PENON X EFFECT AUDIO ARCHANGEL IMPRESSIONS
A Lyrical Titan in a World of Numbers
Much thanks to the "Audio Geek India Brotherhood of Audiophiles" and the OG “Audio Geek” for kindly loaning this set of the Archangel to me for over a week. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to and tweaking around the sound of this set.
This is a purely subjective impression based on my personal experience. I am an enthusiast, not a professional, and my evaluation reflects my own tastes, opinions and listening habits. A more detailed explanation of my testing methodology, evaluation tracks, and equipment used is included in the appendix at the end.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Drivers: 2 DD + 4 BA + 2 BCD
Low frequency: 2 coaxial 8mm PET + carbon nanotube diaphragm
Middle frequency: 2 Knowles composite middle frequency Balanced Armature
High frequency: 2 Sonion composite high frequency Balanced Armature
Full frequency: 2 Sonion composite bone conduction driver
Impedance: 12ohm@1kHz
Sensitivity: 105dB@1kHz
Frequency response range: 10~40kHz
Connector: 2Pin 0.78mm
Cable: 26AWG 8-wire UP-OCC smelting process, single material Litz with silver-plated copper central core, 6 multi-sized core bundles with EA UltraFlexi insulation.
Plug: 4.4mm EA Standard Rhodium Plated Brass Straight Type
WHAT I LIKED:
Aesthetics and Build Quality
At first glance, the Archangel reveals a confident elegance that sidesteps flash. The full resin shell—expertly moulded and featherweight—sits deep and naturally in the ear. Its ergonomics aren’t merely functional; they’re near-forgettable in the best way, enabling long, uninterrupted listening sessions even though the shells are certainly large. The finish is premium without being ostentatious, with a matte translucency that invites rather than shouts.
The supplied cable is supple and well-terminated, with zero memory issues and excellent strain relief. It neither impedes performance nor demands immediate replacement, which is uncommon in this segment. The overall craftsmanship gives a sense of quiet authority—the feeling that this was built to serve the music, not the shelf.
Bass Presentation – Texture, Warmth, and Musicality
The Archangel’s low-end isn’t about brute force—it’s about soul. Bass is lush and round, but not slow. There is a fullness to the sound that lends weight to instruments and gravity to the mix. Whether it’s the deep fundamental of a string or the percussive thump of a drum, each note is textured and blooming, delivered with a confidence rooted in control rather than aggression.
This is bass that engages emotionally. Its sub-bass presence is never overblown, but firm enough to establish a confident foundation. The mid-bass, in particular, carries a warm, analog character. It glows rather than rumbles, favouring resonance and tone over sheer slam.
Yet, this isn’t without trade-offs. There’s a deliberate choice here—one that favours organic cohesion over speed. Quick percussive hits don’t feel surgically carved out. Instead, they roll in like a tide, shaping the rhythm with a human fluidity that aligns beautifully with acoustic, vocal, and orchestral works.
Midrange – Naturalism and Vocal Density
Here, the Archangel earns its title. The midrange is its spiritual centre. It feels alive—full-bodied, textured, and strikingly organic. Male and female vocals alike are rendered with a natural warmth and emotional saturation that few hybrid setups can achieve. There’s a sense of intimacy and immediacy, but without artificial forwardness or honed aggression.
The tuning avoids the pitfalls of either thin neutrality or excessive coloration. There’s a smooth, valve-like glow to midrange instruments—one that flatters acoustic textures and imbues harmonics with a sense of realism. Wind instruments breathe, bowed strings resonate with wood and resin, and pianos carry both hammer and soundboard.
Most impressive is the emotive weight this midrange delivers. Notes swell and decay with a sense of life and phrasing that feels less like digital reproduction and more like performance. Each dynamic contour is shaped with care. There’s grain where there should be grain, breath where there should be breath. It doesn’t just resolve detail—it communicates intent.
Treble – Smooth Extension, Natural Decay
The treble of the Archangel is both polite and purposeful. It extends well enough to preserve air and resolution, but avoids sharp peaks, exaggerated brilliance, or edgy metallic sheen. This makes the treble non-fatiguing and immensely listenable across long sessions.
There is a refinement in how it treats high-frequency energy. Cymbals decay naturally without splash; bells shimmer rather than pierce. The tuning here prefers tonal coherence over the pursuit of surgical micro detail. And that’s the crux—this is treble designed for music, not measurement.
For some, this may present as laid-back, especially when expecting crystalline or ultra-bright tuning. But within the Archangel’s tonal universe, it’s the perfect complement to the mid and bass structure—ensuring everything stays bonded together.
Soundstage and Imaging – Immersion, Not Illusion
The Archangel’s soundstage isn’t merely wide—it’s deep. It creates a venue, not a panorama. Instruments appear layered not just laterally, but in height and depth. Vocals occupy their own acoustic bubble, ambient reverbs trail off into believable decay zones, and backing instrumentation forms a realistic envelope around the listener.
Imaging is highly resolving without being clinical. Instrument positions are precise yet breathe—they don’t appear as laser-sharp points, but as textured bodies within a 3D space. This spatial realism elevates orchestral and ensemble recordings, allowing the listener to move through the music, rather than stand outside it.
The combination of this depth and fluidity provides a transportive quality. The IEM seems to “disappear,” leaving behind only the room, the ensemble, and the emotion.
Technical Proficiency with Musical Sensibility
The Archangel may not chase hyper-detail or sparkle wars, but that does not mean it lacks resolution. Rather, it delivers information in context. Micro-details are present—fingertip pressure, vocal sibilants, bow re-articulations—but they’re embedded organically, not spotlit for shock value.
Attack and decay are both controlled and emotive. There’s elasticity in the way the driver handles dynamic swings—punches feel dense, but not brick-walled. Transients rise and fall with a sense of phrasing, rather than metronomic regularity. This matters immensely in music where dynamics are tied to storytelling.
Moreover, the Archangel exhibits minimal smear or congestion even in complex musical passages. Its separation is confident, but never mechanical. Notes are allowed to blend when they should, and resolve when they must.
This makes the Archangel a powerful companion for genres rooted in harmonic complexity, emotive performance, and dynamic nuance.
Synergy and Scalability
Unlike many ultra-resolving or impedance-sensitive IEMs, the Archangel is refreshingly undemanding. It sounds excellent from all gear and yet still reveals meaningful improvements when scaled up to higher-end sources. It doesn’t collapse under budget gear, nor does it flatten out with neutral rigs.
The IEM also plays well with a wide variety of musical styles—though it excels with acoustic, classical, soul, jazz, and ambient music where its tone and spatial realism shine brightest.
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:
Treble Sparkle and Brilliance
While the top-end is refined and smooth, it leans polite. Some may find it lacks the crystalline air or overt brilliance that defines more analytical tunings. This tuning choice preserves long-session comfort, but may underserve genres or listeners who desire more bite and dazzle in the upper registers.
Bass Speed and Slam
The bass, though warm and emotive, is not the fastest. It trades speed and surgical slam for fullness and bloom. As a result, ultra-fast rhythms or layered sub-bass sequences can occasionally feel soft at the leading edge. The sense of rhythm is fluid, not percussive.
Resolution and Micro-detail Retrieval
Despite its beautiful cohesion, the Archangel isn’t a microscope. Listeners looking for hyper-isolated textures or forensic detail levels may find it a touch too romantic. It chooses to emphasise tone and flow rather than dissect every recording artefact.
Genre Selectivity
The Archangel’s tuning excels with music that breathes—acoustic, emotional, textured. However, highly synthetic or hyper-aggressive genres may reveal its limitations. In such contexts, the slight softening of transients and relaxed top-end may feel dynamically compressed or overly smooth..
The Penon Archangel is not about shock and awe. It’s not here to dissect, dazzle, or dominate. Instead, it does something more enduring—it invites you to listen. Not to gear. Not to graphs. But to music.Its strengths lie in coherence, warmth, depth, and presence. It delivers notes as emotional events, not just sonic particles. This is an IEM for those who hear music not as data, but as story. It may not be perfect. But for listeners who value emotional realism, tonal fluidity, and immersive staging, the Archangel doesn’t need to be. It simply needs to sing. And sing it does—effortlessly, endlessly, and with soul.
PEQ & TUNING OBSERVATIONS:
The Archangel is fundamentally well-tuned, but benefits from gentle EQ to correct subtle imbalances and enhance listening synergy with specific genres. The EQ here focuses on refinement: unlocking clarity and sparkle without disturbing the Archangel’s lush tonality and immersive staging. A few of the tuning ideas I tried:
- Subtle lift in upper treble (9–11kHz) to restore “air” and shimmer to cymbals and strings
- Controlled mid-bass trim to counter slight bloom in dense recordings, particularly in multi-layered genres
- Upper mids cleaned via narrow Q cuts to reduce warmth veiling and restore perceived vocal space
CONSIDER THIS SET IF YOU:
- Prefer a rich, natural, full-bodied sound that prioritises tone over hyper-detail
- Seek vocally expressive mids, lifelike dynamics, and immersive stage without clinical sharpness
- Love genres like jazz, orchestral, soul, ambient, unplugged, and story-driven recordings
- Want comfortably tuned DD with coherent tonality and graceful decay
- Enjoy tweaking with inbuilt switches
BUT RECONSIDER IF YOU:
- Want ultra-fast transient attack for modern metal, DnB, or technical progressive music
- Prefer cold, analytical, or hyper-resolving tunings
- Are sensitive to warmth or mid-bass emphasis that can soften detail in busy arrangements
- Have small ears, shells are larger than usual
APPENDIX:
Listening Preferences
My music library spans various global genres. I do not enjoy EDM, repetitive beat-driven dance tracks, modern varieties of pop with overly auto-tuned, ultra-polished, pitch perfect and sweetened vocals with hyper-clean instruments. Listeners with a taste for such music may find my impressions less aligned with their preferences.
Evaluation Method
While I listened to hundreds of tracks on this set, a selected playlist of 50 test tracks (with testing parameters) is printed below. Also spent many more hours casually listening in real-world scenarios—while working, walking the dog, cooking, etc. I believe that the truest test of any audio gear is how much joy and emotional connection it enables, outside of critical listening.
Equipment used
Chord- Mojo2, Poly, Hugo2, 2Go, Denafrips- Pontus II 12th, Ferrum- OOR+Hypsos, iPhone, Macbook Pro, Mac Studio, along with multiple cables (including one highly specced custom pure Cu+Ag balanced cable) and ear-tips.
Music playback: Apple Music, Qobuz, Foobar2000, Neutron, Local hi-res files.
Test Tracks :
The bass here is a treat in its own right.
The midrange is the breath of life.
The treble is a delight.
The soundstage in the SR5 is sweeping, deep, and expansive.
Conclusion.
This might be the first time I agree with you 
. It's one of my favorites too 
