Cons: Extremely bright and thin sounding with no bass to bring out tones
Lacks musicality
Reviews seem to be a mixed bag with these IEMs. My experience is they have no bass and are definitely not warm by any stretch of the imagination. They do have an airiness about them which lends to a good soundstage. However due to the lack of low end nothing sounds right. Listening to a whole song is nearly impossible because at some point a high note will appear and the treble will be just awfully bright.
If you compare the graph of the A3000 to something thats known to be on the warm side like the Moondrop Starfield you can see that huge bump at 8K. That spike in treble will be screaming at you constantly.
Pros: A3000: Balanced, with a warm touch and the right amount of very well controlled bass, mellow mids, and plenty of highs; very transparent, revealing a vast amount of information; big soundstage, both in width and depth; nice image; a relaxing all-rounder of top class.
Cons: Not much, except maybe of a bit reduced dynamics.
Introduction
When, in April 2020, I published my review on Final A8000, in the reviews section of head-fi.org (https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/final-a8000.24043/reviews), I gave it 5 stars and wrote Pros: Top clarity and depth in an extremely natural and effortless way; lows, mids and highs in an absolutely perfect balance; unrivalled transparency; maximal speed; extremely broad dynamic range; huge soundstage; beautiful holographic image; top class universal performer; beautiful and extremely well made in every sense of the way; great fit. Cons: Nothing, except maybe that not everyone can afford it.
I knew that Final intended to create a whole new A series of IEMs, and obviously the new series would contain higher as well as lower priced models. So, two things were going around my mind:
Could A8000 be actually surpassed? I thought that this should be quite hard.
How one could make a lower price model that would be in the “same league” as A8000? Actually, a model that is substantially lower priced, as if someone cannot afford an IEM that costs $1999.00, the same goes for an IEM that sells for $1500.00 and maybe even one that has a price tag of $1000.00. I thought that this should be as hard as well.
Guess what? I was wrong in both! Just a few months ago, Final presented A4000 and A3000, two lower, actually way too lower, value IEMs than A8000. While, on April 26, 2021, Final launched SHICHIKU.KANGEN, which is the next big thing after A8000. Typically, SHICHIKU.KANGEN belongs to the Collaboration series, because it was developed in collaboration with the DITA Audio company; in reality though, it is of the same breed as A8000, at least in regard to its construction, and it costs almost 50% more than the latter.
I don’t believe I shall be able to give you a review on SHICHIKU.KANGEN; it is way too exquisite, and I expect it to have a special review program. This is the bad news; sorry for that!
However, I have a review on A4000 and A3000 that will leave you far from disappointed; their MSRP is $159.99 and $129.99, respectively. I guess, your first reaction might be: Are you kidding? You take our time for a review on two IEMs that cost 1/12th and 1/15th the price of A8000? How in the world could these two stand even the slightest comparison to A8000? After all, Final engineers are great, but they cannot do miracles; well, give me a little of your time, and you will realize that Final engineers cannot certainly do a miracle, but they can maybe approach one!
Let me start with a picture of A4000
and a picture of A3000
The housing in both is made of ABS resin; it is of the same shape as that used in the B series, the Make series and of course A8000. The A4000 is in a so-called “Navy Blue” color and the A3000 in “Matte Black”. The cable, on the other hand, is, in both cases, a 2-Pin connector following the highest versatility φ0.78 standard, oxygen-free copper (OFC) cable. Nothing exciting, you might say; true, but it shows that Final chose for two of the important components of the new IEMs, i.e., the housing and the cable, two well tested and of proven quality designs, and at the same time it saved quite a bit of money. The idea was to put all the money allocated for the development and making of the new IEMs in the third important component, which is obviously the driver. But please allow me to take things from the beginning.
The concept
In developing A8000, Final did a lot of research on how the quality of sound is evaluated, and it came up with an entirely new evaluation method. Conventional methods do a subjective evaluation, assuming that certain things, like the quality of the recording or the sound level, are fixed; however, in practice, there are no fixed conditions. Final’s new evaluation method takes into account the various conditions under which one listens to music that differ, sometimes substantially, among each other. This started with A8000 and, as it was proven to be very successful, it was continued with A4000 and A3000; at the end, it was one of the key factors on which the designing of the two new IEMs was based.
The other important issue was the A4000 and A3000 both belong to the same series as A8000, and therefore should share some common characteristics in their sound signature, most notably transparency. This was what in A8000 was raised to a level that I have not encountered on any IEM that I have tried before, and this includes some very exquisite sets. Transparency can be defined as the ability to listen to all sounds in a musical piece, no matter how complex the latter is, and no matter where each sound is coming from; all organs must be heard perfectly clear independently of where they are situated. This is what A8000 can do in a very unique way; it is because of transparency that whoever has tried A8000 says that it reveals so much information that very few (probably fewer than the fingers of one hand) IEMs can do.
So, if A4000 and A3000 had a single characteristic in their sound signature this should be transparency. This is nice to say, but how do you implement it? Keep in mind that A8000 had an exquisite sound, because in was a very meticulous and expensive design, in which not even the slightest detail was left unattended: An amazing all new designed beryllium driver, a stainless steel housing with four separate chambers construction and a superb Micro-miniature coaxial (MMCX) connector, an OFC silver coated cable made by the well-renowned Junkosha corporation, to mention just a few. Now, given that Final had decided the MSRP of A4000 and A3000 to be not much more than $150.00, all the previous goodies were out of the question. So, in such a case, a company has pretty much two ways to proceed: Either little money goes to each of the components of the new IEMs, hoping for an overall improvement at the end; or decide to use some already well tested and of proven quality components and put (almost) all your money in redesigning and making just one component. Final engineers were clever enough to apply the second approach: They put all the money in an all new driver and excelled.
The driver
If you read my review of A8000, I explain why forged Beryllium is the most appropriate material for a driver diaphragm: Beryllium is very stiff compared, e.g., to Aluminium and Magnesium, and this ensures low distortion, i.e., it is not deformed throughout the whole frequency range; it is also very light, and this reduces the effect of inertia and allows the diaphragm to change direction as fast as possible. So, based on its stiffness and lightness, Beryllium is the ideal material for a diaphragm. The only weakness of Beryllium is that it is very brittle, so it has to be forged, and thismakes the diaphragm making process even more time- and money-consuming.
All the above made clear that Beryllium was not an option for the driver of A4000 and A3000. So, what was the solution? Final engineers had the idea to start from a humble and underestimated material, such as PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), which many manufacturers use, but in this case Final engineers tried to get the most out of it! How do you do that? By making changes to the voice coil, magnet and housing. The idea behind it is that if we want a driver to have a performance as close to perfect as possible, then all its parts must work as a single unit; if one (or more) of the driver parts has a flaw, then the driver ecosystem as a whole suffers.
So, here are the changes that Final did in the new driver, which goes by the name f-CORE DU:
The way to make a PET diaphragm is to have a mold with cavities (holes), to which you insert the PET material and press the mold to create one diaphragm for each cavity. Obviously, more cavities means more diaphragms with every pressing; however, as always, there is a catch. The PET material is inserted to the mold from a small number of gates in the boundary of the mold, and it is subsequently channeled from one cavity to the next; as a result of this, cavities closer to a gate accept stronger pressure than cavities further away from a gate. This is the main reason behind a consistency issue between the diaphragms. For f-CORE DU, the number of cavities was reduced to 33% (!) of what a regular mold has; the result is diaphragms of high consistency, but the time needed to make the same number of diaphragms is three times as much.
The PET, as diaphragm material, is quite light; this means that it has lower inertia and it can therefore move precisely according to the electric signal it is fed with. However, the diaphragm is always attached to the voice coil. If the diaphragm is light, but the voice coil is heavy, the overall movement of the two, which move as one piece, would be slowed down. For f-CORE DU, Final is using a 30μ diameter Copper-clad Aluminum Wire (CCAW) instead of the commonly used copper wire. CCAW is made from aluminum inside with a copper coating (copper cladding) outside. The density of copper is three times that of aluminum, so a CCAW voice coil is almost three times lighter than a copper voice coil, and as a result of this the couple diaphragm-voice coil has a really fast and accurate reaction to the feeding electric signal. On the other hand, thinner wire, like CCAW, means more turnsin the same space, so higher impedance, and therefore more powerful amplification is needed to drive the IEM, but the sound is definitely more accurate. This is the case with f-CORE DU.
To increase the magnetic efficiency and reduce loss, the gap between the magnet and the voice coil is being reduced to a level that has not been done before, as this is generally expensive and risky in terms of manufacturing.
Finally, the housing of f-CORE DU is made from brass instead of the much cheaper aluminum, which is commonly used. Brass is less influenced by magnetic fields, so the movement of the electromagnetic system is overall improved and this reduces distortion. Furthermore, brass is denser than aluminum; a denser housing is less susceptible to vibrations caused by the diaphragm as it moves in order to produce sound. Vibrations of the housing, which is the body of the driver, could have a detrimental effect to its performance.
Here, I should say that all of the above changes and improvements to a regular driver in order to finally come up with the f-CORE DU, entail a very difficult manufacturing process that a normal manufacturer would not undertake for a low cost product. Final tried quite hard and even invested onto a partner they found, who shares the same innovative vision, in order to eventually make the manufacturing of f-CORE DU possible.
So, Final realized that the use of PET as diaphragm material has not taken to the highest possible level, and it did all the extra miles needed in order to design an exquisite driver that I believe is really hard to find in an IEM set in the price range of $150.00. Now, f-CORE DU, like any other driver of its quality, has tremendous possibilities for fine tuning, and this means that out of the same driver you can get many IEMs with different sound signature; two such versions are A4000 and A3000.
The sound
With IEMs, I always do the usual burn-in of about 50 hours; it’s not that without this the IEMs do not sound right, but rather that the burn-in helps them to reach their full potential. Now, much more important than the technical burn-in, I consider the so-called phycological burn-in, which helps the listener to get acquainted with the IEM; in that sense, the phycological burn-in does not actually have a limit, and the more you listen the better you get to know the IEM.
If I want to summarize A4000’s performance in a single statement, I would say that it has the sound signature of A8000; going a step further, I could say that A4000 achieves about 80% of what A8000 can do, which is really not a small feat. I know that it is hard to believe what I am saying, but this is what I feel; actually, at times, I thought that 80% might even be a bit conservative!
A4000 is almost perfectly balanced; nothing in excess or in shortage, and no sharp corners whatsoever. The bass is more mid-bass rather than sub-bass; so, no rattling, but the reproduction of kick drums is almost perfect. What is important is that the bass is fast, tight and extremely well controlled. I am very sensitive with excessive bass, and with A4000 I felt that it is in the right amount. In the mid area, A4000 is very smooth, and the vocals are always delivered in an accurate and engaging way. The highs are open, but never harsh, while you never feel that there is some roll off.
However, as much as I loved A4000’s balance, what was really stunning for an IEM in this price category is its transparency, soundstage and image, together with a quite broad dynamic range. A4000 reveals an amazing amount of information, in a very wide and deep way, placing everything in the right position. Transparency, soundstage, image and broad dynamics were the four characteristics in which A8000 excelled, and it made me to set it apart from all other IEMs I have tried until then (and even now). You get the impression that A4000 is “cut from the same fabric”, which is hard to believe, as it took years to Final in order to come up with the sophisticated design of A8000, where even the slightest detail was taken care of; in A4000 the secret is obviously the new f-CORE DU driver, which is not only amazing on paper, but it sounds even more amazing in reality.
Listen, for example, “Move” by Hiromi (Uehara), from the album with the same name, Telarc International. This is an extremely complex piece, with Hiromi on piano, Anthony Jackson on bass, and Simon Phillips on drums. It is very difficult to catch the powerful and fast playing of Hiromi and Phillips, complemented by the beautiful bass tones of Jackson, and A4000 is spectacular. Exactly the same was the case with “Fanfare for the Volunteer” by Mark O’Connor, from the album with the same name, Sony Classical. This is a beautiful Orchestral piece composed by O’Connor, and played by him on the violin and London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Steven Mercurio. It is another demanding piece with many high and low passages, which is very common in Orchestral music, and once again A4000 manages to deliver in a masterful way. Moving to something more common, like the beautiful pieces “The Look of Love” by Diana Krall, from the album with the same name, Verve, or “Always in my Mind” by Elvis Presley, RCA Victor, A4000 managed to put Krall and Presley in the center, with the orchestra all around, like both songs were performed in front of you. So, on top of everything else, A4000 is a wonderful all-rounder.
Now, if A4000 is so good, how about A3000? After all, the ingredients, housing, driver and cable, are all the same. True, except for the tuning! Final, with A3000, wanted to create an IEM which has the merits of A4000, as to balance, transparency, soundstage and image, but with a warmer touch. The extra warmth is reflected in the whole of the audio spectrum, and this makes A3000 to be less engaging, but more relaxing. It is not going to make you shake with the music, as A4000 will, but it is perfect for a session of an easy yet quality listening. It is also quite interesting that A3000 is much less dynamic than A4000; I am not sure if this is the result of the warmer sound signature of A3000 or independent of it.
So, if you want, like me, your IEMs to be unforgiving, then you will choose A4000, and in that sense you will find A3000 to be a step behind A4000. If, on the other hand, you admire Final’s E3000, for its articulate yet with a touch of warmth presentation, and you want something with the same sound signature but much more transparent and open, then A3000 is what you are looking for; you will immediately find that A3000 is at a completely different level than E3000, and this combination of warm, transparent and open sound is hard to beat.
Selected comparisons
One of the IEMs that I envy is the MEE Audio Pinnacle P1. Its MSRP is $199.99, but frequently can be found at a (much) more “friendly” price (sometimes even close to half-price). P1’s housing is die-cast from a Zinc alloy and hand-polished, for a very nice look, and it is certainly built to last; in addition, the Zinc alloy is more rigid and has better impact resistance than aluminum, yet offers significant weight savings compared to stainless steel; so, it contributes to the sound signature of P1, and it feels less bulky in the ear. P1 comes with two MMCX cables, one without and one with a microphone, which are both silver-plated 99.99% pure copper and of very good quality. P1 utilizes a proprietary 10mm moving coil driver, with 50 Ω impedance and 96±3dB sensitivity, and a Copper-Clad Aluminum Wire (CCAW) voice coil. A moving coil driver is a dynamic driver, which ensures a good performance in the low frequencies, while the CCAW voice coil is lighter than the copper voice coil, so the couple diaphragm-voice coil has lower inertia, which contributes to improved sound. Furthermore, a proprietary sound chamber and damping scheme, together with a patented acoustic diffuser, improves the detailing and high-frequency extension without adding harshness. Now, the carefully chosen ingredients, combined with a very meticulous, after many trials, tuning, gave P1 a sound signature that I consider exemplary, at least for my taste: It is one of the most balanced IEMs on the planet, and I would dare to call it “the definition of balance”; it is extremely revealing, with plenty of details, i.e., very transparent; it also has a very big soundstage, both in width and depth, and a wonderful image, with great separation. However, its neutral presentation makes P1 kind of bass shy and rather flat, so not very engaging, at least for a number of listeners; at the same time, its 50 Ω impedance, combined with its low sensitivity, does not make it the easier load, and because of that P1 shows its best with the help of some amplification. A4000, on the other hand, does not have the neutrality of P1, but it is amazing transparent, and it has at least the same soundstage, both in width and depth, and image. However, where A4000 wins is that it is very engaging, without any exaggerations, while it is also an easy load. So, if I want to use an IEM set for a recording, I would choose P1; but, if I want to listen to music, as I usually do, I would go with A4000.
Another IEM I am reviewing this period is IKKO OH1 “Meteor”. IKKO is a young company, having a life of just a few years, but it has already presented some very interesting products. OH1 is their first IEM, and it is quite accessible having an MSRP of $139.00, which is about what A3000 costs, so I thought I would compare the two. The first thing that grabs your attention is OH1’s quality, which is unsurpassed; it is made of a very lightweight aerospace alloy and beautifully finished. Its cable is a 2-pin high-purity OFC cable that is silver-plated. OH1 is what we call a hybrid, having a 10mm dynamic driver made of a polymer composite with a titanium coating, and a Knowles balance armature driver. It is balanced, on the warm side, but pleasantly warm; it is also quite revealing, so its sound signature is what some people would call “V” shape, although I would rather call it “U” shape. A3000, compared to OH1, is balanced with a touch of warmth, but not as warm as OH1; both have the same soundstage and image. Their main difference is that OH1 is more engaging, and A3000 is more relaxing, which for certain musical pieces might be preferable. Also, from the technological point of view, it is remarkable that the beautiful performance of A3000 comes from a tiny dynamic driver, compared to the two driver configuration of IKKO.
Accessories and fit
The exterior box of A4000 and A3000 is nicely minimal and inside it the user will find, besides the IEM and cable:
5 silicon type eartips (SS,S,M,L,LL), each having a soft part for a comfortable fit in the user’s ear drum and a more rigid and groovy part for the sound conduit. This combination ensures a high level of sound insulation.
A set of earhooks, which force the cable to stay put over the ears, such that one enjoys reduced microphonics.
A nice silicone case for storing A4000 or A3000. This is quite versatile, and it has been used in many Final models.
A warranty card.
A4000 or A3000 is very lightweight, weighting just 18 gr including the cable, and have the shape that Final established during the development of the B Series; this has proven very successful, as it has the minimal required contact with the ear and that way it achieves a sense of fit without any feeling of oppression. So, assuming that you found the right size of eartips (which is not difficult given that there are 5 different sizes provided), A4000 or A3000 fit in your eardrum like a charm. Actually, the nice fit, combined with the overwhelming sound, makes you forget that you have them in your ears.
Furthermore, Final eartips are very nicely designed, providing a high level of sound isolation, so ambient noise with A4000 or A3000 was never a problem.
Finally, the cable, in both A4000 and A3000, although a 2-Pin connector, it is an OFC cable, of high quality and not susceptible to microphonics.
In conclusion
It is really amazing what Final succeeded to accomplish with A4000 and A3000, by “putting all its money in one basket”: It created a, I dare to say, world class driver, by redefining the PET diaphragm and by pushing things to the limit, both in design and manufacture. A4000 and A3000 are too good to be true, and you have to try them in order to believe it.
A4000 sound signature is reminiscent of the sound signature of A8000. It is beautifully balanced, but it is not sterilized; you get the right blend of very well controlled bass, with mellow mids, and plenty of highs that are never harsh. A4000 is extremely transparent, revealing a vast amount of information, it has very big soundstage, both in width and depth, very nice image and very broad dynamics. I guess it is safe to call A4000 “poor man’s A8000”. Obviously, I am getting too enthusiastic here! If you compare A8000 and A4000, the former has a clear lead by some margin. What I am trying to say is that all the research that Final did, while developing A8000, found fruitful grounds in the development of A4000 (and A3000), to the point that the final result is much better from what one expects from IEMs in the price category of $130.00-$160.00.
A3000, on the other hand, does not have the “reference” and engaging presentation of A4000, but instead it is warmer and relaxing, although less dynamic than A4000. However, if you prefer a warmer presentation, you will find it much better than many IEMs that you have tried so far, which is mainly due to its transparency, soundstage and image.
Do A4000 and A3000 have weaknesses? Don’t we all have? One could criticize the housing, which is ABS resin, the cable that is 2-Pin OFC cable, and probably a couple of other things. However, you forget all of these as soon as you put A4000 or A3000 in your ears, and you realize that you have two all-rounders with class leading performance, with the noted differences between them, at a fraction of what they should cost. I bet that if you try them, you will thank me for it!
Cons: Lacks musicality, off sounding mids downgrade to a4000 and most of previous e series
Final a3000
Incredibly fast dd, bass is slightly above neutral but fast and speedy with less quality than the e3000 and rolls off sooner. Clean and detailed mids and bright treble but usually not fatiguing.
Slight dark sounding in mids
Extremely accurate, sounds like sealed box woofer.
Almost clinical and perfect in their sound reproduction at the cost of losing some musicality and sounding sterile at times
Sound stage to me sounds small , Imaging is very precise but narrow.
Sounds like sitting in the sweet spot of a pair of small bookshelf monitors but no holographic sound or imaging like the a4000.
Great tips included , cable is satisfactory.
Weird notch inside 2 pin that doesn’t work with every 2 pin cable. Very comfy, excellent build and fit.
Can be bright to the point of fatiguing with some high power amps and mqa on
I prefer listening to the e3000 and a4000
Something is just missing from this , emotion , pleasure , I can’t put my finger on it.
Don’t recommend over other final products or less expensive iems.
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