Penon Golden Armour
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Penon Golden Armour
Gold for earphone cables means coloration. I don’t mean that in a literal sense but more for the effects of the cable when connected to your favorite earphones. The mad alchemists of Penon has created some super high end cables for the hard core enthusiast that want every tiny bit of nuanced detail from their earphones.
I sent a message to Penon at one point when I was doing a cable review I believe it was their GD849 cables. Which is a 18K gold plated pure copper cable I did a review for here. Those most definitely throws out unique sound properties and since copper was used for the base material the cost on them are an affordable $169. These and the ISN GC4 cables you can read about here. Both utilize different levels of gold plating and both have some similarities in what they do for earphone sound but different at the same time. That was when I thought, how would a pure gold plating sound on a pure silver cable? At the time I knew Penon had some gold plated cables but I had no idea they actually had exactly this in the Golden Armour. Being a fan of what gold does for sound I naturally had to follow suit and inquire about their Golden Armour.
Yanyin Canon w Golden Armour
From what I understand the Golden Armour is a limited edition cable. It is limited, literally a few of these cables exist so, I had to grab me a set for my ever growing cable collection. I would like to give a hearty thank you and a shout out to Penon audio. I was given a reviewers discount for the Golden armor. You can read more about these cables and or purchase a set for you here.
Most enthusiasts know what a good pure silver cable can do for your earphones. And not all pure silver cables are the same. Silver IEM cables are all about enhancing technicalities for the host earphones. You have an earphone that sounds a bit too warm with too much bass? Try a pure silver cable. You have a muddy sounding earphone? Try a pure silver cable. Treble on your set is rolled off a bit too much? You want to maximize the detail of your earphones? Give pure silver cables a try. No one will argue when it comes to sound, what pure silver does. A good pure silver cable enhances stage perception, transients, detail, imaging with a tighter note from bass to treble which also leads to better clarity as a result.
It will depend on the design aspect in the way of core count and thickness material aspect but pure silver can add body to a host sound. Best example of this would be the ISN AG8 you can read about here. The sound shaping aspects of pure silver are universal in what a pure silver cable does and then there is gold. I suppose adding a strand or two of the stuff would bring the cost of such a cable to be quite expensive and there are cables that use gold strands but the next best thing would be a pure gold plating on silver. Yes my friends we have now entered money is no object territory.
Gold adds a very distinct sound coloration to your host earphone sonics. Adding a richer darker silkier tone vs the brighter cleaner sound chiseling effect of pure silver. Gold does not seem to enhance the stage like silver and gold does not enhance note weight and body of sound quite like pure copper.
Tansio Mirai Sparks w Golden Armour
So what happens if you add a pure 24k gold plating on a higher end 8 core pure silver cable? Yes it will be pricey for one but it will yield the benefits of both materials and that is what you are getting with the Golden Armour.
The base cores of the Golden Armor is pure silver so the base of the sound shaping ability aligns with what a silver cable does but wait before you say why not just buy a cheaper pure silver cable then? Well cus gold was what pure silver needs to make it more higher end. Gold plating shapes each note of what you're hearing with more distinction. A more rounded defined note. The stage, the detail enhancing ability of pure silver is intact but now with a darker more silker hue to the sound that gives quite the sound shaping combo. Gold plated copper cables are niche cables meaning they are not a versatile cable. These types of cables exist to add a bit of flavoring to neutral linear sounding earphones.
This changes with the Golden Armour as these have to be the most versatile gold plated cables as it now uses pure silver for the base sound tuning.
Trebles sound just as clean and well defined as pure silver but with differences between a pure silver cable and the Golden Armor presentation. Your treble has better roundness which ends up enhancing imaging. It gives the same articulation of pure silver but with a slightly heavier note weight due to the darker hue of gold. What was just a brighter and clean sounding treble of pure silver gets a slight silkier, more refined, richer tone presented by the gold plating.
Earphones that use BAs for the mids and treble will most definitely benefit from the Golden Armour as it rounds up notes and adds a slight darkening effect to counter the clean leaning effect of pure silver. Going back and forth from an 8 core pure silver cable to the Golden Armour the stage enhancing effect of the Golden Armour is greater with a fuller, more defined sound. Better sound separation, better depth and head room. You get an instant uptick in sound quality.
ISN EST50 w Golden Armour
Bass is also affected as that roundness of note with a darker tone enhances the low end definition and while bass ends up being as tight as it will get using a cable, it also does not thin out a full bass note. Bass benefits here as silver has an added side effect to leaning out bass from earphones sound hence sounding tighter faster with a wider stage using pure silver. Gold was the solution for the leaning effect of silver. You get the full monty bass that has an even better definition from using the Golden Armour. Golden Armour does not seem to thicken or give fullness of sound like a gold plated copper cable does but more so sound expansion with that richer hue which helps with sound separation and timbre of an otherwise anemic sounding BA timbre.
Another aspect I appreciate about the Golden Armour is that it does not change the base tuning to be something it isn’t and this is the reason why it is showing to be a much more versatile cable vs just a pure silver and most definitely more versatile vs a gold plated copper cable.
You get that wider deeper stage and technical enhancing effect with the addition of a richer hue which increases the imaging effect of earphones it is attached to. What that pure gold plating does for a sound with a base pure silver makes for a nice combo for an exotic cable that ends up being great on just about any earphone. The only catch to such a cable is that these cables are not going to be cheap in any way. Look at it this way I just saw a listing for a Gold plated silver cable that goes for $3999. If you have that kind of money to spend on a gold plated silver cable than the Golden Armours price tag of $699 is a relative bargain.
Earphones that clearly have BA timbre for mids and treble, earphones that sound a bit dry in presentation with a narrow more intimate stage. The Golden Armour will match up extremely well with such earphones. I tried the Golden armour on a $47 GK10 earphone with great results. It makes the GK10 sound like a much higher end earphone, no exaggeration. Even on earphones that sound great the Golden Armour will make them sound even more higher end.
Golden Armour enhances everything I attach it to which is what you want in a higher end cable. In that regard due to its versatility I can highly recommend the Golden Armour and what it does for your sound chain.
NF audio NE4 w Golden Armour
Up till now all the gold plated cables I have reviewed and used in the past are very niche cables that should be bought for a very specific type of sound. The Golden Armour here is the first gold plated cable I feel can enhance any earphone it is attached to. The cable clearly is playing on a higher level when it comes to sound shaping via cables. It gives you all the benefits of a thicker full bodied pure silver sound characteristics while adding a richer nuanced tone to any earphone it is attached to rounding notes and improving imaging along the way.
If that sounds like your earphone could benefit from such a cable. I say go for it. You only live once. Might as well try out a 24K gold plated 8 core pure silver cable that enhances everything about your earphones sonics to a higher degree. As always, thanks for taking the time to read. Happy listening and yes gold is what's for cables. There is a reason why TOTL cables in the industry use gold plating. Why pay $3999 when you can pay $699 and save $3,300 and buy a TOTL earphone and a nice DAP to go with it. Or even better yet that is a good down payment on a nice car you been wanting to drive.
See now that's a better way to spend your $3999 don’t you think?
Penon Legend w Golden Armour
A bit of a bonus. If you can't afford the flagship Penon Storm cables, the Golden Armour will give you something that will be in the middle ground of the Storm and the base pure silver cables the Flows. While the body of sound is not exactly what the Storm cables do the Golden Armour is more closer to what the Flows do but with adding that gold plating for the sound. It makes the Legends sound even better than the stock Flows but don't cost as much as the Storms.
Gold for earphone cables means coloration. I don’t mean that in a literal sense but more for the effects of the cable when connected to your favorite earphones. The mad alchemists of Penon has created some super high end cables for the hard core enthusiast that want every tiny bit of nuanced detail from their earphones.
I sent a message to Penon at one point when I was doing a cable review I believe it was their GD849 cables. Which is a 18K gold plated pure copper cable I did a review for here. Those most definitely throws out unique sound properties and since copper was used for the base material the cost on them are an affordable $169. These and the ISN GC4 cables you can read about here. Both utilize different levels of gold plating and both have some similarities in what they do for earphone sound but different at the same time. That was when I thought, how would a pure gold plating sound on a pure silver cable? At the time I knew Penon had some gold plated cables but I had no idea they actually had exactly this in the Golden Armour. Being a fan of what gold does for sound I naturally had to follow suit and inquire about their Golden Armour.
Yanyin Canon w Golden Armour
From what I understand the Golden Armour is a limited edition cable. It is limited, literally a few of these cables exist so, I had to grab me a set for my ever growing cable collection. I would like to give a hearty thank you and a shout out to Penon audio. I was given a reviewers discount for the Golden armor. You can read more about these cables and or purchase a set for you here.
Most enthusiasts know what a good pure silver cable can do for your earphones. And not all pure silver cables are the same. Silver IEM cables are all about enhancing technicalities for the host earphones. You have an earphone that sounds a bit too warm with too much bass? Try a pure silver cable. You have a muddy sounding earphone? Try a pure silver cable. Treble on your set is rolled off a bit too much? You want to maximize the detail of your earphones? Give pure silver cables a try. No one will argue when it comes to sound, what pure silver does. A good pure silver cable enhances stage perception, transients, detail, imaging with a tighter note from bass to treble which also leads to better clarity as a result.
It will depend on the design aspect in the way of core count and thickness material aspect but pure silver can add body to a host sound. Best example of this would be the ISN AG8 you can read about here. The sound shaping aspects of pure silver are universal in what a pure silver cable does and then there is gold. I suppose adding a strand or two of the stuff would bring the cost of such a cable to be quite expensive and there are cables that use gold strands but the next best thing would be a pure gold plating on silver. Yes my friends we have now entered money is no object territory.
Gold adds a very distinct sound coloration to your host earphone sonics. Adding a richer darker silkier tone vs the brighter cleaner sound chiseling effect of pure silver. Gold does not seem to enhance the stage like silver and gold does not enhance note weight and body of sound quite like pure copper.
Tansio Mirai Sparks w Golden Armour
So what happens if you add a pure 24k gold plating on a higher end 8 core pure silver cable? Yes it will be pricey for one but it will yield the benefits of both materials and that is what you are getting with the Golden Armour.
The base cores of the Golden Armor is pure silver so the base of the sound shaping ability aligns with what a silver cable does but wait before you say why not just buy a cheaper pure silver cable then? Well cus gold was what pure silver needs to make it more higher end. Gold plating shapes each note of what you're hearing with more distinction. A more rounded defined note. The stage, the detail enhancing ability of pure silver is intact but now with a darker more silker hue to the sound that gives quite the sound shaping combo. Gold plated copper cables are niche cables meaning they are not a versatile cable. These types of cables exist to add a bit of flavoring to neutral linear sounding earphones.
This changes with the Golden Armour as these have to be the most versatile gold plated cables as it now uses pure silver for the base sound tuning.
Trebles sound just as clean and well defined as pure silver but with differences between a pure silver cable and the Golden Armor presentation. Your treble has better roundness which ends up enhancing imaging. It gives the same articulation of pure silver but with a slightly heavier note weight due to the darker hue of gold. What was just a brighter and clean sounding treble of pure silver gets a slight silkier, more refined, richer tone presented by the gold plating.
Earphones that use BAs for the mids and treble will most definitely benefit from the Golden Armour as it rounds up notes and adds a slight darkening effect to counter the clean leaning effect of pure silver. Going back and forth from an 8 core pure silver cable to the Golden Armour the stage enhancing effect of the Golden Armour is greater with a fuller, more defined sound. Better sound separation, better depth and head room. You get an instant uptick in sound quality.
ISN EST50 w Golden Armour
Bass is also affected as that roundness of note with a darker tone enhances the low end definition and while bass ends up being as tight as it will get using a cable, it also does not thin out a full bass note. Bass benefits here as silver has an added side effect to leaning out bass from earphones sound hence sounding tighter faster with a wider stage using pure silver. Gold was the solution for the leaning effect of silver. You get the full monty bass that has an even better definition from using the Golden Armour. Golden Armour does not seem to thicken or give fullness of sound like a gold plated copper cable does but more so sound expansion with that richer hue which helps with sound separation and timbre of an otherwise anemic sounding BA timbre.
Another aspect I appreciate about the Golden Armour is that it does not change the base tuning to be something it isn’t and this is the reason why it is showing to be a much more versatile cable vs just a pure silver and most definitely more versatile vs a gold plated copper cable.
You get that wider deeper stage and technical enhancing effect with the addition of a richer hue which increases the imaging effect of earphones it is attached to. What that pure gold plating does for a sound with a base pure silver makes for a nice combo for an exotic cable that ends up being great on just about any earphone. The only catch to such a cable is that these cables are not going to be cheap in any way. Look at it this way I just saw a listing for a Gold plated silver cable that goes for $3999. If you have that kind of money to spend on a gold plated silver cable than the Golden Armours price tag of $699 is a relative bargain.
Earphones that clearly have BA timbre for mids and treble, earphones that sound a bit dry in presentation with a narrow more intimate stage. The Golden Armour will match up extremely well with such earphones. I tried the Golden armour on a $47 GK10 earphone with great results. It makes the GK10 sound like a much higher end earphone, no exaggeration. Even on earphones that sound great the Golden Armour will make them sound even more higher end.
Golden Armour enhances everything I attach it to which is what you want in a higher end cable. In that regard due to its versatility I can highly recommend the Golden Armour and what it does for your sound chain.
NF audio NE4 w Golden Armour
Up till now all the gold plated cables I have reviewed and used in the past are very niche cables that should be bought for a very specific type of sound. The Golden Armour here is the first gold plated cable I feel can enhance any earphone it is attached to. The cable clearly is playing on a higher level when it comes to sound shaping via cables. It gives you all the benefits of a thicker full bodied pure silver sound characteristics while adding a richer nuanced tone to any earphone it is attached to rounding notes and improving imaging along the way.
If that sounds like your earphone could benefit from such a cable. I say go for it. You only live once. Might as well try out a 24K gold plated 8 core pure silver cable that enhances everything about your earphones sonics to a higher degree. As always, thanks for taking the time to read. Happy listening and yes gold is what's for cables. There is a reason why TOTL cables in the industry use gold plating. Why pay $3999 when you can pay $699 and save $3,300 and buy a TOTL earphone and a nice DAP to go with it. Or even better yet that is a good down payment on a nice car you been wanting to drive.
See now that's a better way to spend your $3999 don’t you think?
Penon Legend w Golden Armour
A bit of a bonus. If you can't afford the flagship Penon Storm cables, the Golden Armour will give you something that will be in the middle ground of the Storm and the base pure silver cables the Flows. While the body of sound is not exactly what the Storm cables do the Golden Armour is more closer to what the Flows do but with adding that gold plating for the sound. It makes the Legends sound even better than the stock Flows but don't cost as much as the Storms.
