FINAL AUDIO NEW B SERIE-First Impressions and comparaisons!
There you go, a new earphones serie has been lauch lately by Final Audio Design and begin to get attention from audiophile as well as fan base of this nice japanese audio company. Yes, i’m one of the biggest fan too and feel very little in my shoes to have been selected as an humble reviewer for these new B serie.
When I heard that this iem serie was going to have dual BA’s iem as well as BA-DD Hybrid flagship, I litterally stop living and write to Final that I begin an hunger-strike that could only been stopped by having whole B serie to review ASAP. As a skinny man, it was a real treat to my life so they have no choice but send me reviews sample very fast. I wanna thanks them for saving my life as well as enlightning my audiophile journey with these marvellous looking and sounding earphones.
I was already blown away by the tuning of their micro dynamic drivers iem like the E5000 or E2000 as well as their single balanced armature iem like the F4100, so, now let’s have a first look about this new B serie models.
UNBOXING is not discriminatory here and you will have as much accessories and attention to packaging with the B2 than the B1 and B3, including same nice silicone protective case. Only difference is that B2 cable is not a silver plated 4 cores like B1 and B3, and yeah, would benifit this upgrade as the cable is same than Final Audio E4000 wich mean nice but pretty basic. I like the new box used for the B serie wich look more pristine and serious than E serie and is on par of what you would expect from high end earphones like this.
CONSTRUCTION is real eye candy and perhaps win the Grand Prize for the most beautifull earphones I ever seen. Its luxurious yet sober, ultra sturdy yet delicate looking with its mix of angle and curve. Even the mate B2 finish have light that reflect on housing in a very special way and make you contemplate them way too much….to the point I feel kind of superficial. Sure, the B1 is the more spectacular looker with gold mirror finish, but the basic shape is all the same for the 3 models. As well, housing is made of 2 metal part holded togheter by 2 screws, the goal here is to have the possibilities to repair them easily if it happen anything to them in the futur, so you can keep them for your whole life and pass them generation to generation.
Yep, in 100 years the B serie will probably be among only survivor of the upcoming apocalypse!
About the price, these are high end earphones with long lifespan, so, it’s a serious investment. B1 is sell at 700$, B2 is sell at 300$ and B3 at 500$!
Are they easy to drive??? Well, sure more easy than Final Audio E5000, but i still find them to benifit from good clean amping like a portable amp or seriously powerfull dap. B2 is the easiest to drive, ater its B3 and finaly B1 with its dual dynamic-BA configuration. I would say you are rather unserious if you buy the B3 or B1 for your phone, but yeah, LG V20 or V30 can surely drive them properly (still, don’t do it, use a DAP or DAC-AMP!).
Final Audio design are quite transparent and descriptive about the type of sound you will get from their products. This is another proof of the seriousness of tuning and acoustic design work behind their excellent iem. Here you can have a pretty good idea of what you will get from B serie. This is taken from official website :
B1
Sound design with consideration to the relationship
between spatial impression and dynamic range of music,
and physical characteristics of earphones and headphones.
Clarity of vocals and each musical instrument is extremely high,
overwhelming presence and feeling of
liveliness as if standing in the center of a live stage.
Sound design has been undertaken with consideration to the relationship between the spatial impression and dynamic range of music, and the physical characteristics of earphones and headphones. Through research into the relationship between spaciousness, clarity and dynamic range of musical recordings, and the physical characteristics of earphones and headphones, we have learned that deeper enjoyment of music can be achieved through the target curves and driver design well suited to the sound design of music recordings. B1 is a model designed with particular emphasis on proximity of sound and sense of reality. In music represented by animation soundtracks, recordings make the proximity of sound more conspicuous. For this type of music recording, the B1 has been designed to achieve playback more consistent with the balance of sound as created by the engineer.
B2
Sound design has been undertaken with consideration to the relationship between the spatial impression and dynamic range of music, and the physical characteristics of earphones and headphones. Through research into the relationship between spaciousness, clarity and dynamic range of musical recordings, and the physical characteristics of earphones and headphones, we have learned that deeper enjoyment of music can be achieved through the target curves and driver design well suited to the sound design of music recordings.
The B2 is a model particularly well suited to rich spatial recordings. It is well suited to classical music recordings that take adequate advantage of the reflections and reverberation of a concert hall as well as live recordings to reproduce the feeling of “being there”. Moreover, the B2 employs an MMCX connector that makes it possible to switch cables in the event of a severed connection.
B3
Sound design with consideration to the relationship
between spatial impression and dynamic range of
music as well as physical characteristics of earphones and headphones.
High clarity over entire frequency range and
beautiful high range sound enable to hear the delicate touch of
a piano and guitar picking perfectly.
Sound design has been undertaken with consideration to the relationship between the spatial impression and dynamic range of music, and the physical characteristics of earphones and headphones. Through research into the relationship between spaciousness, clarity and dynamic range of musical recordings, and the physical characteristics of earphones and headphones, we have learned that deeper enjoyment of music can be achieved through the target curves and driver design well suited to the sound design of music recordings.
The B3 model was designed with particular emphasis on clarity. It caters to those who wish to have the delicate sound of each musical instrument delivered gorgeously even from live recordings, and enjoy tight vocals from animated soundtracks and EDM. It comes equipped with a standard silver coat cable and employs an MMCX connector that makes it possible to switch cables in the event of a severed connection. ‘’
EARLY SOUND IMPRESSIONS:
Did my ears ‘’get it’’ too as this nicely write acoustic lecture suggest?
Well, No BS YES. Sound engineer exactly know what they do with these fabulous housing with great acoustic spatial potential. Yep, the B1 is lively, physical and full sounding. Yep the B2 have a critical listening feel and proximity to music that give a vividly rich dynamic. Yep the B3 is ultra clear and accurate with vivid imaging.
Final Audio engineer nail it right with all B serie and I can certainly see dedicated fan of all their models for different need or taste.
B1 is Smooth, bassy, warm and have a spacious soundstage with holographic approach, a transparent layerings, natural and slighly liquid timbre. His superb imaging with well centered vocal and imrpessive bass weight make it for a very lively and immersive musicality that will do good with all genre making the B1 surely the most versatile one in term of bassy yet natural and accurate presentation. Vocal aren’t as fowards as the B3 but have more meat to it and a laid back approach that remind me a little the E5000 in a more spacious soundstage. As its a first impression without more than 30H of use, it most be noted that Final Audio strongly suggest a 100-150H of burn in. I will judge in my full review if it really benifit from burn in.
B2 is slightly Mid centric with sumptuous vocal, intimate soundstage, fowards mid bass, smooth upper treble, stereo kind of imaging. Musicality is energic and very realist, no harshness even if treble is sharp and detailed, here we have a very balanced approach in full dynamic range that I just can’t figure out how its achieved with a single balanced armature. I mean, the mid bass is round and punchy and low end dig deep but do not move lot of air, its tigh and accurate with slighlty brightish lower timbre. I really i’m blow away by this BA capacity, because even if I add bass gain to it it will not distort, transient response is phenomenal and feel like multi coated dynamic drivers.
B3 is near neutral and super accuratly balanced, have great fast bass with good extension and well separated sub bass line with tigh round ultra fast mid bass and sparkly treble. Delicate, vivid, ultra accurate with clear near chirurgical imaging and deep soundstage. These are so delicious because all frequencies are well rounded up without harsh or too sharp peaks, its crisp and sparly and give acoustic guitar or percussions beautifull decay with talented control. I enjoy these so much and its a realy guilty pleasure because of their revealing nature that show microdetails ina particularly effortess way.I predict a Grand futur for the B3 because it do well with any music style if you love their timbre color in first place, wich haven’t the thickest timbre but a very impressive liveliness.
To be honnest, this first impressions are overwhelming, and as you can know by now, i’m quite a fan of Final Audio and try numerous earphones from them, but these are special and its not about the price its about something else that only Japanese ears can achieve (hum, yeah!). All of these sound RIGHT, period. And all of them avoid congestion, sibilance, splashiness, harshness. These are real musical champion from different league and with a body as sturdy as Sumo fighter (hum, yeah!), they will not only pass test of time musicaly but physicaly too.
Stay tuned for futur FULL reviews of whole B serie.
Please let me enjoy them now. I need to close my eyes.
Cannot write Now : acoustic contemplation.
Peace.
No Borders Audiophile 