[s2kphile]

I would definitely appreciate a detailed comparison of the two. Did your buddy say which part the sound signature of the RGB you would prefer over the Impact?

I will be doing my best A/Bing. At this moment he didnt specify why I would prefer the RGB over Impact. I believe it would be how the bass or highs may be implemented.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Even knowing it will be blingy beforehand, finally holding it in my hands it actually defines 'bling' in a new way, being even blingier than expected, but in a funny way imo

The Vocal is so flamboyant it’s ridiculous!

 

[dharmasteve]

The Vocal is so flamboyant it’s ridiculous!

Came back home and my bloody cat jumped off the top of the fridge and mugged me for 'The Penon Bling'. As the ambulance driver was treating me he was smirking. This is him. Little B...

 

[Redcarmoose]

The Vocal Cable and H40 is incredible!

Penon has the arsenal to make your music sounding so enjoyable that owning a single pair of their IEMs is like going into the candy shop and just buying a lollipop. Just kidding a bit here as I only have one too at the moment, my ISN Audio H40 and EST50 being not included in the equation (ISN is a close parent company of Penon).

 

[F700]

The Vocal Cable and H40 is incredible!

Right back from holidays and the Vocal were patiently waiting in the mailbox.

Be certain that once the kids are sleeping, daddy will try the H40/Vocal combo.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Right back from holidays and the Vocal were patiently waiting in the mailbox.

Be certain that once the kids are sleeping, daddy will try the H40/Vocal combo.

Cool! I would like to hear your impressions. I actually don’t know why I related so well with the combo? So, really I would like to know if there truly is something there between the two! It is the best I ever heard the H40 sound?

 

[RunWithOne]

My Penon Vocal arrived me yesterday.

 

[Dsnuts]

I will be doing my best A/Bing. At this moment he didnt specify why I would prefer the RGB over Impact. I believe it would be how the bass or highs may be implemented.

Reason why 50% of my review was all about the treble on the RGB. Treble presentation and its ability to affect the rest of the sound spectrum makes a notable difference on the RGB that is difficult for other IEMs to achieve.

There is most definitely something to using 8ESTs in and how all of them drivers were utilized for the RGB that makes them stand out. At first I was questioning how does 4ESTs differ from 8ESTs? As they say it is all about implementation and tuning to extract the best of what these drivers can do and sound like.

Penon has always been about their ability to give the user the best mids presentation they can reason why all their IEMs are more musical sounding vs being overly technical. Their cables like the "vocal" even the Totem cable adds a richer coloring to sound that enhances how you hear mids performances with greater technical enhancing ability. This being said, I feel the Impacts has hidden potential for sound expansion and its overall sound balancing with better cable pairings. It will be more a matter of what your preference here is. Using a cable with more silver to enhance its stage and technical foundation seems to skew the sound to be more treble and upper mids focused which I personally feel makes the Impacts sound even more higher end and closer to how the RGB was tuned. Visa versa. Adding a higher end copper cable to the RGB adds that richness with greater note weight and a more forward vocal projection of the RGB to make them sound more closer to that musical foundation of the Impacts.

The included white obsidian cable is also a mids enhancer adding a bit of gold plated cores. So the clear focus for the Penon house sound has always been about the mids.

Tansio Mirai on the other hand has always been about the treble. Their IEMs in the past was met with some criticism for having treble emphasis other IEMs did not touch.
Actually having a treble shelf at the 4-8Khz region for example vs having a dip in the 6-8khz region that Penon typically does. This is the reason why Penon IEMs have more focus on musical smoother lush sounding experiences.

Having that extra bit of 6-8khz moderate emphasis- I say moderate because there are no spikes here for the RGB but it does have plenty of emphasis for the region. If you look at harmon based tunings. Those also incorporate a mild emphasis in the region.

Tuning the IEM with this region intact. Takes some serious gumption as it will make or break an IEM presentation based on just how much emphasis is in the region combined with how much upper mid gain the tuning has. If done right, the end results however using 8EST and a Sonion BA to cover the lower trebles, the trebles become one of the most articulate, detailed, clean, airy, sparkly extended treble notes I have ever heard.

How that relates to the rest of the sound? Gives a high-fidelity finish to the sound with air that other IEMs have difficult matching. Impacts does it in a way where the treble is more complimentary of the mids presentation and while it has excellent trebles for its sound, I can't say its treble is special like what is on the RGBs. The mids on the impacts is where you get a slightly richer more dense note for its mids presentation.

Both presentations are holographic but that extra for the treble region adds an air and tonal freshness to the sound of the RGB but clearly stays in control while the mids fowardness and richness of the impacts has a special for vocal performances that makes to you take notice for vocals and instruments alike. Bass ends are similarly tuned but something to the added copper tubing on the RGB brings a + to the bass end here as well. Seems a bit more defined while the Impacts has just a bit more body for its mid bass. I would say both bass ends are capable and is more or less a toss up. What makes the biggest difference is how the overall sound emphasis lies for their respective tunings.

 

[wdelta06]

Do not use the Vocal while walking in the 'Dark Side' of town, especially worse while wearing a 'ROLEX'. The ultimate extroverted bit of 'BLING'. Stay Safe

Careful... your klan hood is showing!

 

[RumbleWeed]

Hi all wanted a bit of advice? Thinking about pulling the trigger on a used set of Volt but worried the bass won’t be enough for me quantity wise not quality so wanted to know how that 10mm DD handle’s EQ? Mainly sub a 3-4db boost around the 50-60hz is there any audible distortion?
Also, read a couple of reviews which point out how much the Totem Cable elevates the Volts and due to being no way i could afford the Totem would you say the Leo Plus could have a similar impact on the Volts due to using copper,silver.gold & palladium or are my hopes & dreams just to far fetched lol
With that said what cable around $150 would work well with Volt to bring out the bass like the Totem?
Thanx in advance for the help guys really appreciate it

 

[krenky]

Hi all wanted a bit of advice? Thinking about pulling the trigger on a used set of Volt but worried the bass won’t be enough for me quantity wise not quality so wanted to know how that 10mm DD handle’s EQ? Mainly sub a 3-4db boost around the 50-60hz is there any audible distortion?
Also, read a couple of reviews which point out how much the Totem Cable elevates the Volts and due to being no way i could afford the Totem would you say the Leo Plus could have a similar impact on the Volts due to using copper,silver.gold & palladium or are my hopes & dreams just to far fetched lol
With that said what cable around $150 would work well with Volt to bring out the bass like the Totem?
Thanx in advance for the help guys really appreciate it

I dont have Volt but have good experience with EQ. I think adding 3-4db should be fine but IMO it would make the bass quite extreme comparing to the other frequencies. If you like proper bass and like using EQ I would recommend FH9 a lot. It has 13.6mm berylium bass driver... the bass is incredible, textured and soo deep. The overall sound very clean and detailed.

For the Volt the stock cable is so beautiful matching the shell color, love the look of that set.

 

[F700]

WARNING: The "PENON VOCAL" surely can bite hard in case of incautious behavior, but with some care and an adequate handling, his venom is far from being lethal and actually can cure some diseases... Everything is a poison, nothing is a poison. It is the dose that makes the poison (dixit Paracelsus)

The Penon Vocal cable and the ISN H40 IEMs (1DD/3BA) indeed make a wonderful pairing. @Redcarmoose, I second your astonishment and your enthusiasm about this combo being greater than the sum of its parts.

ISN H40's stock cable (ISN S8) does the job right out of the box, but when I thought I've found the best companion with the Satin Audio Chimera II copper cable, then came the Vocal into play and I don't think I will remove the Vocal from the H40 anytime soon. It just matches. Point.

I did not try other IEMs with the Vocal so far because 1) I specifically bought the Vocal for the H40 2) All my other bassy IEMs are perfectly served with aftermarket cables and 3) the others MMCX-terminated IEMs are collecting a bit of dust (634ears LKTC excluded), so no rush here.

I have been listening to electronics, hip-hop, OST, vocalists and ambient tonight and I don't think I will go to bed soon. No hearing fatigue in sight, just wonderful musical moments with the Vocal and the H40. Worth mentioning, I just had an intense and highly satisfying session listening to the from 1999 Live Album from Underworld (Everything, Everything). Massive goosebumps time via AIFF digital format ripped from the CD version - A perfect mix of pounding grooves, frontal and powerful vocals, high-pitched sounds. The whole thing recorded in the best conditions. Underworld in it's full glory:







What stroke me first is how the Vocal brings the mids a bit more forward while remaining full and even more layered compared to the Chimera II, which already represented a big step up from the S8 in that regard. Moreover, it does that without taking anything away from the H40's Herculian DNA. Crank up the volume? Easy. Distortion? Not any. You get immediate improvement in the mids section, especially in the vocal department with extra matter and presence to the voices and there is no compromise to go through in the upper-mids area. Everything remains sibilance and fatigue-free. Finally, what about the low-end? The H40 see their subbass being tightened up and better controlled, less bloomy. The midbass get the same treatment, reducing the V-shaped sound signature, previously tamed by the slight more forward mids.

Once more, important disclaimer: I haven't listened to any other IEMs with the Vocal attached to them so far. Still, I perfectly can imagine, and as @Redcarmoose already mentioned it, that a stock ISN EST50 will step up with it, once more in the medium department and in the bass section. Is the Vocal the solution for every basshead's IEMs or V-shapes ones? Of course not. The H40 and the Vocal might be a match made in heaven, but I can see the Vocal bringing some sets at the limit or beyond sibilance, ruining the experience. Another scenario is reducing the bass quantity and/or quality too much and simultaneously bringing the mids in an undesired forwardness. As always, the listener remains the only judge.

The Penon Vocal and the H40 retail for respectively USD 69.- and USD 195.-. USD 264.- not only buy you a mini-ISN EST50 or a mini-FatFreq Mini Maestro (it makes a lot of "minis" for maxi sound, don't you think ), but this combo has no problem to stand up against of the more expensive and, yes, more technically achieved and refined aforementioned IEMs in their stock versions.

If you already own a set of H40, I highly encourage you to try the Vocal with them. On the other hand, if you are on the market for an affordable basshead's set that also plays your music back smoothly and effortlessly, then my above-mentioned encouragement becomes a solid recommendation in investigating the H40/Vocal combo.

Aesthetically speaking, well, it's a matter of taste, but I am not against a bit of fantasy sometimes. The color scheme and pattern make the cable looks a bit "cheap", but don't let you fool by the plastic touch of the braid, Penon seems to have improved the solidity of the connections and the shielding,

https://penonaudio.com/penon-vocal.html

LPGT - Penon Vocal - ISN H40 - Symbio W Peel

 

[RumbleWeed]

I dont have Volt but have good experience with EQ. I think adding 3-4db should be fine but IMO it would make the bass quite extreme comparing to the other frequencies. If you like proper bass and like sing EQ I would recommend FH9 a lot. It has 13.6mm berylium bass driver... the bass is incredible, textured and soo deep. The overall sound very clean and detailed.

For the Volt the stock cable is so beautiful matching the shell color, love the look of that set.

Thanx for advice my friend really appreciate it, the reason for volt is I’m in the market for a Tri-brid I’ve got quite a few iem’s both neutral & bass heavy but I’m in the market for a Tri-brid and narrowed down to Volt or Yanyin Mahina? the reason for the EQ is i boost 90% of my iem’s in the sub-bass then set it as a pre-set for when I’m listening to my drum & bass so ALL of my iem’s need to have a decent dynamic driver to handle at least a 3-4db boost at 60hz!

 

[-rowan-]

The Impact’s imaging and sub bass is on full display here tonight.

Thinking about pulling the trigger on a used set of Volt but worried the bass won’t be enough for me quantity wise not quality so wanted to know how that 10mm DD handle’s EQ? Mainly sub a 3-4db boost around the 50-60hz is there any audible distortion?

Have you considered the EST50?

 

[krenky]

Thanx for advice my friend really appreciate it, the reason for volt is I’m in the market for a Tri-brid I’ve got quite a few iem’s both neutral & bass heavy but I’m in the market for a Tri-brid and narrowed down to Volt or Yanyin Mahina? the reason for the EQ is i boost 90% of my iem’s in the sub-bass then set it as a pre-set for when I’m listening to my drum & bass so ALL of my iem’s need to have a decent dynamic driver to handle at least a 3-4db boost at 60hz!

Good choices you picked. I know what you are talking about as I do love good bass as well. I also listen a lot of techno, dnb and electro like Aphex Twin and similar. I also look for some tri-brids now also looking for full ba set. But still I would strongly recommend FH9.. they are extremely fast plus that bass.... At least do check them out with the EQ they are killer. For EDM you might also check Xenns Up, ISN EST50... Anyway, if you get the Volt do post your outcome here ... Im considering the Legend and would EQ it probably as well