Final Audio A4000

 

Build/Fit:

The A4000 and its sibling the A3000 share very similar abs thermoplastic shell thats give them a very distinctive look with lots of angular cuts, they look like they might be a bit blocky and uncomfortable in the ear, but I found the opposite to be the case.  All edges are beveled and rounded and you won’t find a sharp edge anywhere on them.   Size wise, the use of the 6mm instead of the standard 10mm helps as well as the housing can be made smaller and lighter.    Shells are designed with a deep outer shell and a thin inner shell opposite of the standard faceplate and shell arrangement.  The color is also unique in that Final calls it Dark Navy but at times it appears almost jet black and at others a gunmetal grey/black depending on lighting.   There are two vents on the under surface of the shell along with the Final/A4000 printed on the main body and either L or R printed on the connector extension.   Connector housing s hare slightly raised but well fitted and have key-ways to prevent the cable from being attached incorrectly.    Nozzles are fairly short with a lip for tip retention and the duly famous set of E-series tips.

 

 

Internals:

Inside that shell, the heart of the A4000 is a single 6mm dynamic driver that was designed from the ground up for the A series.   The driver which Final calls the F-core DU, was designed originally for the flagship A8000 but trickle down technology means the A4000 version of the driver comes off the same production line with only slight changes from the earlier flagship design.    Final is quick to point out that the driver required that not only nearly every part be rethought ( diaphragm, voice coil, magnet, magnetic circuits, and adhesives used are all new), but also required designing new machinery to complete the assembly process.   The front housing of the driver is brass as it is less magnetically sensitive and less subject to resonance issues than aluminum.   The Voice coil uses a  a 30μ ultrathin copper coated aluminum wire with as little adhesive as possible to improve the strength of the magnetic field and shave weight in moving parts.  Diaphragms are manufactured in small batches with heightened quality control measures as well to minimize deviation and enhance uniformity.      Nominal impedance is listed as 18Ω with a sensitivity of 100 dB/mW.    I found the A4000 to be easy to drive, but that it does require a bit of a turn on the volume knob as it does like a little more power than the average.   This meant that I had a bit less headroom when using a phone or dongle, but it was still quite usable from a phone or tablet.  With a more potent amplifier, the A4000 does scale some with a bit more potent bass response when compared to some of the lower powered sources.

 

Cable:

The cable provided with the A4000 starts with a 90º 3.5mm jack in a black plastic housing with a good strain relief before exiting as two parallel strands in a heavier than average coating.  This creates a nice balance between microphonics and the likelihood of tangles.  The package also has a pair of locking ear hooks that help mitigate some of the cable weight and minimize any cable noise to the earpieces.   The cable itself is oxygen free copper but exact core count was not specified.    The splitter is a simple black plastic flattened barrel with a matching slider above which the two strands head off in their own directions.    At the north end, 0.78mm bi-pin connectors also in black plastic housings complete the package.   One nice touch is the bi-pin connectors and sockets are keyed so they cannot be installed incorrectly.  With cables that have permanent earhooks, its usually fairly obvious as to proper orientation, but without them it can be hard to be sure.  They keys help and are appreciated.   I found the cable to work well, not tangle in storage, and the provided hooks were not needed.

 

 

Tips:

The A4000 comes with 5 sizes of Type-E tips.  These use a mix of stiffer silicone for the cores and softer for the flanges which makes for a very comfortable fit.  Unfortunately for me, they also tend to fold and crease which makes them difficult to get a good seal with and even with 5 sizes I’m somehow between two of them where one is slightly undersized and the other creases.   For my testing I swapped in Shure Olives which fit my ear better so some notes may be influenced by that change in tips.

Sound:

Bass:

There is a sub-bass emphasis to the A4000 centered around 60Hz with a slow drop back all the way through the mid-bass and lower-mids.    Sub-bass roll-off is only notable in the low 20s and delivers good rumble when called upon.  In spite of the graph, the bass boost is not as prominent as it appears and shows up more as a complimentary piece to the upper-mid/treble emphasis than as a stand alone component.    Mid-bass has good speed and note weight giving the A4000 some detail and texture although I would have liked a bit more texture as it isn’t quite as clear as it could be and so texture is somewhat muted.   There is no perceptible bleed into the mids.

 

Mids:

Here the texture veil is lifted and mids have great detail and don’t seem as recessed as the graph might suggest.  Lower mids have good note weight and male vocals have a nice natural tonality.  Guitar growl has a nice crisp attack and enough guttural feel to sound fairly natural as well.  There is a marked climb in the upper-mids that actually overshoots natural timbre for strings and they wind up with a touch more energy than wholly natural.   Female vocals fall into the same category as strings.  They are pushed a full step forward and have a bit too much energy at times that can get strident if the track has any tendency in that direction.  The upside is great clarity, the downside is fatigue and a bit of sibilance at times.

 

Treble:

Lower treble follows the upper-mid rise and remains plateau’d for most of the range with a drop off only around 9kHz.  This gives the A4000 a very energetic treble that reveals detail well but also contributes to the stridency mentioned earlier.   There is good texture so snare rattle is crisp and tightly defined but hi-hat is metallic and over-done and cymbals in general suffer a bit unless some judicious EQ is applied to the mid-treble range.     Roll-off is above the limit of my hearing so for me the sound feels nice and open with good air and sparkle at the top.  Sparkle can turn to sizzle on occasion when tracks push that direction, so this is probably not the in ear for the treble shy.

 

Soundstage / Imaging:

This is a high point for the A4000 as stage has good size and dimension with both width and depth being roughly equal and even some height in the mix.   Seating the orchestra is straight forward thanks to the stage and good instrument separation.   Stereo separation is also above average which probably aids in both stage size and imaging as well.    Movements are easily tracked and positioned in space and definition is good considering the asking price.   There is some mild compression but the A4000 handled fast tracks fairly easily without a lot of thickening.

 

Thoughts / Conclusion:

So I guess you could say, this is my Final review (Sorry couldn’t resist the pun).   The A4000 is a sibling in the new A series that technically is the middle model between A8000 above and A3000 below but more realistically is an entry level offering based on price and a much closer sibling to the A3000 in construction than to the A8000.    The shells are interesting in their use of thermoplastic instead of metal or resin and are light and comfortable for extended wear.  Although a great tip selection is provided, I found a need for aftermarket tips, but with standard sized nozzles even this proved easy enough to remedy.   I like the earhooks, particularly that they aren’t attached and honestly other than to test them and see that they worked, I found no need of them.  Sonics follow a fairly typical Japanese pattern of bright overall tonality and share some similarity with other Final models I have tried and Audio Technica models as well.    This seems to be the preferred tuning of the region and while not my favorite it does bring a lot of detail and energy to the sound.   Overall, I am impressed with what Final is able to do at a price range they rarely dip into and I hope this means good things for models to come.    For those that like a bright, energetic tuning, the A4000 offers a lot.