IEM discussion thread (Part 2)

IEMs / Other In-Ear Monitors (IEM)
2073

Penon Quattro Impressions.

This unit is provided by Penon for the purpose of touring it between Audio Geek members in Europe. A big thanks to @Penon for this. Also a big thanks to Audio Geeks for organizing the tour.

A little bit about myself: I am certainly no reviewer! I am merely a 52 years old music lover, with a slight IEM hoarding problem😅. I like more neutral sets, maybe QDC-like tuning, but have a wide tolerance for different sound profiles. I also have a fondness for all BA or BA+EST IEM’s, but overall sound is the important part, not the tech’s. The following is my short subjective take on this IEM!

Quattro started in a slight uphill battle with me, since I had been using the lovely Penon Voltage in the weeks leading up to this. Voltage of course is three times the price over Quattro, also being a tribrid vs Quattro’s 4 DD’s. However I did not have any problems adjusting to Quattro’s sound. I have the older Serial 3 DD, and have used this for more logical and fair comparison.

Accessories are the usual plentiful Penon standard, nothing lacking here! Nice looking modest packaging as usual for Penon, not much waist in materials and size. In many ways I would say Penon has the perfect amount of accessories and packaging.

Nice color matching cable where you can choose source termination when ordering.

To me there is clearly a familiarity between Quattro and Serial. Both plays nicely musical to my ears. Quattro have a notable advantage in the highs, with more extension and clarity. Mids are equally good between the two, and lows are close. I might slightly prefer the Serial over Quattro here, but both have nice deep rumbly bass. My preference her might be influenced by my familiarities with Serial. Quattro plays musically and what a would call neutrally. No part of the frequency is recessed or too emphasized. In my ears they are totally comfortable, the cable drapes nicely over my ears. I believe they should fit most people good.

Sound will be highly subjective different for different people, so that which IEM you should choose would be impossible for me to say, neither is “wrong”. Quattro should not disappoint you! :smile:

I forgot to take a few pictures of Quattro😅, but here is a link to Penon’s website:

https://penonaudio.com/Penon-QUATTRO.html

10 Likes
2074

Symphonium definitely tune some great sets…We need a Crimson, Europa and Titan off…I’ve not heard Europa but I preferred Crimson > Titan

3 Likes
2075

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have that in my head a lil’ bit when I posted haha. I have yet to hear Titan but from those who’ve heard both, it always seems like a toss-up which they prefer but I feel like Crimson usually has a little bit of an edge.

3 Likes
2076

It surprised me tbh being a DD for bass dude that Crimson got my :star: after a short listen at CanJam, I even had to ask which one was more expensive lol…so that says a lot for their driver implementation :+1:

4 Likes
2077

the longer you look at it the more cursed it gets.

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1 Like
2078

Because it looks like the two models swap tunings between the databases?

1 Like
2079

Looking forward to a rare deeper dive from you, Guy! You can always string together words so well.

The Titan will always be bae in my heart, but there’s no doubt the Crimson will go down as one of my favorite sets I’ve listed to over the last couple of years. It’s such a special set to my ears.

4 Likes
2080

Heard Crimson needs desktop level amplification to sound good , is it true ?

2 Likes
2081

yes, at first glance it looks normal until you read the names.

1 Like
2082

images
You can technically run them off of whatever you want but like any other Symphonium IEM, due to the way their FLAT system works, you need to give it the juice if you want to hear what it has to offer.
As a good example, something like Crimson or Storm struggle to have good headroom on my Hiby R6 III without running in high gain and balanced. When I ran them off 3.5mm, I had to use a Topping G5 on the road and reached good volume at ~2-3 o’clock in Medium gain to get there (using line-out from my source). I have found this to be true across Storm, Crimson, Helios SE and Europa; I have never tried Meteor, Triton or Titan so I can’t comment on those.
I think that it works a lot like The Iron Rule of Bass for speakers: Of small size, bass extension and high sensitivity, you can only choose two of the three.

7 Likes
2083

@Sonofholhorse is right on the money, if anyone is knowledgeable on the stuff from Symphonium, it’s him.

I tried the Crimson, Meteor, Titan and the STORM off my portable sources and my desktop stack at home afterwards and the only ones that sounded great on both were the Meteor and the Titan. In fact, for whatever reason, the Titans sounded the best off the BTR7. The bass had a little extra depth to it.

The Meteor sounded very warm, as they do, off the BTR7, Muse M4 and the other dongles I have (still very nice) but they opened up a little more in terms of treble off my desktop stack.

The STORM and the Crimson, especially, sounded fairly flat and somewhat underwhelming off my portable gear.

I remember distinctly being so unimpressed by the Crimsons the first time I heard them because it was off my BTR7. It was on my way back from CanJam NYC. But once I got home and fed some nice power into them, they sang and sang beautifully. They went from a slight disappointment, to one of my favorite IEMs ever once I hooked them up to the L30.

TLDR; yes - some actually need power, but some only benefit from it.

7 Likes
2084

The recent IEM that surprised me was Dynaquattro.

I plugged it into dongle DACs and it was giving me the amplitude and all.

When I plugged it into A&K PA10, It was like a new headphone all togather. Then plugged it in JDS ATOM and it sounded so well rounded.

Although it’s great that IEMs sound great with Better sources but it is not ideal for me. IEMs are portable at the end of the day.

2 Likes
2085

You’re not alone. For some reason, the Titans sounded better to me on my BTR7 compared to other sources at Canjam.

3 Likes
2086

Yeah, it’s a weird thing, isn’t it? I’m unsure why that is but my theory is the output impedance on the BTR7 slightly cleans up the upper mids a bit allowing for some more bass presence. But I honestly have no idea haha

4 Likes
2087

That could probably be applied to many of the Fiio sources. The BTR7 and BTR5 were both better than most of the things near their price point, including desktop gear. The KA17 is absurd and can drive anything, with twice the power of the BTR7. Also the KA11 might be the best value at $30, and it is capable of delivering 200mW at 32 Ohms.

5 Likes
2088

I think i got extremely lucky when i jumped into this hobby a month ago by getting the ka17. I watched a ton of vids on dacs and the value of the ka17, especially during prime days, seemed ridiculous. While i liked the looks of the ibasso pro, it seemed on paper they were similar with a huge price difference. Having the secondary power input for desktop mode and customizable EQ seemed like a no brainer, even for a noob like me. I have never been a fan boy of anything but on the edge of becoming one for the ka17.

That said i did get the fc4 for my brother- it does a respectable job so much that i got a second one for my gf. However, i have to return it as it makes pops and cracks every once in awhile in both the 3.5 and 4.4 jacks.

Since i am only going iems and no over the ear, i feel like i dont need any other dac. My most power hungry iem is the tangzu Heyday- if i am listening to a good jam the highest i go is around 45 out of 60 on high gain on the ka17 in desktop mode. The butterfly 61t and pula02 stay on the low gain. Because i am so new and not an audiophile i cant tell anyone the sound quality or how it does/doesn’t color any sounds, but i can say compared to the fc4 it is a little bit more clear on the higher end. And of course the power difference with desktop mode is much greater. Noticeable difference as well in non desktop mode.

1 Like
2089

Thanks for mentioning this, was looking for a cheaper alternative and an upgrade to the Apple dongle. :+1:

5 Likes
2090

Was thinking about this one too but held off as there were some mixed user reports a few months back. Connection issues, heating up then getting bricked on firmware update (.08). Doing a quick cursory search now - similar issue mentioned on fiio support page a few days back. Something to do with the usb interface? Someone mentioned an issue with their lightning version on Crin’s reddit too (Who knows what the exact issue is there).

I get the impression people who received the latest (.08) firmware update from the box seem to be fine and a lot of people commented on YT it’s working fine so it’s a weird one. Classic FIIO. Maybe get it on prime so it’s easily returnable if any issues. There aren’t many quality/powerful/affordable lightning options unfortunately in the ultra portable that I’ve seen. AndyAudioVault rated the JCALLY JM6 Pro which has a lightning version with the same DAC+AMP specs as usb-c (60mw at 32ohms).

NONE of this is my own personal experience but thought it worth giving a heads up :+1:

2 Likes
2091

If we’re to believe Symphonium’s claim that it has a flat impedance vs frequency curve, then it should’t be affected by output impedance. High-current capable devices should do well though, and running off a lithium battery is a good starting point for that (vs a dongle, for example). They can deliver mad current.

1 Like
2092

Though a high output impedance is a common (but not strict) characteristic of current-weak devices, so the two often go hand-in-hand.