The PENON official thread
Aug 8, 2022 at 2:23 PM Post #5,416 of 13,343
Haha so:

I’m pretty nimble with my fingers, lots of phone repairs in my past, etc…

But working with a needle around the hairline rim of that filter… I goofed. Made a whole in the blue filter. Then it came out, but popped out. 15 minutes of searching later I found it on the carpet. The red one wouldn’t loosen. Ended up a little buckled on all sides before it finally came out.

If I ever do sell these, they’ll have to go back to Penon to be refiltered first!

Speaking of, the metal grille - that’s one included for free from Penon (you can get like 5 at a time with any order?) it’s the smallest diameter I had.

Because it leaves a sizable hole straight to the main cavity when the filters are out. I did listen to them that way, and that sounded a bit more open and treble airy although not necessarily bassier - had to raise volume more. Leaking too much sound?

I put these metal grilles on to protect them. Based on sound they’re providing the same or very slightly higher bass. The one song so far that’s made me sure the bass is a little elevated is Guilty As Charged by Chairlift. Listening to Uptight by Greenday the rhythm guitars are definitely meaty. Maybe more than usual?

Certainly not a hurricane or sledgehammer of bass, very comparable to pre mod. Nothing else has changed except a hair more air in the treble? Could easily be placebo.

Glad I didn’t destroy the sound of my favorite set! If at all, they are only slightly changed.

Guitars have been awesome, like Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.

I tend to hear more recording imperfections like noise at the start of some songs (Let it go by Saint Savior) which might back up the feel of increased treble?

Still no hot spots in the FR, sounds natural as before.
 
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Aug 8, 2022 at 2:45 PM Post #5,418 of 13,343
Haha so:

I’m pretty nimble with my fingers, lots of phone repairs in my past, etc…

But working with a needle around the hairline rim of that filter… I goofed. Made a whole in the blue filter. Then it came out, but popped out. 15 minutes of searching later I found it on the carpet. The red one wouldn’t loosen. Ended up a little buckled on all sides before it finally came out.

If I ever do sell these, they’ll have to go back to Penon to be refiltered first!

Speaking of, the metal grille - that’s one included for free from Penon (you can get like 5 at a time with any order?) it’s the smallest diameter I had.

Because it leaves a sizable hole straight to the main cavity when the filters are out. I did listen to them that way, and that sounded a bit more open and treble airy although not necessarily bassier - had to raise volume more. Leaking too much sound?

I put these metal grilles on to protect them. Based on sound they’re providing the same or very slightly higher bass. The one song so far that’s made me sure the bass is a little elevated is Guilty As Charged by Chairlift. Listening to Uptight by Greenday the rhythm guitars are definitely meaty. Maybe more than usual?

Certainly not a hurricane or sledgehammer of bass, very comparable to pre mod. Nothing else has changed except a hair more air in the treble? Could easily be placebo.

Glad I didn’t destroy the sound of my favorite set! If at all, they are only slightly changed.

Guitars have been awesome, like Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.

I tend to hear more recording imperfections like noise at the start of some songs (Let it go by Saint Savior) which might back up the feel of increased treble?

Still no hot spots in the FR, sounds natural as before.
Interesting... so no real gain in the bass but the upper frequencies noticeably opened up more? Purely a theory here but:
I wonder if the fact that the rear vent is for all three drivers that it had a bigger impact it increasing the performance of the two smaller drivers compared to the bass driver.
 
Aug 8, 2022 at 3:51 PM Post #5,419 of 13,343
look what the nice DHL man gave me...

20220808_154446.jpg
 
Aug 8, 2022 at 5:10 PM Post #5,421 of 13,343
Aug 8, 2022 at 11:41 PM Post #5,422 of 13,343
So an update on the accidentally irreversible Serial mod, copied from a message to a friend:
It’s very balanced, and much much airier than stock Serial. There’s more treble, and it comes in from further out of my head, but these things can be turned up and up and up without any harshness they just get more and more expansive. They sound absolutely fine at a low volume too, but I was experimenting and was surprised that no fatigue or sibilance set it at high volumes. Super spacious. The mid and sub-bass are still excellent, but not quite the signature they had before, at least to my ears.
I don't know if I'm going crazy at this point, so I'll be sending them to him to see what his impressions are. He was a big fan of the Serial when he owned them and might be able to remember them well enough for a vague comparison, besides giving stand-alone comments on the modded version. At this point I just want to know what other ears hear in them, I've been doing too much close analysis and swapping of too many sets lately.

They really do sound semi-open to me at least, but when I cover the nozzles, I don't think there's much sound leakage through the screens.
 
Aug 9, 2022 at 1:09 AM Post #5,423 of 13,343
So an update on the accidentally irreversible Serial mod, copied from a message to a friend:

I don't know if I'm going crazy at this point, so I'll be sending them to him to see what his impressions are. He was a big fan of the Serial when he owned them and might be able to remember them well enough for a vague comparison, besides giving stand-alone comments on the modded version. At this point I just want to know what other ears hear in them, I've been doing too much close analysis and swapping of too many sets lately.

They really do sound semi-open to me at least, but when I cover the nozzles, I don't think there's much sound leakage through the screens.
Well this is really tempting me to try it on my pair! If I no one bites on mine in the next couple of weeks I might try it out just to see
 
Aug 9, 2022 at 1:17 AM Post #5,424 of 13,343
Well this is really tempting me to try it on my pair! If I no one bites on mine in the next couple of weeks I might try it out just to see
If you wait, there’ll hopefully be second opinion on my set soon. I would feel badly for you try it off my ears alone. For all I know the venting was reverted to basically stock and I’ve just recreated the Serial with a ton of placebo on top.
 
Aug 9, 2022 at 5:36 PM Post #5,426 of 13,343
Aug 9, 2022 at 7:04 PM Post #5,428 of 13,343
Fun, musical, bassy and at the same time detailed. In my opinion, they need a neutral source. For example CEntrance HiFi-M8 V2.

Just got the Vortex yesterday.....
 
Aug 9, 2022 at 7:21 PM Post #5,429 of 13,343
Wow! Spent the day burning in the Vortex, and I know they need more than that, BUT Holy Cow! These are sounding very very good on my desktop...I actually got lost in the music for a second!

20220809_191832.jpg
 
Aug 9, 2022 at 11:06 PM Post #5,430 of 13,343
Well this is really tempting me to try it on my pair! If I no one bites on mine in the next couple of weeks I might try it out just to see
When you took out the vents, was it purely the mesh itself or the round inset it fits in too (ie: on the Serial the red or blue collars)? Do you think it’s a different style of vent to the Serial?
 

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