Disclaimer: I purchased these earphones, used, from e-earphone in Akihabara. Typically, they go for about 450$. You can find out all about them here: Final Audio F7200 Balanced Armature Driver Unit.
Relevant links:
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Not sound
When they’re not flaunting fake fur, or intimidating a pair of otherwise good-sounding dynamic drivers with balanced armatures, Final Audio are up to good. Tiny, fit, and tough the 7200 are statement products for the entire market. Like a non-garage version of the Mycroft Nail 2×2 that people actually queue for. Seriously. I purchased it on 9 September. The Final Audio 7200 was sold out until 10 September at e-earphone. My copy may have been the only free one in all of Japan.
Check this out. It is the only elegant over-engineered tote pouch I’ve seen. It is silicon origami, flapping over the top and under the bottom on gentle flanges. It protects every scar-prone bit of the F7200. It is more a bugger to use than a zipper case, but is far, far superior to the hard-edged haptic nightmares that accompany Sennheiser IE800 and Beyerdynamic AK T8iE I and II.
From its detachable MMCX cables to its L-shaped plug and metal-necked y-split and rubber neck cinch, every bit is elegant. Chamfered edges. Polished metal surfaces. The stress relief at its plug is almost Dhalsim-supple. Those covering the MMCX necks are robust, bespoke, and tightly finished heat shrink. Tough. Pretty. Elegant.
That’s the fourth time I’ve used that word. It’s not a term I like to use when discussing physical or stylistic design. But the F7200 is so well designed to work. I’m unsure that any but obsessed portable audiophiles will dig the F7200’s shape. Too machine–like, too much like your tool-box says my wife. She isn’t a fan of translucent cables. They look like worms, she says. She’s got a point. Beyond earphone geeks, the F7200 may appeal to engineers intent on utility-based-design. Snapping on and off the F7200’s worms is easy. And rotating the earphones and cables from hanging to over-the-ear position is painless. Sure, this earphone fits in the ear like bolts fastening Frankenstein’s monster’s head on. And its wormy cable cable is heavy and microphonic. And its tote pouch picks up lint. And which earphone is left? And why aren’t the metal stopping flanges angled forward? Every ear piece I use slides right over them and down toward the MMCX mount. Which is probably why the F7200 ships with plastic sleeves. These ensure ear tips don’t slide down the earphone.
Of course, that flange stuff is inelegant design. The rest just works.
Final Audio’s user base isn’t Joe Everyman. They’re also not Joe Every Audiophile. Typically, they don’t track well on price/performance metrics. They track well along branding quality metrics. Typically they also hold resell value well. They enjoy as large a detractor base as they do a fanbase. This is healthy.
Whatever you think, it is my opinion that good and bad considered, the 7200 is the culmination of everything Final have been trying to do since the late 2000s. It is everything a Final fan should expect in 2016.
Sound and more after the jump: