ehjie
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
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Serial first impressions + quick comparison with UM 3DT
Haven’t had time to burn in the Serial yet but I fully expect it to improve (as Volt did).
Both are very musical and coherent with great timbre. Serial for vocals; 3DT for classical, jazz and acoustic instruments.
Serial (left) all the way for fit and comfort. No contest.
Bass - Serial. Already extremely listenable out of the box.
Neither has the last word in sub bass extension or rumble though Serial does it better between the two. It’s not that fast or detailed atm but I expect it to tighten up and possibly extend better with burn in.
Mids - Serial
Mids aren’t that thick and lush by Volt standards, but they are more versatile to me. Vocals especially sound very natural. But 3DT aims for a more “reference” tuning in general.
Treble - 3DT
It’s what makes the 3DT so vivid without being fatiguing and gives it the edge in detail retrieval, and this is where the Serial loses ground. Serial does have greater lower treble energy than say Volt, but I really could use more air on top. I need to add the caveat that I was a bit of a treblehead in a past life and still tend to notice these things more, so YMMV.
Cable
Penon obviously believe in cables (duh) and it shows. The CS819 stock cable is pretty damn good. After rolling through 8-9 cables up to the $150 mark, I was about to conclude that the stock cable was still the best fit.
But I noticed that the cables with more silver in them were among the more successful pairings.
So I threw my old pure silver Leo on it and… WOW. Threw open the treble just like that. It extended the low end a bit as well and all that, but treble air was really what the Serial was missing and the Leo brought it in.
It might be a bit crazy to pair the Serial with a cable that costs almost as much but it speaks to the quality of the Leo that it made such a difference to the sound (since the budget XINHS 8-core pure silver didn’t do the same favours for it).
(Oh and the 3DT cable? It’s not bad sonically but the less said about its ergonomics and earhooks, the better.)
Here's a suggestion for the Serial.
Did very well on the Volts...