for the lows, 1x planar (!) for mids, and 5x BAs handling all the rest. I am always intrigued with the inclusion of planar drivers in multi-hybrid IEMs, owning one myself, the Custom Art Fibae 5, also from Poland! Interestingly, the planar is not used for highs as I would expect, but for lows/mids to complement the DD. Also like Fibae 5, Omnium uses a flat impedance technology so that Omnium remains similar across devices. Omnium is placed firmly in the high-end of the hobby, retailing at about $2700USD depending on exchange rates as it’s actually sold in euros at €2499. As an American audiophile, you need to order Omnium directly from Craft Ears (https://craftears.com/products/craft-ears-omnium-universals/), though I imagine at some point in the not distant future, you should be able to get them from one of the big US distributors. But dealing with Craft Ears is a pleasure and they are able to serve the world from their little corner of Poland. In fact, a fellow head-fier figured this out, bought Omnium, loved it so much, he traded it in for a custom that he continues to use to this day. I have also read further that their customs are fantastic, so nice to know it’s available and solid quality.

The Omnium’s nice and thankfully small package gave a complete, but spartan, unboxing experience, including a Pelican-like hard plastic case for carrying the IEM, its 4w SPC stock cable (that I did not roll, nor did I feel the need to) and eartips (which I did not use or test as this is a tour unit). The beautifully and solidly crafted shell is on the medium/large side and had a tricky fit for me at first; it took me awhile to figure out how to best seat these monitors for maximum results. The key for me was to get a very deep and snug insertion in the ear canal because, without that, they sounded off. With that accomplished through the help of Divinus Velvet wide bore tips, the Omnium roared alive with its unique sound signature. I also gave Omnium a full 100-hour burn-in, though I think by 50 hours, it had settled nicely, though burn-in definitely helped.

First, the build quality and sheer beauty of the Omnium shells is exactly what you want in an expensive, TOTL IEM. It exudes class with its crystal covered carbon-fiber background surrounded by 18k gold plating. The included stock cable is a substantial, but very ergonomic 4w that looks and sounds the part, and I really felt no need to change it out. This package is really a treat for the eyes! How about for the ears?

Omnium has a unique tuning for me. The uniqueness is hard to describe, but I don’t think I’ve heard IEMs that sound quite like these before. There is a very wide open sound here that is almost bafflingly well separated and presented across the FR that has an understated, but beautiful, bass. If anything, they most remind me of Elysian Annihilator 2023 in the treble (not in the bass), but also strangely sound like a Sennheiser HD800s headphone in overall presentation, except that the sound is more immediate and less dispersed being an IEM. But if someone asked me for an IEM with a resemblance to HD800s, this would be the first one to come to mind, as the staging and sound presentation are similar to me. It’s the most open-sounding, closed IEM I think I’ve heard (still need to try Melodic Artification Alter Ego, an open back IEM).

So, Omnium is not so typical or easy for me to categorize, and I have been listening to a lot of IEMs for awhile now. I would say the tuning is a neutral U-shape with forward mids. It’s a fairly balanced tuning, and I would say outright, this is not a basshead set, though its bass is very well tailored and has good deep rumble when called for. But bass will not be the big sell for Omnium as its quantity is decidedly on the lighter side; again imagining that a custom set might generate a wee bit more bass feel). There sounds to me like a scoop in the midbass which causes the mids and treble to achieve some of the airiest and widest sound I’ve heard in an IEM, a lot like I hear from the HD800s. The midbass is handled by the planar driver and is very genteel and also on the lighter side, though it’s certainly there and doing its thing to keep this ship afloat. This can create a thin sound with bad recordings, but with good ones, it’s quite revealing and enjoyable, and for some reason, even without all that bass, everything sounds just right.

So what’s the surprise? Upon beginning my listening with Omnium, I was immediately aware that it sounded very different from any other IEM I had yet tried. Also, that its tuning would not typically be the sound signature for me – it can be a little bright for me and a little bass light (for lack of a better description) – but for some reason (likely brain burn in), this didn’t turn me off. And I couldn’t put it down during my time with it, having many multi-hour listening sessions and enjoying what is normally not my cup of tea. I would sometimes do a little back and forth with my new Macbeth and Rival alongside the Omnium, and they are dramatically different, making Omnium a potentially great complement to those more bass-rounded sets.

I’ve heard other balanced, bass-light tunings, and not-a-one has been able to captivate my attention like Omnium. And the more I listened, the more this tuning grew on me. So, ultimately, I was very pleasantly surprised by the uniquity of the Omnium and I could see adding it to my collection for that – a presentation that I do not have with any other IEM in my horde and one which I learned that I apparently like! It’s not going to take away my preference for heavier bass sets with denser sound, but as a counterpoint to them, it’s extremely seductive and fun. It sounded great across all of my sources and I had many multi-hour sessions without fatigue or discomfort. Truly a beautiful creation! Bravo, Jed, you are a talented man!!

The long-gestating and awaited Forte Ears Macbeth (formerly known as the prototype project, Eletech Romeo) has finally arrived and has been the focus of my attention for the past few weeks! First offered by Eletech for demo at Canjam NYC in early 2024 (at least that was my first intro to it), there was a lot of secrecy about this project over its duration. But behind the scenes for at least the last year and likely longer, has been the man behind Forte Ears, Riccardo Yeh, a good friend and work partner of Eric Chong of Eletech. Riccardo learned his craft at Hifiman helping to create masterworks like Susvara and the amazing Hifiman lineup. Between Eric, Riccardo and a small horde of head-fiers and CanJam attendees who listened and provided honest, sometimes ruthless, feedback to the Romeo prototype(s) (there were three different Romeo/Macbeth prototypes), a community-like creation came to reality in the release of Forte Ears Macbeth. This IEM is available now for $3999 at MusicTeck in the USA and at www.forteears.com. I paid for my Macbeth (and Ambition cable to come) with my own cash and I get no compensation for this review, just the joy of discovery.


Romeo Prototype 1, CanJam NYC 2024

Romeo Prototype 3, June 2024

Macbeth final release

This could be the most personal review I’ve written as I was both one of the lucky CanJam attendees who demoed and gave feedback on Romeo when Eletech first brought it to CanJam NYC 2024 (prototype one, see pic) and one of the lucky head-fiers who had the opportunity to hear both prototype two and three thereafter and give even more feedback. The third prototype (see pic) was ultimately chosen by Riccardo to be the Macbeth, and he fine-tuned it further based on feedback received from the group of us who demoed it. I have followed this process from its first USA listening opportunity, so, it was particularly gratifying and downright exciting to receive and open the new Forte Ears Macbeth in person after such a long journey to reality!

And Forte did not skimp on the unboxing experience which was lavish, intriguing with its themed contents, and included everything you need to enjoy Macbeth as you can see from the pics. Of course, Macbeth had to come with an Eletech cable – in my opinion, the stock ET cable is just about perfect for Macbeth (and I’ve heard it with the 8w ET Ambition cable which I have on order because it just boosts the perfection to greater levels, but more on that later). I don’t know if ET have given this stock cable a name or if it will become available as part of the ET line, but I believe it’s all copper and has ET elegance (I will be rolling it into my ET cable collection upon the arrival of the Ambition cable!). That said, the upgrade to the Ambition cable is absolutely not required and the stock cable can keep you happy for good. The package also comes with a full set of ET Baroque eartips, which work very well with Macbeth, getting the nozzle deep into the ear canal and the shell firmly inside and against the concha, which is crucial for gaining the full BCD effect Macbeth can deliver. There is also an included zippered, Forte Ears-branded leather case that is just big enough to hold a small DAP (my P6Pro and WM1Z fit) with the IEMs.

This package did not disappoint. I do wish the stock cable came with an ET/Pentaconn chin slider, but this is not really necessary as with the right tip fit, Macbeth shells stay firmly sunken into my ear canals fitting snug, almost like a custom IEM. The actual shells themselves are medium in size considering how many drivers are packed inside the black resin body with extravagantly decorated rhodium-plated faceplates in the theme of the kingly Macbeth. Incredible attention to detail has been paid here with beautifully hand-crafted faceplates making this IEM quite the showpiece! If you’re super low key and hate decoration on your IEMs, this might be enough to put you off the Macbeth! But not for me; I’m an equal-opportunity audiophile and I do not judge books by their covers! Like with relationships, it’s what’s inside that matters, right???

For that matter, the great majority of my listening with Macbeth has been through my DAPs, L&P P6Pro, modded Sony WM1Z and Shanling M9+, often coupled with my iBasso PB5 portable amp. I also did the burn in (and some listening) through my Hifiman EF400. All listening was with stock cable and Baroque tips, except where mentioned otherwise.



Macbeth is packed with 11 drivers per shell: 5 BAs (including 1 “Diablo” customized bass Sonion BA), 4 ESTs and dual Sonion BCDs. But those stats do not tell the story as I’m sure the frequency graph would not describe the sonic benefits of Macbeth. I did not find Macbeth to need much burn-in time, likely due to the absence of DDs, but I’d say it was about 50 hours of minor improvement in my opinion. First - the elephant in the room (at least in my audio room!) - we are obviously dealing with BA bass! This is often a “no-go” feature for my preferences despite hearing and liking many BA sets (and owning a few) as I truly never get the same satisfying feeling of air movement I get with DDs. But I also never knew exactly what was inside Macbeth during my CanJam demos (Eric would not tell!) and if I swore there was a DD in there, it was because it felt like there was. And what I didn’t know didn’t hurt me, but instead helped me to not prejudge what I was hearing. What I’ve come to understand is that the aforementioned Diablo BA driver inside Macbeth is the primary bass driver; a BA that was designed exclusively for Forte Ears by Sonion to specifically accentuate the low bass in cohesive harmony with the other BAs.

Well, this Diablo BA is very effective and its trickery with feel is no doubt embellished by the BCDs. This particular non-DD bass could actually be the best bass in an IEM I’ve ever heard with its precision, texture, tonality, and pure slam with the associated feeling of the slam. When you critically listen to Macbeth, you could likely determine that you’re not hearing DD bass because it’s just a bit different, more incisive, hits harder and faster, but still has perfect decay without any excess boom or bloat. It’s DD-like in feel, but really unlike any other BA bass I’ve heard, save the Subtonic Storm who’s BA bass was standard-setting, IMHO. So this becomes my first set to not have DD bass that I would rank with or above all my DD-based sets for bass; some friends have said Macbeth has Storm-like bass, but I think it’s actually even a little better in that it does not take nearly the power that the Storm does to sound like that, and with the added BCD effect, the bass feels like you expect with DDs, providing huge sub rumble and thump where called for. I think even bassheads could appreciate this non-DD bass! Mid-bass is also meaty and lovely, but not overpowering, leaving mids/upper mids free to occupy the airy soundstage. The transition between sub to midbass is indetectable and very smooth, but Macbeth bass is tuned more to the sub-bass than mid.

The other end of the sound puzzle is deftly handled by 4 ESTs which do precisely what they’re known to be best at – creating lots of air, snap and high-frequency goodness. This results in equivalently extended treble as bass response from Macbeth with lots of detail, resolution and sparkle in the highs. My benchmark for this type of treble presentation has memorably been both the Elysian Annihilator 2023 and the Aroma Fei Wan which are spectacular IEMs, especially for their treble beauty. Macbeth sits very firmly within this camp with stunningly tuned treble that goes right to my limit without sibilance or fatigue, but just tickling the underside of my eyeballs, as I like to say! This treble sings with a lot of authority; cymbal hits are fast and intense with realistic decay, separation in the stage is filled with black air, and every detail is present and accounted for!


But, as good as the bass and treble are here, perhaps neither are the Macbeth’s strongest suits! IMHO, the special sauce of Macbeth lies in the ethereal mids presentation, while the excellent bass and treble play along as bombastic supporters perfectly well. The mids here are as clear, transparent, yet still meaty, as I’ve heard in any IEM. They are quite forward, not overly so, but as forward as I’ve heard them while still maintaining an excellent, across the board stage image. Vocals are on great display here, both male and female, being front and center. What makes the mids so good here?

I’m not really sure, but you can’t talk about the marvel that is Macbeth without discussing what’s at it’s heart, the newish, dual Sonion bone conduction drivers, two per shell. Forte Ears has said that these drivers were tuned to enhance the mids (similar to Canpur 622B), though it seems to me that the effect itself is felt universally throughout the FR. That said, this tuning does enhance the mids to great levels as previously mentioned. Recently, I’ve also tried a couple of other TOTL dual Sonion BCD sets (the AK/EE Novus and Penon Rival) and, thus far, I have found that these new Sonion BCDs do an excellent job of helping to project the sound as if it’s coming from outside your head. All of these sets have that going on to some degree or another thanks to the BCDs and, in my opinion, have set a new level for BCD performance. I have other prior BCD sets but none, most especially speaking of the older UM models, are as effective as these relatively new Sonion BCDs. And Macbeth has harnessed these drivers to maximum effect which not only deepens the slam but also expands the stage in a huge way. I think another trick that Riccardo created here was a copper acoustic chamber that reverberates all of this goodness into the grandness that results. It’s above my pay grade to understand, but I hear mids that are just ethereally beautiful and well pronounced.

How about the tuning and technical prowess of Macbeth? I hear Macbeth as a neutral-to-warm W-shape that is entirely balanced. While at times bright seeming, it’s really not, it’s just that the bass, from sub to mid, is so unintrusive to the upper registers, all the detail that’s there is actually there. Timbre, coherence and dynamics are all top grade, yielding a sound that is musical, engaging and emotional, while also being analytical as nothing that’s in the mix is not audibly interesting through Macbeth. Throughout the lows and mids, and into the upper mids and treble, the BAs within Macbeth provide a seamless, coherent sound with great transients, natural decay and no hint of “BA timbre”. The handoff to the ESTs is equally effortless and seamless and these ESTs have incredible detail without any metallic or nasty edges. While it could be termed a detail monster, it doesn’t necessarily present as one – it’s too musically emotional for that moniker, though no details are missing.

So, I would say Macbeth is a TOTL all-arounder IEM that should have wide appeal across genres and ears. It’s like it was made for bassheads, trebleheads, stageheads, and everyone else in between! With such a wide appeal sound, the question might be, is it boring, is it reference, etc.? These are subjective questions and answers, but to me, it’s anything but boring. I find it to be a very musical set that happens to serve up some very analytical resolution and detail while staying musical and not seeming analytical. It is another entrant into the TOTL sphere that will make you want to rediscover your music library from start to finish, revealing new things in your music, whether a stray voice, a new instrument you never noticed, or something similar.


I wish that I could have included a review of the new 8 wire Eletech/Forte Ambition cable that they released alongside the Macbeth (and at the same retail price!). Unfortunately, delivery of my Ambition has been delayed, so I may return to this review to supplement it after receipt. From my early summer demo notes of what I then called an “8w ET Sonnet of Adam” (which would become the new Ambition), I noted it “brings more detail in the treble, pure sparkle, and bass hits harder while the stage gets wider, taller, deeper and more holographic; seems headphone-like.” I actually heard that incredible cable before the stock cable which had not been finalized at my final demo. Having now given the stock cable lots of use, I think it is a perfect suit for Macbeth with excellent synergy. Still, I did preemptively roll a few cables onto Macbeth to see if I could recapture some of the sound of Ambition. I focused on cables that had similar, exotic metallurgy to the Ambition (eg, gold, silver, copper, palladium, etc. – which is decidedly the opposite of the pure copper stock ET cable). Not having many such cables on hand, this led me to try my 4-year-old Effect Audio Code 51 on the high end ($2300 at release) and my Penon Totem cable on the lower end ($700). Both contain copper, silver, gold and palladium, and both were excellent with Macbeth noticeably pushing the soundstage further out of the head while amplifying the excitement of the tuning; however, neither did what Ambition did based on memory, just steps of the way there which was nice. When I returned to the stock cable, I realized within 10 seconds that it’s really just right for Macbeth and could stay in place for good.

Finally, Macbeth sounded stunning through all of my sources with my personal preference going to P6Pro and WM1Z on their own and the M9+ sounded best when combined with the PB5 with its tube warmth. It also sounded incredibly good on the EF400, an inexpensive desktop amp with beautiful r2r playback. While not a power hog, Macbeth needed high gain on all my DAPs except M9+, so if you’re using an Apple dongle, not sure that will do what’s necessary.


What Riccardo and his brand Forte Ears have released here is nothing short of stunning and destined to be among the top-of-the-top in TOTL iems for 2024 and beyond. Beautiful inside and out, Riccardo went all-out with Macbeth, his first release (exactly how does one make such a big stir on a first release? It takes time, just ask Chang of Subtonic/Nightjar about the Storm and Duality!). Riccardo took his time, working with Eric Chong and Eric’s legion of friends and fans, to arrive at what would be the final Macbeth. I, for one, am glad it’s finally here and even better than I remembered it to be during my demos! I would like to thank Riccardo and Eric for getting Macbeth to me so quickly, and for being just generally great, nice, interesting guys who’ve hit a grandslam with Macbeth!

The Penon Rival has arrived! The venerable Hong Kong audio house, Penon’s big step into the TOTL wars duking it out with everyone else who sells iems at the price of used automobiles! At the outset, let’s slap a big disclaimer on this review: I am an avowed Penon fanboy owning at least 4 Penons already, so analysis of Rival will have some bias. I’m not a reviewer, just a very rabid and exacting customer like the rest of us looking for the ultimate in our personal audio. I would like to thank Penon for giving me the opportunity to buy a pre-release set of the Rival, which should be available this month, September 2024.


Rival is the newest flagship of the Penon line, by a longshot coming in at a wallet-killing $3999 (previous flagship, Impact, was $2499); Penon has never ventured into this price stratosphere, long being known more as a value brand. I purchased Rival with my own funds, with an earlybird discount, and have no affiliation with Penon other than my fanboy status previously mentioned. Rival is a technical Penon first - harnessing 12 drivers per side, including double DDs, 4 BAs, 4 ESTs, and 2 Sonion bone conduction drivers. But that configuration, as good as it sounds, is not the selling point here. In Rival, Penon has attempted to create a TOTL level iem that can be personally fine-tuned (without EQ) to a very high degree through the use of a bass dial on each shell and a small collection of mid and upper frequency dampers (arranged by color in descending order of strength) that will slightly or radically tweak the stock tuning to your satisfaction in each part of the FR. This theoretically allows you to EQ the Rival physically, outside of software, so that it will play on every device without needing EQ. Obviously, tips and cables can assist with that task, but these adjustments are claimed to make finer, more precise and measurable differences on the FR than cables and tips, and below, I’ll confirm that the process works quite well. Check out the graphs that are included in the User Manual (yes, it has one) to see what bass dial adjustments and damper replacements can do to the stock tuning! There are small tools included for turning the bass switch (which can be done with a small screwdriver, too) and changing in/out the tiny dampers which are placed within 2 slots in the nozzles; again, one for mids and one for uppers. The dampers are color-coded and what each one does is explained in the manual; the same colors apply for both mid and upper damper.


With all of that inside, the shell of Rival is large-ish (just slightly larger than Penon’s recent Voltage), but not as large as you’d think or as others I’ve tried (thinking of you, Grand Maestro, and even the Empire Ears/Astell&Kern Novus I’m currently demoing, more on this one later). Rival is incredibly light, being housed in a dark, smoky resin with black translucent faceplates with red sparkle buried inside. It’s understated and the normal Penon branding is on the side instead of faceplate making these particularly nice to look out without logos or names on the faceplate, wish more would do this. While Rival is nice and premium feeling, it’s not physically as striking as the aforementioned Novus, whose faceplates look like Audemars Piguet Royal Oak cufflinks. As a pre-release unit, my Rival did not come with the final packaging, only the contents, so I cannot fully report on the unboxing experience, though it will be a more luxe experience than the usual Penon (as it should be for this price). I have seen photos of the final packaging and it looks great, and big step up for Penon, with a nice leather box designed to hold everything including your damper kit and tools. Still, you don’t buy Rival (or any Penon) for the packaging or marketing (Penon are blissfully happy to save in those areas, obviously), you buy it for the iem inside, and in this case also for its stock cable!


Final box pictures from Penon

Starting with the stock cable, Penon pulled no punches and included a custom version of its famed Totem flagship cable containing an exotic mix of copper, gold, silver and palladium. Finally, a stock cable that befits the iem it’s sold with and one that I will roll onto other iems if I ever feel like taking it off Rival!!! The Totem cable is an excellent complement to the Rival’s sound, was tuned by Penon with it, and there’s really no need for a change, IMHO. What’s custom about it? This Totem looks different as it is a white translucent (retail version is black nylon which looks less ergo friendly), pliant and easy to manage 2-wire cable with a rhodium-plated plug included along with the stock gold-plated. The changeable plugs have been updated to make them easy to attach and screwlock in place. It can be used walking around (though the chin slider is a little too slippery) and is very ergo friendly. Really, the Totem cable is a nice bonus in this package, and the addition of the rhodium plugs is a great, extra touch that actually provides enhancements to the sound – after a quick a/b, the rhodium plug has stayed permanently affixed to Rival. I’ve always wanted to order a Totem, so now I don’t need to; though previously I have ordered and zealously use a Totem IC connector for my ibasso PB5 tube amp.



Rival arrived with the bass dial set to the 10 o’clock/4 o’clock position (from this setting, you have 3 steps of increase, and 6 of decrease in the bass), the brown damper for mids and white damper for uppers pre-installed as the stock tuning. I burned in Rival for over 200 hours, however, I also listened out of the box and in bits and pieces throughout to hear the predictable coalescing of drivers. If you’ve had other Penons (especially with DDs), you probably know these drivers need some time to open up, move some air and jive together in perfect unison. Well, Rival has taken the cake in Penons that need long burn in with a solid 200 hours until everything, including the complex bass/bcd dance, gelled in the way they were designed. What I heard out of the box was beyond intriguing, and throughout the burn, particularly at around the 100-hour mark, the true capabilities of Rival began to show themselves, though it would take the entire 200 hours (and maybe actually more) to truly shine and astound from both ends and the middle.

From my vantage point, bone conduction drivers in iems have become all the rage recently – once something normally only found in the Unique Melody Mest iems, BCDs have seemingly become available to all iem manufacturers, and the pricing has now gone from primarily high-end to the budget level as well. With iems like Penon’s own new phenomenal Fan 3, which in a stroke of genius included an on/off switch for the BCD so you could test for yourself the difference that driver can or will make, BCD iems are now available to everyone. One of the more recent additions here are the Sonion-branded dual bone conduction divers, yes 2 BCDs per side, which are used in the Rival. They are paired in double configurations – this is the case with Rival, as well as the previously mentioned Astell&Kern/Empire Ears collab, Novus, which has a similar driver configuration to Rival throwing in an additional BA for good measure.

Otherwise, my currently-in-rotation, high-end BCD iem has been the UM Indigo for awhile now, which presents a balanced, beautiful sound with amazing staging, something that is a hallmark of BCDs when properly integrated. I would say the BCD in Indigo, and most UMs, is tame and doesn’t announce its presence aggressively. While this has been changing with the more recent UMs (it’s been more aggressive since the Multiverse Mentor), most of the BCD sets I’ve tried in the past have been pretty polite and hard to pinpoint, with the exception of the Kinera Loki where it was more on steroids and almost distracting. Finding the right magic while including BCDs has been elusive, but this is changing, and Rival (and its low budget brother, Fan 3 at $349) is Penon’s 2024 statement on the technology while also harnessing best-in-class drivers, including 2 DDs, 4 BAs and 4 ESTs.

What do the Rival’s Sonion dual bone conduction drivers do? A lot of potential answers, depending on where you start. What is immediately noticeable are the DDs slamming bass hits which are precise, rumbly, deep and powerful. But even more intoxicating, the BCDs seem to also help to create a grand, immense soundstage with holographic sound in 360 degrees that seems to be coming from outside the ears rather than in the head – an almost headphone-like sound and sensation. Bass notes don’t just sound great, they feel great, with the DDs and BCDs working together to amazing effect. The sensation of movement of air is palpable with Rival. Here, the DDs are like symbionts with the BCDs, combining to give a very subwoofer-type sound and feeling. At the stock setting, the bass is thunderous and full, yet fast in attack and decay, while not intruding into the mids/upper mids. There is ample midbass so the sound has weight and meat to it. This bass quality is superb, Penon’s best, and I’m sure a basshead would be happy with it (especially if increased). At the stock position, the bass is just shy of a Grand Maestro with a black module, but if you change it 9 o’clock, beware basshead stuff overwhelming your senses.



I’ve never heard a Penon with bad timbre, incoherence, or weak, recessed mids, and Rival keeps all of these hallmarks while delivering a truly well-rounded, top-of-the-line sound performance. The tuning out of the box is on the safe-ish side but the least safe I’ve heard from Penon, with far deeper subbass than usual while still maintaining a true balance across the frequency response with phenomenal mids (I would learn later on how much you could “unsafe” that initial tuning). After the long burn-in, I listened in the stock configuration for the first several days. I was pretty blown away by the technical prowess of the entire sound and if there weren’t options to fiddle, I wouldn’t have needed to. And, to be fair, the switching of the small bass knob may be relatively easy, but changing in/out the dampers had me a little intimidated at the outset; it seemed like it was going to be similar to changing atom modules in my Fir Audio Xenon 6, but times two on each side (it turned out they’re a little easier to deal with than Fir atom modules)! After becoming familiar with the stock tuning, the nagging urge to experiment combined with some friendly encouragement that I could actually do what was required, pushed me to changed out my first damper - the mids damper went from brown to white which seemed to slightly brighten and increase the presence of the mids. I did this all at the suggestion of legendary Penoniac, @Dsnuts (thanks, bro!), who always is ahead of the curve on this stuff. The change was subtly significant and masterful, increasing the presence in the mids as advertised, but also having a nice effect from upper mids into treble, and now the tuning was even less safe, but even more enjoyable with super clear mids and treble.

While the double DD bass is indeed outstanding, it is matched by equally brilliant, smooth and extended, but not fatiguing, treble with loads of air all around. These ESTs are putting out some of the sweetest treble I’ve ever heard; somewhat like an Annihilator with more forward mids and certainly more impactful bass, both sub and mid (I really like Annihilator but I would choose Rival over it). The high frequencies can get intense (especially as you change dampers), but never sibilant. Both male and female vocals are natural and beautiful here, with excellent timbre. The layering of sound, separation of instruments, sheer detail resolution, and the melding of fast hits over slow decays are all top of the line and amazingly clear and beautifully presented. Also, the dynamics of Rival rival all the others in the TOTL, with that grand soundstage helping greatly to enhance the experience.


After settling on this configuration for the moment (eg, deciding to leave the white uppers damper alone), I started to play with the bass switch. As advertised, it can get up to 3 notches higher and 6 notches lower than stock tuning. This was pretty fun to actually play with, though I ultimately preferred both the “stock” 10/4 as well as the 11/5 position which is very balanced but still slams. Here are what I thought the different switch positions did to the tuning: 8 o'clock – full overload basshead; 9 o'clock - balanced basshead; 10 o’clock – stock elevated bass; 11 o'clock – balanced bass; 12 o'clock – too bass light for me (no need to do 1-5); and finally, saved for last, 7 o'clock – only for eccentric bassheads who’ve lost all joy in the upper frequencies. So, there’s a lot of wiggle room there based on your own preferences. I like the elevated bass of the 10 o’clock position, but I can imagine some folks wanting either 1-2 notches less bass, as well as a notch more. Beyond those extremes, it just gets strange without also significantly adjusting the dampers. I was very happy with the white dampers in both slots and bass at 10 or 11 o’clock to critically listen.

Evaluating the sound in this configuration, to me this was a neutral-to-warm U (or W) shape that has significant extension at both ends of the FR. Elevated bass and treble are matched by present, though not too forward, mids. The resolution of details with Rival are almost unrivaled in my experience. The Rival is absolutely stunning with details and dynamics, also meaning it is not forgiving of poor recordings, so know this going in. It’s huge stage and dynamics allow it to slam while also being able to hear the soft unnoticeable things in your music, always eye opening when this happens. If the recording has a whisper, throat clearing, steps on the studio floor, chatter, etc., you will hear it all with Rival. Even with such prominent bass at the 10 position, the mids sing off into copious amounts of treble rising above the bass. Cymbal hits, tambourines, and other higher treble sounds are precise and decay with pure realism. The envelopment of sound is both holographic, deep and wide, and is certainly among the grandest soundstages I have heard in an iem.

A lot of tech has been crammed into these shells!

With your eyes closed, the feeling becomes headphone-like with you becoming a spectator in a big hall with the music spreading all around you, even feeling from behind the head. This type of sound and performance is very uncommon in my experience; most iems, even with big soundstages, seem more in the head than Rival does. I began to wonder exactly how varied I could make Rival sound with those dampers. For instance, the mentioned EE/AK Novus has a slightly warmer touch, and I wanted to see if I could add more of that warmth to Rival through the use of dampers. Looking at the instructions, I decided to try and make a radical change by changing out both dampers and playing more with the bass. Changed out the mids to green from white (to warm them), took uppers to gray from white (to intensify treble), and switched bass to 11/5 to balance it (though after 4 songs, I switched back to 10 because the treble had now become very dominant and I felt it needed the deeper sub bass). Does it sound more like Novus? Sort of, it does! But I also increased the treble which seems to have turned this into a treblehead’s delight while still pounding in the bass. The end result here was that the dampers/bass changes are very effective – these small changes made the treble more intense, but no sibilance, mids warmed but were not recessed at all. I think I would just listen like this until I get bored or the itch comes to change up the dampers!!!

Green damper in mids slot, gray in the deeper uppers slot


Yes, those are some small dampers!

This is a fun way to listen and I’m just truly blown away at the changes that can be achieved here, they are very audible and seem to do what they are purported to do. Thankfully, none of the damper/bass changing has impacted the staging, coherence, timbre and envelopment; in each configuration, Rival maintains those traits. But un-safing the tuning is an absolute kick! Rival becomes capable of rivaling and exceeding its competition by adding these features. And even with my initial apprehension on the actual changing of those tiny dampers, it has become quite easy within 3 times of doing it – now takes me a couple of minutes. Ultimately, I’ve got a very versatile TOTL iem that absolutely loves my primarily rock library, but even the jazz and classical that I listened to sounded brilliant. I’ve got emotional relistening to many of my favorite tracks which are too many to name, but the Rival rivals my brain and let’s my emotion seep in through a long session. And to be clear, the comfort of Rival is terrific for me and I have listened for hours-long sessions without fatigue but with lots of goosebumps and a tear or two (Fleetwood Mac Rumours, highly recommended!).

So, as I warned at the beginning of this, I have become the happy, Penon fanboy owner of the best iem this Hong Kong based outfit has ever produced. Many thanks to Chi Kong Hui of Penon/ISN who let me buy this early – sorry, Mr. Chi, for the annoyance of dealing with me and my questions!

I have a lot of friends who will try this and many will be shocked, I think. It’s got an incredibly mature and captivating sound – but remember that it really did take a very long burn in, so be prepared for that. After you’ve put in that time, you will be rewarded. And if you can hack the damper changing (way better than diaper changing, I can attest to that), you will be further rewarded. It’s an expensive package, but worth every penny if you can afford it. It stands very tall next to any of my current iems, and it is a definite competitor to my oft-mentioned Novus demo. And the end beauty of this whole thing is that you don’t need anything more than is included in the package – no real need to cable roll, and if you’re going to, you’re best advised to stick with cables that metal-wise line up with the stock Totem cable. That said, I had to try for the sake of some completeness here…

The Rival’s final tuning was achieved with the use of the Totem cable, so it makes incredible sense for it to be the included stock cable. I wish more iem creators would do exactly this! That said, I had the opportunity to also try out a new Beat Audio Billow MkII ($2400; gold/silver cable) with the Rival and as it’s metallurgy was similar to Totem (but priced at 4x the Totem), it seemed like a logical choice. Well, this cable actually ended up outperforming the Totem in many respects, including tightened, elevated bass and treble, indicating that Rival could get even better with summit-fi cables. I also tried my “best” copper cable, the PWA Meet Agains Shielding which didn’t sound right at all as well as the Effect Audio Code 24, which was better, but still not as good as the Totem. I would very much like to try an Eletech Sonnet of Adam with Rival, and hopefully will get that chance at an upcoming CanJam. I also tested out the Penon Liqueur tips which were excellent, though I ultimately landed on the highly comfortable Divinus Velvet OG tips as my favorite choice for what I perceived as a punchier bass without meddling with the beautiful mids and treble and maybe more importantly, they are stubby/short tips so they allow for deep insertion to the get the BCD into the right position right against the cartilage in the back of the concha. I actually could perceive a slight increase in the effect if I slightly rotated the shell to rest solidly against the rear/back of the concha.



Finally, Rival was very good with all of my sources! The more power you can give it, the better, but it is not hard to drive. I loved it through my Hifiman EF400 desktop amp/dac and L&P P6Pro, both R2R, but it also sounded stunning through my modded Sony WM1Z. It scales up with more power and I often listened to it through my DAPs connected to my ibasso PB5 tube amp which increases the staging even more while adding just a touch more warmth to the sound. I also note that Rival has no driver flex to be found – not so with the Novus which is quite flexy almost to an annoying point (I found the Loki to be even worse in this respect). Penon must have found a way to avoid it here, which is impressive considering it’s carrying 2xDDs and 2xBCDs, and most others with the same have at least a little driver flex on insertion. None here. I’ve been chatting with a few of the other early Rival adopters, especially @Dsnuts and @deep2285, and I think we all feel very similarly about Rival and have gone through the learning curve of the long burn in and the changing of dampers. I think we’d all agree that once you’re a pro with your Rival, it becomes very hard to reach for anything else.


All told, Rival delivers on the promise; it rivals the other TOTL iems it has come to compete with and through a combination of technologies, can then be molded to your exacting preferences. And in any tuning configuration you come up with, Rival will shine with a brilliantly grand soundstage, out-of-the-head sound, deep woofer-like bass, clear, smooth and extended treble that hits the limits without breaking them, and mids that are just sublime and beautifully Penon. Penon have been on a serious run lately with releases across the price spectrum hitting exactly right, to wit, Fan 3 ($349), Voltage ($1199) and Quattro ($399)! This time, they batted for the fences and hit a grand slam with Rival! I am excited for others to start receiving and reviewing them as well!

Simphonio Audio, in general, has been totally unknown to me, but I recently got the opportunity, thanks to the Watercooler Tour and @Rockwell75, to demo the company’s flagship iem, the P0 (that’s a zero), a voluptuous single-planar design.

I think the sticker shock ($4899) would have affected me more had I not recently had demo time with the Rhapsodio Supreme v3, another single driver iem that costs even more than the P0 at an account-killing $6400. I really can’t say whether iems at this price point and above ever make a real value proposition, and to really occupy this price level, you need to have a lot going on with some special sauce added in.

There’s no question that P0 is a top-performer in most aspects and thankfully provides a topflight stock cable (which could have used a chin-slider for my use) for the price. I have not been able to find any info on the size of the planar driver inside, but the shell is on the large-ish side, so I’m assuming a large driver and chamber, a lot like I think the Supreme V3 worked with its exotic driver (not planar). But contrary to v3, P0 is lightweight and comfortable to wear for hours on end and given the choice, I would take P0 between the two.

I have some, but not a lot of experience with planar iems as I’ve owned the Audeze LCDi4s on the high end, and the 7Hz Timeless on the budget end, for a couple of years now and, to date, LCDi4 have remained the planar to beat, IMHO. I also like planars when used in hybrids with DDs, BAs, etc. as they can be exceptionally good with treble, my Custom Art Fibae 5 being an excellent example (you don't miss ESTs there!).

Well, with P0 you gotta pay a premium for it, but it is now what I’d consider to be the best planar-based iem I’ve ever heard. This comment really goes across the entire product inside and out; though as a tour copy, I did not have a chance to see the packaging, accessories, etc., but as stated, a kick-ass cable is included. Outside, the shells are beautifully constructed in metal with translucent looking black and gold accented faceplates, as you can see in the pics. Thankfully, despite the shell size, they are very light and I had no comfort issues. Inside, there’s some real magic happening as I often find it can with a well-tuned single driver. Planars can render treble more pleasingly than ESTs, in my opinion, though they can also sometimes sound a bit edgy as I heard on the CFA Supermoon. Supermoon did not provide the quality or quantity of bass that P0 does. Also, I heard Supermoon to have thinner note weight and edgier sound. LCDi4 requires serious eq’ing in my opinion, so out of the gate, there’s no comparison with the refined P0. However, when LCDi4 is well-equalized, it performs very near, but not at, the level of P0.

I am a stickler for DD bass for the most part with some exceptions. As I had experienced with LCDi4, planars can produce satisfying bass, maybe less than DDs, but certainly more than BAs. I think P0 has perhaps the best non-DD bass I’ve ever heard and I could certainly be fooled if I didn’t know there was only planar in there. Unlike BA-produced bass, planar bass does have a visceral feel similar to that of a DD. Where a track has deep subbass, the P0 will rumble nicely. Still, bass could have a bit more quantity for my tastes, as I find this a very balanced and safe set – however, zero complaints on the bass quality itself which is DD-like in its impact but cleaner without boom and seamless from sub through mids. But, not for bassheads, I think.

However, for those seeking balance, transparency, detail retrieval, crisp extended treble within an airy presentation where you feel the blackness between instruments, and most assuredly, incredible coherence, P0 checks all those boxes. And it does so with a nice holographic stage that, while somewhat intimate, surrounds the head where the recording provides it. I know I said I thought the tuning was safe, and I felt similarly with Supreme v3, but a lot of folks seem to really jive with it and appreciate that sort of sound presentation. During my demo time, I listened primarily with my L&P P6Pro amped by ibasso PB5 and found the Divinus velvet tips to work perfectly for me.

Would I buy P0? Not at this price point, where something like Aroma Fei Wan can be had. While P0 will sound more coherent in presentation, it is not as exciting a tuning as that found in Fei Wan to my tastes. But this is very subjective and based on individual preference – Fei Wan is the farthest thing from balanced and safe.

On the other hand, for those who really liked the presentation of the Supreme v3, this is much less expensive and is far better ergonomically while offering a similarly tailored, balanced, but beautiful presentation. I do think planar drivers are pretty special and P0 is the best I’ve heard.

Penon Voltage is a new 10-driver tribrid “flagship”; I put this in quotes because there is the real flagship, Penon Impact, a 14 driver hybrid BA/EST iem that retails at $2499. The difference here being that Voltage is a tribrid, trading out a lot of BAs for a couple of DDs, and the retail price being a provocative $1199. Why provocative at half the price of Impact? I think most Penon fans are used to excellent low-priced offerings and are reasonably nervous to spend a kilobuck or more, whereas most big spenders in the hobby often avoid Penon. I think Penon made a careful choice in pricing here. I’ll venture to say that they could have priced these at $1999 and that would still be a competitive price, but I believe Penon chose to not do so and actually underpriced the Voltage to bring in more of their big fans (which they maybe didn’t with the Impact or Legend, pricing them outside the fans’ comfort zone). In a vacuum, if Penon had priced Voltage at $1999, I would not have been surprised (nor jumped as fast), but regardless, they still would have exceeded that price level. I’ve heard nothing so far sub $2k that rivals the Voltage. I have spent an extended time with my other favorite in this price range, the $2k Oriolus Monachaa which I happily own. But if I’m going for a full and complete sound – meaning excellent sub and mid bass, clear weighty mids that give way to extended upper mids and treble so that the overall effect is an open and airy soundstage that has no glaring issues in any particular part of the FR, I’m going to say Voltage delivers this in a more complete way than Monachaa, which can sometimes feel lacking in the midbass and bright in the treble. Voltage, to my ears, has no apparent flaws nor does a particular part of the FR have a “star”; bass, mids, treble are expertly harnessed yielding a truly engaging, balanced and full sound that, while focused to some degree on the mids, never lets any part of the FR down. As Penons go, it’s moderately power hungry, but still easily driven by any DAP or decent dongle.

I purchased the Voltage directly through Penon with their standard, early bird discount to their VIP email list (it’s easy to sign up at Penonaudio.com), so I get nothing in exchange for this review, though I want to thank Penon for the generous discount they do provide to their fans. Starting with the basics, the packaging is no-frills Penon, meaning a selection of eartips (but no Liqueur tips!?), stock cable and carrying case are included. The Voltage itself is an attention-getter with its bold, red color and gold accents, constructed with integrity as are all Penons in my experience. Voltage is on the medium-larger side, protruding a little from the lower part of the ear, but is otherwise very light and comfortable. In fact, for 10 drivers including 2x DDs, it’s frankly pretty small and light. I have worn it for hours, sometimes too many without break, because I couldn’t put them down and they just disappear in your ears and become part of you. For reference, I think it’s not a great idea to listen to any iems for hours on end without a break – save those canals!!! But regardless, fit and comfort are not an issue for me and if you’ve been comfortable in any other Penons, these will be great. There are 2 switches that affect the tuning, though not radically changing its overall balance, with bass switch first and treble switch second. I’ll discuss that in a bit, but they could be left in the stock position out of the box (eg, both switches down) without a care in the world and just forget them. But I prefer to play with these things to see if there’s a sweet spot that works specifically for me (TLDR: there was, bass switch up, treble switch down, for me, YMMV). I already described the included Obsidian cable which is very good and capable of giving a great performance from Voltage. However, as I always do, I cable rolled and found that Voltage could be influenced greatly with cables as well as tips. Shame Penon didn’t include the black and orange Liqueur tips – they are actually perfect for Voltage and make some micro changes that will appeal to different ears! I don’t understand why they don’t include them here.

Ultimately, after a lengthy burn-in exceeding 100 hours, I began critical listening and by about 200 hours had settled on using the Effect Audio Code 24c cable and the Coreir brass tips. I listened mainly though my L&P P6Pro connected to my ibasso PB5 tube amp with the insanely good Penon Totem interconnect (which was a cheap upgrade for a lot of wow!). I found the combination of the Code 24c and Coreir tips to bring deeper staging, deeper bass, extended treble, and a nice, warm U-shape (or W) tuning with elevated subbass, forward mids and vocals, and highly extended treble with details, details, details. The combo of the P6Pro and PB5 is sublime and something to behold, so Voltage was properly driven! And those details rise out even more if you scale up your power for Voltage; if there’s stuff in your music you’ve missed before, this set can reveal those things. Breaths, guitar plucks, coughs, lost words, backwards messages, all come out when listening with Voltage. I have tried (and own) many Penons, but none have come close to what I’m hearing with Voltage! Deep bass sounds tight and incisive, and sufficiently booming like a subwoofer, while the highest cymbal crashes pierce through clearly and with authority. This combines beautifully with the Penon mids which are clear and transparent giving them room to shine. Again, the hallmark being one of the most balanced sets where no aspect takes a backseat – Voltage brings everything I really want in an iem.

I think this is due to the “Penon tuning” being perfectly executed here. What does that mean? To me, it means you get something very natural and balanced, cohesive that doesn’t necessarily sound like a bunch of different drivers being combined. Your brain tells you that it’s happening, because you feel the DD bass with impact and precision, and hear it lavished by the BAs, and then transition to ESTs, whose implementation here may be the best I’ve heard and certainly the best I’ve heard from Penon (admittedly not having heard the Impact, yet). The overall result is a tuning that is not exactly unusual, but rather mature without gimmick or tricks. This makes Voltage not only a banger from a bass perspective, but also a detail monster from the treble perspective. I really think treble heads would like this a lot. Bass heads, too, but it’s not exactly basshead, though it flirts in high bass mode. With its 2 switches you can veer it toward either of those tunings and the results are very satisfying. With the bass switch (#1) up, I hear something akin to a FatFreq MSE, but with tighter, less boomy bass, more air and better upper mids and treble. With the treble switch (#2) up, I hear something more like Anni 23 with better, but lesser bass, even though it’s hard to believe those words (and take them with a grain of salt, I haven’t listened to Anni in a while, and I did really like it a lot); both switches up does remind me of Anni 23. With both switches down (the “stock” tuning), the presentation is entirely balanced and again, doesn’t lack for anything.

As a Penon fanboy, why didn’t I try the Impact? Well, it was TOTL expensive for one thing, and I personally require DD drivers in my IEMs at this point in my listening life for the air they move and the way they render bass. Impact had 14 drivers but no DD, so I passed, though am still interested in demoing them to understand what they do well which I expect is actually a lot considering what they were trying to compete with. If Impact had been a tribrid with DDs, I probably would have bought it. And the point is, Voltage does have that DD driver setup I love, in fact, in a pair of DDs that have some special treatment from Penon that they explain on their website, excerpt here:

“The two independent 8mm Dynamic Drivers use fiver composite biofilms plus flexible hanging edge diaphragms. The characteristics of the high damping of biofilms ensure that the Dynamic Drivers will not produce additional resonance due to split vibration at medium and high frequencies, and at the same time bring smooth and natural timbre features.”

I’m not going to pretend that I know what that means, but the last words ring quite true: smooth and natural timbre features. Timbre is outstanding, again with this driver cohesion, no instruments sound thin or off, everything sounds like you would expect it to (and hope it to). The DD drivers in Voltage, especially when cranked up by the bass switch, are beautifully executed with powerful, precise, deep clear subbass extending to the low mids without mud or bleed, really a triumph of sorts as Penon has really stepped up its bass performance with recent releases like Quattro, showing their dexterity with DD drivers. Again, this is not basshead level stuff, but it’s not meant to be. Voltage wants to be an all-arounder that you can tweak to either the bass or treble. And it succeeds brilliantly in that way, though I expect most folks will test out the differences and arrive on a favorite config and leave it that way, with many just leaving it in the very fine stock setting. In any event, DD bass done very well here, zero issues or complaints, only happiness. What’s particularly nice is the quality of the bass, its transition from mid to sub bass and how upper mids blend, it has all really come together here in an unusually natural and balanced sound.

The tuning of the 10 drivers here achieves a stunning level of timbre and cohesion, the best I’ve heard from Penon to date, and among the very best I’ve heard from any tribrid. The tuning here is the sort where I think most people would say “yeah, that’s how it should sound”! The technicalities here are also incredibly well-done making Voltage a very detailed, highly resolute iem that truly extends from the deep subbass to the highest trebles with perfect handoff from DD to BA to EST, all in perfect harmony with each other so that it’s not clear what’s creating what, but that a symphony of well-matched drivers have been tuned to perfection. While not the most remarkable staging I’ve ever heard, it competes at TOTL level with wide and tall imaging that gives a sense of being in the studio with the musicians rather than being in a venue if that makes any sense. Separation of instruments is at the zenith with everything identifiable in detail with terrific resolution across the board. Despite all the detail, listening never gets fatiguing, it’s in fact an energizing listen without any fatigue or pain points.

When discussing the brand Penon, a lot of folks mention the “Penon mids”. Penon tuning in my experience thus far has indeed favored the mids. On each Penon iem I try, the mids are generally the star of the show, except in the case of Quattro, where I think bass and overall DD timbre steals the show. Quattro is a uniquity in the Penon line in many ways. But Voltage does want to present super mids – and it succeeds in spades – the mids are as perfect as I’ve heard them. It’s just that I can’t call them the star of the show here because everything is the star of the show. Want banging DD bass, check. Want clear, thick weighted mids, check. Want unscreechy upper mids, check. Want highly extended treble without sibilance, check. There’s no star of the show, the star is the Voltage itself which is the new, best Penon iem I have heard!!!

TLDR: I’m going to start this review by admitting my bias upfront; after I demoed the new Oriolus Monachaa for a couple of weeks, I decided to and did purchase them, so let’s get that out of the way…yes, I love them!

I was lucky to get a chance to demo the new Oriolus bird, the Monachaa, a 4xDD, thanks to the WaterCooler tour, thanks @Rockwell75 for arranging this! I was pretty excited to get a try at this, even though I hadn’t been blown away by it at CanJam Socal 2023 where I think it was launched (I wonder if that set had been fully burned in-this set needs it). I’ll skip over its unboxing which is covered by others and unremarkable, but does come with a nice small VanNuys case that could hold a couple of iems along with a Van Nuys iem protector.



Monachaa is beautifully crafted with recessed 2-pin connectors and on the medium-large size for iems, but it is very light and I found fit to be excellent for hours on end. The shell is a beautiful deep blue/purple color with gold fleck accents on the faceplate. The nozzles are short and stubby, and tip selection is crucial here. Due to the short nozzles, I decided to try the Coreir brass tips which not only fit well with shorter nozzles, but also give the playback a little extra sonic finish depending on the iem. I also found that this iem would push my limits of upper-end energy, with prominent, sparkly, detailed treble, but the heavy sub bass with milder, but beautiful punchy mid-bass, to still offer extremely airy vocals and treble. I hear a neutral to warm U shape with vocals forward. All without any lean or thin quality to the notes, but fans of heavy mid-bass may not feel there’s enough. I also liked the Render Foams, Divinus Velvets, Eletech Baroques and Penon Liqueur tips, all of which further emphasized bass and smoothed treble.


Of particular note and excitement is the shear scope of the staging – Monachaa’s stage is spherical, wide, tall and holographic, often feeling as though it fully surrounds your head. This is one of the best soundstages from an iem that I’ve heard – exceeded only barely by its brother-from-another-mother, the 3xDD CFA Trifecta, though that’s such a different thing it’s hardly comparable. However, in order to really hear this excellence, Monachaa requires a pretty powerful source (dongle users beware).

The included stock PWA/Oriolus-branded cable was actually great and doesn’t require a change, but since I had a PWA First Times on hand (which was immediately a large sonic upgrade from the stock), I decided to switch that out for most of my listening (until something went wrong with that cable and back to PWA it went for repair). In the meantime, I also found excellent synergy with a drjuggles/Khanyayo copper/graphene cable, while also liking the EA Code 23 and 24 (Code 24c would probably look awesome on Monachaa); all are great at bringing out Monachaa’s incredible deep bass while also smoothing some of the high treble. Tips and cables can do a lot for Monachaa, so it’s best to try what you’ve got to dial in the right sound for you.

Ultimately, my favorite pairing was with the PWA FT, a great cable for Monachaa. It gives Monachaa a nicely balanced U shape with excellent technical quality, elevated sub-bass, clear mildly recessed mids, and extended, sparkly treble with lots of detail, though that detail is across the FR, it’s not limited to the highs; even bass guitar plucks are sharp and identifiable. While not a total resolution monster, it’s not lacking for details, it’s just more musical than analytical; a tuning that is very addictive where positioning of instruments is excellent across the magnificent soundstage. What a great way to get into the Oriolus club! This set really is awesome with pretty much everything in my library (primarily rock across the ages and genres) and particularly nice with vocals, but truly a real all-arounder rather than specialist. I do not usually gravitate to tunings that have such intense treble energy, but this one hits me square between the ears.


The coherence is also stunning as if it were a massive, single DD, not four(!) – it’s really remarkable! What this does is present beautiful timbre, great transient speed with amazing mids and, of course, an incredibly effective, solid DD bass foundation. Maybe not surprisingly, Oriolus knows how to tune DDs to great effect! This tuning I think would be very wide appeal, with just about nothing to complain about unless you’re a big mid-bass lover. This is certainly not basshead, but its bass is no slouch with incredible quality and just the right quantity, and maybe is the star of the show having amazing quality, speed, tightness and timbre, second only to the open and hypnotic mids and upper mids.

Monachaa played beautifully through the warm and powerful Shanling M9 plus and my L&P P6Pro, though the P6Pro needed to be in high gain with volume levels going very high. I recently added an iBasso PB5 Osprey amp to the chain with P6Pro, and this combination is my favorite. But make no mistake, you need to feed Monachaa a lot of power for it to really shine. Through something like my desktop Hifiman EF400, the power and r2r playback are perfect for Monachaa.


The comparison that has really intrigued me is with the Penon Quattro, the other 4xDD on the market that is 1/5th the price at under $400. Well, they are completely different, Quattro being a mid-bass monster where Monachaa is clearly not. Other big differences to my ears: Quattro bass slightly veils the FR leading to a perception of less air especially in darker passages of music, Monachaa bass has better quality if less quantity; Quattro is more bass-focused generally with a darker tuning though it has excellent treble IMHO. Monachaa has a more accessible tuning with excellently crafted bass, leading to a more balanced, all-arounder set. I love both and do happily own both – they are very different but each provides a huge amount of pleasure with my library. Each are addictive (if you like them, obviously) and easy listens for many hours. Quattro is bit more of a pounder and Monachaa a bit more of a thumper. Quattro sounds more like an Xe6 where Monachaa is more like an Rn6. All of this DD goodness is such a gift to us audionuts, we are lucky to have such options from $400 to $2000 (come on!).


Oriolus tuning is legendary – I did try Trailli at CanJam Socal, for all of 2 minutes, but knew immediately why it has touched so many hearts. I was blown away by Trailli in the 2 minutes I listened to it. I cannot now exactly remember that sound, but I wish I could, because I do love the Monachaa tuning as well. Instruments sound so authentic, vocals are strong but not overpowering an otherwise very wide, deep and tall soundstage with holographic effect with good recordings. Listening to dense rock like Pearl Jam reveals what those 2 or 3 different guitars are doing with the bass and drums, all positionally cued exactly where they should be – and I’ve been to enough Pearl Jam shows to know, trust me!

So, in my opinion, this IEM wins based on its spectacular tuning, I guess something which for Oriolus is not that surprising. But here, they’ve done it with 4 DDs, no BAs, ESTs, etc., just DDs. Most single DD lovers know that a DD can do just about everything well, and bass spectacularly. Oriolus did a great job putting these 4 different DD drivers to work – nothing gets sacrificed on the low, mid or high end of the FR with this design. Okay, it’s Oriolus we’re talking about here, so expecting a good tuning from them is, well, expected. And they deliver one here for sure. I think this might possibly be my favorite sub $3000 iem at the moment.