The PENON official thread

[-rowan-]

Guess my unexpected lack of totally boundless enthusiasm mainly has to do not only with the lack of burn-in but more so with the quality of my three main driver combos atm (Enigma+, Aehta, Voltage) which all deliver such a very high-level of soundquality that I need more time to adjust to the Shocks, I guess. After a bit of cable rolling it also turned out that I seem to prefer my ivipQ-99 cable with the Shocks by quite a margin. This change alone helped a lot to push their timbre into a direction that matches my (mids focused) preferences far better...

Yeah, mids aren’t the Shock’s forte.

I personally enjoy the Shock with electronic music and anything that calls for treble energy, an immense stage and deep driving textured bass, less so for intimate recordings of vocals, acoustic instruments and small group settings.

I was just comparing it with Voltage (more on that at some point later) and coming from there, the Shock’s lower mids and mid bass are decidedly leaner. Timbre is a big thing for me and while I wouldn’t call Shock timbrally “off”, it’s more that voices and instruments on Shock don’t have the kind of richness and complexity that they do on Voltage.

And on account of this, my cable rolling efforts thus far have focused mainly on adding flesh to the Shock’s midrange.

The NiceHCK Auking Ultra, which is an engaging W-shaped beastie and usually makes a lush midrange even more lush, unexpectedly made the Shock too congested.

As it turned out, it was my hitherto unloved OG AuKing OFC that fleshed out the mids to satisfaction and also kept that clarity.

They also look pretty wild together…

I’d previously dismissed the AuKing with the single comment “not enough treble” but am glad I didn’t sell it now. It sounds fine with the Shock’s treble dial at 3 and it helps to have the assurance of ample headroom with 2 more notches for all my treble needs.

Then I tried the Penon GD849, which bulked out the mids as well but also emphasised some strange resonances in the upper mids, so that didn’t work.

The Eletech Raphael is my personal favourite. There isn’t too much missing from the AuKing but Raphael simply is more resolving, has better layering and is more refined and more dimensional. And that treble just shimmers.

Ralph’s main drawback is being pretty much the same price as the Shock, so I don’t expect anyone to pick this up unless they already have it or plan to use it with something else as well.

 

[-rowan-]

Does this set have enough energy (treble) to play electronic music well?

Difficult to say what is “enough treble” to a person as treble is one thing where everyone seems to have different preferences and levels of sensitivity. That said, I personally thought Fan 3 could use more treble OOTB. After burn in and rolling to Softears UC tips, I think its treble works well enough for its tuning, but it’s not a set I’d reach for for its treble.

Edited to add: @Nas Volokin - I dig Massive Attack on the Fan 3 as well

That said, I really enjoy OG Pilgrim for electronic music - it has a tight fast punchy bass and a treble that just likes to show off. Loads of energy there.

And if your budget runs to it, I’m really digging Shock’s treble as well. I recently posted some comments on its treble here. Basically I’m impressed by the Shock’s treble and bass, less so its mids but that’s because I love my mids and have way more capable options in that area.

 

[Leonarfd]

Finally, I got my hands on the new...

P E N O N FAN 3

I left it for a good 50 hours to settle in and here's my modest impressions:
First off, I'm not affiliated with Penon and I bought this unit with my own money
About me: I'm a middle-aged guy who's into music from as long as I remember. I'm not a professional musician or a hardcore audiophile!
I love music and I consider myself as a music enthusiast. I've been in this hobby for about 4 years now...


So about the new Penon 3:
This is my 3'rd set of IEMs by this company - ISN H50, which I already sold, ISN Neo 5 which I adore and of course the FAN 3 now! I got it with Space cable
Of course you guys are more familiar with fancy words and stuff, and you probably heard of Penon and know already about their house sound...lush and forward mids, great extension in the treble and great amount of bass comes to mind!


OK when I first heard FAN 3 out of the box I was like....Wait, What???
Is my hearing good or, ....With the BC driver switch ON I was blown away - great stage, 3D effect from right to left channel and of course....that HAUNTING effect on vocals, mids! I can't find a better word to describe it, but to me was "haunting"
As @Dsnuts pointed out - these are great for chill music, but I say those are great for any music, especially vocal centric and instrumental! Such an unbelievable experience!
Well I really hoped that my H50 would be something remotely close to something like this, but unfortunately not...



I got some time with BC ON and OFF:
When it was off - mids were pushed a little upfront and the bass took a little step back, treble is airy and well extended
With the BCD ON position - here's where some magic begins - bass became rounded, full and with a great punch, mids are ok and the treble is also a little more sparkly, airy and well extended
Well, compared to Neo 5 - these may not have the bass amount of it, but it's close enough. I find mids and treble equally satisfying on both sets, although Fan 3 has more shimmery magic with this BC driver
Comparing it to TSMR-X....well those are much easier to drive and I know it can not reach the level of X's bass but it has something special that it separates it from other sets I heard!


Vocals are presented in such lush and intimate way, that this easily will go for vocal lovers out there...
I never heard the FAN 2 , but I bet this is a definite upgrade and really comfortable to wear too!
Great musicality and beautiful experience!

Nice impression, really liking the Fan 3 so far. It have over 100 hours of burn in, since my friend already had done it and also I did some extra past two days.
With the VIP offer this quite a bargain, will use it over the week and write some more. Can do a mini comparison with FAN 2, but honestly I dont think its any competition. Tighter and better bass, better controlled midrange and more air.

 

[Dsnuts]

So I got the Rival since Friday and have gotten to know the sound a bit. I can tell Penon is proud of this one. From all indications, I can understand the price tag they are asking. BUT and there is a but involved. Read on.

Out of the box they remind me of all the prior flagships. The Volt but with even a wider deeper encompassing stage . Two aspects that remind me of them, first its tonal character and it kinda has to do with the Totem cable that came with them. All higher end Penon IEMs have a richer tonal character but it seems they reserve the richest for the highest. Lol. And much like the Volts which needed burn in for the ESTs to fully mesh with the trebles on that set. So does the Rival.

Out of the box sound was warm, a bit too warmer than I anticipated. We are dealing with a freshly minted Totem cable in all white and more importantly a TOTL IEM with 12 different drivers in each side. It reads like a whos who of flagship drivers you read about from high end IEMs. And I was right about it utilizing them Sonion Bone conduction drivers in the TSMR-Shock in this one.

So the driver count goes like this.

RIVAL configuration is as follows:

12 drivers, 5-way crossover, 6 channels (including 2 bone conduction channels)
2DD+2BC+4BA+4EST
Low frequency: 2 x 8mm coaxial dynamic
Mid-frequency: 2 x Knowles
High frequency: 2 x Sonion
Ultra-high frequency: 4 x Sonion EST
Full frequency: through 2 Sonion bone conduction
Impedance: 11 ohm
Sensitivity : 102dB
Frequency range : 5-80kHz

So naturally all these drivers stuffed like a very complex puzzle inside the shells all made to mesh with each other. I would say the shell size is a bit larger, similar in size to the Legends a bit larger than the voltage. But very ergonomic for extended listening. In any case if any of you guys get these thinking they will sing to the heavens out of the box. you're in for a rude awakening. You better burn them in for full capacity cuz I guarantee Penon doesn't do it for you.

I now have about 70 plus hours of burn in on the drivers and I can tell with each successive day the sound was getting cleaner, more dynamic, more resolving, more dimensional and more spacious from the prior day. That warmth of sound is now very natural sounding and with that classic Penon fundamentally richer tonal character. OK now I can see how these are the end of the line Penon IEMS. However

Complications.
So I am gonna say this out right. Not everyone will be a fan of the damper change method of tuning these. We all have certain likes in a sound and the foundation for something just outrageously, so end of the line is right there. But how you achieve that end of the line sound from the Rival requires of all things, a very tiny BA damper change that you have to physically pull out and push into in the tiny sound holes of the sound tube they belong inside the front of the nozzles.

On paper, its yet another method of fine tuning a sound to your exact preference. You want more treble you can do that, you want more mids, well specifically more of the upper mids than yes you can do that. But you have to use a tiny screw on tool attach one end to a tiny 2mm metal damper and perform an operation of sort to pull out that stock damper and then use the same tool to replace that damper with a new one. The treble by default was on the white damper which is 2nd to the highest tuning. It is a safe treble emphasis but I noticed on a few tracks I felt it was just a tiny bit reserved in comparison.

And this is where personal tuning matters as it will also depend on just how much bass you prefer on your TOTL Penon IEM. What I mean by that. The Rival uses more than just the dual Sonion BC drivers from the Shock design it also uses that bass dial as well. Bass on the Rival can be as meaty as you like but it can bring immediate attention to the bass, if you have a safe moderate treble emphasis then the balance becomes warmer and bassy tilting attention to the bass side. The bass is flagship but at the same time tuning the treble to meet that bass energy means I had to replace the stock damper it came with to the grey or the highest least resistant damper for trebles.

You get a small reader about how to change the damper, its not that the reader is bad, it is exactly how it says but it is miniaturized. Good luck trying to see the graphs on there. In any case. You have to be good with small things, it even comes with a generic magnifying glass and some tweezers to help see what you're doing. The dampers are so small it will be impossible for you to use your fingers to pick up let me put it that way.

It took a lot of self-talk and psyching up in order for me to attempt it but last night I performed the surgery which had me sweating to take out the stock damper. Aaand it worked. I now have the grey damper inside the treble tubes. As if one is good enough of course you have to do both earpieces. Sweating bullets 2Xs!

OK now we are talking! I can see why the stock damper was includes as it is a safe treble tuning but at the same time imo it is the grey one they should have come with. To my ears these are exactly what the Dr. ordered. When you have two specialized treble BAs and 4ESTs firing off. You want reserved or you want some treble is my question? The grey damper increases presence at around 6-7khz I know you guys are saying that will cause fatigue? Nope it don't. There is a difference in presence and a spike. There is no spike in that sensitive area even with the highest filter. What I ended up with is glorious transient extended highly refined trebles. Now I am getting details that pop and is much better balanced with the beefy bass end I have cranked on them. Now they sound like the end game Penon IEM I was thinking it would be.

It is the best of the best of Penon and now proper with a proper treble emphasis to balance out an outstanding beefy woofer bass of the Penon Rival. While I am not 100% finished with burn in. I am gonna leave the grey filters in place to see how it sounds after I get done with burn in. So far these have the best of the best parts of what Penon has done in the past which now has some of the best BC drivers in the industry to enhance that sound even further. They sound as good as you would imagine as there is no real weakness to the sound here at all. The only catch is that damper change. Like all good things in life perseverance prevails

Stock damper is the blue line. The new grey one I Installed is the top grey line. I can't see myself switching out the dampers like I use a switch or tuning dial but it is most definitely effective. One bit of warning for fellow or future Rival owners. If you're not good with miniatures, you might want to get a friend that is to help. Its not particularly difficult per se but it does require some patience and a steady hand on your part. So far. Yes these are the best sounding Penon IEMs I have ever heard.

 

[audionooby]

12 drivers, 5-way crossover, 6 channels (including 2 bone conduction channels)

Can someone explain the significance of the number of crossovers or channels? Why not 6-way and 7 channels, or more, given there are 12 drivers?

 

[DrewVz]

Interesting, but that 8k spike is in the exact wrong spot for my personal preferences. And it looks like the dampers don't affect that frequency very much at all.

Strike 1: Price
Strike 2: 8k spike
Strike 3: ?

Might not be the IEM for me. Interesting that you compare it to the Volt and not the Voltage or Impact. Overall maybe it's better than these, but not 4-5x better. I guess if you want the latest and greatest, then maybe the Rival might work. But man, that 8k spike. Not my bag.

 

[Dsnuts]

Actually you can tune these have a very mild peak. I have the least resistance for a damper for the trebles and its actually nicely refined sounding. Its got a mild peak at 8K but I can live with it. In any case, there are 7 tuning dampers for both trebles and 7 for mids. You guys do the math on the variability.

 

[Ferdinando1968]

Can someone explain the significance of the number of crossovers or channels? Why not 6-way and 7 channels, or more, given there are 12 drivers?

For crossover it could be (?):

First way
Low frequency: 2 x 8mm coaxial dynamic

Second way
Mid-frequency: 2 x Knowles

Third way
High frequency: 2 x Sonion

Fourth way
Ultra-high frequency: 4 x Sonion EST

Fifth way
Full frequency: through 2 Sonion bone conduction

 

[Okcerg]

Is LZ related to Penon?
The way "LZHIFIAUDIO" is written on the A4 Pro's faceplate gives me Penon vibes.
And also Penon sells LZ on their website.

 

[zikarus]

Decision made. If somebody in the EU is interested in a TSMR Shock pm me...

 

[dharmasteve]

A word about the Penon Fan 2 vs the Penon Fan 3. In terms of the mid-range and vocals the Fan 2 is better and more forward than the Fan 3. For all other music the Fan 3 has bigger bass, which sets the mids a little further back...... better staging and better spatial presence. For crooning, jazz and folk, simple vocals, the Fan 2 is much more mid focused and brilliant. For all complex stage dependent music the Fan 3 is much better especially with BC on. In reality they are complimentary and both quite different.

 

[wdelta06]

For forum consideration, a quick take on the Fan 3 from YT reviewer Enigma Fotos.

 

[shiningtofu]

I love the Penon ASOS for the sound. But at such a price I'm really disappointed that it started yellowing within 6 months of use. Anyone else faced this issue and knows of a way to get rid of the stain? I already tried cleaning it with baking soda solution and nothing really seems to work. I was told by Penon it wasn't oxidation but it is slowly spreading.

 

[DrewVz]

Looks like the insulation is shrinking too. How strange.

 

[dharmasteve]

Any more on the Penon Conductor? My one should be with me in a couple of days. Looking forward to the adjustable BC and the large driver.....which I assume will need a fairly long burn in.