The PENON official thread

[Xinlisupreme]

Volt needs many hours to shine on highs like many EST hybrid IEMs

 

[morndewey]

Need some informed feedback. I think I read somewhere you can’t hook an SE 3.5 cable to a balanced pigtail (for use on dap), that it could damage the dap? Is this the case or no? Thanks

 

[RikudouGoku]

Need some informed feedback. I think I read somewhere you can’t hook an SE 3.5 cable to a balanced pigtail (for use on dap), that it could damage the dap? Is this the case or no? Thanks

Yes, you cannot go from SE to Balanced.

Balanced to SE works though.

 

[guicnovaes]

Besides @alexandros a , did anyone else compare the Penon Orb to Mangird Tea? Thanks in Advance!

 

[ehjie]

Need some informed feedback. I think I read somewhere you can’t hook an SE 3.5 cable to a balanced pigtail (for use on dap), that it could damage the dap? Is this the case or no? Thanks

NO. from SE to balanced to is a No go. My Taekyo Cable Designer & builder confirmed that they damage the IEMs by shorting the circuits of the drivers...

 

[MarkParity]

NO. from SE to balanced to is a No go. My Taekyo Cable Designer & builder confirmed that they damage the IEMs by shorting the circuits of the drivers...

Your Taekyo Cable Designer is wrong an SE output can be connected via a suitable adaptor to a balanced IEM/Headphone setup with no issues whatsoever.

The IEM drivers are passive devices that respond to an input voltage only they have no idea if is a balanced or single-ended voltage to them its just a voltage signal.

 

[IEMusic]

Your Taekyo Cable Designer is wrong an SE output can be connected via a suitable adaptor to a balanced IEM/Headphone setup with no issues whatsoever.

The IEM drivers are passive devices that respond to an input voltage only they have no idea if is a balanced or single-ended voltage to them its just a voltage signal.

BUT, it can most certainly damage the DAP/amplifier

To quote information from Moon Audio:
”What they are doing when they plug the 3.5mm into the adapter is shorting-to-ground the two balanced channels, which essentially shorts the two amplifier circuits to ground. This can damage the amplifier. Of course, there are 3rd party retailers online that create these products without warning their customers of the damage they are potentially causing to their hardware. They just want to make a profit and have no concern for the well-being of the customer. In this case, if the digital audio player gets damaged, Astell &Kern will not cover the repair or replacement costs due to using a 3rd party unsupported adapter.

As Drew mentioned previously in his article, you cannot convert a single-ended connection to a balanced connection as there is no way to untie these grounds. PLEASE do not risk damaging your gear by doing this.”

 

[MarkParity]

As Drew mentioned previously in his article, you cannot convert a single-ended connection to a balanced connection as there is no way to untie these grounds. PLEASE do not risk damaging your gear by doing this.”

This bit of that article confused me and I thought I knew about this subject. What grounds do we have to untie? A single ended output is just L,R, Gnd

"You can convert a balanced connection back to single ended. This is not a problem at all as long as your main headphone cable is balanced, then you can add an adapter cable. For example, we make adapters that convert the Astell & Kern balanced 2.5mm plug to a 3.5mm plug for use with your phone or another device that only has a 3.5mm or 1/8" jack."

The first bit is confusing, we probably have to clarify "source's" and "sink's".

Reading from left to right we have balanced source -> single ended sink that's bad isn't it? The phrase "back to" is probably where the confusion at least for me comes from.

How do you interpret this paragraph @IEMusic?

AFAIK the rule is simple (assuming no conversion circuit, just an IEM or headphone as the sink):

Balanced Source -> Balanced Sink only.
SE Source -> Balanced or SE sink.

 

[BobJS]

This bit of that article confused me and I thought I knew about this subject. What grounds do we have to untie? A single ended output is just L,R, Gnd

"You can convert a balanced connection back to single ended. This is not a problem at all as long as your main headphone cable is balanced, then you can add an adapter cable. For example, we make adapters that convert the Astell & Kern balanced 2.5mm plug to a 3.5mm plug for use with your phone or another device that only has a 3.5mm or 1/8" jack."

The first bit is confusing, we probably have to clarify "source's" and "sink's".

Reading from left to right we have balanced source -> single ended sink that's bad isn't it? The phrase "back to" is probably where the confusion at least for me comes from.

How do you interpret this paragraph @IEMusic?

AFAIK the rule is simple (assuming no conversion circuit, just an IEM or headphone as the sink):

Balanced Source -> Balanced Sink only.
SE Source -> Balanced or SE sink.

In a single ended amplifier, both the left and right signal voltages (L+ , R+) are relative to a common ground (-). In a balanced amplifier, think of it as 2 monophonic amplifiers side by side, each with its own reference : (L+, L-) and (R+, R-).

These two channels are floating relative to each other. If you tie the two negative points together (by forcing the output into a single ended connector or cable with a common ground or (-) terminal), the results are undefined (depending on the exact electronic implementation of the balanced amp). In general, you risk short-circuiting components in the balanced amplifier.

As someone else mentioned, the passive load (your IEMs) don't care and won't be damaged.

 

[morndewey]

Can anyone recommend an affordable/reliable professional to reterminate a cable, 3.5 to balanced, or is this also technically taboo?

 

[senorpedro]

Can anyone recommend an affordable/reliable professional to reterminate a cable, 3.5 to balanced, or is this also technically taboo?

@doctorjuggles makes great cables, I am sure he will able to help

 

[ehjie]

Your Taekyo Cable Designer is wrong an SE output can be connected via a suitable adaptor to a balanced IEM/Headphone setup with no issues whatsoever.

The IEM drivers are passive devices that respond to an input voltage only they have no idea if is a balanced or single-ended voltage to them its just a voltage signal.

Are you a cable designer & builder as well? Show us your build, re; SE to balance

 

[earmonger]

Penon fan did open up quite nicely after 24 hours of burn in , the mid bass is coming up and the thin male vocals are not mostly gone but it might be my preference that they need to be more thick , but they are better than when I first tried it ..
Treble has more air now
Rock and pop I like a lot here , will be putting up an more better subjective impressions later on .. but for the price of 69$ it's really good ..

Looking forward to further impressions. Please elaborate.

 

[SBranson]

Can anyone recommend an affordable/reliable professional to reterminate a cable, 3.5 to balanced, or is this also technically taboo?

Check with Plussound. Great service, price and turn around time. I didn't get this specifically done but got my mmcx changed to Rhodium 2 pin.

 

[MarkParity]

Are you a cable designer & builder as well? Show us your build, re; SE to balance

Not a designed no, but I have modified lots of cables, fitting this kind of thing to several different cables, and 3.5mm to 4.4mm and 2.5mm conversions:

Here is a Fiio LC-3.5D modified with the above set, fitted with the 4.4mm plug, IEM is the Beyerdynamic Xelento.



Seems to work fine for me, but this whole thing is off topic for this thread so that's my last post here, we should take the discussion somewhere else if you would like to continue it.