ehjie
Headphoneus Supremus
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The PENON official thread
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Xinlisupreme
Headphoneus Supremus
I use VOLT with Azla Xelastec and I replaced stock cable with ISN AG8, it’s amazing
morndewey
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Hi. How would N3pro pair with Volt, given output impedance concerns?
redrol
Headphoneus Supremus
Sorry I didn't notice you quoted someone else. My bad!
tgx78
Member of the Trade: tgxear
Pairs fine with 0.6Ω output impedance. Sounds very liquid.
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MarkParity
1000+ Head-Fier
The cable probably is excellent, but really who writes this stuff.I use VOLT with Azla Xelastec and I replaced stock cable with ISN AG8, it’s amazing
High purity silver, which significantly improves the amount of detail and separation.
The high frequency also has a good extension without being sharp but smooth.
The elasticity of the low frequency will increase a lot, the bass amount can also appropriately reduced .
The vocal is closer, and the three frequencies are connected naturally.
The pure silver cable has a good effect on improve the middle & high frequency and handle the earphone muffled issue.
Xinlisupreme
Headphoneus Supremus
Totally agree!The cable probably is excellent, but really who writes this stuff.
High purity silver, which significantly improves the amount of detail and separation.
The high frequency also has a good extension without being sharp but smooth.
The elasticity of the low frequency will increase a lot, the bass amount can also appropriately reduced .
The vocal is closer, and the three frequencies are connected naturally.
The pure silver cable has a good effect on improve the middle & high frequency and handle the earphone muffled issue.
ISN AG8 increase a lot highs, headstage and separation and sound amazing without loose body. It's stunning for my taste.
morndewey
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Have any Volt owners found reason to find stock cable, the 2.5 term with dongle, to be unsatisfactory as far as using for 3.5 or 4.4 use?
tgx78
Member of the Trade: tgxear
Pigtail dongle makes entire cable chain little heavy since there are three connectors involved instead of one, but otherwise it sounds fine. Mine had a slight soldering problem (caused intermittent audio cutoffs) at 3.5 end, but I fixed it myself with help of Penon’s email support.
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So, I finally got to spend some time with my Volts (universal) as well as try out a few different cables with them.
I was really impressed by Penon's outstanding Totem cable recently and it made me really curious about their top-end IEMs. Straight out of the gate (for those that don’t want to read further) I’ll say that I’m super impressed by what Penon has achieved with the Volt, especially at the price level they retail for, and would heartily recommend to anyone that enjoys a near-reference, full sound.
I say ‘near-reference’ because there is definitely colouration there with a slightly elevated mid-bass, VERY liquid mids and a somewhat subdued top end. What’s interesting though is that there is no sense of a loss of detail in the top end. Everything is there and clear but it never approaches brittle or harsh. Everything is just right in a way that, frankly, I never knew I wanted.
I’d always considered myself a slightly V-signature kind of guy, so I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed an IEM whose star feature is its mids. And, oh boy, do the Volts have some incredible mids. I think the word I would use here is RICH (and yes, those caps are on purpose). In fact, the whole sound signature could be described in that way. And the mids are not central to the signature at the expense of the other frequencies – like I said, it’s still very much in the reference-ish zone (a very, very slightly inverted V signature perhaps) - so what you have with the Volts is a very rich, liquid, musical sound that works incredibly well with almost every kind of music from rock to EDM to singer-songwriter to classical. Even in my very favourite IEMs past, it’s rare that they would work well across all genres but, somehow, the Volts manage it.
The soundstage, I would say, is significantly better than average in width. In fact, with the supplied cable, I’d say it’s almost on par with the likes of the UM MEST (which has a very wide stage). The depth, whilst not the most immense I’ve ever heard, is again better than average and actually really suits the overall signature which has a generally very forward presentation.
A note about burn-in: I'm not always convinced that IEMs need to 'burn in' to reach their optimal sound but in the case of the Volts, I'd suggest a healthy burn-in period to get the most out of them. Perhaps it was brain burn, who knows, but I'm convinced that the Volts brightened up a little at the top end and became a little tighter on the low end after a while of listening to them (both for the better, by the way, making an already excellent IEM even better).
A note about cables: I tried the Volts with several top-end cables but, ultimately, felt it fared best with two of Penon's own creations. With their OSG (a product that I was super curious about, owing to the unusual inclusion of graphene as an element in its construction), the Volt has an even blacker background, eliciting very clear detailing across the entire frequency range. Personally, I think the OSG is the perfect pairing with the Volts. I love, love, love this pairing! Others who crave MORE of everything might want to look at pairing the Volts with Penon's excellent Totem cable, which doesn’t so much colour the frequency range much (it perhaps increases the sub bass a little) but rather elevates the overall clarity, dimensionality and precision of the entire stage a step further.
I can confidently say that the Volts and OSG cable will be taking up a permanent position in my pretty extensive IEM and cable collection alongside my already coveted Totem cable. Well done Penon! A truly remarkable achievement that competes alongside top tier IEMs and cables from other manufacturers at a considerably more reasonable price. I now consider myself a true Penon devotee and cannot wait to try more of their products.
PS: A huge shout out to Penon's excellent, friendly and speedy customer service too!
I was really impressed by Penon's outstanding Totem cable recently and it made me really curious about their top-end IEMs. Straight out of the gate (for those that don’t want to read further) I’ll say that I’m super impressed by what Penon has achieved with the Volt, especially at the price level they retail for, and would heartily recommend to anyone that enjoys a near-reference, full sound.
I say ‘near-reference’ because there is definitely colouration there with a slightly elevated mid-bass, VERY liquid mids and a somewhat subdued top end. What’s interesting though is that there is no sense of a loss of detail in the top end. Everything is there and clear but it never approaches brittle or harsh. Everything is just right in a way that, frankly, I never knew I wanted.
I’d always considered myself a slightly V-signature kind of guy, so I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed an IEM whose star feature is its mids. And, oh boy, do the Volts have some incredible mids. I think the word I would use here is RICH (and yes, those caps are on purpose). In fact, the whole sound signature could be described in that way. And the mids are not central to the signature at the expense of the other frequencies – like I said, it’s still very much in the reference-ish zone (a very, very slightly inverted V signature perhaps) - so what you have with the Volts is a very rich, liquid, musical sound that works incredibly well with almost every kind of music from rock to EDM to singer-songwriter to classical. Even in my very favourite IEMs past, it’s rare that they would work well across all genres but, somehow, the Volts manage it.
The soundstage, I would say, is significantly better than average in width. In fact, with the supplied cable, I’d say it’s almost on par with the likes of the UM MEST (which has a very wide stage). The depth, whilst not the most immense I’ve ever heard, is again better than average and actually really suits the overall signature which has a generally very forward presentation.
A note about burn-in: I'm not always convinced that IEMs need to 'burn in' to reach their optimal sound but in the case of the Volts, I'd suggest a healthy burn-in period to get the most out of them. Perhaps it was brain burn, who knows, but I'm convinced that the Volts brightened up a little at the top end and became a little tighter on the low end after a while of listening to them (both for the better, by the way, making an already excellent IEM even better).
A note about cables: I tried the Volts with several top-end cables but, ultimately, felt it fared best with two of Penon's own creations. With their OSG (a product that I was super curious about, owing to the unusual inclusion of graphene as an element in its construction), the Volt has an even blacker background, eliciting very clear detailing across the entire frequency range. Personally, I think the OSG is the perfect pairing with the Volts. I love, love, love this pairing! Others who crave MORE of everything might want to look at pairing the Volts with Penon's excellent Totem cable, which doesn’t so much colour the frequency range much (it perhaps increases the sub bass a little) but rather elevates the overall clarity, dimensionality and precision of the entire stage a step further.
I can confidently say that the Volts and OSG cable will be taking up a permanent position in my pretty extensive IEM and cable collection alongside my already coveted Totem cable. Well done Penon! A truly remarkable achievement that competes alongside top tier IEMs and cables from other manufacturers at a considerably more reasonable price. I now consider myself a true Penon devotee and cannot wait to try more of their products.
PS: A huge shout out to Penon's excellent, friendly and speedy customer service too!
morndewey
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Can I get a few recommendations for iems that present signature similar to Volt? Descriptions of Volt mids sounds great but stock cable is a big turn off for me.
tgx78
Member of the Trade: tgxear
If Volt’s stock cable is a big turn off, 99.9% of stock cables out there will be turn off for you. I recommend the EE Odin.
Agree, it's a very decent cable
morndewey
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It’s not the cable per se—it’s the dongle solution. And, no, I am generally ok with stock cables
tgx78
Member of the Trade: tgxear
What is your source? Do you prefer the 4.4mm balanced output? Your vague question is hard to answer properly. One thing I can tell you is I have about 30 IEMs currently and nothing touches Volt in vocal presentation / performance and only heavily modded IT00 is somewhat similar in sound signature. Everything else sound either digital, grainy, sharp, unnatural compared to the volt. I said somewhere in this thread that even the UM MEST sounded grainy and thin after a long session with the volt.
If you think Volt’s sound signature is suitable for you, just invest on aftermarket cable or grab something like E1DA 9038S with 2.5mm balanced out.
If you think Volt’s sound signature is suitable for you, just invest on aftermarket cable or grab something like E1DA 9038S with 2.5mm balanced out.
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