[captainmuffins]

I'm excited to receive mine in the next couple of days!

 

[Currawong]

Here's my review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/final-a8000.24043/review/23288/

 

[captainmuffins]

I was really blown away by the A8000. Paired with the Cayin N6 was pure joy.

The clarity and speed of the A8000 is really quite amazing. On its own it's a little bright but with a DAP that is slightly warm, it synergizes very well and you get very good spatial reproduction.

 

[jmills8]

I was really blown away by the A8000. Paired with the Cayin N6 was pure joy.

The clarity and speed of the A8000 is really quite amazing. On its own it's a little bright but with a DAP that is slightly warm, it synergizes very well and you get very good spatial reproduction.

It produces sound on its own ?

 

[Infoseeker]

Maybe my daps are not considered cold tuned. Because I don't find the A8000 simbilant. Hiby R6 Pro and usb NextDrive Spectra X. And the very competent headphone out of my Asus RoG Phone 2.

I've yet to try it with my Chord Hugo 2 at my desk. I haven't been on my desk lately.

Or it could be burn-in since I own my model and have had time to use them more.

One thing is for sure. Night & Day difference, the distortion in the bass is way more forgiving now. Not subtle at all.


Edit
Chord Hugo 2 has perfect synergy. Very obvious positive effect in the mids/voices. Also you would think it would make things harsher in treble, but it does not happen. Also you get very nice note seperation.

 

[Final Audio]

It produces sound on its own ?

I wish! Haha. I think he means while driven with smartphones?

 

[captainmuffins]

It produces sound on its own ?

Only if you drop it hahaha. I meant if it was paired with a Cayin N6

 

[iBo0m]

Hi all
I never been a big fan of iem, walked into the store just to get a mid-fi iem for travel. After tried some iem including new ones( things like iex1 from audio-technica ) I decided to go for final a8000. Reason is simple it sounds like a full size planar headphone with some good touch of dynamic drivers and almost no compromise if powered properly.

Been using a8000 for two weeks，it is truly transparent for an iem. And even have better transparency when paired with chord dac.

It is definitely not an all rounder, and have a unique tuning for the first generation of BE dynamic driver. The best i can think of how to summarize the sound signatures is that it had a quite thick sound by nature as demonstrated in luna for Be driver, but final tuned a8000 into a ‘thin’ sounding iem, and this statement does not mean it in any bad way at all, actually I believe that’s why it creates the impression of transparency for this iem.

A8000 is not easy to drive at all, it almost requires planar headphone level of power to drive it to it’s full performance(at least for me). Say with Hugott2 it requires almost same level of output of ether 2 planar. But worries not a8000 perform well with mobile sources to a decent degree. Personally i found es100 is enough for a decent travel companion with a8000. But only with dedicated desktop amp a8000 would truly shine. Hugo2 is particularly good with a8000 as well.

About cable, that is where the a8000 presents challenges, with the original c106 cable also know as Kai cable the resolution is not as good as a silver cable, but a silver cable makes a8000 too harsh in the upper high made it completely unbearable with some songs. Besides that there is just some thing with the original cable actually made a8000 sounded better with less resolution but a better tonality and soundstage. After I tried a far more expensive occ silver cable the improvements became quite obvious. Imagining is significantly better with increased depth and soundstage. I didn’t get the cable, because it cost almost as much as a8000.

I was very surprised that even such a "small DD" like e5000 required already some serious power for driving to get its full potential. In case you have comparison, are the demands of a8000 even higher?

Also, are there any well-known IEMs that sound close to the a8000 to get a better insights on the BE dynamic driver performance.

 

[Infoseeker]

I was very surprised that even such a "small DD" like e5000 required already some serious power for driving to get its full potential. In case you have comparison, are the demands of a8000 even higher?

Also, are there any well-known IEMs that sound close to the a8000 to get a better insights on the BE dynamic driver performance.

The a8000 is much much much easier to drive.

A good source for the E5000 is the E1da 9038s usb dongle with a balanced mmcx cable on the E5000. Less than 1 output impedance letting it impedance match with the E5000 and really powerful for the low db sensitivity.

If I were to find an iem onhand similar to the A8000, it would be the Sony Ex1000. Because that is all I have on hand that is close.

 

[greyforest]

I was very surprised that even such a "small DD" like e5000 required already some serious power for driving to get its full potential. In case you have comparison, are the demands of a8000 even higher?

Also, are there any well-known IEMs that sound close to the a8000 to get a better insights on the BE dynamic driver performance.

To my ears they are on about the same level of demanding, with es100 a8000 requires 10% less output power than e5000. I think what made a8000 unique is not the sound signatures but rather it’s ability to make you forget about wearing it. Transparency wise I don’t hear any iem come close. If you have to know, I think jvc’s fw10000 is similar to a8000’s sound signature.

But after extensive using i can confirm that a8000 have a burned in effects, after 200 hours it became really really good for classics and jazz (especially string instruments). Even es100 could drive a8000 to a level that you can just completely forgot you are wearing an iem. The music feels like right in front of you, However with bad recordings it’s just unbearable. Prepare to admit at least 50% of your music collection is in poor condition.

For anyone who have a8000 i would recommend you get jvc’s new earpieces the spiral++ it fits better, much more comfortable and even have better transparency than the original earpieces. I am still saving for a dream duet cable, I believe the combo will push this transparency even further.

 

[iBo0m]

To my ears they are on about the same level of demanding, with es100 a8000 requires 10% less output power than e5000. I think what made a8000 unique is not the sound signatures but rather it’s ability to make you forget about wearing it. Transparency wise I don’t hear any iem come close. If you have to know, I think jvc’s fw10000 is similar to a8000’s sound signature.

But after extensive using i can confirm that a8000 have a burned in effects, after 200 hours it became really really good for classics and jazz (especially string instruments). Even es100 could drive a8000 to a level that you can just completely forgot you are wearing an iem. The music feels like right in front of you, However with bad recordings it’s just unbearable. Prepare to admit at least 50% of your music collection is in poor condition.

For anyone who have a8000 i would recommend you get jvc’s new earpieces the spiral++ it fits better, much more comfortable and even have better transparency than the original earpieces. I am still saving for a dream duet cable, I believe the combo will push this transparency even further.

Sounds tempting, thank you for your answer! I was expecting something like this, but just a DAP should do fine in this case.

Did you forget about wearing them, even though the shells are quite heavy?

It's kind of a different view on the dynamic driver presentation than I'm used to, maybe it's hybrid design does this (more like multi-BA presentation to me). Unfortunately, I haven't heard the fw10000. @Infoseeker compared their sound to the Sony Ex1000 which is an old friend of mine, so I have a better insights.

Do you get a good level of outer noise isolation with the spiral++? Did you try ear-tips such as Symbio / Acoustune / Azla / Sony hybrid?

 

[greyforest]

Sounds tempting, thank you for your answer! I was expecting something like this, but just a DAP should do fine in this case.

Did you forget about wearing them, even though the shells are quite heavy?

It's kind of a different view on the dynamic driver presentation than I'm used to, maybe it's hybrid design does this (more like multi-BA presentation to me). Unfortunately, I haven't heard the fw10000. @Infoseeker compared their sound to the Sony Ex1000 which is an old friend of mine, so I have a better insights.

Do you get a good level of outer noise isolation with the spiral++? Did you try ear-tips such as Symbio / Acoustune / Azla / Sony hybrid?

The comfort is the reason why I started the hunt for a better earpiece，it is a hefty iem and spiral++ just gives it a better fit and sealing. The materials is very different from any other earpiece. It’s very soft , lets put it that way the level of softness you would only expect from a sex toy. But it is also bit of pain to clean it as it sticks with everything it touches.

I have tried azla(long tube and short tube), aet07 06, symbio, spinfit 145 320 220, Sony hybrid. Sound wise Aet07 and spinfit 145 came pretty close to the spiral ++, but the comfort of spiral ++ is just superior. Azla somehow managed to make the sound harsh and flattened soundstage so i would suggest stay away from that.

 

[iBo0m]

The comfort is the reason why I started the hunt for a better earpiece，it is a hefty iem and spiral++ just gives it a better fit and sealing. The materials is very different from any other earpiece. It’s very soft , lets put it that way the level of softness you would only expect from a sex toy. But it is also bit of pain to clean it as it sticks with everything it touches.

I have tried azla(long tube and short tube), aet07 06, symbio, spinfit 145 320 220, Sony hybrid. Sound wise Aet07 and spinfit 145 came pretty close to the spiral ++, but the comfort of spiral ++ is just superior. Azla somehow managed to make the sound harsh and flattened soundstage so i would suggest stay away from that.

Haha, I'm glad your enjoying the spiral++ .

Serious ear-tips rolling is usually the first thing I have to do with each new IEMs. So, the isolation of spiral++ is good for public places - I'm always very curious about isolation, because half of the time I listen to the music while working in crowded places... so, it's an important for me and I don't want to go deaf turning the volume too high. I have never achieved the best isolation with Spiral dots but maybe the ++ version is somehow better to the original one.

 

[Infoseeker]

For me the Final E tips worked perfectly and the narrower nozzle in them help with taming the treble.

 

[Giraku]

I put mine on FS. If you’re interested, please PM me.