I guess the Serial does look like it has a bit more qdc-like uppermids/treble tuning and is brighter than both the Ziigaats.
More similar to the Dos than the Cino (due to mid-bass dip, upper mids peaking then dipping).
Regardless, I wouldnt go for the Penon stuff, both for ethical reasons (Penon is hot garbage) and for their crappy QC.
damn Doscinco looks hella smooth, I might definitely grab one
Thanks. I have a few Penon units. The Serial is all that and a bag of chips, IMO. But, I am also a Kato and Bravery fan. Lol I have plebeian tastes I guess.
I know some have had issues with Penon. They have always been honest and fulfilled all orders. QC-wise, my left Serial unit is not holding on to cable pins as well as it should. My OG fan had even worse issues. My Globe is still working great. So, yeah, Penon does have QC issues.
Thats not the problem with Penon, it is how they handle their “reviewers” and reviews.
100% as a ex Penon reviewer that is a truth.
As someone who listens to a lot of classic rock, I want to be on record the Doscinco is amazing.
I am sure I would enjoy the Cincotres too. It is really do you want the tucked bass at 300Hz, or not, and that probably depends on your preferred music. I love the tuck on some music, but not for everything.
I just wanted to pop in here to say that the Doscinco has some very very satisfying bass, it sounds fast, articulate with a good snap for the transients without sounding overly dry. Mid bass has very good body, the sub bass also has very good rumble relative to the price of these. It isn’t the most textured, but it definitely hits you. Mids are relatively untouched and a little forward making the over all sig sound balanced to my ears. I would prefer slightly less upper mids around 2.5k - 3K and a touch more late treble presence but, I mean, not everything can be tuned to my personal target lol
For the cash, these are good… maybe even excellent. Full write up and photos coming within the next week 
thinking of refunding my Quintet, I can put the money towards Maestro Mini or Doscinco/Cinco
who’s got experience with both?
I’m personally leaning Doscinco/Cinco(favored) so I can go for Scarlet later down the road
Hmmmmm… Doscinco graphing wonderfully close to the Kato for the low mids and upper bass regions. That mid-bass and sub-bass might be too overpowering. The Cincotres’ dip at 250 to 600 Hz is probably too big for my taste.
I added the Hana v2 and removed the Hype 2:
For the record, I actually preferred Cincotres over Doscinco for Classic Rock but both handle it well
I owned both and used them pretty exclusively for a week and a half, and Dom has them both now. Like @John_W_Clark said, it basically comes down to which flavor you think you would prefer slightly more. They are more similar than different, and even with that bass tuck, Cincotres can still hit hard. I think it sounds more flat than tucked personally, with a nice rise in the subbass.
I’ll go Cinco then since Doscinco’s tuning looks a lot like other stuff, Classic rock was a good comment since that’s where I felt my Variations was lacking so I think Cinco is the way to go here
The cincotres has a big dip at the upper fundamentals of bass guitar and the heart of the fundamentals for guitar. I am having a hard time understanding why the cincotres would be the better choice for classic rock. Edit: Zeppelin, Rush, Deep Purple, Van Halen, etc.
If you mean my personal mindset for this purchase, it’s simply because I have an UP which to my eyes based on FR alone, I know not the same and all that jazz lol, is basically Doscinco’s tuning. Redundancy is my concern for it. I may still grab Doscinco though if that has better rumble than Cinco since my UP is lacking that
Meanwhile I don’t have anything that comes close to Cincotres, an argument can be made for Variations. The ziigaat duo was mentioned as similar rather than different, so I figure I can just EQ my problems worst case scenario.
So it’s more of an option select generalization rather than grabbing Cinco for rock alone. I’d love to demo the two beforehand but fat chance for me unfortunately
Being a purist and just going by paper findings, yes sir, you make a good point. But having them actually in the ear is the defining factor.
I’ll listen to some Zeppelin tonight to compare the Doscinco and Cincotres and report back with what I find.
@apricotblossome, I was inquiring more to inquire with those that have the sets not challenging you or others.
I will wait to hear back from those that have the sets, but it would seem, from the charts, that bass guitar and especially guitar would be quite thin. I have two iterations of Harman-ish sets, the Kato and the Hana v2. To my ears, the Kato has a wonderful balance in the low mids through sub-bass. The Hana v2 has too much emphasis on the sub-bass and is too hollowed out in the low mids through mid-bass region to be satisfying for guitar and bass guitar. The Hana v2 has a much larger soundstage than the Kato. Perhaps, that difference in that region accounts for the difference in the perception of soundstage between the units?
It could also be that I might hear things different being a formally trained musician (guitar, piano and bass). I wrestle with string-to-string balance of flat pickups and curved fingerboards, for example. I might be hyper-sensitive to imbalance and my auditory filtering might be espeically sensiitive in that area.
Musicians hear/perceive music differently:
All I can say is that is what I heard with my ears; I found that the lowend of Doscinco could diminish the mids a bit, just a tad too much in the lowend. The Cincotres had better clarity but still presented 4-string and kick drums with authority. I know that the graph shows it having ~3db on that tuck, but to my ears it never felt like that much. I didn’t have any issues with midbass or deep male vocals sounding hollow or pushed back (certainly not like on, say, Helios SE). I don’t think that I’m a level of critical that most people would prefer when it comes to specifics in earphones, though, so I’d wait for Dom or others to drop their opinions if anyone is really worried about choosing one or the other for specific genres or artists. I do want to re-emphasize that they are more alike than different though.
God damn site went down last night so
I couldn’t post this then, here was my findings. TLDR; it’s all a matter of taste. Thicker lower mids, go with the Doscinco. Cleaner lower mids, go with the Cincotres.
See, the trouble with listening to Zeppelin for impression’s sake is that I want to finish all of the songs so it just takes too damn long 
With that being said; The Doscinco is playing some fantastic melodies in my head right now. I purposely listened to some songs from their first album, through to Physical Graffiti just because some of their earlier stuff has unfortunately taken a bad hit in the mastering department for the digital world. There are 0 issues with Jonsie’s bass guitar or Bonzo’s beating kick drum mixed in a lovely way with Plant’s shrieking voice and Page’s nasty ass solos and riffs. It all sounds very balanced, with a slight emphasis on those huge crash cymbal hits Bonzo is known for and just a little harshness on those Guitar harmonics and some of Plant’s vocals once they started adding those filters in the later years.
Onto the Cincotres now, I can immediately hear the difference in the lower mids. There is far less body in basically the entire mix. However, it sounds a bit better separated, cleaner, and a little more spacious. I will say using the Wanton Song as an example here, while maybe the mid-bass for the Bass guitar and kick drum is less emphasized, to me, it sounds like it has a touch more pop because of the tuck in the lower mids. It just gives this more sub-woofer-like sound which I’ve really come to appreciate lately, but only if it’s done right. Bass instruments don’t sound hollowed out, there’s still body there, just a touch cleaner and better separated. The boost in the late treble helps me enjoy the Cincotres a little more as well. I’m a sucker for late treble boosts! Fool In the Rain sounds lovely, Bonzo doing that Purdie shuffle always gets me. I can still make out Jonsie and his Bass Guitar clearly. When the Levee Breaks still sounds impactful as well, if anything, I prefer the pop on the drum kicks with that tuck over the glide where it all can sometimes blend in with the lower mids, making it sound thicker yes, but also less defined.
All this to say that I think both pairs of these IEMs, for the money, really show how much improvement the market has gone through over the last year. Seriously. These both sound phenomenal. They’re both safe picks for most folks I’d say, it’s just all about your subjective stance of course. I still have to try both of these out and put them through their paces with the rest of my library but for now, I’m digging the Cincotres a little more.
Thanks for the impressions. They were quite helpful. Now, I just need a sale on the sets. No sale, then no sale. 
True dat, the remasters etc…
The struggle is real. I had plenty of Zeppelin and Greta Van Fleet in my play list for the A/B I was doing over the last week.
That seems on point, from everything I have read and heard about it.
Funny on that personal target, I was doing some A/B with a Tea2, and to my ear the Doscinco had more air, and the graphs show the difference from 4K-7K. The difference in the bass was pretty minimal.
If someone had asked what my target was a month ago, I probably would have picked Tea2, but the Doscinco may have taken that spot over the last week. I think the Tea2 leans darker, but they are both so good at controlling the treble even at high volume.
