Well written and lines up exactly with what I hear as well.
Bravo!

What an awesome review! I don't have the full sized cans to try with the Tail, but with my hard to drive IEMs, the power as you noted is just crazy. The Technics TZ700 IEM is a pretty power hungry single DD, and it's pushed my Sony WM1A to 80% volume on high gain and 4.4 balanced every day of the week... but on the Tail, on low gain, on 4.4, I can't even get to 30% volume before it's too much. With the low end, I agree it's very controlled, and tight, but it is by no means lean. It really slams hard. In fact, harder than my Cayin N7 DAP running on USB DAC mode. I am sure Penon will sell a whole bunch of these.

I really hope your excellent review goes front page, so more members are made aware of this budget powerhouse dongle!

@cn11
Well, the thing is the 2 Sony TOTL Flagships have never been difficult to drive, still that damping factor is real and noticeable into which (especially) bass pace is concerned. Where I have made it my mission to defend the power output of the WM1A, it's true the WM1A just can't compete with raw power, the raw power of the TAIL. Also as you say that same power personality is still used with IEMs, regardless of volume levels needed. But also there is a cleaner bass personality on offer here...........that when combined with the damping factor results in amazement!

Thank you for your great review!

One thing to add that might be of interest for users of Roon - the Tail does not seem compatible with ARC yet. At least Roon ARC crashes in my case, whenever I attach my Tail to my mobile (Samsung).

Otherwise though the Tail is simply great straightforward fun...

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-penon-official-thread.934523/post-17615622

@zikarus
You will note the power usage levels above!

Thank-you!
I wonder about that, there must be a few formats it doesn’t do?

Does the Penon Tail have enough power to drive a high-impedance headphone like the ATH-R70X (470Ω) ? Hard for me to translate specs into performance.