Dannggg this looks sexy. And it’s reasonably priced too - 319 USD. For 1 + 3, with 2 Sonion and 1 Knowles. Anyone pulled the trigger yet?
I wonder if the tuning switches will work as well as they do in the Canon!
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Ahhhh haha that’s amazing, man. I am glad I was able to be somewhat a part of someone’s buying journey. I really hope you enjoy them, man. I also really hope they fit in your ears well. I was really really lucky with the Mons and their huge shells. I know they made the MEST MKII smaller than the MKI.
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The tech involved suggests a nice lush sound. It’ll probably be a few weeks before any trustworthy reviews come out, at the least. Nice design and price.
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Another night of the Serial. The Canon will supposedly come tomorrow, though I may not get listening in until later. All I can say is socks will have to be blown far afield to outdo what I’m already enjoying.
Im daunted by how many hours of listening will be needed to evaluate the different switch configs.
The Serial is perfect for what I’ve been listening to most, gritty/chaotic psychedelic rock.
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Wanted to throw this in here just in case someone was looking for a replacement cable.
The Kinera Leyding is absolutely fantastic. Thin, light weight, feels great, does not tangle and has swappable terminations. It’s slightly pricey at $70 but I have to say, it’s improved the fit of the Mon MKII for me tremendously. Sounds great too.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be passing the Canons on. Of course I’ll give them longer first.
It’s certainly not because they’re bad in anything they do, purely preference. Their midrange is pretty much at my intimacy/saturation limit (along with Hekili and OH300). It’s a midrange I imagine scores of people will absolutely love. My bass preference goes to the Serial. The Canon is almost certainly better for treble, it’s just not something I notice anywhere near as much as mids and bass.
I don’t know how I arrived here, there was a time that I loved the SSR and NM2+, notable for their over-elevated upper mids and relative bass shyness (although the NM2+ has gorgeous texture and decent sub-bass extension). I just really don’t want vocals/mid-range guitar etc that close to my eardrum in the mix any more.
Technically there are 8 settings I need to test out before I decide, but in reality far fewer.
100 and 110 = bass boosted, necessary for my preferences.
000 and 111 = all level, worth a decent try especially as it’s the stock target presumably
011, 010, 001 = not keen to hear the mix with less bass
101 = not keen for the treble energy in a v-shape EDIT: Reconsidering this one, it’s a way to push mids back a little. Good first impressions.
There are a lot of dead ringers for the Aladdin in various tones. When my Aladdin set return from Hong Kong I don’t know if I’ll still have the Canon to compare directly. But I feel like I might prefer the Aladdin at this minute tbh, for tuning preference.
Timbre: Serial >> Canon > Aladdin
Something’s just different about the Serial’s bass delivery, I haven’t been enjoying the bass is other sets nearly as much. It’s not a quantity issue. I say this recognizing that the bass on the Canon is good in both quality and quality.
Fit is great, I wish the Serial took a slight more tapered shape too.
Stock cable’s very nice, much like what comes with Linsoul’s tribrids just sans adapters.
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Thanks for the in depth analysis! How would you compare the canon to the hekili?
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I don’t have the Hekili with me, so this is not to be taken too strongly:
- Bass has better texture/definition in the Canon. The Hekili improved over the Lokahi by having DD over BA, but as far as DDs go it didn’t stick out to me as anything special. It was a little soft around the edges.
- Treble on the Hekili, as with the Lokahi, is something else. I’m happy to admit that I’m probably the opposite of a snob when it comes to treble. But even I had to take notice of what a difference really good treble makes. The treble of the Canon is an improvement on the Aladdin, to my ears sounds very detailed without ever sounding hot.
- Timbre on each is about equal, with Canon probably coming out a little on top.
- The Hekili added some 8k intensity to percussion, as well as having intimate vocals. Although never sibilant, I found it a little overstimulating.
- I had a good fit with each. The lack of notches on the nozzle of the Hekili can mean some tips either slip off eventually or never fit to begin with, but comes with the upside of allowing deeper insertion as it decreases the overall diameter.
I’m glad I tried out the 101 setting, so far I think this might sound best to me. It could be that my preference for sound signature went from mid-centric → netural with bass boost to… → shallow v? Without me really noticing?
I’d be tempted to still call the Serial (edit, said Canon by mistake earlier) neutral with bass boost - but looking at some graphs made me realize how it really doesn’t stop to plateau in the mids much - which is why I thought maybe it would be worth giving the 101 configuration a go with the Canons. It’s not to do with boosting the treble, but more to do with recessing the mids a little. The relativity of FR curves is interesting.
From this discovery on I think comparison between the Canon and Serial will be a closer call than before.
I should keep emphasizing that playing these earphones against each other right now isn’t at all a game of “which is better”, it’s clear to me that both have excellent SQ, I’m purely working out which is matching my current preferences more. My gut feeling is that more people would actually prefer the Canon, especially given what a large chunk of the audiophile community/forums love their intimate vocal staging, and the general blend it presents.
Listening while typing, I definitely really dig the 101 setup.
EDIT: A quick switch back to the Serial out of curiosity, now that they are both ticking a lot of boxes for me. 101 makes the bass the best so far for my taste, I do notice that in the Canons there is a pervasive wide sub-bass warmth (that would be awesome for soundtracks, Zimmer etc) which doesn’t really take anything away by being absent in the Serial either. An interesting “nice when it’s there, fine when it isn’t difference”.
I’m surprised that without it the Serial never sounds thin, or with thin note weight. Not sure how it does it. Serial bass still an enigma to me. Supposedly it has a fairly slow decay, but it has an edge, perhaps some kind of tactile impact, that is a real strength to it and pairs beautifully with its slower analog decay. Sounds like an actual speaker, in a good way, not fuzzy, warmth-over-everything way.
EDIT: Fell on black days came on, imaging point goes to the Canon.
Edit: Timbre is starting to matter. Even when I’m fond of the overall tuning, I just haven’t been able to get lost in the music, it’s a distraction. This may end up being the winning factor for the Serial. Vocals and many instrument sounds just don’t sound “right” even if they’re at the right levels and in the right places. Maybe I should stop wasting my time on BA hybrids.
It’s a shame I don’t like tuning of most pure DD sets (Oxygen, Zen, 3DT, etc.)
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@hawaiibadboy did you end up buying a pair of Penon Serial? Quite curious to hear your thoughts on the Canon and Serial 
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Back to 100 for now, what sounded like an overly prominent midrange may be accounted for from listening with volume too high.
Bass is different to Serial but certainly very good in its own right. A little rounded on the edges sometimes but quantity and texture are not lacking.
The “liquid” description of the Aladdins carries over, things are very smooth.
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Came across these last night, hadn’t seen them before, anyone have experience with them or know anything about them? I know a lot of people are getting interested in planar iems, haven’t seen many planar hybrid iems (with multiple planar drivers as well)
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Another maybe not quite so interesting…there’s a few reviews out there but have any of you folks had a chance to listen to them?..
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Wow, 3 mini planars + 2 BAs. The sheer clarity has to be off the scale!
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Just needs a DD?
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Moondrop Chu Unboxing, sounds like a pretty good deal considering it comes with $14 worth of eartips.
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Does anybody know by any chance what model this might be?
It’s pretty old for sure and as I did not buy it myself back in the days I don’t know if it was one of the better ones or not… Definitely does not sound too cheap and I was pretty impressed when I rediscovered it… But then when I switched to Kinda Lava again I was not impressed of the Sony set any longer haha 
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sony mdr-ex500lp
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Thanks a lot! 
Any idea how much these did cost?
Think about selling them as I don’t have any use for them.
I found on offer on eBay but that must be a joke!?
