Introduction:
Fischer Audio unveiled its new triple balanced armature IEM recently and the press’s went wild. FA has been known to be a great value audiophile company for a long time now. So many wondered if the TBA-04 was the same. Their full size studio line came out to glowing reviews, so is this the same? Today, Panda Tech Review, gives you a look at the Fischer Audio TBA-04. Let’s see how it is.
Build (Driver / Cable / Termination):
The build is a bit disappointing on the TBA-04. It’s entire body is plastic. Not extremely hard plastic like the kind that is hard to tell from metal, and that is very heavy. It’s the lightweight, shiny kind. This of course plays into the need for a lightweight unit as the way it fits into the ear. But it is still a bit unacceptable looking at it. There are many other products today that use just the suction force of the IEM to keep the unit in place that still have better quality driver build than this $300 unit. The plastic actually looks almost like modeling pieces stiched together. The nozzle itself is also plastic, and what seems to be proprietary from the looks of it due to how small it is compared to most nozzles. (I believe). The wire termination, and cable strain relief is also quite mediocre. It’s a twist type of cable that has good flexibility and apparent well made, but I highly question its long term life. The cable, although of good flexibility, and of solid wiring, isn’t braided exactly with sleeves and fancy material. It is also quite thin. The wire is not removable and uses extremely thin wire strain reliefs on it. The termination plug(3.5mm plug that inserts into your device) itself is also very simplistic, and minimal. Not too much fancy design. Small, short plastic is what describes the termination. Not too glorious, you may think considering all I have said. And you are right, but its not all like that. We need a bit of analyzation to see the good side.
So there’s the bad, what’s the good with the build? Everything is in fact well done on the build. This means that the letters, the colors, and design is all accurate, and high quality. The fit is ergonomic for most ears and plays into how and where the cable should exit the unit. It’s a very smooth and somewhat wrap around driver fit in that the driver isn’t extremely horizontally outsticking like say a TF10. The wire’s flexibility, design, and wire termination although minimal and questionable, works extremely well with the style of the TBA-04 which is small, somewhat artistic and great sounding. If you are wondering what this means, well imagine if the TBA04 had a very thick single nonbraided cable with a thick strain relief component. You probably are now thinking that it will probably be weird to with such a light and ergonomic driver, but with thick, full size class cabling. And that is exactly the type of analyzation that one may try to make as to why the build quality isn’t up to what they may feel about a $300 UIEM.
So there are the two sides. Panda Tech Review believes in presenting both sides of the arguments before offering its full opinion as a way to give its readers the full idea of what the unit is like.
Panda Tech Review’s opinion on the build of the unit is that while it is fitting for the unit, it is a bit lackluster for a unit of its cost and usable style(portable). Portable units need to have a decent amount of build quality, every day use durability, and the ability to possibly be sat on, have a backpack on top of it, etc. With my inspection of the TBA 04, and its build qualities, this is unfulfilled. Unless the plastic and wire and its entire system uses has some incredible build technology or has some inner ‘exoskeleton’ I didn’t know about. I do not believe the quality of materials, and its build is a good representation of a $300 unit.
Continue Reading at:
http://www.pandatechreview.com/fischer-audio-tba-04-review/
http://www.head-fi.org/t/690252/fischer-audio-tba-04-review-triple-balanced-armature