[CH23]

Fi-BA-SST35 and 25 have non-removable cables....I believe they are very similar to the ones used in LAB II, but without MMCX...

interesting, the 'final' logo is in different lettering than mine.

 

[Licht]

Hi, Licht...

I see that your photo of Final IEMs includes the Heaven VIII (the gold with brown cable). How do you compare it to the FI-BA-SS (and any other IEMs)?

@ruthieandjohn
I've seen your profile and you have Heaven VIII so you want to know the sound of FI-BA-SS compared to that?

Short comparison (used Mojo, Mjolnir 2, iPhone 6 Plus (direct), oppo HA-2):

• Heaven VIII:
  Warm smooth sound and bit sparkle and have some etching (outline) in voice or instrument. Bad staging.
  Vocals are so big in size and like singing sticking on your face. Kind of warm, smooth, relaxing but fun sound, but sound is not natural especially for classical music (especially for flute, the hardest sound for audio to reproduce).
  Plenty bass but not good punch. Reminds me of Kaiser 10 though not the same. Like not so hot and not so good bass Sonorous VI.
  
  
• FI-BA-SS:
  Extremely revealing. Direct sound. Transparent. Tight, slim, deep, heavy and punchy bass. Cymbals and brushes? get prominent and in some tunes too much combined with slim bass.
  Vocal and acoustic instrument sounds really natural and realistic. Nice staging. Adequate sized vocal.
  Revealing sound reminds me a bit of STAX SR-Omega (original model which I own). However, I don't know why but bad matching with Mjolnir2 (bass becomes small and dull)
  For me, it's a special IEM and really engaging and sometimes make me even tear, but not daily IEM since it's somewhat fatiguing for me.
  
  
• E3000:
  Decent modest sound like 2 channel audio. Natural sound and nothing special in good meaning and bad meaning as well. Scales well with amp.
  Sounds fantastic on Mjolnir 2 with nice punch and natural sound. However, with some amps like direct out from iPhone 6 Plus, music sounds slower.
  Soundwise,I like it the best of the three for daily use regardless of the price. Sounds a bit like ETHER Flow on Mjolnir2. Hardest to drive of the three.

Please keep in mind FI-BA-SST is much warmer than FI-BA-SS (I compared it and felt SST more like "normal" IEM) and AKR02 is said to be warmer than FI-BA-SS as well (I haven't heard AKR02 though).

 

[costinstn]

interesting, the 'final' logo is in different lettering than mine.

i attached a photo to see better the logo....to me it looks the same as in the promo photos from Final's web site...

 

[Licht]

interesting, the 'final' logo is in different lettering than mine.

Seems to be logo on FI-BA-SST is on the different place in different font compared to that of FI-BA-SS.
Ah, so it's much easier to find out left and right. Same as Heaven VIII and you wear logo on front side of you then you get right and left on the right side.

 

[costinstn]

@ruthieandjohn
I've seen your profile and you have Heaven VIII so you want to know the sound of FI-BA-SS compared to that?

Short comparison (used Mojo, Mjolnir 2, iPhone 6 Plus (direct), oppo HA-2):
Heaven VIII: Warm smooth sound and bit sparkle and have some etching (outline) in voice or instrument. Bad staging.
Vocals are so big in size and like singing sticking on your face. Kind of warm, smooth, relaxing but fun sound, but sound is not natural especially for classical music (especially for flute, the hardest sound for audio to reproduce).
Plenty bass but not good punch. Reminds me of Kaiser 10 though not the same. Like not so hot and not so good bass Sonorous VI.
FI-BA-SS: Extremely revealing. Direct sound. Transparent. Tight, slim, deep, heavy and punchy bass. Cymbals and brushes? get prominent and in some tunes too much combined with slim bass.
Vocal and acoustic instrument sounds really natural and realistic. Nice staging. Adequate sized vocal.
Revealing sound reminds me a bit of STAX SR-Omega (original model which I own). However, I don't know why but bad matching with Mjolnir2 (bass becomes small and dull)
For me, it's a special IEM and really engaging and sometimes make me even tear, but not daily IEM since it's somewhat fatiguing for me.
E3000: Decent modest sound like 2 channel audio. Natural sound and nothing special in good meaning and bad meaning as well. Scales well with amp.
Sounds fantastic on Mjolnir 2 with nice punch and natural sound. However, with some amps like direct out from iPhone 6 Plus, music sounds slower.
Soundwise,I like it the best of the three for daily use regardless of the price. Sounds a bit like ETHER Flow on Mjolnir2. Hardest to drive of the three.

Please keep in mind FI-BA-SST is much warmer than FI-BA-SS (I compared it and felt SST more like "normal" IEM) and AKR02 is said to be warmer than FI-BA-SS as well (I haven't heard AKR02 though).

I felt also the SST was too warm when i got them....but they really opened up and got brighter after 20-30 hours of burn-in.....I'm skeptic about burn-in of balanced armatures, but i really feel it had a big impact on the SST..

 

[Licht]

I felt also the SST was too warm when i got them....but they really opened up and got brighter after 20-30 hours of burn-in.....I'm skeptic about burn-in of balanced armatures, but i really feel it had a big impact on the SST..

Oh really?
I've auditioned FI-BA-SST at final showroom in late February, but not sure how long they've been burnt in. It must be two months after its launch.

 

[jwbrent]

Oh really?
I've auditioned FI-BA-SST at final showroom in late February, but not sure how long they've been burnt in. It must be two months after its launch.

I felt also the SST was too warm when i got them....but they really opened up and got brighter after 20-30 hours of burn-in.....I'm skeptic about burn-in of balanced armatures, but i really feel it had a big impact on the SST..

It's more likely the SPC cable was what caused the change in sound. Cables, in my experience, require signal throughput for the dialectric to fully form.

 

[ninaraduga]

What would you say is the difference between the PF VIII and IX? The VIII is already a stretch in terms of budget, but the difference between it and the IX is not huge.

Thanks again!

The difference is very large, to miss 8 and buy immediately 9

 

[ninaraduga]

I felt also the SST was too warm when i got them....but they really opened up and got brighter after 20-30 hours of burn-in.....I'm skeptic about burn-in of balanced armatures, but i really feel it had a big impact on the SST..

This is not a balanced armatures burned. This burned the cable. The difference between FIBASS and FIBASST is in the cable. At FIBASST it is brighter, because it has a silver, and silver always gives brightness at high frequencies. In the FIBASS cable is very simple, it does not add brightness.

 

[Wyville]

The difference is very large, to miss 8 and buy immediately 9

I guess it depends on each person's financial situation. Considering how expensive they are to begin with, if I stretch my budget to buy the VIII, I can stretch the extra for the IX as well.

 

[nogi replicant]

Selling my Lab II's as my colleaugues are too noisy in the office to fully enjoy them and my kids are too noisy at home to enjoy them.

If anyone is keen - https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/fs-or-trade-final-lab-ii.851643/

 

[MikeZhao]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents. I have the Pandora Hope VI and have generally not enjoyed them. I actually think the sound is quite musical and fits the sound signature I look for... but the fit/comfort is just horrendous. Many other users have mentioned this already but they just feel horrible. The weight is a little more than I'm used to and the weight distribution is off too. I don't have particularly large ears, but they're always pressing up on the drivers when I have them on. There's also the adjustable slider issue. Sigh... incredible sound, I just can't bring myself to use them for more than 15 minutes at a time.

 

[Ritvik]

Hey there. I recently acquired a pair of the AKR02 IEMs, From the little I know, they're essentially the FI-BA-SS with removable cables and the of course the AK branding. Loving the sound, detailed, airy but a bit sibilant on my older recordings.

I do have an odd issue with them though. I just cant get any sound out of them when used with my phone, the S8 Plus. For the record;

• The AKR02 work prefect from other phones, my laptop and out of my DAP, a QP1R.
• Every other IEM I own works just fine with my phone.
• The volume was turned up! In fact the the phone detects that they're plugged in, my Neutron app starts auto-playing once i plug them in. I tried various music apps and random videos playing from Android's Chrome browser and the YouTube app.
• Thinking that the 3.5mm jack might not be making proper contact with some part of the phone's socket I tried an adapter, that didn't help either. The adapter works fines with the other sources again.

Is there something else I should be trying? Would appreciate any suggestions.

 

[Hi-Fi'er]

Just briefly but I’ve compared E2000 to E3000 at Yodobashi Camera today.
First time for me to directly listen to the both at once. (Have heard E2000 at final showroom and bought E3000 online)

E2000: Focused on vocals and mid-bass. Bit brighter than E3000 and slimmer sound. Younger sound maybe targeted for mass (non-audiophile) users.
E3000: Vocals goes bit distant compared to E2000, which means it might sound more spacious. Maybe more sub-bass and dense overall sound. Much modest warmer vocal but has somewhat more resolution in treble. Sound signature more like expensive audio system or TOTL headphones. Well balanced but still having final house sound transparent mids. I think it is a nice entry for audiophile sound signature taste in really affordable price (5,480 yen and 548 point (yen equivalent coupon given after purchase) in many shops, which means virtually under 5,000 yen.)

Before comparing them, I thought I might buy E2000, but after comparison audition I didn’t. Just wasn’t my taste.

From my memory difference between E3000 and E2000 is bigger than that of Sonorous III and Sonorous II (I auditioned them for ten days at my house).

Short comparison done using following tunes in ALAC by HF Player on iPhone 6 Plus + Mojo.
Masahiro Arita: Bach flute sonata in C BWV1033 1st mov. (His 3rd recording played by modern flute "Helmuth Hammig" in grey jacket album)
BABYMETAL: Akatsuki (heavy metal with female vocal starting with electric guitar solo)

I definitely preferred E3000 over E2000 for both tunes.
Really well balanced sound.

As I wrote before, sound signature of E3000 is like a mini-mini ETHER Flow. (yes, quality is apparently different but overall feeling reminds me of ETHER Flow compared on Mjolnir 2)


You can see many reviews retweeted by final staff’s twitter though they are in Japanese.
https://twitter.com/final_staff

So how good are these compared to Heaven II?

 

[Licht]

@Hi-Fi'er

So how good are these compared to Heaven II?

I don't have Heaven II and heard just a little of Heaven II.
However, I have earphone using the same driver as Heaven II assembled in Adagio V housing and filter tuned by myself (final sometimes has special IEM assemble/tuning workshops and I made it there).
In my memory, my special IEM sounds a bit like Heaven II probably due to its special balanced armature driver (only used in Heaven II in final product lineup and sounds significantly different from Heaven 4, 5, 6.)
Compared to E3000, the special IEM (with Heaven II drivers) are much mid-high centric and has less bass.
It has really beautiful vocals and guitars sounds beautiful as well, but E3000 is much well balanced and much speaker like sounding.
E3000 might be "better" IEM (especially for orchestra and bass heavy tracks), but the special IEM (with Heaven II driver) is more direct and engaging especially in vocals and brass.
E3000 is well balanced but could be bland if compared to Heaven II vocals.
I can't say or guess which is good E3000 or Heaven II, but could be your preference which is better for you.
It's so different in tuning and Heaven II has a distinct sound in final lineup as well (probably due to its driver).