[Jalo]

@Final Audio, I have been using the FIBASS for a number of years, I have the A8000 for about a week. I think the A8000 is not the first Final iems that is that transparen, I think the FIBASS is a very transparent phone also. However, the A8000 has much better low frequency, spatial information, treble extension, and more musical etc. One question I do like to ask you with regard to your tuning thinking regarding the mid range. The mid range is slightly recess and I find sometimes I have to increase the volume higher when I listen to vocal just so I can be close enough to the vocal but by doing so the music becomes a bit too loud. Otherwise, this is one of the best iems from Final. I also have the Lab2, F7100, F4200 etc. I admire Final for the research you put into the development of a new items and not just throw some parts together.

 

[Final Audio]

@Final Audio, I have been using the FIBASS for a number of years, I have the A8000 for about a week. I think the A8000 is not the first Final iems that is that transparen, I think the FIBASS is a very transparent phone also. However, the A8000 has much better low frequency, spatial information, treble extension, and more musical etc. One question I do like to ask you with regard to your tuning thinking regarding the mid range. The mid range is slightly recess and I find sometimes I have to increase the volume higher when I listen to vocal just so I can be close enough to the vocal but by doing so the music becomes a bit too loud. Otherwise, this is one of the best iems from Final. I also have the Lab2, F7100, F4200 etc. I admire Final for the research you put into the development of a new items and not just throw some parts together.

Hi Jalo, thank you for supporting us by purchasing the A8000 and also sharing your experience and impression with the community in the other threads.

Very interesting feedback from you indeed because so far this is a very special feedback we have got among our users of A8000.

As explained in the first post, the major aim for the A8000 is exceptional transparency and layering and details. Tuning a sound actually involves a lot of factors to be considered. Most of the time, making a minor change onto the low, or mid, or high does not only change the impression of the specific frequency, but it will also cause the whole sound perception to change because of how our brain analyzes a sound have never been direct but a very complicated process. That is the reason why in Final, we have a team specifically focus on the research of sound so that we could achieve our goal in the right direction. Please note that the sound of A8000 is not decided by a single person, but majorly based on the result of our PTM research which involves a lot of data calculation, analysis, and experiment.

Of course, there is always the possibility that in the future, there might be a new product with a different concept and goal which will bring a more profound mid but the overall sound impression might be different.

Besides that, music genres, listening volume level, earphone that you are recently listening to, personal ear canal shape, and length would alter the sound impression as well.

Hope this helps

EDIT: Extra information
As there are so many factors that altering personal listening experience, that is why we always encourage users to try a product out before the purchase. In Japan, we have many audio shows in a year and we have many dealer shops providing audition opportunities.

And we have realized that we have not done enough outside of Japan so far, and that is why starting from A8000, we are trying to have more dealers help us providing audition service to curious users.

Trying, comparing, discussing is fun, and this is how this awesome community network is formed.

 

[gtrx333]

Where could I find out more about auditioning it in the UK?

 

[Final Audio]

Where could I find out more about auditioning it in the UK?

We are still working on it. It will be updated to this thread and also in the first post as soon as we have the confirmation.

 

[Infoseeker]

I can do a quick comparison to the Fearless Roland, the Shuoer EJ07, and the Rah. And a brief e5000 mention.

All have their specializations that I would say they do best.

In terms of frequency response. The Fearless Rolands are made with coherency in mind; they work well with difficult genres like Heavy Metal best. The sound that comes out if them is clear with almost with no extra imaging; they act like a single-driver iems despite having so many drivers. Great timbre and mids.

The EJ07 has more bass weight, it will do relatively worse with heavy metal (only compared to the Roland). But electric bass string and treble are even more satisfying for most music; great energy in electric guitars. The EJ07 also give the psycho-acoustic/Holographic effect you get from multi-driver iems, where some sounds feel
coming from your sides and don't muddle music up. So despite the EJ07 not having a more balanced sound signature like the Rolands, that don't muddy up music too bad.

Rah, have the most satisfying bass out of the bunch. And has the best soundstage. They give a timbre for acoustic music from the extra bass like the Ej07. There is also the extra details to notes that can come from high treble extension. They also present the music like single-driver iems, like the Rolands.
They have a treble that doesn't peak/emphasize anywhere, so it is smooth overall nothing painful or extra fun. In terms of how they present sound.

The EJ07 and Rolands have a peak in early treble different than the Rah. So while the piezoelectric Rah has an infinite amount of extension to define notes and even present the air for the best soundstage, the EJ07/Roland have more energy in the lower treble stuff like snare drums. The Rah is better for cymbals crash, etc.

The EJ07 has those high energy presented drums coming from the side which adds another experience to the sound. This is not necessary a good thing, but gives an interesting experience; it could be distracting from an uncanny valley (unnatural) sense for some people.

The single driver like coherency of the Rolands/Rah might be preferred to your taste.

Overall they are all good depending on the genre. The soundstage is best on the Rah, but the huge driver also needs air ports, so it also has the least isolation.

Now, to add my most recent A8000. They are most definitely U sound signatured. They have very strong subbass presence that will distort with bad recordings using purposeful such bass. Similar bass to the Final Audio E5000; also similar air extension feeling. (ive seen Crinacle's graphs, my old e5000 does not roll-off completely, it seems to recover after 10kHz) The a8000 doesn't roll off at the early treble, but it was never extremely boosted either.

Timbre to mids is more like the Rolands than the EJ07. Pretty flat, but mids may seem a step forward.

Treble has no painful peaks for extra energy. But it has a never ending post-10kHz extention, like the Rah for interesting soundstage effects. You can increase the volume with nothing becoming overwhelming becoming painful.

The a8000 has the Final Audio acoustic tuning. So it has a very coherent presentation for music. Vocals don't get surpressed. Music notes can come from the sides in remastered tracks; they also do not get surpassed by other notes. Most interesting of all they do very well with heavy metal music. Everything in the overwhelming music genre gets its moment to shine. Despite not having the advantage of multi-BA drivers in other iems.


Rah, would be the real VIP here. An amazing value for a very fun sound like the Ej07 without missing out on mids, and it also includes treble extension. Bass is also more tactile than the EJ07, like the Final Audio stuff, but it is more forgiving in terms of distortion. It is a jack of all trades master of nothing. I use the black bottom bore, and the blue treble filter module top; with extra wide inner bore silicone tips. You can physically change its characteristics as you wish. I have it set to replace the role of my EJ07.

The A8000 is a ToTL iem if you want a U frequency response, and that's with good post 10kHz extension. Great soundstage and coherency.

 

[Final Audio]

Just sharing some interesting information.

Do you know that the Final A8000 was originally named under E-series as E8000?

This is a photo taken by a Japanese famous media, Phileweb during Winter Headphone Festival 2018 Japan on 27th October 2018.
If you look closer, the shape is slightly different and there is no vent hole at the bottom compared to the current A8000.
It was announced together with the E1000 and D6000. For people who are curious, you can look for some photos [here]. Sorry, it is in Japanese.

E-series actually is considered to be the most well-accepted product among all of our earphones. E3000, the first E-series being released in Japan in May 2017, we were quite confident that this new traditional breaking sound quality will catch some eyes and attention. Our engineers have been working very hard to push this product at the lowest price as possible while applying our first sound tuning based on the research result of acoustic + psychology. Of course, the success of the E-series is also due to the community has given a lot of compliments and good words. Thank you!

While the E4000 and E5000 are already in the final prototype stage at that time, we already have another project, a single Beryllium dynamic driver IEM running at the backstage. As you know, we, Final has been investing a lot of time into single BA earphones before E-series, so since this is a single dynamic driver too, so we naturally set it to E8000 (Okay, we are not very creative with naming, we admit it). Why 8000? Because we love it for flagships (D8000 for flagship headphone).

So we announced it as E8000 prototype 2 years ago, but then our engineers were not really satisfied with the sound quality and therefore we spent more time in the sound optimization. After then we start to realize that since this earphone is targeting a completely different goal which is "Transparency" in the first place, why not we simply make a new series for it, and how about an A?

And this is how the Final A8000 naming was decided and announced again on 2nd November 2019 during Winter Headphone Festival 2019 Japan.

Just a very simple story sharing, hope you like it

 

[jmills8]

@Final Audio, I have been using the FIBASS for a number of years, I have the A8000 for about a week. I think the A8000 is not the first Final iems that is that transparen, I think the FIBASS is a very transparent phone also. However, the A8000 has much better low frequency, spatial information, treble extension, and more musical etc. One question I do like to ask you with regard to your tuning thinking regarding the mid range. The mid range is slightly recess and I find sometimes I have to increase the volume higher when I listen to vocal just so I can be close enough to the vocal but by doing so the music becomes a bit too loud. Otherwise, this is one of the best iems from Final. I also have the Lab2, F7100, F4200 etc. I admire Final for the research you put into the development of a new items and not just throw some parts together.

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

Where could I find out more about auditioning it in the UK?

Us

 

[Wyville]

Just sharing some interesting information.

Do you know that the Final A8000 was originally named under E-series as E8000?

This is a photo taken by a Japanese famous media, Phileweb during Winter Headphone Festival 2018 Japan on 27th October 2018.
If you look closer, the shape is slightly different and there is no vent hole at the bottom compared to the current A8000.
It was announced together with the E1000 and D6000. For people who are curious, you can look for some photos [here]. Sorry, it is in Japanese.

E-series actually is considered to be the most well-accepted product among all of our earphones. E3000, the first E-series being released in Japan in May 2017, we were quite confident that this new traditional breaking sound quality will catch some eyes and attention. Our engineers have been working very hard to push this product at the lowest price as possible while applying our first sound tuning based on the research result of acoustic + psychology. Of course, the success of the E-series is also due to the community has given a lot of compliments and good words. Thank you!

While the E4000 and E5000 are already in the final prototype stage at that time, we already have another project, a single Beryllium dynamic driver IEM running at the backstage. As you know, we, Final has been investing a lot of time into single BA earphones before E-series, so since this is a single dynamic driver too, so we naturally set it to E8000 (Okay, we are not very creative with naming, we admit it). Why 8000? Because we love it for flagships (D8000 for flagship headphone).

So we announced it as E8000 prototype 2 years ago, but then our engineers were not really satisfied with the sound quality and therefore we spent more time in the sound optimization. After then we start to realize that since this earphone is targeting a completely different goal which is "Transparency" in the first place, why not we simply make a new series for it, and how about an A?

And this is how the Final A8000 naming was decided and announced again on 2nd November 2019 during Winter Headphone Festival 2019 Japan.

Just a very simple story sharing, hope you like it

Interesting to read. I remember reading about the 'E8000' and being a bit disappointed in that it did not have the same form factor of the E-series and this explains it. I think in that way it also made sense to create a new series for the A8000. Still hoping you might consider a higher end IEM with the form factor of the E-series though. I loved the E5000, still use the E4000 a lot and keep the E2000 around for commutes. There is just something I love about a single DD in such a small, bullet-type form factor.

 

[Final Audio]

Interesting to read. I remember reading about the 'E8000' and being a bit disappointed in that it did not have the same form factor of the E-series and this explains it. I think in that way it also made sense to create a new series for the A8000. Still hoping you might consider a higher end IEM with the form factor of the E-series though. I loved the E5000, still use the E4000 a lot and keep the E2000 around for commutes. There is just something I love about a single DD in such a small, bullet-type form factor.

Thank you for your suggestion and also liking our E-series. Actually, everything is possible. We have a lot of projects running at the same time and at a certain point, a particular project starts to gain more priority due to many factors. There are simply too many interesting things that we would like to challenge and we can't wait to share more information when they are ready.

But one thing is, we always make sure that the sound quality is actually achieving what we are looking forward to before the real production. Therefore please do not surprise that some prototypes that were showcased in the audio show in Japan, and suddenly no more new information about it. They are still there, but we just need more time to make it perfect.

 

[Jalo]

@Final Audio, What is the thickness of the pure beryllium driver? I was told that my Lab2 DD is only 6 micron thick.

 

[jude]

We just posted the CanJam NYC 2020 Preview Video. There's a segment in the video about the final A8000 that includes measurements.

 

[Infoseeker]

We just posted the CanJam NYC 2020 Preview Video. There's a segment in the video about the final A8000 that includes measurements.

Oh wow A8000 really close to a harmonic curve. I didn't expect that. Especially with how voices get presented.

The Luna seems different.

 

[Final Audio]

@Final Audio, What is the thickness of the pure beryllium driver? I was told that my Lab2 DD is only 6 micron thick.

Thank you for loving our limited edition 3D printed Titanium Lab2. Lab2 DD indeed has a diaphragm with 6 micron thickness. Compared to Beryllium, PET is a material that human beings have been dealing with for a long period of time. Therefore we have the technology to make it to that thickness. Besides that, PET has very strong flexibility and yield strength therefore it will not break easily while playing music except if the driver is fed with extreme volume.

On the other hand, Beryllium foil forming technology is considered a relatively new technology. There are only very limited companies that have the technologies in manufacturing high-quality Beryllium foil with good accuracy and consistency. Please note that Beryllium even though it is very hard, it is also a very brittle material. Therefore making a Beryllium foil into ultra thickness is very difficult. With our current technology limitation, 6 micron is still impossible. Another challenge is, of course, if we have the technology to make an ultra-thin Beryllium foil, indeed it has an incredible lightness which is expected to be able to provide extreme fast response, but with the thickness decrement, the Beryllium foil also becomes easier to be deformed by frequencies and the worst, it breaks easily due to the brittle physical property. Therefore, it is very important to keep the balance between lightness and hardness to achieve the best performance.

Except for the diameter of the driver being 10.8mm, we are so sorry that the technical specification of our proprietary A8000 Beryllium driver is not convenient to be published yet. But just like those challenges mentioned above, it is definitely thicker than the Lab II's.

We just posted the CanJam NYC 2020 Preview Video. There's a segment in the video about the final A8000 that includes measurements.

Thank you very much! See you guys this weekend!

 

[Final Audio]

Oh wow A8000 really close to a harmonic curve. I didn't expect that. Especially with how voices get presented.

The Luna seems different.

As mentioned in a previous thread and also the description of A8000,

1. Sometimes even if 2 frequency curves look alike, they still can bring totally different sound impressions. Because a tiny change to certain important frequency could completely change your sound perception.

2. Frequency response does not mean anything. If we have 2 earphones with completely identical frequency responses, with different driver designs, they can still give you a totally different sound impression. And that is also why for the R&D of the A8000, frequency response was not the major concern. Changes made onto frequency response indeed could change a lot of musical perceptions, but there are still many other perceptions which could not be altered by frequencies response alone.