1MORE Penta Driver IEM Review

[InfiniteJester]

This is why I may sound like a shill but... and no driver flex form the Orca just funky looking shells.
View attachment 378442

We all simp for some IEM.

 

[AdamG]

Let’s stay on Topic please. This is a Review thread and the conversation needs to be rooted in the test data results and this IEM.

If you want to talk about different IEM’s start a new thread please.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

 

[pallas]

The sound guy Luca Bignardi probably tuned the Penta Driver to the sounds of his electric guitar.

I have the 1More Triple Driver, they have an odd tuning as well. They are not really good for listening to music.

But they are the best IEMs to practise e-guitar at home. On the headphone out of my Mesa Boogie Mark Five:25 they sound incredible. Better than anything else.

 

[WalterW]

Personally (and while this is not scientific); I find that multi driver IEMs are "faster". When I listen to house / electronica music; dynamic / single driver IEMs tend to get muddy.
Planar headphones tend to be "faster" as electrostatics are often even faster than planar. Which allows for cleaner and better tone separation.
When listening to classical or jazz; it doesn't seem to make a real difference (although some dynamics have ringing at certain frequencies, especially higher notes produced by violins).

This is not only not scientific, but plane wrong. Every driver that manages to play 20kHz is "fast" enough. It is just a myth.

 

[InfiniteJester]

This is not only not scientific, but plane wrong. Every driver that manages to play 20kHz is "fast" enough. It is just a myth.

Are you sure?

There seems to be people who think that group delay and step response are important measures.

Why do you think that they are not?

 

[WalterW]

Are you sure?

There seems to be people who think that group delay and step response are important measures.

Why do you think that they are not?

For minimal phase devices, as IEMs usually are, everything is contained in the frequency response, the temporal quantities via Fourier transform. You can also check measurements of the impulse repsonse of various IEMs at https://www.hypethesonics.com/iemdbc/ and click on "J" on the middle. There is, as expected, no relevant difference between any two IEMs, independent of price or driver configuration.

 

[Honken]

Personally (and while this is not scientific); I find that multi driver IEMs are "faster". When I listen to house / electronica music; dynamic / single driver IEMs tend to get muddy.
Planar headphones tend to be "faster" as electrostatics are often even faster than planar. Which allows for cleaner and better tone separation.
When listening to classical or jazz; it doesn't seem to make a real difference (although some dynamics have ringing at certain frequencies, especially higher notes produced by violins).

I'm not sure how many is too many and where diminishing returns hit, but looking at this penta driver VS the Quad driver both from the same company; it looks like the diminishing returns hit right here (at least in their designs) as the performance here is not better than that of their own quad driver.
I also have the quad and with EQ those are really nice.. But I don't hate them without EQ either (yet the sound isn't as balanced as this Penta).

Mmm, but why? I am not dismissing your experience at all, I just want some measurement beyond THD and frequency response that could be connected to that idea/experience.

You are not alone in raising this and I do believe that there's something beyond the two main measurements we have today (THD and FR) that influences our subjective experiences. I don't know if IMD is one of those data points, but it is one that I think could be measurable (unlike say, how the geometry of the IEM interacts with your own ear).

I've mentioned this elsewhere in this forum but personally, as long as the IEM is inserted at the sorta same length I think that IEMs sound mostly the same as long as they measure somewhat the same, no matter what tech they use. Boosted high frequencies (compared to Harman 2019) seem to translate into pure siblance to me, so I prefer to see a sharp cut to those but it's hard to say from measurements where exactly that comes from on the frequency spectrum.

 

[amirm]

Boosted high frequencies (compared to Harman 2019) seem to translate into pure siblance to me, so I prefer to see a sharp cut to those but it's hard to say from measurements where exactly that comes from on the frequency spectrum.

I dial in the amount of correction in high frequencies by ear. Such is the case here as I put in less than what the frequency response indicated. Now, whether that is right or wrong, I am not sure.

 

[Honken]

If it works for you I don't think it is wrong. Past ~5-7kHz I personally give up and I figure that I either like the IEM or not as-is. I personally have enough IEMs I find agreeable in that region and above (such as the Zero Red and Zero:2) that I don't feel the need to try and fix ones that my ears don't agree with.

Though, shelf filters give me better results than notch ones when I do try to adjust this area, probably because the latter ones are hard to dial in on the actual problematic (to me) frequencies.

 

[raif71]

Hit me baby 1MORE time

 

[Jimster480]

This is not only not scientific, but plane wrong. Every driver that manages to play 20kHz is "fast" enough. It is just a myth.

Not my experience. I don't deal with what others claim, I'm just telling you what I have heard. Playing a single tone at 20khz isn't the same as playing several different ones at the same time.

The sound guy Luca Bignardi probably tuned the Penta Driver to the sounds of his electric guitar.

I have the 1More Triple Driver, they have an odd tuning as well. They are not really good for listening to music.

But they are the best IEMs to practise e-guitar at home. On the headphone out of my Mesa Boogie Mark Five:25 they sound incredible. Better than anything else.

I also have the triple driver and they have much more of a muddy sound VS the quad or penta.

Mmm, but why? I am not dismissing your experience at all, I just want some measurement beyond THD and frequency response that could be connected to that idea/experience.

You are not alone in raising this and I do believe that there's something beyond the two main measurements we have today (THD and FR) that influences our subjective experiences. I don't know if IMD is one of those data points, but it is one that I think could be measurable (unlike say, how the geometry of the IEM interacts with your own ear).

I've mentioned this elsewhere in this forum but personally, as long as the IEM is inserted at the sorta same length I think that IEMs sound mostly the same as long as they measure somewhat the same, no matter what tech they use. Boosted high frequencies (compared to Harman 2019) seem to translate into pure siblance to me, so I prefer to see a sharp cut to those but it's hard to say from measurements where exactly that comes from on the frequency spectrum.

I wish I knew why. I'm not a sound engineer like that. I just listen to music. I did some research but it's nothing concrete. The summary is basically in what I wrote above.
I personally think that all singular frequency tests are not that useful and that just a response test doesn't necessarily give you the whole picture.
I'm also not that sure how to read the group delay graph, so maybe that gives a better picture that I just don't understand.

 

[pallas]

I also have the triple driver and they have much more of a muddy sound VS the quad or penta.

That's probably why I like the Triple Driver so much on the guitar amp.
Overdrive and crunch sounds don't have no sibilant highs or any sharpness.

 

[daftcombo]

I have the 1More Triple Driver, they have an odd tuning as well. They are not really good for listening to music.

Do you have the Triple Driver Over-Ear or In-Ear?

 

[pallas]

Do you have the Triple Driver Over-Ear or In-Ear?

The In-Ear

 

[mc.god]

Given the brand name I suspect they'll continue to add drivers in future models

 

[CedarX]

About the 5x drivers: from 1More (limited) marketing information, it seems that the micro-planars are installed in pairs in what looks very much like a BA housing.

I have not found more details about the micro-planars design, nor the P50 filter architecture. It may be a classic 3-way “stacked” design: full-range DD + 2x high-pass (condenser) for each of the two pairs of micro-planars, with resistors used to “shape” the FR.

 

[markanini]

As far as alluding to the number five, here's a recent IEM release https://www.linsoul.com/products/7hz-five

 

[CedarX]

As far as alluding to the number five, here's a recent IEM release https://www.linsoul.com/products/7hz-five

Interesting. It appears that 7Hz uses five identical DD drivers in individual chambers (assumed each one has a slightly different FR) and, again, a filter to “shape” the desired FR target. But since it’s only a “target”, and actual preferences vary by user, I personally prefer a simpler architecture, with one or two good drivers (low-distortion) and a cable with embedded DSP to shape my preferred FR.

So to me, I don’t see much value in the 1More P50, except for these micro-planars drivers (technically interesting)…

 

[lewdish]

Is there an ASR consensus on the use of multiple drivers in IEMs? We have single DD IEMs such as the 7Hz Zero 2s with vanishingly low harmonic distortion. I haven’t seen many multi-driver IEMs measured but the ones I’ve seen have significantly more distortion. I’d imagine that all those crossovers would add thd and/or IMD, though I’m pretty hazy on the details. Do multi driver designs bring anything to the table or is it all marketing and hokum?

Reason being that BA Drivers tend to have higher distortion at higher output levels but frankly you'll never be acutally using them at those levels. The real benefit of Multi drivers & BAs are to allow you to get a more specific tuning curve that is much harder to get out of single DD drivers.

 

[DrZingo]

The sound guy Luca Bignardi probably tuned the Penta Driver to the sounds of his electric guitar.

Aha - it all makes sense now.
"More distortion!"
"But sir, in the headphone industry it's usually not considered desir..."
"I SAID MORE DISTORTION!"