A) The chain (all using the OE 2 Dual Silver CPS cable)
1. Apple music / Spotify from Android phone to Earmen Colibri to Penon Voltage / Dita Project M.
2. Apple music / Spotify from Android phone to Chord Mojo 2 to Penon Voltage / Dita Project M.
3. FLAC / AAC / 320 kbps MP3 / 128 kbps MP3 music from my computer to Chord Mojo 2 to Penon Voltage / Dita Project M.
4. My DAP Onkyo DP X1 to Penon Voltage / Dita Project M (mostly FLAC / 320 kbps music files)
B) The music
1. Bollywood (from the 40s till date)
2. Malayalam songs (from the 60s till date)
3. Tamil songs (from late 80s till date)
4. Telugu songs (from the 2000s till date)
5. English (Soul, Jazz, Reggae, Motown, Rock, Hard Rock, Metal, Pop from the 60s to the 000s, some specific artists from the current era like Adele, Billy Eilish, Norah Jones, Dua Lipa, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Llorde etc.)
6. OSTs from movies and anime.
7. Instrumentals (mostly jazz and jazz fusions).
As clear from the above list, most of my music is mid focused. I am not a bass head, though I appreciate bass if the music calls for it. I prefer a detailed, neutral and natural sound signature.
I had purchased Penon Voltage recently. This IEM has a 2 DDs / 4 BAs and 4 ESTs configuration. The stock cable of this IEM is Obsidian from Penon itself which has a higher cost than OE. It was immediately clear that the stock cable is inhibiting the performance of the IEM since the resolution and the imaging while good, were not on par for the driver configuration on offer. I had a feeling that the IEM needed a cable which had silver (not silver plating) in it. I picked this cable which is a 4 wire purified silver cable. Lo behold! the technicalities of the Voltage just jumped 2 levels - resolution, imaging, separation and the layering improved very noticeably. I had my doubts as to whether the silver will affect the bass of the IEM as silver wires typically tend to increase the speed and make the upper mids and treble sharper making the IEM brighter. However to my ears, the quantity of bass of the IEM remained the same (compared to the stock cable) while the note definition for the lower ranges became more defined. The treble became more etched without any kind of sibilance. The note weight is very good throughout the range and sounds very natural.
Comparisions:
Penon Obsidian cable (priced $150 - roughly INR 14,000/-): Superior to this cable in all the aspects be it Lows, Mids, Highs and technicalities. Bass quantity roughly the same for both, but basslines noticeably more cleaner and defined with OE.
EA Cadmus 8 wire (priced INR 24,000/-): Technicalities: Better detail retrieval, separation and layering on OE than the Cadmus. Cadmus has a wider soundstage. Better treble extension on the OE. Both Cadmus and OE are very good in the mid range with different strengths. OE is more clearer and detailed in the midrange (my requirement for Voltage) while sounding natural. Cadmus has a thicker note weight in the midrange which sounds really good for vocals. Cadmus has more bass quantity with good definition in the bass lines. However OE has noticeably more tighter and defined bass while losing out to the Cadmus on the quantity of the bass slightly (mainly in the mid bass).
This cable is very comfortable as it is thin by the cable standards these days. You forget that there is a cable within a few seconds of wearing this. Honestly I find it difficult to correlate the quality of the sound provided by this cable to its unassuming appearance. This has to be one of the best deals when it comes to cables.
Who would I recommend it to: 1. To those who are looking for added technicalities and treble extension without sibilance 2. Those who have warm IEMs and want more resolution and bass definition.
Thanks, Pritam for the prompt delivery. Always a pleasure dealing with you.