At this year's FiiO's spring new product launch conference, FiiO FA19 was launched, a new ten-unit Knowles moving iron earphone. As the flagship earbuds with the highest price in FiiO at the moment, its price of 6999 yuan still needs to be carefully considered for many friends. So is the FA19 worth the price? After a period of hands-on experience, the author will share with you my experience today.
1 Design
The exterior design of FiiO FA19 is simple and elegant, giving people a high-end atmosphere. The headphone cavity is made of black transparent material, and the internal structure and unit are clearly visible, demonstrating its flagship-level craftsmanship and high-quality manufacturing level. The surface of the cavity adopts the condensate inner coloring process, the color is uniform, transparent and three-dimensional, and it is more beautiful and durable than the conventional external painting and coloring. At the same time, this process also ensures that the color of the earphones does not fade, and the wearing is not allergic, which is healthy and environmentally friendly.
The panel design of the earphones is simple, and the combination of black and silver colors is low-key and stylish. There is no excessive decoration on the panel, only FiiO's brand logo, which highlights its simple but not simple design concept. The conduit part adopts the design of low, medium and high independent conduits, which reduces the mutual interference of signals and ensures the purity of sound quality.
In addition, FiiO FA19 is also equipped with a variety of earphone sleeves of different specifications, including sponge sleeves, low-frequency sleeves, equalization sleeves, vocal sleeves, SpinFit ear sleeves, two-section sleeves and HS18 ear tips, etc., users can choose the right earphone sleeve according to their needs and preferences to get the best wearing experience and sound quality effect.
2 Highlights to note
Multi-unit design + low-frequency negative feedback technology
Since it is FiiO's currently highest-priced flagship headset, it should always be a little hardcore. First of all, the FA19 adopts the design of 10 moving iron units on one side, which comes from United States Knowles. This multi-unit design can obtain higher energy density and information in this frequency range, especially in the playback of high-frequency signals, and can increase the sound pressure and obtain a better air sense through multiple units. The low-frequency negative feedback technology used in the headphones guides the excess energy in the front cavity to the rear cavity through 180° phase conversion, adding damping to the diaphragm, thereby reducing the resonant frequency of the low-frequency unit and enhancing the low-frequency dive. This technique effectively improves the performance of low ends, making them deeper and more powerful.
S.Turbo声学专利结构+中频陷波声学装置
FA19 adopts S.Turbo acoustic patented structure, which mainly filters the high-frequency signal of the low-frequency unit, and designs a long acoustic pipeline according to the frequency response characteristics of the low-frequency unit, so as to filter out the high-frequency signal of the low-frequency unit, reduce the superposition and interference of the high-frequency signal of the low-frequency unit and the energy of other units, and achieve the effect of low-pass filtering. Compared with other methods that use damped mesh filtering, this patented structure can retain the transparency and resolution of the mid-range without losing the low-frequency sound pressure level, so that the sound of the vocal part will not be covered with a veil.
It is worth noting that the FA19 also adopts the mid-frequency notch acoustic device, which uses the principle of "nuclear mholtz resonator" to filter out the high-frequency signal of the mid-frequency unit and achieve a low-pass filtering effect without losing the sound pressure of other frequency bands. Therefore, the crossover point of FA19's middle and high frequencies has been advanced to 3.5kHz, which is basically equivalent to the crossover point commonly used by multi-unit speakers.
Ruby audiophile thin-film crossover capacitors switchable filters
The electronic components of the frequency division circuit of FA19 are made of high-precision audiophile film capacitors produced by RUBYCON, one of the three major aluminum electrolytic capacitors of Japanese aluminum electrolytic capacitors, with an accuracy of 20% ± and an accuracy of ±10% compared with ordinary ceramic capacitors, achieving an accurate frequency division effect. At the same time, different capacitive components also have an impact on the high-frequency hearing, ordinary film capacitors are soft, and high-frequency signals are lost when passing through, such as high-precision tantalum capacitors and audiophile-grade film capacitors, which can reduce signal loss and improve the effect of resolution.
In addition, according to the different style needs of users, FiiO has designed a filter for FA19, which defaults to the monitoring style, and when the switch is turned on ON, the frequency response is increased by 2-3dB from 20-600Hz to improve the fullness of low frequency and the thickness of mid-frequency vocals. This switchable mode design can meet the individual needs of different users for sound quality.
High-quality cables
FiiO FA19 standard earphone cable is eight strands with a total of 224 cores of monocrystalline silver wire, which is the same as the wiring of FH9 and FX15, the pure silver wire has better conductivity and faster high-frequency signal conduction, so the pure silver wire mainly has a greater improvement in high frequency and low frequency, with delicate high-frequency hearing, good analysis, improved air sense, and low frequency to enhance the sense of atmosphere, and has better diving. At the same time, the earbuds also come standard with 3.5mm and 4.4mm interchangeable plugs, which are convenient for users to use on different devices.
Vocal performance
Let's talk about the sense of hearing, first of all, the impact that FiiO FA19 gave me as soon as it came up was its excellent low-frequency performance. The earbuds are equipped with a customized low-frequency enhanced moving iron unit, which increases the amplitude of the diaphragm by increasing the number of units and optimizing the unit design, thereby enhancing the sense of energy and diving depth of the low frequency. When actually listening, you can clearly feel that the low-frequency volume is ample and elastic. In addition, the low-end layering is clear and unambiguous, making the music more detailed.
In the mid-frequency part, the FA19 is equipped with two custom-made Knowles mid-frequency armature armature units, which have excellent resolution and density, and can excellently show the details and emotions of the vocals. In the actual listening experience, the vocals are clear, natural and very infectious, and both male and female voices can show their unique charm. At the same time, the midrange timbre is loose and there is no tension, making music more comfortable.
In terms of high frequency, FA19 uses two Knowles classic model SWFK-31736 to be responsible for high frequency and high frequency, the vibration frequency is extremely high, the high-frequency ductility is better than that of the moving coil unit, and the extension to 10kHz or even 20kHz is without pressure. In terms of hearing, you can clearly feel that the high-frequency details of the headphones are rich and the timbre is bright, which can show the treble part of the music excellently, making the music more transparent. Equally surprising is the FA19's resolution, with the headphones being able to bring out every detail in the music well, whether it's tiny notes or complex harmonies, all of which are clearly presented. And that makes the music sound more alive.
Finally, in terms of soundstage, the FA19 is able to create a sound field that is wide enough in both landscape and portrait to make the music sound more spatial and layered. In actual listening, you can feel that the positioning of the instrument is very accurate, and it can show every detail of the music well, making the music sound more realistic.
3 Summary
After this overall experience, FA19 has shown the quality of its flagship positioning in terms of exterior design materials, acoustic technology and wearing experience. In terms of actual sound performance, it is even more remarkable, with sufficient low-frequency volume and good elasticity, which can well show the rhythm and power of music; Mid-range vocals are clear, natural, and infectious; High-frequency details are rich and the timbre is bright, so you can clearly show the rich details in your music. In general, although its price of 6999 yuan is relatively high, from the perspective of actual experience, FiiO FA19 is undoubtedly a product in the price segment of 10,000 yuan, and it is fully competitive, for users who pursue high-quality music experience, FA19 is worth a try.