final E-series : let’s trace the path

I won’t spend long words in preambles. S’NEXT’s (aka Final Audio, or just “final” – strictly with a lowercase “f”) E series IEMs – 6 models in total – have much in common, and huge of differences as well. This article is about understanding what each model is at.

Very much in line with the high-end craftmanship identity they carry, final marketing is quite informative about today’s topic, so I will help myself quoting and commenting some of their copy, as I find there’s not much lacking to its completeness and precision really than drawing the dots-connecting path, and adding some extra divulgative notes.

On each model, I will add my own take in terms of sound analysis, and a final recapping table to give a global bird’s eye view on the series – rectius, on my own opinions about the 6 E-models.

The general phylosophy

E Series
Sound quality design based on the latest acoustic engineering and psychological research results. We aimed for a product series where the products chosen would undoubtedly be referred to as standards for years to come.This series fulfills all of the following: high-quality sound, simple design, user-friendly and affordable price. 

With this, we aimed for a product series where the products chosen would undoubtedly be referred to as standards for years to come. It is because we’d like these to be used as tools for the mature user that won’t want to part with them the more they are used, and because they are products we’d like those recognizing the pleasure of earphones for the first time to also use, we’ve integrated the results of the latest in acoustic engineering and psychological research.

https://snext-final.com/en/products/eseries/

As an aged european myself, this statement is enough to get my complete attention. The second paragraph is a bit involuted (maybe it’s leaner and more readable in Japanese). Put more simply:

• They aim at a long-lasting audio pleasure, the opposite of those short term infatuations typical of so many ad-pumped products, not only audio ones ofc
• At the same time, they strive at delivering as much “wow-effect” as possible

The entire E series as a design phylosophy shys in facts away from sheer “pump-ups”.

Those looking for a so-called “fun tuning” – whatever that even means – are kindly expected not to complain for something that was never intended to be in their likes in the first place. No hammering is involved here, rather small adjustments, micro-calibrations even, aiming at a comprehensive feeling, rather than one or few sharp vertical sensations one simply adjacent to the other.

At the same time, the various models in the series offer different flavours, call them accents if not colours, delivering different engaging feelings, to the benefit of different personal sensitivities and/or musical genre-matching.

How to get a full barrel and a drunk lady? By doing homework of course, and adding some serious talent on top. Here’s about the former:

https://snext-final.com/en/acoustics/

There you can get at least the headlines of what final refers to by “acoustic engineering and psychological research“. Don’t expect a full treaty of course, but that’s more than enough to get the flavour of the concept and give you the keywords to get you started into the right professional knowledge if you so get involved.

In the beginning there was E3000

So let’s start from the beginning. As there was indeed a beginning:

E3000 was first born by applying the exact same tuning of the D8000 headphones.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-design-impressions-and-discussion-thread.613641/page-640#post-15644086

More on it:

[Adopting common tuning methods] whereby certain high frequencies are emphasized, you’re given to feel vivid sound when you first listen, but because of this, other ranges become clouded and hard to hear.

With E3000, [creating a non-treble-emphasized range] makes for high definition and a vast sound stage. With well-balanced sound reproduction from low through to high frequencies, you can experience the same kind of sound spread you would if you listened to music in a concert hall.

With this product, we’ve aimed at natural sound quality for a “standard” whose value you feel the more you use it over time rather than just in its appeal when you first listen to it.

https://snext-final.com/en/products/detail/E3000.html Text within [ ] is my editing

E3000’s best feature is in facts no doubt its ensemble.

Few, if even any, of its single parts can be rated “superb”, but the comprehensive experience transferred to my ears as a result of the masterful recriprocal calibration of all its audio components is just spectacular.

It’s not an audiophile-all-rounder: it’s warm, it’s mellow, it’s undetailed in the trebles, it’s weak in the sub-bass… I might go ahead.

But.

It’s musical, it’s embraceful, it’s warmly personal. Audiophile-ly speaking, all these could be called “unwanted colorations”, deviations from reproduction fidelity, and rightfully so. Yet, it all just sounds so nice.

Final’s own colophon for E3000 reads:

Delivers powerful bass tones and high definition. A vast sound stage, as if you were listening in a concert hall.

https://snext-final.com/en/products/eseries/

And, well, to me they did hit their own target on E3000.

A side note about eartips: final E black (stock) ones are just great, but in this case final E clear ones are even better. Due to the softer consistence of the umbrella E Clears contribute to add some vividness to trebles, and most of all they reduce E3000’s lingering bass veil significantly, making especially male voices come up more forward and natural. Strongly recommended.

As someone complained…

Yes E3000 is warm. Not “dark”, but… how can I say? In mid-light, definitely. How about getting a “clarer” sensation?

In comes E2000.

Many have been impressed by [E3000] sound quality especially at the price point, but there were some minority who wish to have slightly less bass. Since there is such a request, we have decided to bring out E2000 which has less bass but better clarity at mid and high.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-design-impressions-and-discussion-thread.613641/page-640#post-15644086 Text within [ ] is my editing

So yes, E2000 is a variation of E3000 in 2 evident aspects

• Bass and sub-bass is less enhanced by approx 2-3dB
• An evident enhancement is added in the trebles around 6KHz

As a result the overall presentation is waaay less warm than E3000, while never becoming bright mind you. Male vocals come up with some nicer authority, females are not affected as in facts low trebles are unchanged compared to E3000. Some higher vividness comes from the trebles. All this in a very enjoyable, pleasant ensemble – very much in the E series intended overall style.

But.

Soundstage is denitely less ample, and this in my opinion comes from reducing midbass.

Most of all, I find the overall presentation clearer, sure, but not more engaging. To my tastes, Mids+Trebles come accross not really “fizzier”. I wouldn’t go as far as calling E2000 dull as it is not, but while E3000 shows a very strong personality to me (which can be liked or not, but is indeed there) E2000 kinda lacks a bit on that aspect. It’s very good, don’t take me wrong, but it’s the least impressive and love-generating model of the E lot in my personal tastes.

final’s own colophon for E2000, after all, is in a sense quite in line with my experience:

Sharp middle and high frequencies and uplifting vocals. A sense of reality, as if the music were being played right in front of you.

https://snext-final.com/en/products/eseries/

And they also add:

[…] giving high frequencies the slightest distinctiveness has you experiencing the same sense of realism you would if the music were played right in front of you.

https://snext-final.com/en/products/detail/E2000.html

So their primary purpose was to get the spectator nearer to the singer, and get vocals accross (even) more clearly and emotionally. That much, surely, happens on E2000 compared to E3000.

The evolution of the species: E4000 and E5000

E2000 and E3000 were released [in] 2017 with E2000 [ ] more leaning towards mid and high while E3000 [ ] more leaning towards low [and aimed at] imitating the sound signature of our flagship headphone D8000.

E4000 and E5000 were released 1 year later, [in] 2018, with E4000 [ ] more leaning towards mid and high while E5000 [ ] having even more low compared to E3000.

[…] I guess if you are using E3000, and [ ] think that you want more details on mid and high, but willing to give away some low, then E4000 can be considered as an upgrade. But if you think that you need more low, then E5000 might be what you should go with.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-design-impressions-and-discussion-thread.613641/page-629#post-15577184 Text in [ ] is my editing

I covered E4000 and E5000 in this other article of mine. I’m reporting just the raw analyses here below.

E4000
The sound has a sense of realism to it; you can feel the breath in the vocals and every single guitar distortion.

https://snext-final.com/en/products/eseries/

E4000 has that bit of sub-bass elevation which is missing from E3000 completing the low part of the signature on one end, and a tiny bit more elevated, but even more smoothed treble on the opposite end.

Most importantly, layering on E4000 is so much better executed that that low-mids veiling happening on E3000 is totally gone, and mids in general, and vocals in particular, sound incredibly natural within an overall addictively musical presentation and “highly identitarian” timbre.

Those particularly fond of relative scaling would have good grounds in defining E4000 as a “finer tuned E3000”.

Unlike E2000 in facts, where changes have been applied to E3000 signature with the explicit purpose of changing its general tempearature, E4000 sports a way similar FR to E3000’s, with some modest level adjustements on the very low and high ends, but very significant differences in technicalities producing an overall result which simply put just stands in a different quality category.

E5000 is another story.

E5000
Immersive sound that seems to envelop you in smooth music; it’s as though you can feel the harmony of the orchestra tactilely.

https://snext-final.com/en/products/eseries/

E5000 is much more diverging from its forefather than E4000, under both accounts: signature and technicalities.

Sub and Mid-Bass is a lot, and sets the “general room lighting” at “shadowy / dark” level. Low Trebles are sensibly more elevated vs E3000 (although way less so than Bass), while High Trebles are more smoothed, almost rolled-off.

The differences in signature are peanuts compared to those on technicalities.

Bass, while not fast per se, is unbelievably defined. It’s huge in quantity, but not as the consequence of any bloating. So the entire presentation is free from bleeding, the impact of all that bass onto all other frequecies is that of setting the general tonality to a sort of “tactile dark shadow”, in final’s own appropriate words.

Trebles are the counterproof: elevation-wise they’d be bound to a quick demise vs all that solid bass, if it wasn’t for the masterful second-degree tuning giving them – shortly said – twice the detailing that comes accross from E3000 or E4000.

On such an audaciously balanced stage, E5000 vocals play a role an even further step up when compared to E3000 and E4000. Both male and female vocals are spectacularly defined, much like on E4000. Female vocals benefit from the modest high-mids elevation compared to E3-4000 signature, ending up sounding no less than flutey. Males are grand, cavernous, imperial even, and never ever bleeded-in nor veiled by the bass – that said, some male-vocal-centric songs may not benefit from the “general darkness of the show” and this is possibly the sole, very pedantic, issue I might forcefully pick on E5000 vocals.

Even more clearly than E4000, E5000’s tuning quality and refinement partakes into a higher category then E3000/E2000’s. This does not only come with an aggravation in terms of direct purchase price, but also in terms of audio system requirements (amping) being sensibly higher, at the cost of delivering a totally dull sound if not matched.

final themselves did publicly note the situation, “almost apologising” for it:

[…] please note that the sensitivity of the E3000, E4000 and E5000 are different, therefore please expect that you might need more power to driver E4000 and even more for E5000. Here are some specifications sharing.

E3000 – 16 ohm impedance, 102db/mw sensitivity
E4000 – 15 ohm impedance, 97db/mw sensitivity
E5000 – 14 ohm impedance, 93db/mw sensitivity

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-design-impressions-and-discussion-thread.613641/page-629#post-15577184

It is true that E5000 performs way better when it is paired with a dedicated source.

Every driver has its own initial frequency response before tuning. Unfortunately, to achieve the sound that we want the E5000 to have, our engineers were forced to suppress those unwanted peaks and this has also lead to the decrement of overall sensitivity. E5000 is so far the IEM which has the lowest sensitivity (93db/mW) among Final line up.

That time, 3 years ago, based on the market of Japan, our hypothesis was, a person who is willing to purchase an earphone retailing around USD300, the possibility for the users to own a dedicated music player is very high. So we thought that it would be fine.

Eventually, the time has proven us wrong. Smartphone has become more and more common as a music player, and more and more people start to appreciate good sound and willing to upgrade their casual use earphone to even a USD300 earphone. Too bad we could not predict the future.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-design-impressions-and-discussion-thread.613641/page-640#post-15644086

E1000 : on the other hand

So while E2000 was intended as a different-flavoured same-quality “sibling” to the series’ founding individual (E3000), E4000 and E5000 have been added as upscale moves into higher refinement (and cost) territories, looking to meet the expectation of more demanding, mature listeners.

Fine.

What about the opposite side: cheaper cost and more “immediate”, mainstream acoustic flavours? 2019 saw the introduction of E1000 for that.

We want people to take more of an interest in audio products;
final has developed this new entry model with this in mind.

While [E2000, E3000, E4000 and E5000] were very well received, we received considerable feedback from junior high school and high school students who noted that they wanted to purchase products from the E series but were unable to do so because they were too expensive.

With a simple change in the earphones you use, your favorite artist whispers into your ear, and the song intros you’ve listened to over and over again sound like completely different music. This is the kind of evocative experience we want young people to have; we want them to take more of an interest in audio products.

With this in mind, we embarked on the development of E1000.

Given the cost constraint, this development was not easy, but we were able to bring the product to fruition without compromising on quality. […] E1000 sound quality is clear and well-balanced, from low through to high tones, and we’ve achieved a realistic sound spread much like you are listening to live music.

This is a new entry model from final that we encourage those experiencing genuine earphones for the first time to try.

https://snext-final.com/en/products/detail/E1000 Text in [ ] is my editing

I covered E1000 on a separate previous article.

I wouldn’t repeat here all considerations developed in my other article. Suffice it to say that:

• Soundwise, E1000 is not only the most neutral model in final E series, but the most neutral budget IEM I heard to date.
• It competently covers very many genres from pop to rock to jazz and classics, with the sole need attention point to its moderate HF sibilance chance.

E1000′ sound quality is such that I can bluntly state that final totally buried their own goal: designed as a cheap entry level for youngsters, this is – indeed – cheap, but it’s not entry level at all. Oppositely, soundwise E1000 authoritatively stands its gound vs almost all other “neutral-presentation” competitors until 5X and more its retail price.

E500 : oh boy, another one??

Again, this was covered in-depth on another separate article of mine.

[E500] was born from new research results for playing games and VR contents that reproduce the sense of direction of sound using binaural technology.

[Thanks to E500] it is possible to concentrate on the sound source itself with a natural tone created by the binaural sound with less discomfort peculiar to the sound source.

[…]

It is the birth of a new “standard” earphone [originating] from the research on the difference between the sound source produced by 2ch stereo system and the sound source produced by binaural technology. 

It is widely known that listening to sound sources such as binaural-produced games and VR with conventional earphones and headphones creates a strange feeling in the high range. The acoustics researchers were aware of the cause, but none had been successful enough to address it. 

This time, [we took] measures against that problem with a new approach [and we developed] earphones that can feel the tone color [,] spatial image and direction sense as intended by the creator [of] sound sources such as binaurally produced games and VR.

https://snext-final.com/products/detail/E500

Did they make it? Hell, yeah!

• Good sound quality (neutral-ish signature) and musicality when used to listen to “normal music”
• Exciting output when listening to binaural-recorded or binaural-mixed musical tracks
• All this for the price of 2 takeaway pizzas.

Inside my linked article you’ll find quite some binaural footage and non-binaural one to play with.

In very simple words, on “normal music” E500 presentation is very smilar to E1000, with just a tad more sub-bass and a more evident difference on trebles, being sensibly more smoothed out compared to E1000 – the end result being a much mess bright-ish, more warmish-neutral presentation.

Technicalities-wise, they also perform at the same level as E1000 in all but one section – that being imaging, where sometimes E500 drivers “make mistakes”. It’s as if they were picking “something” inside a normal audio track and mis-intepreting that as a 3D audio cue, or something like that. Result is some messy imaging / positioning on the stage.

So let’s summarise

Were do the various models stand vs each other in terms of general sound quality, and tonal difference? Here:

E500 is pictured differently due to its specialty. As mentioned above, when used for “normal music” it shows a quite warmer soul compared to E1000 and some imaging issues.

And finally, here’s my very personal scoring on the key aspects of each model.

	E500	E1000	E2000	E3000	E4000	E5000
Timbre / Tonality	Neutral L	Neutral-bright L	Neutral open-V	Warm open-V	Balanced V	Dark-balanced V
Bass						
Rumble & Extension	4	3	5	6	8	8
Quantity	4	3	5	6	7	9
Tightness	7	7	6	5	6	7
Texture	6	6	6	6	7	9
Mids						
Quantity	6	6	7	8	8	8
Male Quality	7	7	8	7	10	9
Female Quality	7	7	7	8	9	10
Trebles						
Quantity	6	7	7	6	7	6
Smoothness	7	6	6	8	9	9
Treble air	6	8	7	6	6	6
Technies						
Soundstage	7	7	6	8	7	9
Imaging	5	7	6	7	8	8
Instrum. Separation	6	6	6	7	8	9
Details	5	7	6	7	6	8
Fit/Comfort	9	9	9	9	9	9
Tips	E-black	E-black	E-black	E-clear	E-clear	E-clear

A disclaimer…

…give the extent of this article it is probably due to repeat that I am a pure hobbyist, not a pro – neither in audio nor in communication or news.

I purchased all discussed model with my own money, and I have no affiliation, connection nor friendship with their manufacturer whatsoever.

What I like or dislike about final E models – be it accurate, right, acceptable or their opposite – is purely my personal opinion and I couldn’t care less (nor I have anything to profit) if anyone likes, or agrees with it or not.