[FiiO]

Chapter 1 Buying Advice for FiiO’s earphones in 300USD-class

Due to chip shortage, we were busy changing chip solutions for products in the first half of this year, which resulted in a backlog of new products until recently. It also leads to a series of launches piled up last month, but the promotion and marketing fail to keep up with our pace. Therefore, some people ask me that why not introduce and review FA7S.
Without further ado, let’s get back to the topic. How to choose among dynamic driver IEMs, balanced armature IEMs, DD+BA IEMs and open earplugs in 300USD-class? I remember that I posted similar content once when FH5S was launched, but it was still FA7 at that time. And now FA7 has been updated to FA7S, I shall start over again of course.
At the current price of around 300USD, FiiO has offered four completely different choices, namely, the 2BA+2DD IEMs FH5S (250USD), the collection-class DD IEMs FD5 (300USD), the uniquely designed open earbuds EM5 (300USD), and the latest 6BA IEMs FA7S (340USD)
The attached picture is a comparison table on the differences between the four products. Take an example, 911, Cayenne, Taycan and the Palamela, Porsche has provided four totally different choices in one price class. Similarly, FH5S/FD5/EM5/FA7S also have different positioning for different audience. We cannot simply tell the advantages and disadvantages of them.We’d better choose the most suitable one according to personal preference.
The listening experience in the table is on a ten point scale for your reference. It only represents some characteristics based on the comparison between the four FiiO earphones. Of course, there are some scientific evidences supported in listening experience. The following are some general rules.
1. Comparison of sound field, speaker>headphones>open earbuds>IEMs. Semi-open IEMs>closed IEMs.
2. The larger the caliber of the driver, the better performance in the bass. And the smaller the caliber, the better the treble. Dynamic driver IEMs excel in the bass and mids, while the balanced armature IEMs do a greater job in treble extension and resolution.
3. The higher the hardness of the diaphragm, the less vibration and distortion in the treble.
4. The sound insulation of the open earbuds is worse than that of the IEMs, so the resolution and bass extension will be affected to a certain extent.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter 2 Aggressively Bold, the New Image of FiiO BA IEMs

FiiO's first pure BA IEMs FA7 should be the first in the Chinese industry to apply 3D printing on a large scale. Skin-friendly resin 3D printing shell imported from Germany + relief panels + mold body, it has become a symbol of the FiiO BA IEMs series. At that time, there were still relatively few similar industrial designs, so FiiO's BA IEMs can be easily recognized.
However, as more and more earphones manufacturers have introduced 3D printing technology and adopted a mold body design too, it has finally ended up with a similar appearance of earphones between various brands.
In addition, starting from the end of the previous year, we have begun to re-plan and improve the image of FiiO. The new image will be unified toward a technological and tough style. Therefore, we have also redesigned the earphones. The FD5 can be regarded as a symbolic start of combining the need of sound quality with the design of metal shell + metal breathable mesh required for semi-opening acoustic cavity + geometric 3D texture. This is also the core visual language of our current earphones.
Therefore, for the second generation of FiiO BA IEMs, we give up 3D printing and resin shell. Instead, we make a further step in order to keep consistent with our new DAP/AMP/IEMs in terms of design language and product image.
It is under this background that the FA7S is launched with a new industrial design. Its shell keeps in line with the FD5’s, but the angled MMCX is further improved for greater wearing comfort. Three metal meshes are separated by 120° to make a tri-circular faceplate (Some people say it is similar to the logo of Mercedes-Benz, it may also be a good choice for Benz owners, just kidding). Compared with the first-generation design of BA IEMs, there is obviously a huge difference.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter 3 More than Superficial Changes
Let me start with a slight digression. Some people think that FiiO can only piles up good materials and fail to do a good job in tuning. I don’t know why they think so. Because FiiO is not the first to make desktop DAC equipped with chips like 4499/9018/28/38Pro, nor is it the first to adopt dual DAC or use four-channel amp. And we haven't stacked over 10 drivers in one earphone.
The only one possibility that can explain is that at the same price, FiiO’s products are better in configuration and materials. This result is actually due to multiple reasons, such as the business model of the enterprise (FiiO tends to make small profits but quick turnover), purchasing costs (large procurement volumes naturally brings low cost), and management methods (we are very proud of this. FiiO has always been stable in inventory management, so there is no inactive stock. I personally think our inventory management can reach the top level in the electronics manufacturing industry).
Therefore, we cannot conclude that a certain brand has no strength and makes up by piling up good material, simply because of it sell better products at the same price.
Back to the topic, in addition to some changes that we can easily tell from the appearance, the biggest change of the FA7S is actually the internal configuration. FA7, the previous generation, has been equipped with quad driver balanced armatures. Specifically, they are a piece of CI-22955, the largest diaphragm of Knowles using for bass; a piece of ED-29689 used for mids; and a customized dual-BA 31736 for treble. So the overall configuration adopts a 1+1+(1+1) structure, or say, a four-way crossover design.
However, 2 drivers have been added to the FA7S, so that the total number will be 6. To be specific, they are the dual-BA 31638 from Knowles using for bass, a dual-BA unit customized by FiiO for mids, and the Knowles 33518 with dual BA drivers for treble. Therefore, FA7S has been upgraded from 4 drivers of FA7 to 6 drivers, and it turns into a classic three-way crossover design.
This design invites obvious merits to the earphones. Each frequency range takes two different drivers and they work at the same time, which results in a effective increase in the density of sound. In addition, it highlights the advantages of multi-BA drivers IEMs, that is, more drivers can be placed in the small cavity because of the tiny body of BA driver. In this way, under the same sound pressure, the work load can be greatly reduced because of two pieces of BA drivers working together, which enables less vibration distortion (generally speaking, the greater the vibration of diaphragm, the greater the distortion will be)

 

[FiiO]

Chapter 4 Iron Man in Earphones

The FA7S is probably the only earphones of FiiO that are mainly made of metal, including its appearance or internal parts. Let's take a look.
FA7S is equipped with six balanced armature drivers. Electric current passes through the coil and generates a changing magnetic force, which drives the iron sheet to vibrate and thus make sound. This is how the balanced armature driver produces sound. The shell, vibration, magnet, and coil of BA driver are all made of metal.
Medical-grade 316L stainless steel chosen as the body material, and its faceplate is processed through a five-axis CNC machine. The cavity is meticulously handled through a powder metallurgy process- 1000 degrees Celsius of high temperature sintering after injection molding to form the whole earphone construction. Finally it is carefully polished by hand for a shiny, dazzling, mirror-like finish.
FA7S comes with a high-purity silver-plated monocrystalline wire cable. Each wire is braided together in the Litz style with 8 strands of 19 wires each for a total of 152 wires.
FA7S is designed with interchangeable plugs, and comes standard with 3.5mm single-ended/2.5mm balanced/4.4mm balanced plugs. Of course, all of them are made of metal materials such as aluminum alloy and copper.
The MMCX mini coaxial plug on the earphones body, is also a metal connector made of aluminum alloy and copper.
Therefore, FA7S can be said to have the highest proportion of metal components among all the earphones in FiiO family. It is quite suitable to call it the Iron Man in earphones.