INTRODUCTION
Final Audio has been manufacturing audio equipment in Japan since 1974. Headphones and IEM are a fairly recent addition to the FA lineup and have generated quite a cult following amongst audiophiles. The product I'll be looking at today is the Final Audio Heaven VII, a Single BA IEM enclosed in a fashionable (Metal Injection Molding) housing. For those of you not familiar with this process, it uses powdered metal which is poured into molds typically used for producing plastics. This makes it easy to consistently get exactly the shape you want without having to machine the metal. The only other IEM I know of using this production technique are the RHA T10 and T20.
Here's how Final Audio describes the Heaven VII:
"Heaven VII pursues the special attributes of final audio design products – a vast sound stage and vivid vocals. The vocals reverberate warmly across the full-range of clear sounds achieved with the product. With MIM (Metal Injection Molding), a special metal working process, a housing that optimizes acoustics not possible through regular machining is achieved. Compared to before, a new single driver unit excelling in bass tone reproduction is employed. With what is in principle ideal full-range reproduction, the result is natural sound reproduction that you could listen to forever. The back design is not merely for decoration either. Resonance dispersion has been factored into the design, making for a high-level balance between beauty and function."
Let's see if I agree with that description...
Photo courtesy of Final Audio
First, here are some links for further exploration:
FINAL AUDIO
HEAVEN VII
METAL INJECTION MOLDING
@money4me247's review
@peter123's review
@Cotnijoe's review
@WayneWoondirts' review
DISCLAIMER
I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the Heaven VII reviewers by Final Audio as part of a Review Tour. There is no financial incentive from Final Audio in writing this review. I am in no way affiliated with Final Audio, and this is my honest opinion of the Heaven VII. I would like to thank Final Audio for giving Head-Fi members a chance to test drive the Heaven VII, and I hope our feedback proves useful for our fellow Head-Fi members as well as for Final Audio.
ABOUT ME
I'm a 43 year old music lover who listens to a wide variety of genres and artists (but mostly electronic, metal, and modern composition these days). As with a lot of people my age, I've got some hearing issues - some upper frequency loss and mild tinnitus.
My portable music journey started with the venerable Sony Cassette Walkman and then progressed to portable CD players, minidisc recorders, and finally on to DAPs like the Rio Karma, iRiver IHP-120, iPod, iPhone, and the newer crop of DAPs from Fiio and iBasso.
My headphone journey started with Sony MDR e888 and Eggos back in my minidisc days. I moved on to full-size Beyerdynamic and Ultrasone cans and Shure E2 and E3 IEM. Those all served me well for quite some time. Then I rediscovered Head-Fi, and my poor wallet...
SPECIFICATIONS
MSRP: ~$600 - $700
PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES
I'm not one to go on about packaging and accessories, so I'll keep this short and sweet and let the pictures do the talking.
Here's the packaging. Faux reptile skin? Really?
Take off the lid, and you find lots and lots of... fake fur?
Sensing a trend here...
Is that an old-fashioned cigarette case?
No, it's an IEM case, silly!
You also get a nice selection of silicon tips.
I really like it that you get in-between sizes, making it easy to get the fit just right.
Ok, so you get the fanciest IEM case I've ever seen and a very nice selection of tips. What's missing? A shirt clip and chin slider come to my mind.
As you can probably tell from my commentary, I'm not a fan of the packaging. I like simple, straight-forward design, and this is definitely not that. I can see how it would appeal to some, but it's not my cup of tea.
BUILD & ERGONOMICS
Let's see how well the Heaven VII are constructed and how well they fit.
Starting with the shells, the Heaven VII are very well-made. The Stainless Steel Metal Injection Molding construction makes them smooth, nearly seamless, and tough as nails. The tour Heaven VII came with a very attractive matte black paint job. The shells are a bit on the large side compared to other IEM I've used and are sealed. The size, shape, and pattern are intentional, being part of FA's sound shaping strategy. Being sealed, isolation is quite good and wind noise is minimal.
The shells have L / R markings painted on the inner face near the cable exit. A raised dot would've been nice to make sightless placement possible. As it is, you do need to look at the shells for correct
placement. There is a metal mesh wax guard just inside the nozzle. This doesn't seem like a user serviceable part, so take care to clean this often to prevent wax from building up inside the nozzles. The tips are smooth inside but have ridges on the outside of the barrel, making it easy to grip them during placement and removal. It's the first time I've seen this incorporated into tips.
The standard length flat cable resists tangling and microphonics quite well. At this price point, I would've liked to see a nice matching matte black metal shirt clip to keep the cable secure and further diminish microphonics while out and about. The silver plug looks quite out of place on the otherwise stealthy all-black Heaven VII. A matching matte black plug would've been a better design choice, in my opinion.
Although the shells are a bit heavy, under ear fit was comfortable for long periods of time with my smaller than average ears. Even though comfortable, Heaven VII does fall square in Frankenbolts territory. Over ear fit didn't seem likely with my ears, so I didn't capture any photos of that.
Ok, so what's the takeaway? Obvious positives are solid build, apparent durability, comfort, and fashionable design. Suggestions for improvement would be to provide a matching shirt clip, implement an improved system for distinguishing L / R earpieces, and use a matching mate black plug.
SOUND
I'm going to keep this section simple. I appreciate reviewers who wax eloquent, describing each peak and valley - but for me that's still a work in progress. Other reviewers on the Heaven VII Tour who have done a superb job describing their sound, so if you need further clarification please refer to their reviews.
With that disclaimer out of the way, how do the Heaven VII sound?
Again, here's Final Audio's vision for the Heaven VII's sound signature:
“"Heaven VII pursues the special attributes of final audio design products – a vast sound stage and vivid vocals. The vocals reverberate warmly across the full-range of clear sounds achieved with the product. With MIM (Metal Injection Molding), a special metal working process, a housing that optimizes acoustics not possible through regular machining is achieved. Compared to before, a new single driver unit excelling in bass tone reproduction is employed. With what is in principle ideal full-range reproduction, the result is natural sound reproduction that you could listen to forever. The back design is not merely for decoration either. Resonance dispersion has been factored into the design, making for a high-level balance between beauty and function."”
Do the Heaven VII live up to that description? Mostly. I'll try to explain. The Heaven VII have a fairly flat sound signature that's rolled off a bit on the low and high ends. This makes a sound signature which reproduces a lot of music very well but isn't as good for other music styles. I think it's important to understand that when deciding on any IEM but especially in this case, where the price is quite high for a Single BA design. I listened to the Heaven VII as my primary IEM for a my week with them, using it with several sources I own or was testing. During that time, I listened mostly to experimental electronic and metal because that's what's I groove on.
LOWS
MIDS
HIGHS
OTHER
SUITABILITY FOR MY MUSIC
As I mentioned earlier, I listen to a lot of experimental electronic and metal. How did the Heaven VII work out for me, taking my musical preferences into account?
I'll be honest, I listen to a lot of electronic music and found it pretty lackluster with the Heaven VII. A lot of my enjoyment there relies on high-impact, well-extended bass. Without that and a nice soundstage, you just can't get the same feeling you get from larger cans or speakers. The Heaven VII definitely has soundstage covered, but I felt the Heaven VII's bass reproduction lacked in quantity and impact, making it sound softer than I'd prefer for this type of music. If my electronic music has vocals, they're usually female vocals. The Heaven VII has that covered, as well. I found myself yearning for more sparkle and shimmer up top. If I were using the Heaven VII for electronic music, I'd need to engage in some EQ work to get the sound signature right.
I wasn't really feeling the Heaven VII when it came to metal, either. With doom / stoner / sludge, the low end lacked the sense of ponderous weight needed for these genres, the upper end again needed more sparkle and shimmer to liven things up a bit, and the mids, well... those aren't really critical for this type of music. With black and death metal, they were pretty good but could still use more bass impact, a slight reduction in mids, and a slight bump in treble. Now for classic old-school metal like Iron Maiden, the Heaven VII sounded quite good.
So, for me the Heaven VII would work out. They just don't have the sound signature I prefer for the music I listen to most. Maybe some electronic and metal fans would love them, but I suspect most would be left wanting a bit more bass and treble.
What are they good for? Man, I found the Heaven VII really shined when it came to Classic Rock (Beatles, Eagles, Rush), Jazz (Coltrane, Davis, Monk), and Modern Composition (Cage, Glass, Reich). If I were more invested in those genres I'd be much more interested in the Heaven VII. But even then, I found myself preferring the less mid-centric sound signature coming from TPEOS Altone200 and VE's new IEM The Duke.
So to sum up, I'd call the Heaven VII a neutral to mid-centric IEM with excellent vocals reproduction, great soundstage, and some of the most realistic timbre I've heard in an IEM. It's quite nice, but at the end of the day it just doesn't tick my boxes.
SUMMARY
Final Audio's Heaven VII are an interesting luxury IEM. If you're looking for a great sounding neutral, slightly mid-centric IEM to feed Classical, Classic Rock, and Jazz and are willing to pay a hefty premium, then these might be your next IEM even if they weren't my cup of tea. Build quality and design are top-notch, and the packaging and presentation just scream luxury brand!
It was great to finally give a pair of Final Audio IEM a listen, and it made me look a bit more into the brand and its products. In doing that research, I honestly think I would've gotten along much better with the Heaven VIII. It sounds like those kick the bass up notch or two, which I found was the biggest gap with the Heaven VII with my music.
FYI: My final score was heavily influenced by the Heaven VII's high cost. While they did sound quite good for the sound signature, I have a hard time handing out glowing reviews for expensive gear feeling they have a much higher bar to jump over than lower-priced, bang for your buck products.
Again, I'd like to give a hearty thanks to Final Audio for providing me with the chance to give the Heaven VII a listen and hope others find this review useful, particularly those with similar interests in music.
Final Audio has been manufacturing audio equipment in Japan since 1974. Headphones and IEM are a fairly recent addition to the FA lineup and have generated quite a cult following amongst audiophiles. The product I'll be looking at today is the Final Audio Heaven VII, a Single BA IEM enclosed in a fashionable (Metal Injection Molding) housing. For those of you not familiar with this process, it uses powdered metal which is poured into molds typically used for producing plastics. This makes it easy to consistently get exactly the shape you want without having to machine the metal. The only other IEM I know of using this production technique are the RHA T10 and T20.
Here's how Final Audio describes the Heaven VII:
"Heaven VII pursues the special attributes of final audio design products – a vast sound stage and vivid vocals. The vocals reverberate warmly across the full-range of clear sounds achieved with the product. With MIM (Metal Injection Molding), a special metal working process, a housing that optimizes acoustics not possible through regular machining is achieved. Compared to before, a new single driver unit excelling in bass tone reproduction is employed. With what is in principle ideal full-range reproduction, the result is natural sound reproduction that you could listen to forever. The back design is not merely for decoration either. Resonance dispersion has been factored into the design, making for a high-level balance between beauty and function."
Let's see if I agree with that description...
Photo courtesy of Final Audio
First, here are some links for further exploration:
FINAL AUDIO
HEAVEN VII
METAL INJECTION MOLDING
@money4me247's review
@peter123's review
@Cotnijoe's review
@WayneWoondirts' review
DISCLAIMER
I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the Heaven VII reviewers by Final Audio as part of a Review Tour. There is no financial incentive from Final Audio in writing this review. I am in no way affiliated with Final Audio, and this is my honest opinion of the Heaven VII. I would like to thank Final Audio for giving Head-Fi members a chance to test drive the Heaven VII, and I hope our feedback proves useful for our fellow Head-Fi members as well as for Final Audio.
ABOUT ME
I'm a 43 year old music lover who listens to a wide variety of genres and artists (but mostly electronic, metal, and modern composition these days). As with a lot of people my age, I've got some hearing issues - some upper frequency loss and mild tinnitus.
My portable music journey started with the venerable Sony Cassette Walkman and then progressed to portable CD players, minidisc recorders, and finally on to DAPs like the Rio Karma, iRiver IHP-120, iPod, iPhone, and the newer crop of DAPs from Fiio and iBasso.
My headphone journey started with Sony MDR e888 and Eggos back in my minidisc days. I moved on to full-size Beyerdynamic and Ultrasone cans and Shure E2 and E3 IEM. Those all served me well for quite some time. Then I rediscovered Head-Fi, and my poor wallet...
SPECIFICATIONS
Drivers | Single Balanced Armature Driver |
Frequency range | Unspecified |
Impedance | 24 Ω |
Sensitivity | 106 dB/mW |
Rated / Max power | Unspecified |
Weight | 29g |
Cable | 1.2m |
Connector | 3.5mm, gold-plated straight plug |
Warranty | 2 years |
MSRP: ~$600 - $700
PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES
I'm not one to go on about packaging and accessories, so I'll keep this short and sweet and let the pictures do the talking.
Here's the packaging. Faux reptile skin? Really?
Take off the lid, and you find lots and lots of... fake fur?
Sensing a trend here...
Is that an old-fashioned cigarette case?
No, it's an IEM case, silly!
You also get a nice selection of silicon tips.
I really like it that you get in-between sizes, making it easy to get the fit just right.
Ok, so you get the fanciest IEM case I've ever seen and a very nice selection of tips. What's missing? A shirt clip and chin slider come to my mind.
As you can probably tell from my commentary, I'm not a fan of the packaging. I like simple, straight-forward design, and this is definitely not that. I can see how it would appeal to some, but it's not my cup of tea.
BUILD & ERGONOMICS
Let's see how well the Heaven VII are constructed and how well they fit.
Starting with the shells, the Heaven VII are very well-made. The Stainless Steel Metal Injection Molding construction makes them smooth, nearly seamless, and tough as nails. The tour Heaven VII came with a very attractive matte black paint job. The shells are a bit on the large side compared to other IEM I've used and are sealed. The size, shape, and pattern are intentional, being part of FA's sound shaping strategy. Being sealed, isolation is quite good and wind noise is minimal.
The shells have L / R markings painted on the inner face near the cable exit. A raised dot would've been nice to make sightless placement possible. As it is, you do need to look at the shells for correct
placement. There is a metal mesh wax guard just inside the nozzle. This doesn't seem like a user serviceable part, so take care to clean this often to prevent wax from building up inside the nozzles. The tips are smooth inside but have ridges on the outside of the barrel, making it easy to grip them during placement and removal. It's the first time I've seen this incorporated into tips.
The standard length flat cable resists tangling and microphonics quite well. At this price point, I would've liked to see a nice matching matte black metal shirt clip to keep the cable secure and further diminish microphonics while out and about. The silver plug looks quite out of place on the otherwise stealthy all-black Heaven VII. A matching matte black plug would've been a better design choice, in my opinion.
Although the shells are a bit heavy, under ear fit was comfortable for long periods of time with my smaller than average ears. Even though comfortable, Heaven VII does fall square in Frankenbolts territory. Over ear fit didn't seem likely with my ears, so I didn't capture any photos of that.
Ok, so what's the takeaway? Obvious positives are solid build, apparent durability, comfort, and fashionable design. Suggestions for improvement would be to provide a matching shirt clip, implement an improved system for distinguishing L / R earpieces, and use a matching mate black plug.
SOUND
I'm going to keep this section simple. I appreciate reviewers who wax eloquent, describing each peak and valley - but for me that's still a work in progress. Other reviewers on the Heaven VII Tour who have done a superb job describing their sound, so if you need further clarification please refer to their reviews.
With that disclaimer out of the way, how do the Heaven VII sound?
Again, here's Final Audio's vision for the Heaven VII's sound signature:
“"Heaven VII pursues the special attributes of final audio design products – a vast sound stage and vivid vocals. The vocals reverberate warmly across the full-range of clear sounds achieved with the product. With MIM (Metal Injection Molding), a special metal working process, a housing that optimizes acoustics not possible through regular machining is achieved. Compared to before, a new single driver unit excelling in bass tone reproduction is employed. With what is in principle ideal full-range reproduction, the result is natural sound reproduction that you could listen to forever. The back design is not merely for decoration either. Resonance dispersion has been factored into the design, making for a high-level balance between beauty and function."”
Do the Heaven VII live up to that description? Mostly. I'll try to explain. The Heaven VII have a fairly flat sound signature that's rolled off a bit on the low and high ends. This makes a sound signature which reproduces a lot of music very well but isn't as good for other music styles. I think it's important to understand that when deciding on any IEM but especially in this case, where the price is quite high for a Single BA design. I listened to the Heaven VII as my primary IEM for a my week with them, using it with several sources I own or was testing. During that time, I listened mostly to experimental electronic and metal because that's what's I groove on.
LOWS
- Bass reproduction tapers off a bit into the sub-bass region
- Bass is quick but is soft and lacks punch
- Bass definition and texture are quite nice
- Heaven VII's bass is definitely more about quality rather than quantity
MIDS
- Other than a slight 3kHz peak, mid reproduction is fairly linear
- Mids are a bit forward and on the warm side, making vocals stand out and sound rich and vibrant
- Male and female vocals sound equally good
HIGHS
- The upper end has no 8kHz peak like many IEMs and rolls off pretty after 10kHz
- It's quite a smooth presentation, making it easy to listen to but lacks sparkle and shimmer
- Treble heads will find this too relaxed
OTHER
- Soundstage is great for an IEM
- Excellent timbre and resonance
SUITABILITY FOR MY MUSIC
As I mentioned earlier, I listen to a lot of experimental electronic and metal. How did the Heaven VII work out for me, taking my musical preferences into account?
I'll be honest, I listen to a lot of electronic music and found it pretty lackluster with the Heaven VII. A lot of my enjoyment there relies on high-impact, well-extended bass. Without that and a nice soundstage, you just can't get the same feeling you get from larger cans or speakers. The Heaven VII definitely has soundstage covered, but I felt the Heaven VII's bass reproduction lacked in quantity and impact, making it sound softer than I'd prefer for this type of music. If my electronic music has vocals, they're usually female vocals. The Heaven VII has that covered, as well. I found myself yearning for more sparkle and shimmer up top. If I were using the Heaven VII for electronic music, I'd need to engage in some EQ work to get the sound signature right.
I wasn't really feeling the Heaven VII when it came to metal, either. With doom / stoner / sludge, the low end lacked the sense of ponderous weight needed for these genres, the upper end again needed more sparkle and shimmer to liven things up a bit, and the mids, well... those aren't really critical for this type of music. With black and death metal, they were pretty good but could still use more bass impact, a slight reduction in mids, and a slight bump in treble. Now for classic old-school metal like Iron Maiden, the Heaven VII sounded quite good.
So, for me the Heaven VII would work out. They just don't have the sound signature I prefer for the music I listen to most. Maybe some electronic and metal fans would love them, but I suspect most would be left wanting a bit more bass and treble.
What are they good for? Man, I found the Heaven VII really shined when it came to Classic Rock (Beatles, Eagles, Rush), Jazz (Coltrane, Davis, Monk), and Modern Composition (Cage, Glass, Reich). If I were more invested in those genres I'd be much more interested in the Heaven VII. But even then, I found myself preferring the less mid-centric sound signature coming from TPEOS Altone200 and VE's new IEM The Duke.
So to sum up, I'd call the Heaven VII a neutral to mid-centric IEM with excellent vocals reproduction, great soundstage, and some of the most realistic timbre I've heard in an IEM. It's quite nice, but at the end of the day it just doesn't tick my boxes.
SUMMARY
Final Audio's Heaven VII are an interesting luxury IEM. If you're looking for a great sounding neutral, slightly mid-centric IEM to feed Classical, Classic Rock, and Jazz and are willing to pay a hefty premium, then these might be your next IEM even if they weren't my cup of tea. Build quality and design are top-notch, and the packaging and presentation just scream luxury brand!
It was great to finally give a pair of Final Audio IEM a listen, and it made me look a bit more into the brand and its products. In doing that research, I honestly think I would've gotten along much better with the Heaven VIII. It sounds like those kick the bass up notch or two, which I found was the biggest gap with the Heaven VII with my music.
FYI: My final score was heavily influenced by the Heaven VII's high cost. While they did sound quite good for the sound signature, I have a hard time handing out glowing reviews for expensive gear feeling they have a much higher bar to jump over than lower-priced, bang for your buck products.
Again, I'd like to give a hearty thanks to Final Audio for providing me with the chance to give the Heaven VII a listen and hope others find this review useful, particularly those with similar interests in music.