I tried Finale 1 (ED + FED) vs. Finale 2 (ED + FED + CI) vs. BS6 + Zobel
For a start, they are all phenomenally good.
BS6: Still best bass, slight inaccuracies in mids but very good highs.
Finale 1: The silkiest and most accurate reproduction I have ever heard. Slight bass roll-off below ~50Hz.
Finale 2: Bass is back in volume compared to Finale 1, but bass is slower and with less impact than on BS6. Sometimes the bass slightly boomy.
I guess I don't like the CI bass, I have not liked the bass in any of the CI builds so far.
But most importantly Finale 2 looses some of the perfection of Finale 1 in mids/highs. Maybe the CI bleeds into the higher frequencies or the low impedance kills it. This effect is very amp dependent.
On the small dragonfly black the difference in mids and highs between Finale 1 and Finale 2 is not as strong as on my Audio-GD NFB-11.
But, the most ridiculous thing happens with the dragonfly on iPhone: at 01:54 in
https://tidal.com/browse/track/45717895 exactly when a big orchestral hit is supposed to play, the dragonfly resets itself. Every time for a normal listening volume.
This is how I rank Finale 1/Finale 2 and BS6 on my phone with Dragonfly black
- Portishead - numb
https://tidal.com/browse/track/1765483
1) Finale 2, 2) BS6, 3) Finale 1
- Yosi Horikawa - Letter
https://tidal.com/browse/track/15666684
1) Finale 2, Shared 2) BS6 and Finale 1
- Minnesota Orchestra - Samson et dalia, Op 47: Bacchanale
https://tidal.com/browse/track/45717895
1) Finale 1, 2) BS6, 3) Finale 2
- Billie Eilish - Bad Guy
https://tidal.com/browse/track/106538979
1) BS6, 2) Finale 1, 3) Finale 2
- Postmodern Jukebox Haley Reinhart - Black Hole sun
https://tidal.com/browse/track/97251270
1) Finale 1, 2) Finale 2, 3) BS6
- Savages - Husbands
https://tidal.com/browse/track/19927133
1) BS6, 2) Finale 1, 3) Finale 2
- Dense and Picka - Hands up (Acid Mix)
https://tidal.com/browse/track/105792701
1) BS6, 2) Finale 1, 3) Finale 2
So the jury is still out on what's best, but there is room to improve the Finale design.
And for all of you trying to decide what to build, Finale 2 is the hardest and most expensive I have built so far. Three bore CIEM, ridiculous tubing/damper setup (5 dampers!), it brought me to my limits. I had a slightly oval tube on one of the FED and the sound was noticeably different on one side.
Price, build complexity together with the amp dependent sound is kinda the reason I would not suggest building it.