I've put a lot of thought into this as I expect it will ruffle some feathers, but here goes. A little ways back in this thread people were asking why so few reviews exist for Penon's IEMs. I've been wondering, just based on my own experience, whether it's possible that enough people just don't like them. I'd say out of around 5 times I've mentioned Orbs in PMs to people, 4 of them were also disappointed and passed them along. (That's not a reduced ratio from 10, 20, or 100 PMs, it really is just a small sample of 5)
Here's why that could lead to there being very few, but very favorable, reviews:
- If you are not fond of something, and you've spent enough hours to realize that, you don't want to spend even more hours just to write a sufficiently detailed review about what you don't like about it. You want to spend your precious listening time each day on something you already love, or something new that you might love.
- A positive review, or even hyped review gets this kind of comment: "Hm sounds like this will be my next IEM... how do they compare to x?" A negative review will challenge the reviewer for emphasizing their own taste above objectivity, the reviewer being inexperienced, the reviewer not having tried the perfect combination of sources/tips that turns the IEM around, etc. A high investment hobby is a highly defensive hobby.
- At least personally, if I think something's incredible I'll want others to try it so I'll write about it. If I don't enjoy an IEM, I realize it could just be personal and don't want to stop others trying/potentially harm sales when often I have no issues with the companies creating the IEMs.
I have tried the Orbs, and recently the Fans by Penon, and for the record, I havea negative take on each. But I'll start with context so you can take my obviously subjective findings (regarding sound at least) and work out whether or not you align, or whether you consider my opinion worth caring for:
- I've only been in the hobby about 1-1.5 years at this point.
- IEMs I've tried (roughly chronological, and excluding TWS... and bold for favorites): Tin T2, Orivetti New Primacy, NuForce Primo 8, PSB M4U 4, Final E4000, CA Nova, Shuoer Tape, TRN V90, KZ KS10 Pro, NuForce HEM2, Moondrop Starfield, BLON 03, Etymotic ER2XR, Moondrop SSR, ISN D02, ISN H40, ThieAudio L3, ThieAudio L4, NF Audio NM2+, JVC FDX1, Moondrop Blessing 2, AudioSense T800, BGVP DM8, Final A4000.
A clear preference for bright neutral with forward mids, but I'm starting to like that a little less, for example by Moondrop B2's now feel like I wouldn't want the upper mids any higher, and might, just might, like the Dusk. Some bassier IEMs in the list like BL03, Starfield to some extent, D02. If I had to liquidate everything (I only own one IEM at a time anyway, besides brief overlap periods of comparison) I would actually probably try to get away with still owning a BL-03 as my go-to all-rounder, with compromises that I'm fine with. I have a pair of Final E5000 arriving on Monday, so I'm not adverse to bass that's done right for my tastes.
- It's not partisan, I think Penon Audio is a fantastic company, not really a fan of ThieAudio's tunings either for the L3 and L4, though I still prefer them especially based on price. Maybe such high expectations of Penon, plus rave reviews, are part of this
- My sources are not complex. Right now it's an iPhone with the Apple dongle, soon it will be a Hiby R3 Pro. Many of the IEMs on my list I've had the chance to hear amplified through a portable DAC (Fiio A5, Topping NX1S), but in many cases that didn't really make any difference. Plus I consider it part of the R&D of making an IEM to have them perform well without being reliant on clunky additions to the source chain, a huge part of why IEMs exist is because of portability.
With that aside, here are my two micro-reviews. Largely subjective, I'm not one to get into details of "transients", or exactly what Hz emphasis I like/dislike.
Penon Orb
When I was able to obtain a pair within my low budget, I was over the moon based on reviews I had seen, and knowing the quality of service and audio expertise Penon have. Beautiful IEMs, excellent build quality, perfectly good accessories.
Bass: I knew this was meant to be an emphasis of this model. It is certainly emphasized. It does have plenty of texture. Overall my response was that it was... clownish is all I can say. It reminded me of when I had a CA Nova and my impression of the bass was that it was made by thumping on a tea-chest. I'm not sure if it fits the audiophile term "boxy" for when talking about bass. Bass guitar heavy music like tracks from Cory Wong's albums had great texture like I mentioned, but the overall sound of the bass just didn't sound like a real life bass guitar. Had a weird "spring" to it? Grasping for vocabulary here. To be fair, it certainly was not a bass that bled, it was at least controlled.
Mids: I'd read so much about heavenly vocals, beautiful mids, etc. All I can say is the mids didn't do anything wrong, but were far from interesting, and didn't do enough to do justice to mid-centric or vocal pieces.
Treble: What treble? To be fair, if people critiqued anything, it was this, so that seems to be well known.
So I found it dark and bassy, and even then didn't think the bass was done masterfully or that well compared to IEMs I owned that didn't even make bass their priority. I foudn they emphasized bass where it was barely present and not meant to me emphasized, and pushed it to 11 to the depriment of the music's realism where it was present. Until this point everything I'd seen suggested these were all-rounders, comparing them to true all-rounders like the Blessing 2; but to me they had pretty limited uses, and didn't emphasize bass in a way I liked when I did want big bass emphasis.
Penon Fan
I had high expectations for the Orbs and was a little disappointed. I had very reasonable expectations for the fan, and compared to what's on the market, was very disappointed. Something to bear in mind: it only cost $70 (or $80 with express shipping, this is the first time I tried that and it helped a little due to stock running out) after an exclusive discount. So this is supposed to go neck and neck with $140 offerings. I will mostly compare it with the ISN D02 because that is $80 without any discounts.
I'm usually one to skip past "construction" and "accessories" when reading reviews but I feel it's relevant in this case:
- The cable was a little spindly, and has far too much springy memory. The ISN D02 came with an equally slender cable, but one that is much more supple. It's also the only case where instead of thinking "people will complain about it being skinny, but it does the job just fine" I can actually point to genuine an objective quality issues, like there being crispy flakes of glue where the cable joins into the MMCX heads.
- It's a lovely embroidered box. The box/case are the part of accessories I interact with least and have the least impact on overall experience for me though.
- The tips are not good tips, I appreciate a decently wide selection, but will not end up using any of them. Chonky silicone.
Abbreviated to what's of note: First time I'd received a cable that the naked eye can quickly detect to be a rush job.
As far as build quality of the IEMs themselves, they are very very light weight which shouldn't be an issue itself, even if psychologically we often associate heft with quality. But again going to the D02, light as they are I do not have any reserves about the durability of their resin. The Fans on the other hand feel (I understand it's just feeling and could be wrong) both light and brittle. Impression-wise, these are the cheapest feeling IEM shells I've felt, to the touch. I loved the "starry night" stabilized wood faceplates in other photos I'd seen, just bad luck but I ended up with a fairly low constrast portion of wood, so they're a fairly flat drab purple.
I did try them with their stock cable, but spent more time with an 8 core copper cable made by a brand I think is banned here, suffice to say they make affordable cables, feature the penultimate letter of the alphabet twice, and wouldn't rhyme too badly with "Yoohoo".
I'm running out of time here for the actual sound response, but all I can say is that I did not think they performed well for $70, yet alone the $140 asked. The ISN D02 has great bass, drums sound incredible on them, soundstage is huge, mids are clear with great bite higher up for guitars and sometimes vocals, treble is well extended and provides decent air. It is new for $80. I'd say the Fan does worse in every category besides perhaps having better sub-bass. I want to turn them up all the time because the entire mid-range sounds veiled to me, perhaps more than any of the others in the list I provided earlier. Treble didn't stick out to me, but I'll allow the cliche of "good sparkle".
I'll grant that it's inoffensive, but you could deep insert a marshmallow into your ear, followed by an IEM of your choice, if your criteria of choice is "no harsh sounds". Good subbass and smooth sound are all I can think of in their favor. They do also have good stage, and they do have clean (if veiled) sound, they're not muddy.
I'm not doing that great of a job of being detailed about the shortfallings in sound, and that's one reason I held off saying anything. But what is very clear to me is that there are many other cheaper or equal priced IEMs that even if I don't quite like the FR, can acknowledge great strengths in. With these the only thing they do better than average is the sub-bass, meanwhile the industry is producing sets for $50 or less that have more than on strength, or could even be considered all rounders. This sounds more like the $40 level Chi-Fi, but that would be an insult to Blon's BL03 or Moondrop's SSR, which have many strengths, and depending on taste could be all-rounders. Each of those could be an $80 IEM and hold their own. Compared to peers like the D02, the Fan is hugely wanting. For reference, the ThieAudio Legacy 3 sells for less than the $140 suggest price. Even though it's FR isn't my favorite, it is a wildly more interesting IEM. A main reason for writing this is someone new to the hobby with not much to spend could do so much better in my opnion.
Out of all the IEMs I've tried, it's the only one that excludes itself from most genres for me, there is not a single track or genre I would want to listen to these on more than others in or below its price range.
Frankly, based on clear poor quality that went it the cable, yet alone lackluster sound profile, I would want to just send them back. But you know how it is about sending something back to China (incredibly expensive).
I can't honestly believe that Penon didn't design and produce this IEM expecting they would always be selling it at the $70 mark, never the full MSRP. I feel even more sorry for anyone who paid full price. A lot of feedback so far in my opinion makes these sound better than they are, when I would immediately direct anyone to other IEMs for the same or less. So even if I can't articulate all of my poor impressions all that well, I felt I had a duty to throw them into the mix.
In ending this ramble where I spent longer qualifying my opinion than giving it, I do want to emphasize that I have no ill-will for Penon. If I could try the Sphere for a low price, I'd still be interested. I will never be able to afford the Volt, but I would not assume from the 2 IEMs I've tried that it's not excellent. I know that their customer service is excellent and that they show great respect and appreciation for the community. Perhaps my high regard from them makes my disappointments worse, but this is not meant to be an attack on them, just an honest take on 2 of their IEMs that didn't seem aligned with others I was reading.
I'm perfectly open to counters too, people who find this will need to read them to balance it out. Maybe a mid-recessed, smooth, sub-bass emphasized IEM is a niche of its own? Let me know.
