Hi all, some impressions of the Plussound Allego's & cables from the Aussie Tour set ….
Impressions of the Plusssound Allegro IEM - Australian Tour by @jaydoc1
The Plussound Allegro set was supplied as part of an Australian Tour set made possible by @Sebastien Chiu,
@Damz87 and of course Plussound – big thanks guys for making this level of TOTL iem’s available for us Aussie Headfi’rs !
Introduction:
Plussound are a well known audiophile iem cable maker / brand from California, USA and have a solid reputation for producing a fine and extremely varied mix of cable designs and materials, which can be mixed and matched from their web-site. Cables range from the basic copper to more exotic materials (ie Palladium) and the material quality of the fittings used can also be varied. You can even buy the various fittings separately if you are a cable DIY’er. They also offer a range of Bluetooth sets to which you can connect your own iem’s to, so they are definitely a company that have something for everyone, especially now that they are dipping into iem’s at the TOTL level with the Allegro.
The Allegro, which is Plussound’s first iem, is marketed as a “high-end universal fitting in-ear monitor for audiophiles and musicians”, “Overall sound quality is characterized as balanced with an enhanced mid-high presentation for a highly detailed and clean sound. Perfect for many musical genres.”
Lets see if they hit the mark to my ears…
My Reference Sound Preferences:
When describing how I hear audio equipment, I think it is worth understanding where my musical preferences lay, as impartial as we try to be, our own day-to-day iem’s and the music we enjoy and the way we like to hear that music will likely influence what we think of specific iem’s. And as I’m a reader more than a reviewer I tend to use music examples to describe the sound rather than the more technical descriptors to convey my opinion of their sound.
My music preferences vary from alternative / indie artists; from the ‘heavier’ side to the ‘acoustic’, eg, Queens of the Stone Age, Iggy & The Stooges, Supergrass, Radiohead, Cat Power, The Breeders, Mazzy Star, The Pretenders; with the occasional classical (ie, 2001 A Space Odyssey soundtrack) plus a sprinkling of heavy / more complex multi-layered sounds via Bowies early stuff (Width of a Circle, See Emily Play, etc), Dandy Warhols, Joy Division and then some Kraftwork for good measure. Of particular note is Graham Coxon’s (of Blur guitarist fame) album “A & E” which I’ve found to be one of the most challenging music sets for an iem to cope with, which I’ll touch on later, as it’s quite revealing of an iem’s technical and coherance ability (or not !).
My time with the Allegro’s were spent playing from a Cayin N6ii with the R2R motherboard and an AK 2000T on hybrid tube / op amp mode and a Sony WM1Z. All music was hi-bit rate flac files.
IEM comparisons were inevitable with my own iems, such as the EA Axiom, UM Mason Fusang, HiFiMan Svanar, JHA/AK Layla Aion, JHA Lola, EVE-20’s by Vision Ears, Sony IER-M9’s and the AK T8Ei Mk2 (the AK tuned version of the Beyerdynamic Xlento) – some of which I’ll use for a direct sound comparison to the Allegro’s intended tuning focus, but more appropriately, given the price level, mainly with the UM Fusang’s and also the Hifiman Svanar’s just to see how close a modern take on a single DD iem can get to a sophisticated hybrid driver iem.
The Tour Kit:
Unusually for a tour kit (well, in my experience anyway) it included what looked to be the full accessory kit
and more :
- leather iem & cable case with an internal iem and cable stand, both of a beautiful standard of leather,
- “Plus” (+) series cables x 3 – copper+ (in black cabling), silver plated copper (in grey cabling) and a hybrid cable mixing the 2 previous cables each with their own semi-rigid (leather ?) draw string bag,
- Plussounds V2 bluetooth wireless dongle / copper braided cable set, also with it’s own semi-rigid draw-string bag,
- Accessory set of Plussound tips, cable strap, cleaning cloth all in a compact but classy display box (with a see-through cover)
I must say that I appreciate Plussounds effort in making available such a richly accessorised tour set !
In these impressions I’ll also cover a separate section on the cables themselves in comparison to some of my own cables, which vary from Effect Audio, Beat Audio (with 7-pin connector for use with my JHA / AK Layla Aion), Eletech, Crystal Cable and my own Plussound exo-8 silver plated copper cable which I exclusively use with my JHA Lola (since it has a proprietary 4 pin connector).
Design, Build & Quality:
Firstly, pictures don’t do justice to the quality of finish of the Allegro’s – while they are an understated colorway in bronze and black, close examination shows the 2 part styling of the black multi-faceted body (a hint of Astell&Kern’s multi-angle style ?) with a slight satin and very robust coating over the aluminium body with the angular faceplate in a deep bronze-brown colour – again under-stated but very classy in-hand. Looking closer there is a neat venting feature between the body and faceplate – a very subtle slot running along the join between the two – very easy to miss, but nicely executed, bringing it all together with a substantial, but not too heavy feel in the hand (and ear). The finished coating gives the impression these Allegro’s would stand up well in the long term of use.
The sound nozzle is of medium length, a bit on the large-ish diameter, but beautifully sculptured in machined aluminium in a dish shape showing off the 3 sound ports.
Although the body size is on the largish side and your fit may vary compared to my larger ear size, but I found the Allegro’s to be very comfortable, getting a good seal with quite a few different tip brands I tried and suited me for long listening sessions.
All these design elements, while not flashy, show to me a thoughtful and tasteful design be-fitting it’s price range with the potential benefit (although they really haven’t been around long enough to tell) of a robust, likely to-be, long lasting finished iem.
Regarding the Allegro’s internals, it is a hybrid driver design comprised of two 10mm Dynamic Drivers (‘DD’s’) for the lows, six Balanced Armature (‘BA’) Drivers for the mids and four Electrostatic Drivers (‘estats’) for the high end frequency range.
Sound Impressions:
Treble – sounds well controlled, well extended, great clarity and separation, not overly bright or sharp, giving most of the good aspects we now expect from e-stats but in comparison to some totl iem’s in this price range I didn’t hear that expected ‘e-stat‘ sparkle. Maybe, as I had found in some of the high end Vision Ear iem’s, this is a conscious tuning decision to ensure good coherency across all the frequency ranges. This is shown to good effect in songs like David Bowies “Alladin Sane” where the almost jazz-improv piano style through e-stat’s often make the piano sound almost bordering on sibilant to me, but the Allegro’s held a nice, clear high and extended sibilant-free tone, but slightly lacking in that high pitch piano sparkle or energy. I suppose this is what Plussound deem as their ‘refined’ high frequency tuning style for the Allegro’s.
Mids – with 6BA drivers covering the mids (actually covering from mid-low to mid-high) you would expect the Allegro’s to be a mid-centric tuned iem, but on close examination you can here a slight “W” shape from mid-low to mid to mid-high, meaning the mid area is slightly scalloped out leading to just a slight thinness in the vocal range – please bear in mind I’m talking relativity here in comparison to other totl iem’s – not a distinct negative really, just an observation that the bass and the treble seem to have some space leading to / or from from the mids / vocal region adding to the vocal clarity but not giving vocal dominant tracks an over-bearing sound.
I’m not sure if I’m conveying this too well, but the net effect is that while the vocals sound slightly recessed it’s countered by very good separation space for them, without needing to ramp up the loudness in the vocal range un-naturally. An example where this works well is in bands like Stone Roses where the lead singer Ian Browns subdued vocal style is given space over continually rolling drums and bass guitar on songs like “Fools Gold” without needing to over amp / or EQ his laid back style to be heard clearly. This style of tuning would work well for complex layered ‘wall of sound’ rock tracks without the other lower and higher frequencies drowning out the vocal area (see the Sound / Timbre section for more on this).
Bass – I was expecting a bit of a bass cannon given the 2 DD drivers for this region, but again Plussound seems to be going for a more refined, very even, and distinct clarity in both the bass and sub-bass regions, so not quite the punch and slam I was expecting.
But I think this is not what Plussound was aiming for. Like the treble and mids, it’s the clarity, separation, extension, and refinement that shines through in the bass area while still providing an enjoyable bass depth and pitch. Again, using the band “Stone Roses” as an example given their signature rolling bass riffs and sub-bass tones that is used in many of their songs, such as “I Want to be Adored”, the Allegro’s are able to give clear distinction and space between bass and sub-bass with no signs of bleeding from one into the other while still providing an enjoyable level (but not really ‘bass-head level) of bass rumble and clarity – the ability to pick out a mild bass riff behind the dominate drums on this track puts this iem into one of rare totl iems I’ve heard that have this technical ability mixed with a pleasurable, but not over-done, bass tone (unless you are a bit of a bass-head of course, then it’s not likely to satisfy you).
Sound, Timbre, Cohesiveness - this is where I’ll try to look at the sound, the emotional and musicality connection I had (or not).
Plussound market the tuning of the Allegro as “refinement”. For their intended design & tuning purposes I do think they have hit the mark here while not having a dominant frequency that stands out and grabs your attention immediately, it does provide a very cohesive, deep soundstage, not necessarily that wide to be at the holographic level, but in keeping with that refinement catch-phrase they deliver a dynamic, high clarity and slightly on the warmish side of timbre. This is a tuning style that does suit me, so I am generally a bit of a fan of the Allego’s tuning balance, note weight and energy across all the frequency ranges.
This refinement in tuning style produces some unique abilities when it comes to complex mixed rock music, as mentioned earlier, such as with an album like “A & E” by Graham Coxon (guitarist of the band Blur on a solo project album), which contains very extreme/ over-laid guitar / bass / vocals / driving drums / electro tones to create an over-arching melody in some (maybe most !) of his songs (eg, ‘The Truth’, ‘City Hall’) that can make very harsh listening on lesser well tuned iem’s, but on the Allegro’s it holds it all together so well that the over-laid combined melodies are not lost in a sea of sound frequencies and energy – maybe only iem’s like the Oriolus Trialli, and exceptionally (given it’s single DD coherence properties) the HifiMan Svanar, that I have noticed before to have that control of tuning with this level of musical complexity (prefacing that I’m sure there is more accomplished iems out there that I haven’t heard yet !).
On the negative side, while I think this is a well designed and tuned iem, it is not necessarily likely to ‘wow’ you on first listen. But as I found with longer listening sessions, assessing it’s sound vs my other high end iems and noticing the high levels of clarity and coherence without over-emphasising any particular frequency range, combined with a warmish musical tone, the Allegro provides a sound signature sometimes missed in some others at this totl level in the chase for more & more technicality ability and complexity in driver design. I have, as such, come to appreciate the fine job Plussound have done with the Allego’s, especially at this cost level with their first produced iem, given so many other companies putting out totl iems that are more likely to give a more ‘noticible’ first listen.
As a certain Aussie music icon used to regularly say when reviewing bands; “Do yourself a favour…..” and give the Allegro a lengthy listening session, if you can, and I think this maybe sums up the Allegro’s appeal to me – in the world of totl iem’s it may not be flashy in looks or have an initially attention grabbing tuning emphasis, but this is a very mature, well designed and tuned iem, worthy of it’s totl status. One that many audiophiles out there may come to appreciate too.
The Allegro’s and Comparisons to other IEM’s:
Unique Melody Fusang : with a full set of 12 BA’s plus a full range bone conducting driver (BCD), the design of these is quite different to the Allego’s but, maybe having a similar end result with refinement and a musical sound signature, without the wow factor in any particular frequency range.
Interesting that even a similarity in bass and sub-bass – showing perhaps that the well tuned double DD driver set in the Allegro can provide a similar quick, warm and deep bass sound to BA + Bone Conductor driver set in the Fusang.
Soundstage I would give (just) to the Fusang, perhaps related to the BCD full range driver giving a slightly larger and more holographic feel to the sound. This is most noticeable in a track from the “Dot Allison” album “We are Science” – on the song “Strung Out” the opening vocals intentionally move from left to right fairly quickly and clearly on the Allegro’s but on UM’s Fusang the same vocals have a more travelling around the head sound – you have to listen closely to pick it up, but the Fusangs present the same vocals in a more 3D space / movement. However, with the Fusangs, to deliver this soundstage level, you are paying with efficiency to drive them – they do need a decently amped DAP to drive them well (eg, my Sony WM1Z needs the sound to be set very high to keep up with my preferred listening levels compared to the Allego’s).
Hifiman Svanar: As a totl iem in the Hifiman iem range, the Svanar is actually half the price of the Allegro’s but thought it worth a comparison with what a highly technical single driver iem can do, with the advantage this can bring in coherance.
While the Svanar’s have become one of my most enjoyable long listening session iems due to their combination of perfect low profile fit, good seal and insertion together with a range of technicalities (speed, separation and clarity, etc) better than any single DD has a right to have plus the expected coherence of a totl single DD warmish sound tone that I do enjoy, however the Allegro’s really do produce sound abilities beyond the Svanar in most all areas (which of course should be expected at it’s price point) except for fit which the HiFiman excels. Maybe not really a fair comparison, but I am still impressed by how close the Svanar’s can get to this highest level iem from Plussound (and many others). In the end a well designed a thoughtfully tuned (see the mids section) hybrid iem really has the ability to extend the sound technicalities.
DAP Compatibility:
This will be a fairly concise section, as I found the Allegro didn’t really favour any particular DAP of mine – it seems to be efficient to drive and so a DAP such as Sony’s WM1Z with a not particularly strong amp section, didn’t really suffer in energy or tone compared to hooking them up to a stronger amped DAP such as the AK 2000T.
The Allegro’s technical abilities seemed to be also a good match to the Cayin N6ii with it’s R2R motherboard, adding some nice extra clarity to the R2R’s normal warm & lush sound signature.
So, it seems the Allegro, (well, with my DAP collection anyway) is quite versatile in synergy with DAP’s – it’s refined tuning seems to bring out the best in DAP’s and the ability to add some extra ‘polish’ where the DAP may have a slight shortfall (eg, lower powered amp, R2R resolution, etc). This type of sophistication in tuning and driver types to enable good DAP (and accessory – see following cable section) matching and enhancement is, I suppose, what additional benefits you are getting, in addition to the sublime sound signature, for the big bucks you pay for this totl level of iem performance.
Cables:
As a tour kit, Plussound were very generous in providing a nice collection of 4 different cable sets to trial, one being their own branded Bluetooth dongle style adapter.
As the three traditional style wire cable sets were all of the same build style, braids, connectors, etc, I will cover the quality build under the one heading, then discuss the sound signatures separately for each.
Cable Build & Quality : Firstly covering the fittings (splitter, neck slider) ; they are all use a similar round or barrel shaped, anodized (in a variety of available colours) aluminium, fairly undecorated, but of high quality in finish and machining standard. Either end of the cable connectors (2-pin at the iem side, 4.4mm at the DAP side) are Plussound branded fittings with a fairly deep protective finish (doesn’t seem to be anodized) but with the tips where the cables entered having a nicely scalloped anodized ring in place of the common shrink wrap protective short sleeve to prevent excessive cable kinking at the entry point – a very nicely done detail, which can also be colour matched to whatever style you select if purchasing via their custom build web-site menu.
The cable in each case were a 4 wire braid using a fairly taught “PS” insulation material in a matte black finish – not as flexible as many other brands out there, but with this thicker type wire coating together with the extra insulation coating (signified by the “+” nomenclature on the product name), I am thinking this extra stiffness will pay back in a superior sound condition (insulation) and a long lifetime cable (thick PS coating over the insulation), and likely able to stand up to a lot of mobile use. They really do convey a strong build style. Cable sleeve colours are a bit muted – a light grey to denote silver cables, black for copper wire and then obviously for the hybrid cable a mix of light grey and black. While in keeping with the refined image of the Allegro’s, if you are looking to be more flamboyant, Plussounds web-site custom menu gives you the ability to select a range of wires (4, 6, 8), braid types, styles and sleeve material types and wire materials (with some very exotic metals available too) if you want.
Cable 1 – The Copper + : This was a cable made using UP-OCC with a rated purity of 7N (7 nine’s, ie 99.99999% pure copper) ….. with a black insulation cover braid in 4 wires. The sound condition is pretty much what is traditionally found in copper – an enhanced lower end bass, smooth mids and fairly neutral treble range. Compared to some other copper cables I have (Eletech Fortitude) I detected a slightly fuller soundstage and maybe a bit of extra detail in the treble & mids, with similar sound signature in the bass region. Given it’s superior sound effect, and potentially long resilient wear protection, both likely from that extra insulation layer, I would say it’s a good value copper only cable adding a worthwhile signature beyond that of un-insulated cables.
Uses what Plussound term their “high purity, 24swg silver wire”, meaning this is a pure silver cable with a fairly thick wire gauge (24swg) added to that an extra insulation layer, means this is not a supple cable, but as the braiding is neat and consistent, micro-phonics are low, the extra stiffness is liveable for mobile use to me. The overall effect on the sound is that of nicely added extra detail and sharpness of note to the sound signature of the Allegro’s, compared to what I heard when using the Copper+ cable. And not just in the upper frequencies, but across the whole spectrum, there seems to be a bit more micro-detail to the sound. I didn’t detect a noticeable change in sound-staging, but the Silver+ seems to maintain what is already there produced by the iem itself.
As previously mentioned, the Allegro has that ‘refined’ sound signature, so a little bit of added resolution in the high frequency region from the Silver+ cable gives it a nice bit of extra ‘sparkle’, extending just a touch more into what we would normally expect out of high-end e-stat drivers. Good match with this cable, and, in comparison to some EA and Eletech silver plated OCC based cables I have on hand (admittedly they are at lower prices point though) the sharpness extension does seem more noticeable with the Plussound pure silver wire cable.
Fundamentally a cable made by intertwining / braiding the Copper+ and Siver+ cables together, and thus no surprise that, sonically, it combines the best of both and so tends till fill each other’s frequency range gaps to produce a more energetically sound from the Allegro’s – this became my favourite pairing of the 3 cable materials in the tour set – the extra low end energy and sound-stage extension of the Copper+, together with the added resolution of the Silver+ cable, gave the Allegro’s a bit of an extra energy push beyond it’s normal ‘refined’ tuning, and, for my musical tastes, added an extra bit of enjoyment to rock music tracks without loosing the smooth refinement when needed for more laid back tracks. Again the Allegos’ seem to respond and work well a wide range of musical styles even when given an extra energy dose by this Hybrid+ cable – recommended pairing !
This is a product of Plussounds own design, and can be fitted with just about any of their cable materials and braid sets available – in the case of the tour set, their traditional 6-wire, litz style braided and clear sleeved copper cable that connects via standard 2-pin connectors to the iem (and so is usable with any 2-pin iem + you can order many other iem connector styles from mmcx to JHA 4 pin, etc) and ending in a fairly sizable black dongle body made of anodized aluminium, so is worn sort of like a necklace dangling around and then down from your ears. With this size comes usefully sized buttons for pause / play, and volume up / down and a good-sized rechargeable battery.
The spec sheet says Bluetooth 5.0, firmare upgradeable, so has a useful range of codec’s (except for LDAC, which if you want to use, Plussounds new V3 Bluetooth cable device has) and a good feature set including preset EQ adjustments and are configured as ‘balanced’ output to your iem. Additionally, they are multi-device compatible too – up to 3 devices simultaneously, and it also contains a multi-directional microphone for phone call use.
Again Plussound are showing their design thoughtfulness in such a feature rich set product and a robust and easily accessible and versatile design.
There doesn’t appear to be an available app, however all adjustability incl EQ presets are adjustable from the dongle body buttons, so is not a critical omission, although maybe in the future Plussound could consider this, as many people do like to fiddle with apps for their Bluetooth devices.
So, it’s feature rich, but how does it sound ? Well in a word, “rich” (for a bluetooth device) – it has a nice warmness that suits my sound preferences while displaying good treble and base extension and clarity for a bluetooth device (I haven’t really heard a BT device yet… well maybe one…that doesn’t cause a slight ‘rounding’ off of the sonic properties). Bluetooth connections are solid and have reasonable to good separation distances from the source. To get the best out of this device you really need to be using an Android device to take advantage of the high transmission rate capability of the device.
For audiophiles, this is a unique Bluetooth device adding the ability to add high end cables to the bt device and, as it’s again, a well designed and feature rich Plussound design it’s able to take advantage of these high end cables and the high end iem’s it’s connected to, to produce as good as you can get Bluetooth sound qualities in a highly mobile setup (just make sure it’s an Android based source). Recommended !
Wrap-up:
There has been many a cable manufacturer enter into making and / or designing / collaborating to release a TOTL iem into a market always relentless to discover the next big thing, the next breakthrough in technology and with that the next level of sound quality – but this technical progress and sound quality benefit are not always in sync.
Often in such a competitive and critical listening market there must be some hard choices for an iem maker – how to ‘wow’ the market, how to stand out, do we tune for instant gratification or for more refined listening tastes ? This often then results in providing the audiophile with a smorgasbord of TOTL iems that are often quite different sounding, with the maker hoping it to become a long lasting and loved product. Some examples that have maintained this level of appeal without a specific ‘wow’ factor (other than their glorious sound signature across the frequency spectrum) are I suppose the 64 Audio UT12 or the Oriolus Trialli, both of which have maintained a long loyal following beyond the normal lifespan in the iem market.
While I’m not necessarily claiming the Allegro’s have this level of reverence, I can see that Plussound are aiming for this type of sophisticated tuning level, musicality and ability to sound enjoyable with a wide range of music styles and the versatility to sync well with many DAP’s and cables , etc – and the Allego’s have come very close to achieving this level of refinement to my ears and musical tastes.
Plussounds cables are also a factor in this refinement of product, having well chosen design elements, robust cable construction and quality of finish – with a good and distinct effect on the sound signature with each of the wire materials used – and if going the custom route, an ability to create ‘your’ preferred cable design opens up a world of tuning possibilities given the Allegro’s versatility in picking up the sound variations of the various elements in the sound path.
This, then, is an iem that brings out it’s best in longer listening sessions, so I would suggest “Do yourself a favour…..” and give the Allegro a decent listening trial, and well done Plussound for creating such a mature and well designed iem in the Allegro, and at it’s first iem product at that !
And finally, I must mention, with great thanks for the opportunity to tryout such wonderful gear, to the local efforts of our Aussie Cooler ‘main man’ @Damz87, @Sebastien Chiu and of course Plussound for making such an extensive tour set available to us Aussies to try out.
C
heers, JD
