The PENON official thread

[little grayman]

Oh. Comparing The VOLT to Mest2 and the Nio is improbable for me. I haven't auditioned both.
However, there are lots of reliable reviews all over so you can deduce.
https://headfonics.com/unique-melody-mest-mkii-review/
https://twister6.com/2021/04/11/unique-melody-um-mest-mkii/
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/unique-melody-mest-mkii.25035/reviews
https://crinacle.com/2020/11/24/64-audio-nio-review-the-real-n8/
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/64-audio-nio.24741/reviews
https://www.headphones.com/communit...ip-shootout-nio-u12t-tia-trio-u18t-tia-fourte
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/64-audio-nio.24741/reviews


As for the Volts:
For:
1. Genuine flagship build and sound quality, good separation, decent layering
2. Very Good Value for money
3. One of the best mids - at any price range, large scale of imaging
4. Very good bass rumble, texture, timbre perfect percussion* - level of fidelity is very high
5. Overall more euphoric than analytical, more macro than low level details
6. Will play 100 % of your playlist - any genre will play very well - most especially on the human voice, very forgiving on bright and bad recordings

Against:
1. Needs a fairly powerful source - I suspect the est high and super high drivers draw power from the source amp stage, as well as the dynamic driver require high current as well.

Giving it power, fantastic dynamic range, impactful lows, very liquid MIDS, and a timbre correct top - as well as a fairly large imaging on all axes and scale to boot - IS THE REWARD.
Kindly note that solid state current and vacuum tube current maybe represented differently in the output stages of amplification.
1a. (For me) a cable upgrade is imperative for it to (really) sing
1b. One of the modern releases for near field holo. imaging (surround, around the periphery of the head), as opposed to mainly front of head holo. imaging. Think CA Solaris classic, Kaiser Encore and the likes. This will perceive the listener as having a more close in depth of field imaging. But in realistic listening experience it IS not.
2. * depending on your expectation of gain in the upper treble - this is not the Volt's highlight - no not the treble, but the MIds is the star of the show here. Both bass and treble compliment the superior mids to complete a performance. Definitely not for Trebleheads

A COUPLE of case studies:
A holographic imaging perfect rendering. A band performance on a stage, correct positioning of players and their instruments. Excellent width and height, very deep from the Solaris Classic, depth on the Volts is more closed in. Scale of imaging is virtually the same. Overall Timbre is better on the Volts

A similar rendering, this time off Centre band placement, right side wider - with the impression some sound is coming from another room (to the right)
Both the Classic and the Volt have great holographic imaging width


A mids done right, is a perfect headphone In my book...

Thank you for your indepth description of the Volts, Keith

 

[cqtek]

Hello everybody.

Here is my humble opinion on the Penon PAC. Great value for money earbuds

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/penon-pac.25870/reviews#review-28584

 

[Laleo]

Hi. Well guys I'm not yet ordered the RU6, but I would like to connect both DAC+AMP (desktop ones) to a Bluetooth functionality.
So I could hear Bluetooth from PC. Any suggetstion?

 

[Penon]

Penon Vortex's Graph is here

 

[Dsnuts]

Graph looks great. I take it Y axis is 5 db increments?

 

[rawbine]

FR overlay between Fan, Serial and Vortex.

 

[BrokenHill]

FR overlay between Fan, Serial and Vortex.

Thanks for the comparison. Uhmmm. A peak at 10k and a valley at 8k, against the Fan and Serial that have a peak at 8k and a valley at 10... A slight change in the Penon tuning?

 

[rattlingblanketwoman]

Looks a bit Vernussy.

 

[SQ13]

FR overlay between Fan, Serial and Vortex.

Vortex looks like a parallel Serial from bass to mid except the upper treble with opposing peaks

 

[rawbine]

Vortex looks like a parallel Serial from bass to mid except the upper treble with opposing peaks

Great observation there, and if we were to shift Serial’s graph 10Hz forward, literally we’d end up with the same signature, well almost…

 

[rawbine]

Thoughts on OS133

In a nutshell, the OS133 is an attractively priced and good looking high quality OFC silver plated cable clad in nylon sleeve adorned with premium hardwares. Over the weeks I’ve paired it with a couple of Penon in-ears and found it to be predominantly copper sounding or in characteristics that enhances the low and mid region whilst the silver plating adds some zing to the top end.

One might come to expect note weight may be impacted given its svelte construction but we’d get none of that here, which was a surprise but not quite as from experience none of the few Penon cables in my possession sounded thin not even its featherweight counterpart Neo.

The OS133 is also a very consistent performer all across the board and has paired well with all of my Penon in-ears, of course mileage may vary from person to person but consistency is a recurring theme.

My favorite pairing to date is with the Globe which I’ve been struggling with its rounded notes. For over a year I’ve tried various silver plated copper cable on it but found little success. Whist Penon Mix another stellar cable from Penon, a hybrid improves its top end considerably but it wasn’t quite enough to tighten up the opposite spectrum. With OS133 that’s all changed, the softness in notes definition finally mitigated, now with it’s low end solid sounding, mid’s as lush and trebles shimmery. I for one wouldn’t have thought an entry level cable from Penon would do the trick, for $40, for now that is…

 

[-rowan-]

My favorite pairing to date is with the Globe which I’ve been struggling with its rounded notes. For over a year I’ve tried various silver plated copper cable on it but found little success. Whist Penon Mix another stellar cable from Penon, a hybrid improves its top end considerably but it wasn’t quite enough to tighten up the opposite spectrum. With OS133 that’s all changed, the softness in notes definition finally mitigated, now with it’s low end solid sounding, mid’s as lush and trebles shimmery. I for one wouldn’t have thought an entry level cable from Penon would do the trick, for $40, for now that is…

Yeah, the Globe sure could use a tighter low end for me. Globe + Fiery pairing still going strong here! Penon copper ftw.

I’ve been pleasantly and consistently surprised by how the OS133 handles space and the air around notes. With every single pairing. It may not be the most resolving cable around but it gives you a taste of what your IEMs can do with much more expensive cables.

 

[rawbine]

Yeah, the Globe sure could use a tighter low end for me. Globe + Fiery pairing still going strong here! Penon copper ftw.

I’ve been pleasantly and consistently surprised by how the OS133 handles space and the air around notes. With every single pairing. It may not be the most resolving cable around but it gives you a taste of what your IEMs can do with much more expensive cables.

Matching or pairing are pure alchemy me thinks! Oddly when paired with upocc though highly resolving and transparent sounded a tad congested to me, I know it doesn’t make sense! Not so with OS133, the space/air around notes are quite noticeable even though the low end are pretty weighty.

 

[rawbine]

Ok who’s got the PAC freebuds so far and what cable(s) do you use with them?

Penon shipped mine with an ISN cable (the 8-core OCC I believe) as an extra freebie with my other purchases, so it seemed for a while like these two were going to go together.

As it turned out, these buds are very sensitive to cable changes. With the ISN cable, they had fabulously rich vocals but were too warm for practically everything else, plus there’s a rather prominent peak in the upper mids - around double high C, so in the region of 2kHz I’d say - that was being emphasised in the hairiest possible way.

Anyway they weren’t getting much ear time until I switched it out for one of my XINHS copper cables and that alone tightened up the sound noticeably. I don’t have that many MMCX cables but ended up rolling a bunch of 2-pin ones as well with an adapter.

And guess what - my favourite pairing for the PAC freebuds turned out to be the pure silver Leo.

Quite natural timbre, no more honkiness, in addition to bringing more air and dimensionality. Peak is still there of course but much better controlled now.

The buds don’t get to keep the Leo, but the XINHS silver cable does 80% of the job at a fraction of the price. At any rate, I’m really digging the pure silver pairing, and I see myself using the PAC buds a lot more now.



The foams are me trying to tame the 2kHz peak… (I don’t even usually use them, not even on neutral-bright buds) It’s less of a bother now but all the same… anyone have ideas on what else I can do about it, apart from EQ it away?

So far I’ve experimented with the below 4 XINHS with PAC Earbud:

1. 7N Copper - Warmest/smoothest amongst the four - to a degree it’s masking fine details
2. 4N Silver - Sounded the best with good balance
3. 5N + 5N SPC - Similar to 4N Silver but lacked a little detail, pretty nice overall though
4. 5N SPC - Almost as warm as 7N with good treble energy, sometimes peaky…

I don’t use foams either, just those little silicone rings for better fit. For now the silver is staying put as it gives out the airiest and most detailed synergy on top of good bass quantity, well spaced mids and detailed but non peaky trebles.

 

[ian91]

Penon Vortex's Graph is here

Looks like a fun tuning. Fingers crossed for good technical performance. Single DDs have to do alot to stand apart from the pack and with the Serial close by with 3DDs there needs to be persuasive reasons (apart from the beautiful shell) to buy. However, if anyone can do it, it's Penon.