Final Audio Adagio III Review
Thanks to Hifiheadphones for the sample.
First Impressions: Well the box
seems a fairly minimal affair. I know for Final Audio this a fairly low
end offering but you know to some people this is a lot for earphones.
I’m more than a touch disappointed that there is no case, not even a
little baggy. I know it’s easily cured with ebay but still. It’s all
quite Spartan, 3 pairs of tips and that’s your lot. Unimpressed with
this cable too.
So in the ears and kaboom! Oh god
they have a gone for a bit of a bass centric sound here haven’t they.
Dear god this may be one to skip putting a pair of complys on. Holy
crap this is a lot of bass.
Source: FiiO E7/E9 combo, Hisoundaudio Studio V 3rd Anv., HiFiMAN HM-601, 1G Ipod Shuffle, Nexus 5.
Lows: Holy **** there is a lot of
bass here. Jesus wept, this is pushing towards oppressive. Lol okay
this is just mental. The quality of the bass is far above what I’d
expect for this crazy ass mountain of it. For its epic vastness it
incredibly taut and textured. Oh my god there is just so much of it!!!
Its pushing at comedy levels of bass. It’s of sufficient proportions
that I can feel it compressing my skull and kicking my sinuses. Oh god
make it stop, make it stop!!! To say these are not to my taste is a bit
of an understatement. The bass is colossal. Skull smashing colossal.
It quality is nothing short of incredible for this quantity.
Oh and its exceedingly deep too. Normally the more you get the softer
and more flabby it gets but here its way more solid and articulated than
I would have expected. Still the take away feature is, there are
mountains and mountains of bass. You throw it some big bassed pop track
and it will cave your skull in.
Mids: Actually vocals are quite
good. Fractionally warm tonally but pleasantly so. However it doesn’t
greatly matter because next to that mountainous bass the mids are more
concerned with cutting through and that they do quite well. Vocals are
clear, well-articulated and cleanly audible. They are as good as I
would hope for its price. The level of detail is good but you have to
battle with that bass pounding away. Next to it the mids are playing a
clear second fiddle. It’s a shame really as they are quite nice. A
little dull and smooth perhaps but very nice.
Highs: There isn’t a whole heap
going on up at the top. These are rather easy on the ear treble wise.
Delicate and somewhat recessed. I would say it could be doing with
dialled up but given the bass I couldn’t take abundant and edgy treble
too. As such then they are very relaxed about things. Its clean enough
to let you know whats going on but I think it has been tuned with a
“consumer” audience in mind. The same people that want this much bass
are probably not using the best bit rates or the best quality tracks.
So these are going to be ever so forgiving to badly mastered or low bit
rate mp3’s. The Adagio 3 will be very forgiving to such music.
Soundstage: Very good. Final
Audio seems to have some talent for making things sound large and
grandiose. The 3 here does just that and sounds very largely scaled.
Even if the mids are a bit recessed they feel like they have loads of
room to move about in. This gives very non-symphonic music a taste of
that vastness. It’s very well done and very pleasing to behold.
Comfort: Grand. They are light as a feather and gave not a hint of issue.
Fit: Great. They weren’t really shaped for wearing up but they still worked fine and easily.
Cable: Erm, it feels very thin and
a bit cheap. What I’d expect from something under a tenner. Maybe it
is tough and will last for years but I can’t say I’m wow’ed by it.
Amped/Unamped: These aren’t super
likely to get an amp in the real word and it’s sure as hell not one that
needs a little bass boosting amp, that’s for sure. When playing with
the phone there were the usual differences. Actually there was more
than I expected. The bass softened and the mids especially seemed to
lose clarity. It’s not something I would expect to be amped so it’s a
shame there is a noticeable difference but really, if you’re buying this
it’s because you want all the bass, and it’s still all there. Just a
bit more flabby that’s all.
Isolation: For a dynamic its
unusually good. It’s semi-sealed with its Balancing Air Movement,
whatever that is. Normally sealed and isolating IEM’s give a ton of
driver flex and air pressure issues, where the pressure makes your
hearing / driver combo muffled. Not any of that here at all. Not sure
how they did it but they have.
Build Quality: The buds seem
pretty good. The cable as mentioned, err it’s a bit naff. The jack is
tiny but seems sold mind so maybe it’s just that the cable is so thin we
think flimsy when it may last for all the ages, time can only tell.
Accessories: Pretty disappointing. You get 3 pairs of tips. For the price id have liked a little case or something. Oh well.
Value: Well do you want all of the
bass that ever there was in the whole universe ever? If you do then
step right up. Otherwise I feel Final Audio is trading a bit on their
long established audio credentials.
Conclusion: I don’t know how I
feel about these. Cable and no case aside there is much to like
acoustically but then that bass. Oh Jesus you just can’t get around
that BIG heap of the stuff. These playing a little Julie London and
they do sound genuinely lovely. The vocals are sultry and well
detailed; the double bass plucking away is a bit more prominent than it
ought to be but no biggy. Then something radically different comes on.
Scissor Sisters “Keep Your Shoes On” and oh god. Oh god I think my
nose and ears are bleeding.
The other aural aspect I found myself rather being impressed with is the soundstaging.
Two for two, Final Audio’s BAM thing seems to offer are very grand
semblance of scale to their IEM’s. The Adagio III sounds vastly grand
in a way that is very impressive. It has really good stab at a
convincing emulation of being played back by a real speaker in front of
you.
What the Adagio III fundamentally boils down to is the bass.
It is colossal and for its size very hard. If you want that and some
good mids then great. If you don’t want a mountain range of bass to
pound you senseless then it’s just not for you. All other
considerations just do not matter. While I’m not sure if this places
the Adagio III in good stead or not, unquestionably its one I think bass
heads ought to pay attention to. Its scale and its aggression would
find it some admirers I am positively sure of. For little old me
however, no. I just cannot deal with this much bass no matter how nice
the mids, that wall of bass is so insurmountable. The bass literally
feels like its pressurising my sinuses, it’s just nuts, you’ll either
run fleeing from the bass here, or you’ll absolutely fall in love with
the Adagio III’s.
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