First Impressions - Penon Serial
The Serial Boozer
The year 2022 continues to be fantastic in my purchase decisions. First the excellent S12 followed by the insane CCA CRA and now the new wunderkind by the relatively unknown manufacturer Penon. This is my first purchase from Penon and it was paid with my own money. The Serial is a multi-DD (3 DD) IEM and this is the frequency response graph I measured.
My first encounter with multi DD IEMs was with the KZ DQ6 shortly followed by the Blon BL-Max. I was very intrigued by both sets more so by the Blon but both were not perfect. So I looked around for a more mid-fi contender and found the UM 3DT which ultimately looked too bright on the graph to open my wallet. Finally I decided to give the Serial a try and boyo the decision was a good one.
Right now I feel like.
How do they sound?
First adjectives that came to mind during the initial listening session:
lush, analog, opulent, pleasant, soothing
The Serial is the antipode to planar IEMs but in a good sense. It envelops me into totally cozy listening bubble.
Listening to these rids all harshness, sharpness and brightness from overly energetic recorded tunes.
They have indeed a therapeutic effect on my temper. I find them perfect to chill out after work when you don't want to hear any annoying harshness.
But don't get me wrong these can still rock your socks off. These are the kind of IEM where you can pump up the volume to nasty levels and feel no remorse.
Regarding detail and resolution: don't get the wrong impression that they don't have these traits. It's simply that the detail and resolution is not focused on the mids and upwards frequencies but rather on the mids and downwards. Point being the bass detail on the Serial is the best I ever heard in any IEM.
These could be the perfect monitors for drummers. The bass decay is simply perfect.
Let me show you a few tracks where the Serials perform incredibly well
Joe Walsh - Life's Been Good (drumming from 3:00 - 4:30 sounds sooo good)
Dio - Gypsy (epic drum play throughout the whole track by Vinny Appice)
Dio - Holy Diver (also epic drumming by Vinny Appice)
Boston - Foreplay / Long Time (insane arena rock that has all the good stuff, organs, multi vocalists, multi guitars electric and acoustic)
The Serials bring drums to center stage which brings me to the soundstage.
Soundstage
If I compare the Serial with a real life soundstage the Serials would be a small brick and mortar rock venue with maybe 300 people capacity.
In this rock venue imagine hovering directly over the drummer and the bassist (who stands close to the drummer). This describes exactly the soundstage.
In contrast the Ikko OH10 would be positioned between the lead guitar amps and the singer.
The Who?
Now who is this IEM for? This is for sure no generalist IEM.
I'd recommend the Serial to anyone who has lots of older records like myself (60s, 70s, 80s).
For example I have digitized my dad's complete Vinyl collection with tons of 70s hard rock (Nazareth, Journey, Budgie, Deep Purple, The Who etc.).
I can't cope to listen to this collection with a highly resolving IEM like a planar because the Vinyl crackling goes on my nerves pretty fast.
With the Serials I have no problem at all. The analog sounding characteristic of it makes me think I'm in the living room with my parents in the 80s listening to Queen and jumping over the couch like a mad child.
Hip-Hop, Drum 'n Bass, IDM libraries are also a good match.
Mind you the Serial is not a one trick pony the few tracks I listened to that have no drumming or bass focus still perform very well.
Anyway these are my day 1 impressions.
Finally there is a sound demo available and as always this shows only a rough comparison between the Serial and the Ikko OH10.
Finally finally, enjoy the music and have a good one.
PS: Why The Serial Boozer you ask? Because it intoxicates you without the next day hangover.
