Final D8000 new planar headphones

Wait, we're still talking about Audeze?

 

Yeah, that made me chuckle. But I believe the post was concerning manufacturing in general, and how the video reflects upon it.

Anyway, back to the D8000...

 

Chris Martens has done a review of the D8000 which will appear soon, either on the HiFi+ site or in the mag (or both).

I've tried the D8000 and I would put it on the warm side of neutral, as a rough description of the FR.

 

This was definitely one of the highlights for my at CanJam NYC... well extended bass, lush mids and no treble fuckery. Of course this was on the noisy show floor, extended listening by more experienced ears would yield more accurate results, but I'd say these were promising.

But that price. Hard to justify when you could go Auteur, modded HD800, PMx2...

 

I feel like price justification for this kind of thing has to come down to resolution and detail. At least for me it does. If I can't hear more detail than a cheaper headphone I don't really think the price is fair.

HD800 set the bar pretty high for detail around 1,000 - 1,300 and in my mind any headphone priced higher than it should either be close in detail but better balanced like some planars (as HD800 leaves much to be desired in the bass for some, which I get), or needs to beat it.

That's part of the reason Utopias street price is pretty much fine to me. It's definitely a more detailed headphone. Phi is pretty much fine too with good detail and then just like unrivaled bass. It's expensive as hell, but it's got a niche you can't touch it in. It has such visceral slam.

While these are only show floors it didn't sound to me like the Final Audio had that... Felt more like the Meze might have if I had to pick one of the two.

 

Show impressions are not fair to judge detail retrieval, show noise buries it and you may be hearing that frequency response peak which gives the impression of "detail" with some headphones. I haven't heard the Utopia, but I'm familiar with the SM9 speakers, which have a ruler flat frequency response (much more "correct" than the Utopia, and even the Clears) and still sounds metallic and full of false detail for me.
I don't tolerate stock HD800 for more than 5 minutes with that tonal balance. Of course, some listeners may disagree, but that's my opinion.

Btw, the first time I heard the 007 MK1 and the BHSE it was at a noisy meet and thought the same "where is the fckn detail, my HD650 is better"...then I came in the next day, very early, with almost no people, and all detail was there, it was just being buried by people talking around.

I usually pay attention to products described as "boring" or "lacking in detail" in meet impressions, because in my house, with no one talking and making awful noises, those type of headphones tend to be my preference (un-forced detail, un-hyped frequency response) and don't fatigue me after 10 minutes.

 

Again I totally understand that, and would be willing to re-evaluate them. It's just I did hear them the first time at their booth essentially alone, with far lower noise than the main showroom floor at Canjam NYC as they were not in the main area at RMAF. I also had my Utopia with me for direct comparisons and it was out of a DAVE or WM1Z and I own a DAVE. It was also literally the first thing I heard at RMAF, so my ears were still fresh.

So to me it felt like I had a better listen to them than the Mezes where the room wasn't as quiet.

People also just prefer different things... Case in point you just said you don't like Focal SM9 studio monitors. I literally own and love my Focal Twin6 Be studio monitors. So different strokes for different folks. I know what you mean about sounding metallic, but haven't thought the Focals have "false detail" vs some of the other monitors I've had.

Again I'd love to hear them in a quiet room on my set up, but I'd be honestly fairly surprised if they were that much more detailed than I remember, for the most part while not as accurate my show impressions have tended to line up with what I've heard when alone... i.e. detail wise I thought SR-009 was exceptional, SR-007 sounded not quite as detailed but more bassy, Utopia had great mids, Phi has amazing bass etc... And those opinions remained the same hearing them again in the quiet.

Only iems ironically have my initial show impressions been way way off to me after hearing them again later. Maybe the Final is an excellent headphone for a lot of people, but it wasn't for me. As more reviews come in for the Final I'm not going to keep harping on them. I shared my impressions and they're still how I feel but people can definitely still like them. I can think of probably a half dozen headphones where my preferences don't line up with most people here. And that's okay.

 

Planars love stable and ample current delivery (typical overbuilt class A amp with overkill PSU)...probably Dave's headphone amp is not up to the task for that...who knows.

What you say is completely fair, we all have our preferences, dialogue makes it easier to discern and make something useful of other's impressions.
At the end of the day, the goal is not to think the same as everyone, is to make an informed decision, buy something and be happy with it

 

I certainly prefer DAVE via a beefy external amp for the LCD-4 and Abyss. They don't show their best directly out of the unit in my opinion. Can't imagine they're the only cans that this is true for.

 

I remember hearing HEKv2 directly from a DAVE and it was insipid as f**k. Not enough current or something? Anyway, it's weird how people do that at shows and in shops. I know it simplifies setup, but it makes an expensive DAC and potentially pricey headphones sound quite underwhelming.

It seems to me that people who can afford DAVE can afford also a proper headphone amp too. If you're trying to show off DAVE or demo some headphones, failing to use a proper amp does neither any favours.

(..no matter what crap Rob Watts may spout about how it's not necessary, obviously.)

 

What are the odds he'll like it?

 

Naah, not at all, we're good sports, we don't say bad stuff about other manufacturers. We either say good things or are silent.

Yup, manufacturing in general. Now let's get back on the track before this escalates

 

Well, it's beneficial on a level or two to showcase a DAC and an amp combo. For the sake of this conversation, let's assume it's a good one. To use only this X machine, a manufacturer can show that it works nicely. People who don't like to have several boxes stacked will resonate perfectly with such a product. And again, it ain't bad but nice. Still, if one wants to have the best of the best, separate devices are the way to go and out there for the taking. That's how we see this as a company and many other bussinesses like ours too.

 

Just became a Final Audio dealer, tried place an order to have a pair for demo Final has been backorderd for at least month if not more. Shame, was looking forward to hearing it before CanJam SoCal.

 

You're ripping this out of its context. It's a sneak peak inside, but not a reference to how it is made.

First of all, you get the impression that the Final Audio has more advanced machinery standardising every nanometer and move. But you see well enough that there is manual labour involved too

The Audeze doesn't show the machinery, just the glueing of the magnet structure and casing - so granting a sneak peak inside the shell. This doesn't say there isn't the same top notch tech involved... The driver is already assembled, most probably in an advanced machining way too.
And let the driver tensioning be the hardest part where the variance you fear so much may indeed occur.

Also, if you would have seen the white labcoats instead of this shoddy courtesy demonstration by somebody who's probably not a lab guy (in engineering, there's always the brains and the hands...) , it would create whole another impression of the exact same thing.

The guy even makes it clear that in the real production process, it takes much longer, so explicitly stating it's just a quick show of the principle. So you can bet on it that manufacturing standards and precision are way better in their real manufacturing labs.

Up to perfection? No, variance indeed exists. Audeze isn't the only one though battling these physical challenges...

In any case, I yearn to hear this D8000 for myself. Now to find a place that sports them...

 

Reading up on their site, the attention to detail and information available has certainly peaked my interest. I heard them at RMAF and enjoyed them even with a cold and clogged ears. Hopefully I'll get another chance to hear them properly soon.

 

Our crew tried D8000 in Warsaw in November 2017 and we all agreed that this is a product to look forward to for sure.

 

Here's a detailed 24 pages PDF explaining their Air Film Damping System and why and how they implemented it.
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/final6/D8000.pdf

Btw, in pages 4 and 23, they wrote "ideal frequency response" two times, it's a typo, the second line means "flat impedance" instead of ideal frequency response.

 

Yup, that PDF is what we call a Japanese R&D at its finest.

 

I had a chance to give this headphone a go over today. Didn't have enough time to listen to it sadly.

The pads are kinda weird for a headphone of this asking price. Its a stretchy thin piece of fabric over some memory foam. The rest of the headphone is pretty impressive build quality wise. I tried them on and they were comfy enough, albeit a bit heavy. All in all, I'm going to wait until I have a chance to hear them before making a final verdict. However, right now, for the asking price, I'm a bit like...meh.