So How’s the Sound? Let’s start with the Bass.
Silver Dragon King (SDK) has an interesting sound. In good words, it’s unique and desires its own path – but in a more negative light, it’s somewhat unusual. It’s easy for people to expect a tribrid that is involved with BC drivers to have a typical strong W-shaped sound signature. However, Silver Dragon King has a flat-ish, slightly w-shaped sound signature that keeps the overall sound spectrum leveled, calm, and open-ended. Of course, the BC drivers do their job for the bass rumbles, yet the strength and quantity of the sub-bass aren’t boosted as typical tribrids.
Instead, the BC drivers offer gentle, adequate rumbles for the ultra-lows, so SDK doesn’t ring your head with sub-bass but focuses more on the clean vibrations of the lower frequencies. SDK’s bass as a whole gives a noticeably stronger bass response than flat though 2% less than typical IEMs that are slightly v-shaped in bass quantity (not “V-shaped” but v-shaped).
Because of this, the Silver Dragon King is surely not meant for bassheads but would instead suit better with those who desire a slightly v-shaped sound – or should I say SDK matches the best for those who enjoy the calm evenness that flat reference tuning brings but you’ve also been missing the bass rumbles and low-end thickness. Other than that, the bass is agile, clean, and transparent. It may feel light as the thumps aren’t heavy or thick-bodied (it’s more like neutral-thick) as it does the bass thumps more delicate and gently.
Sound Impressions for Vocals: Transparency & Airiness-based
The Silver Dragon King’s vocal presentation is like a clean, breezy, cool spring weather. It has a cheerful, upbringing nuance. The tone is also silvery-lush, which gives a bright nuance yet not fatiguing nor metallic. Instead, SDK’s carefully tuned timbre brings great vastness and airiness to the sound. I believe Panther Audio has tuned SDK differently from the orthodox way of portraying the open-field mids – and here’s the reason why. Commonly, hybrid IEMs intentionally pull in the mid-range closer to the ears for extra prominent vocals and apply thick density to the mid-range for prominent vocal presence.
Though unlike that, while SDK’s vocals also take a mild step forward, it doesn’t “compress” the vocals to acquire thick density like the casual tuning, but evenly spreads out the vocal density for an extra wider, open-ended sound field. Those who are used to thick and full-bodied vocals may find SDK’s vocals to sound rather hollow for this reason. Though, in exchange, Silver Dragon King achieves exceptionally resolving vocals.
The evenly wide-spread vocal texture is not only resolving in the wideness of the vocal’s playground but also these exceptionally-resolving vocals don’t fatigue the ears so easily – which other IEMs may have got the vocals too hot or bright with this same level of transparency. The SDK shows a steady, consistent tone and flow throughout the mid-range, hence sibilance is off the list of concerns. In short, the true charm of Silver Dragon King’s vocals is the extreme transparency that is free of fatigue.
Sound Impressions for Trebles:
Silver Dragon King presents an evenly positioned, slightly w-shaped sound signature, the trebles also sound just as clear and near as the mid-range. However, while the vocals were tuned to have a wide-spread room which sacrifices density for vastness, trebles are more tightly done and controlled stronger in density. Because of this, trebles have a crisp and tighter texture with extra agility. The airy, crisp tone that was found from the vocals continues for the high-ends yet they never get overbright or too hot. While trebles have tighter density, SDK shows a very organic tone and smooth texture for the trebles.
Simply put, there are no “spikes” throughout the upper mid-treble range to irritate or easily fatigue the ears, despite the trebles’ bold presence. Well, perceiving this sound may be polarizing depending on your preference, as the treble strikes aren’t as firm or aggressive as tribrids do, and Silver Dragon King’s treble may seem too calm and peaceful for some. Nevertheless, SDK still has that “al dente” level of tightness and kick for the trebles, so consider that. Another thing to consider is that SDK’s trebles have a dry-crisp texture, though not in the sense of being rough, as the textures are refined, thankfully.
The Soundstage: Fusion of 3D & Flat/Reference?!
The soundstage of Silver Dragon King is very interesting, as it feels like a fusion between spatial and reference-flat. The sound presentation of the low/mid/high are evenly placed, yet they cohesively show relatively calm dynamics (relatively compared to aggressive tribrids that are common nowadays…), as well as the vocal’s unconventional approach of decreasing the mid-range density to achieve wider stage. Lastly, the dry-crisp texture as well, which is often found from monitoring, reference-tuned IEMs – reminds me of Astell&Kern Zero 2 which was reviewed previously.
To sum up, the staging is vast and thoroughly spatial, yet the staging presentation of Silver Dragon King would likely be different from most IEMs you’ve heard so far. As SDK tries to keep a leveled, calm, and reference-like tuning throughout the range, the staging is open-ended towards the ceiling but only studio-sized for the lower bottom. It’s an interesting approach that took me a bit to understand and get used to it, though once done, I soon started to enjoy this style. Unexpectedly, this tuning got quite addictive.
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