[yello131]

 
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yello131 ->  what do you mean order from local store?  The Final Audio A1's are "shipped and sold by amazon.co.jp", not sold by some random seller on amazon.  Amazon are a huge company, very fast and reliable and that price includes shipping (to the forwarder).
 
If by local store you mean a different onilne retailer in Japan, then yes, there are many options, I noticed nifty.com is selling them for $194 USD
 
http://ec.nifty.com/digital/product/07201AQ31005530?afcod=osockakp

@ Tenso: By local store I mean, there are headphones shops that sell A1 earphones in Australia, in Singapore, in USA, I do not know how carries FAD these days.
But why do you advice people buying from Amazon are you working for Tenso?
if you are in Japan, then yes it is simple but if not mike most of us on this forum, why go through the hassle when you can simply order from Dimitri who claims to be  an official distributor and reseller of FAD/Radius/Oroton worldwide?. let me guess: to save few $?
 
what is the procedure to have your earphones replaced via Amazon japan in case of failure? Will tenso do it for you? How long will it take?
Fact is one can NOT get  earphones replaced or serviced unless you are in JP, period. so just pray your IEMs will not fail on you like it already happened to aussiejobbo and hundreds of other members here. Too risky!
 

You're going way out there.  Tenso was only brought up because I mentioned I can't complete orders on Amazon.jp.  So people were just helping me out w/ that. 

Amazon Japan is only intended to work for Japan customers. It even states on the page "no international Shipping". What ever the reason Tenso is getting mentioned here or amazon japan or MA is not what this thread is about.
But my point is, If Kiteki is located in Japan then good for her, he/she can take advantage of its services, otherwise why even bother.. We outside Japan can't use it and even if we can, it still not worth the dimes you save but I guess it is up to you, save now-pay later!

 

[james444]

^ I haven't used Amazon Japan, though I've bought from various Japanese online sellers in the past. Bluetin, Seyo-Shop, Pricejapan and beNippon, just to name a few. Some of them state in their FAQs that they'll accept your warranty return and help you with getting a repair/replacement within a year from date of purchase. Thankfully I never had the need for that, so I can't say anything about their reliability.
 
That said, I've been pretty impressed with Musica Acoustics' (Dimitri's) responsiveness, customer support and dedication. Though I (again thankfully) have had no reason so far to test him in a warranty case, I feel somehow safer than with aforementioned shops.
 
When I bought my A1s I stupidly thought that he was out of stock (turned out I was wrong) and made an impulse buy elsewhere. Now, in light of the first case of driver failure, I wish I'd ordered from him.

 

[aussiejobbo]

 
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^ Sorry to hear about your bad luck! At least you've bought them from Dimitri and he's really incredibly fast and helpful.

 
So you're planning to get the SB's, may I ask why? The drivers are most likely the same.

 
I really don't think its rough treatment or cable issues that is causing this, more a factorty fault....and since its the first report i'd say one off/very rare.
 
Well either the SB's or the eQ7's.  Why?  I really really REALLY like their sound characteristics and with the SB being just a tad more vivid and refined (hot treble doesn't worry me) with a better cable I'm keen.  The eQ-7's are a side preference which may change as I find out a little more about them.  Unfortunately I am not able to trial a pair.
 
I am willing to go on a little faith and besides,  Musica Acoustics is a superb company to deal with in the incredibly unlikely event of a reoccurrence.
 
 
Also a quick query please.  The ortofons lack the bass of the FAD's.  How pronounced is this?  I am finding for the first time that detail and near-neutrality is preferable to a generic EQ curve but still I would be nigh adamant in retaining the level of warmth provided by the A1's in that area.
 
Also cable-wise, ortofon or SB for strength/quality?
 
Thanks!
 

 

[james444]

^ Did I say that the Ortofons lack the bass of the FADs? Here's my answer to a similar question in the other thread:
 
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@DaEMoNteNTAcLe:
I just listened to that MARE track volume matched with all four IEMs. All of them produce the vibration (low bass rumble) and the e-Q7 isn't much different from the FI-BA-SS. I did a low frequency sweep and all 4 phones go pretty much silent below 30Hz. The DDM can go down below 20Hz, so it certainly has the deepest bass. But my e-Q7 is about equal to my FI-BA-SS.
 
Did you audition the e-Q7 with stock tips? I wasn't able to get a good seal with them and thought the Ortofons were bass light, because I didn't notice it at first. Maybe that's what happened to you too.

 
I'm pretty sure the Ortofons and Final Audios share the same driver, just with different tunings, so the differences are not overly pronounced. IMO build quality differences are more significant, and the Ortofon e-Q7 surpass the FADs in cable quality, the new e-Q5 even more so. As for sound signature, I believe the A1 are the most neutral ones, but both Ortofons are close, the e-Q7 with even slightly more warmth and the e-Q5 with maybe a tiny bit better treble than the e-Q7 (but they haven't had much ear-time yet). The SBs are the least neutral ones and as V-shaped as MAs can get - which isn't very much in the first place.

 

[fanboysareevil]

Does anyone know what offers musicaaucoustics is excepting at this time?

 

[Anouk]

Hi everyone,
Thanks Shig for pointing out the new final audios and the nice comparison. I have been away from head-fi too long apparently. I did not know about this new moving armature technology. My favourite iem uptill this point is the monster turbine pro copper. Would be nice if someone could compare it to the ortofon because apparently the fad iems are a lot like the ortofon. I guess that you are not going to get either the grado gr10 or the ortofon eq5, shig? Would be nice how those two compare to the other moving armature iems. Although I dont use headphones at home anymore I still think they are ideal for on the road and when away from home in general (when I want privacy). I use my iphone 4 as source now.
I wonder if you will really be able to retire now shig that you have the fad iems.. A belated congrats on getting married by the way. I hope the wife is understanding towards your audio hobbies!
I dont know many females beside myself who are into it.
Greetings, Anouk,

 

[goodvibes]

FA   = Sensitivity: 112dB,             Impedance: 16Ω
Eq-7 = Sensitivity: 117dB +/- 3dB, Impedance: 31Ω +/- 5%
These are clearly not the same driver though type of unit is up for debate.

Specs are always given for the target of production so even is they fell within each others range, which they don't, they are still different units, especially considering that the one with double the impedence is 5db more effecient which would be odd for anything that is simply tuned different.
 

 

[Anouk]

Hi again,
I am a bit confused after just reading the review by benjamin-edwards. I am not sure what he means by heaven s, is this the sb model? Also I see he lists it at 499 dollars but it can be had for 400 dollars at musica acoustic.

 

[goodvibes]

Yes it is. The Heaven A is the aluminium.

 

[Anouk]

Hi again,
On the subject of alternative sleeves for the sb-version. With other phones I tried the sony hybrids and i found them to be VERY HARD to put on and remove because they are so tight and have a pretty small opening. On the other side I always found the commplys to be very easy because they have this foam material which you can stretch and mold any way you want.
Greetings, Anouk,

 

[goodvibes]

Perhaps James can add but the nozzles look standard wide. I would think hybrids aren't favored. for something like this as your spending a lot of dough for a sig you like and the Hybrids would definitely change that.
 
I wrote Final Audio Design about the type of driver making sure to indicate I didn't want specifics but simply whether BA or MA and this is the response.

 We are sorry but that kind of information is confidential. All we can tell you is that our drivers are custom-made. 

It was very nice of them to respond.

 Looks like we wont be sure about what's in there without some disection.

I guess they could be MAs but FAD however, are definitely NOT claiming them to be MA so I wonder how that came about? Their cut away shows a typical BA shape. I still suspect it's a very well designed custom BA like in their names and there's no negative with that as long as they perform, as so well reported by shigzeo  and James. I've personally always liked BAs and think a smart designer can make a single do all that's needed.

I like the idea that different types can sound similar. As you get to the best of any types of designs, they tend to migrate towards each other in performance as you are basically designing out their individual weaknesses.

 

[james444]

Hybrids are fine with the SBs, no big deal to stretch them over the nozzle. If you look closely at this picture you can see that I piggybacked the Hybrids on the stock tips to add more support. At 23g the SB are considerably heavier than the A1 and Ortofons, and the thin stock tips would tend to flex during fast walking.
 
@goodvibes: if we assume that the FADs are BAs, how can we explain the amount of air their drivers move? Anyone who's heard a moving armature knows that the MA driver is able to move noticably more air than BAs. Given that the FADs move about the same amount of air as the Ortofons, how could your smart designer have achieved that with traditional BAs?
 
Final Audio may have good reasons for keeping their driver design a secret, all I can say is that their IEMs sound eerily close to and every bit as excellent as "proven" moving armatures.

 

[goodvibes]

That's why they're smart.

 It is a custom built driver initially designed for a very expensive product and vented similar to the Sleek SA6 which is a single vented BA that can also move enough air to have too much bass for some with the wrong tuning bit. I think trickle down is in effect here. I find it dubious to predict what's in a product by the way it sounds. As things get very good, they should all sound closer to the ideal.

 

[rawrster]

I think the only way to know for sure is for James to take an xray or something of those earphones Well other than taking them apart which is a bit much considering their price..

 

[goodvibes]

As long as they sing, it doesn't really matter but I would still like to know.