Emily Dickinson once said that “progress is a comfortable disease.” When I read that, it means to me that the “progress” that society makes in some areas often comes at a cost that is detrimental to what it was. In this case we are talking about audio quality and Bluetooth headphones. With them, the “progress” was that consumers benefited from: wireless connectivity, active noise cancellation, water resistance, AI-powered smart features, and convenience.
However, what did we lose? Is yesterday’s technology worth resurrecting? To find out, I ditched the headphones I’ve been living out of lately. Sony’s excellent WF-1000XM6and acquired Final Audio’s recently released $80 A2000 in-ear monitors (IEM).
What have I learned over the past three weeks using wired IEMs as my daily audio and communication device? Let’s talk about it!
But why?
As good as the Bluetooth aptX and LDAC codecs may be, they simply don’t compare one-to-one with a wired connection. In general terms, Wired connections are a better option for almost any technology.. Wi-Fi versus Ethernet cable is another example of this.
With wired audio connections, you’re going to expand that soundstageYou’ll have a more consistent chance of discovering details in songs you may have missed, and you’ll never have to worry about charging headphones or earbuds before a gym session, or packing a charger if you’re going on vacation.
Because? Ultimately, because they always sound better and you don’t have to worry about the battery.
My test subjects
Final Audio was releasing their new budget IEMs, the A2000, for $80, and contacted me to see if I would be interested in reviewing them. I agreed, but thought I’d do something different, which spawned this article. Like the Sony WF-1000XM6 I put on your shelf, the A2000 has a considerable soundstage, delightful dynamics, lovely detail retrieval, punchy mids, bright and fairly tight highs. flourishing rumbling bass.
“A lot as“It is an important distinction because, although the A2000 is as The XM6 with respect to sound improves it in every possible way. The Final Audio A2000 comes with four pairs of silicone ear tips, including the pre-installed pair. You get a 1.2m long 3.5mm oxygen-free copper (OFC) cable with right angle termination that also comes with two clip-on ear hooks.
The bodies of the A2000 are more elegant than those of the XM6. You get a two-tone ABS plastic casing that’s black on the outside, with a Japanese-style Shibo (translation: crinkled paper) coating that resists fingerprints and adds texture.
The inside is a vibrant blue, but the most important inside (the speaker in each) is Final’s f-Core DU dynamic driver, along with all the internal sound production components manufactured in-house by Final, something you don’t see often.
Those housings connect to the included braided OFC cable using standard 2-pin connectors, so you can easily swap out the included cable for another depending on your use case.
My experience: changing the Sony WF-1000XM6 for the Final Audio A2000
You are probably very used to the convenience of bluetooth headphonesand rightly so. There are no wires so you can put them in your ears and keep it moving! And with transparency modes, technically, you’d only need to take them out of your ears to charge them. Getting used to all that comfort will require you to make some changes, going back to wired headphones.
It took me about a week to get used to hanging the wired headphones around my neck when I wasn’t wearing them. It’s not that they weren’t comfortable, but there is no “pass-through audio” that would allow me to have conversations with them in my ears.
Also, I have an older car, so I don’t have Bluetooth or USB-A connectivity, which means hanging them around my neck when I drive or having one in my ear for phone calls during my commute.
With wireless earbuds, simply remove them from your ears when needed and place them in their case. Now you’ll have to deal with cables, and unlike the WF-1000XM6 in its case, wired IEMs don’t fit in the coin pocket of your pants.
However, what I gave up in comfort, I gained in superior sound quality. Music always sounds great with the Final A2000 IEMs and is not affected by wind or other atmospheric conditions that can make Bluetooth connections unstable. I never worried about whether I had put them on the charger the night before or how much charge they had when I went to the gym. And being connected to cables, I was never afraid of losing them.
The A2000s beat their $80 price tag and deliver brilliant sound in the upper midrange, so vocals, podcast voices, and cinematic dialogue sound crisp. Elements on some tracks teeter on sibilance, as there’s definitely some lift in the upper treble, but I assume they’re tuned that way to give a stronger sense of detail than the $80 price tag belies.
The bass has a solid weight to it and isn’t mushy, while transient sounds are handled quite well, all things considered. Many more expensive pairs of Bluetooth headphones will struggle to match the Final A2000’s overall audio fidelity.
As good as aptX Lossless and LDAC are, there is a live quality to music that is often missing when compared to wired playback of high-quality, well-designed audio files. That said, going back to wiring will only be for certain people:
- Those who don’t want to spend $200 to $300 semi-annually on the latest Bluetooth technology, but want something with a longer life than the rechargeable batteries in a headset.
- Music lovers. If audio fidelity is important, and I don’t think it really is for many consumers, you’ll want wired IEMs instead of Bluetooth if you can get past the lack of convenience that Bluetooth offers.
To conclude the experience, most people do not pay attention to the battery estimates, which always show that the battery life of the headphones is significantly reduced compared to using them primarily for audio playback. For example, the Sony WF-1000XM6 headphones I traded in have about five hours of “continuous talk time” with noise cancellation turned on, but that number increases to eight hours for all other uses.
So, if you spend a lot of time making voice calls, wired headphones may be a much better option for you.
“You have to COORDINATE!!!”
As good as Final’s A2000 sounds, IEMs aren’t specifically designed to ease the transition to wired transport, so you’ll need a microphone. Fortunately, there are some good options on the market for replacement cables with two-prong connectors and in-line microphones. Even Sennheiser offers a mic cable upgrade for their IEM series, like the venerable IE900 I reviewed, and there are options from other brands as well.
I already have some mobile DACs at my disposaland the PR rep at JackRabbit Media, who organized the final A2000 review, also sent me modular cables from Dekoni’s Audio Ensemble collection. The combination of the two made my transition back to daily cable carrying a little easier.
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The Dekoni cables have been a godsend, allowing me to connect to the DAC of my choice, or one of my own, simply by twisting the bottom half of the cable connector and then twisting the ends of the cable I want to use.
I found myself switching back to one of their modular ends terminated in a USB-C DAC, which supports DSD256 up to 32-bit/384kHz, and occasionally switching to another end terminated in a 3.5mm connection, which I used to connect to the excellent Questyle M18i, which has a microphone that’s better than most Bluetooth headphones.
I also took this opportunity to test out a wireless connection when necessary with the high-quality iFi GO blu Air Bluetooth DAC, which comes with a magnetic clip (and those magnets are strong!) and it has a great microphone.
Final thoughts
For hobbyists, one of the most compelling takeaways I came away with was that instead of buying a Bluetooth headset and learning how to use it, you can literally create your own ideal audio setup for everyday wear. You can purchase IEMs based on your budget or level of music appreciation, and if you want to keep things simple, some options include a microphone cable.
And if you want, you can choose one of the excellent mobile DACs that bridges the gap between Bluetooth headphones and wired IEMs, such as the iFi GO blu, which can be used both wired and wireless, unlike the GO blu Air, which is designed for wireless use only.
Great sound, small price
Solid build quality, bright highs, good bass response and a cheaper price – Final Audio’s new A2000 IEMs provide an entertaining listen! Complete with almost everything you need to start your cable journey, they are worth checking out.
