(Review) Final F7200 Earphones
I will start this review of the Final F7200 earphones by saying that I am not going to include photos or technical specifications, as these have been very well covered by the original poster in the old thread. I feel that unnecessary repetition has a tendency to clutter posts and detract from the intended message.
My introduction to IEMs was many years ago when I directly imported a pair of Etymotic Research ER-4s from the US, as this was long before there was a UK distributer. Opening the long awaited box was a bit of an anti-climax; all that money (I was young and poor) for two tiny plastic cylinders joined to a flimsy looking cable. Used to large over ear headphones, I couldn’t believe these would produce an acceptable sound. All doubts were dispelled when they were plugged in to my portable source of the day, a Sony Walkman Professional cassette deck. They sounded wonderful; full, detailed and involving. I was smitten, and have stayed in love with IEMs ever since. I stayed with Etymotic through several pairs of ER-4S and ER-4P. Some purchased, and some under warranty due to the cable, which did indeed prove to be flimsy in the early days. So why all this chat about Etymotics in a Final earphone review? Simply because when looking at single armature designs, everything refers back to the ER-4 in my experience.
Opening the box of the F7200 was a very different experience. They look good! Beautifully finished stainless cylinders with good cable connectors, a very attractive cable and a lovely tactile rubber case. You can see where your money has gone. Immediately comfortable with the supplied silicon tips, they felt secure in my ears due to the easy cable routing. Final make claims about how small these IEMs are, but they aren’t very different from the Etymotics, or indeed Klipsch, in that respect.
My Sony Walkman Pro being in retirement, I started off using a Sony ZX-2 via a Chord Hugo for the first listen. Full of anticipation, the first track played; a 192/24 FLAC of the Chicago Transit Authority album. And, I was underwhelmed. Now, things have moved on since my early days of IEMs, and these days I usually listen to Shure SE846 or Sennheiser IE800, which sets the bar pretty high, but that wasn’t the problem. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the F7200. They sound as good as any single armature design that I have tried. Plenty of detail, sprightly presentation, a little bass shy compared to the bigger boys, but acceptable. But, with the beautiful looks, I had expected more, something special and different. They just weren't different enough.
I decided that these ‘phones probably were not expected to be used with such an expensive front end, so I changed to the Sony ZX-2 on its own, and an iPhone 7 via the lightning adapter (mini DAC) cable. The sound quality held up well, but the F7200 takes quite a lot of driving. The naked DACs were having to run at pretty much full volume. To put this in perspective, they were slightly less efficient than Sennheiser IE800s, and a LOT less efficient than the Shure SE846. This surprised me as my other single armature designs are more efficient from these sources.
Apart from the efficiency issue, I felt there was little to choose between the sound of F7200 and Etymotic ER-4P. The Finals were perhaps a little warmer in presentation, rounding off the rough edges of nastier digital recordings slightly more than the Etymotics. But, if I was back in the day of living with just one pair of IEMs, I would have been happy with either.
This is, I think the dilemma. The F7200 is priced significantly above the Etymotics, half way to the IE800s in fact. There is no question in my mind that the IE800s blow both these single armature designs out of the water (apart from sound isolation), but that is perhaps to miss the point. Sometimes there is a place for the very discrete single armature device, and not everyone is willing to spend IE800 money to listen to tunes on the train. So you have to decide whether; build quality, cable quality, good looks and a very nice case justifies the extra expense of the Final F7200 over other single armature designs, because sonically there isn’t much in it.
Pros;
Looks
Build quality
Detachable cable
Size
Comfort
Case
Cons;
Cost
Low efficiency
Bass light
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