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Penon Voltage impressions
These have opened up in a spectacular way. I’ve been listening to them all week to the exclusion of everything else in my collection. When I do get a moment, Voltage makes me want to spend the time listening rather than writing about it. It’s hard writing about an IEM that doesn’t even sound like it needs to try. It’s that effortlessly natural and musical.
Mids are gorgeous and liquid, it goes without saying (they would not be Penon otherwise). Driven by the N7 and Tsuranagi, the Voltage does imaging, layering and separation superbly while always organising the sound with the big picture in mind. It doesn’t get lost in the detail. But it’s of that calibre where, if your music has inner lines weaving in and out of a busy mix, you’ll not only hear them, you’ll hear the specific texture and location of the instruments or voices.
Everything is geared towards creating that illusion of perfectly natural timbre with musicians, instruments and sounds all situated on an imaginary stage. Their sheer level of texture, detail, resolution and spatiality is attention-grabbing, yet unforced. None of it is in your face.
The bass brings good, solid note weight, authority, and hits hard, deep and fast with nice decay. It holds detail and texture all the way down to the lowest frequencies, but the DDs also have no compunction whatsoever rumbling and roaring when called upon.
Impactful DD bass and a well defined, articulate midrange do not always come together well but here, the Voltage apparently makes it happen with impeccable coherence.
The treble already feels complete, and completely unforced. It’s not going to be Ragnar-bright, but still goes on for days. It extends nicely and the top end feels very airy and open. It’s evident in the atmosphere as well the imaging and positional cues that it serves up. It’s approaching 100 hours, and yet I’m under no illusion that the ESTs are quite done burning in (if the Volt was anything to go by, they may surprise me yet in a few weeks or months; check back then).
I’m generally not a fan of switches. I usually prefer to settle on one tuning and stick with it. And more often than not, I can’t help but feel that each tuning option is compromised in some way. So I will admit I was less than thrilled when I heard the Voltage would have switches. I’m happy to say my fears are unfounded. For whatever it’s worth, I really like the stock setting. Too early to say if I’ll lapse into my usual habit of settling on one tuning, but the tuning options are compelling and I actually see myself using the switches.
The cable is well chosen. I rolled a bunch and most didn’t improve the synergy substantially enough to warrant writing about.
Totem is a notable but unsurprising exception - it went well with Volt and Impact and I fully expected it to get along with Voltage as well. It’s well served by the resolution and brings a bigger stage, filled by fuller, weightier notes.
The Ronin stock cable is another good match but it’s actually quite similar to the Voltage stock, just more resolving and with more extended treble (yum) and slightly less sub bass.
I used orange Liqueur tips on the Voltage right from the get go and (again predictably) after rolling a bunch of tips, I’m right back where I started. The orange tips, as I’ve commented before, are great for natural timbre, air and staging, and that’s what they do here - amp up the best attributes of the Voltage.
Other tips I enjoyed with Voltage were the Eletech Baroque (more bass pressure, keeps the treble extension intact) and Acoustune AEX70 (more airy and open, bass takes a small hit) but neither has a massive advantage over the Liqueur.
The Liqueur tips are $10 for 3 pairs; Penon spent a lot of time and effort developing them and trying to nail the manufacturing, and I think they missed an opportunity to bundle them as stock with their new flagship tribrid.
I haven’t touched the stock tips at all. Same accessories as just about every Penon IEM in existence I can think of, except OG Fan - if you’ve unboxed one you’ve unboxed them all. Personally, it doesn’t bother me.
I love a good unboxing (Dita Project M, anyone - a carefully thought out aesthetic that steers clear of OTT packaging and waste), but with Penon’s stuff I’d like to think that what I’m paying for goes into the development and manufacturing of the actual IEM itself, and that’s what’s going in my ears anyway.
These have opened up in a spectacular way. I’ve been listening to them all week to the exclusion of everything else in my collection. When I do get a moment, Voltage makes me want to spend the time listening rather than writing about it. It’s hard writing about an IEM that doesn’t even sound like it needs to try. It’s that effortlessly natural and musical.
Mids are gorgeous and liquid, it goes without saying (they would not be Penon otherwise). Driven by the N7 and Tsuranagi, the Voltage does imaging, layering and separation superbly while always organising the sound with the big picture in mind. It doesn’t get lost in the detail. But it’s of that calibre where, if your music has inner lines weaving in and out of a busy mix, you’ll not only hear them, you’ll hear the specific texture and location of the instruments or voices.
Everything is geared towards creating that illusion of perfectly natural timbre with musicians, instruments and sounds all situated on an imaginary stage. Their sheer level of texture, detail, resolution and spatiality is attention-grabbing, yet unforced. None of it is in your face.
The bass brings good, solid note weight, authority, and hits hard, deep and fast with nice decay. It holds detail and texture all the way down to the lowest frequencies, but the DDs also have no compunction whatsoever rumbling and roaring when called upon.
Impactful DD bass and a well defined, articulate midrange do not always come together well but here, the Voltage apparently makes it happen with impeccable coherence.
The treble already feels complete, and completely unforced. It’s not going to be Ragnar-bright, but still goes on for days. It extends nicely and the top end feels very airy and open. It’s evident in the atmosphere as well the imaging and positional cues that it serves up. It’s approaching 100 hours, and yet I’m under no illusion that the ESTs are quite done burning in (if the Volt was anything to go by, they may surprise me yet in a few weeks or months; check back then).
I’m generally not a fan of switches. I usually prefer to settle on one tuning and stick with it. And more often than not, I can’t help but feel that each tuning option is compromised in some way. So I will admit I was less than thrilled when I heard the Voltage would have switches. I’m happy to say my fears are unfounded. For whatever it’s worth, I really like the stock setting. Too early to say if I’ll lapse into my usual habit of settling on one tuning, but the tuning options are compelling and I actually see myself using the switches.
The cable is well chosen. I rolled a bunch and most didn’t improve the synergy substantially enough to warrant writing about.
Totem is a notable but unsurprising exception - it went well with Volt and Impact and I fully expected it to get along with Voltage as well. It’s well served by the resolution and brings a bigger stage, filled by fuller, weightier notes.
The Ronin stock cable is another good match but it’s actually quite similar to the Voltage stock, just more resolving and with more extended treble (yum) and slightly less sub bass.
I used orange Liqueur tips on the Voltage right from the get go and (again predictably) after rolling a bunch of tips, I’m right back where I started. The orange tips, as I’ve commented before, are great for natural timbre, air and staging, and that’s what they do here - amp up the best attributes of the Voltage.
Other tips I enjoyed with Voltage were the Eletech Baroque (more bass pressure, keeps the treble extension intact) and Acoustune AEX70 (more airy and open, bass takes a small hit) but neither has a massive advantage over the Liqueur.
The Liqueur tips are $10 for 3 pairs; Penon spent a lot of time and effort developing them and trying to nail the manufacturing, and I think they missed an opportunity to bundle them as stock with their new flagship tribrid.
I haven’t touched the stock tips at all. Same accessories as just about every Penon IEM in existence I can think of, except OG Fan - if you’ve unboxed one you’ve unboxed them all. Personally, it doesn’t bother me.
I love a good unboxing (Dita Project M, anyone - a carefully thought out aesthetic that steers clear of OTT packaging and waste), but with Penon’s stuff I’d like to think that what I’m paying for goes into the development and manufacturing of the actual IEM itself, and that’s what’s going in my ears anyway.
, I think 
