Emily Dickinson once said that “progress is a comfortable disease.” When I read that, it means to me that the “progress” society makes in some areas often comes at a cost that is detrimental to what was. In this case, we’re talking about audio quality and Bluetooth earbuds. With them, the “progress” was consumers benefiting from: wireless connectivity, active noise canceling, water resistance, AI-powered smart features, and convenience.
What did we lose, though, and is yesterday’s tech worth resurrecting? To find out, I dumped the earbuds I’ve been living with most recently, Sony’s excellent WF-1000XM6, and picked up Final Audio’s recently launched $80 A2000 in-ear monitors (IEMs).
What have I learned from the last three weeks using wired IEMs as my daily carry audio and communications device? Let’s talk about it!
But why, though?
As good as aptX and LDAC Bluetooth codecs can be, they just don’t compare one-to-one with a wired connection. Generally speaking, wired connections are a better choice for almost any technology. Wi-Fi versus Ethernet cable is another example of that.
With wired audio connections, you’re going to expand that soundstage, have a more consistent chance to discover details in songs that you may have been missing, and never have to worry about charging the earbuds or headphones before a gym session, or packing a charger if you go on vacation.
Why? Ultimately, because they consistently sound better, and there’s no battery to worry about.
My test subject(s)
Final Audio was releasing their new budget IEMs, the A2000, for $80, and reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in reviewing them. I accepted, but thought I’d do something different, which spawned this article. Much like the Sony WF-1000XM6 that I put on the shelf for them, the A2000 has a sizeable soundstage, delicious dynamics, delightful detail retrieval, punchy mids, sparkling treble, and fairly tight, blooming booming bass.
“Much like” is an important distinction because, though the A2000 is like the XM6 with regard to sound, it improves upon that in every way possible. The Final Audio A2000 comes with four pairs of silicone eartips, including the pre-installed pair. You get a 3.5mm right-angle-terminated, 1.2m-long oxygen-free copper (OFC) cable that also comes with two clip-on earhooks.
The A2000 bodies are more stylish than the XM6. You get a two-tone ABS plastic shell that is black on the outside, with a Japanese-style Shibo (translation: wrinkled paper) coating that resists fingerprints and adds texture.
The inner part is a vibrant blue, but the most important inner part — the speaker in each — is Final’s f-Core DU dynamic driver, along with all the sound-producing internals made in-house by Final — something you don’t see often.
Those shells connect to the included braided OFC cable via standard 2-pin connectors, so you can easily swap the included cable for another one, depending on your use case.
My experience: Trading the Sony WF-1000XM6 for the Final Audio A2000
You’re likely very used to the convenience of Bluetooth earbuds, and with good reason. There are no cables, so you can just pop them in your ears and keep it moving! And with transparency modes, technically, you’d only ever need to take them out of your ears to charge them. Being used to all that convenience is going to require you to make some changes, going back to wired earbuds.
It took me about a week to adjust to hanging my wired earbuds around my neck when they weren’t in my ears. Not that they weren’t comfortable, but there’s no “pass-through audio” to allow me to carry on conversations with them in my ears.
Also, I have an older car, so no Bluetooth or USB-A connectivity, which means hanging them around my neck when I drive, or keeping one in my ear for phone calls during my commute.
With wireless earbuds, you just remove them from your ears when needed and place them in their case. Now, you’ll have wires to contend with, and unlike the WF-1000XM6 in their case, wired IEMs won’t fit into the coin pocket of your pants.
However, what I gave up in convenience, I gained in superior sound quality. Music always sounds great with the Final A2000 IEMs, and it isn’t affected by wind or other atmospheric conditions that can make Bluetooth connections unstable. I was never worried about whether I had placed them on their charger the night before, or how much charge they had when I went to the gym. And being connected to wires, I never feared losing them.
The A2000s punch above their $80 price point, delivering sound that is bright in the upper midrange, so vocals, podcast voices, and cinematic dialogue all sound crisp. The elements of some tracks teeter on sibilant, as there’s definitely some lift in the upper treble, but my guess is they’re tuned like that to give a stronger sense of detail than the $80 price tag belies.
Bass has solid weight to it and isn’t mushy, while transient sounds are handled pretty well, all things considered! Many costlier pairs of Bluetooth earbuds will struggle to match the overall audio fidelity of the Final A2000.
As good as aptX Lossless and LDAC are, there’s just a live quality to music that is often missing when you compare it to the wired playback of well-engineered, high-quality audio files. That said, going back to wired is only going to be for certain people:
- Those not wanting to spend $200-$300 semi-annually for the latest Bluetooth tech, but want something with a longer useful life than an earbud’s rechargeable batteries.
- Music lovers. If audio fidelity matters, and I don’t think it truly does for many consumers, you’ll want wired IEMs instead of Bluetooth if you can get past the lack of convenience that Bluetooth offers.
Wrapping up the experience, most folks don’t pay attention to battery estimates, which always show that the battery life of earbuds is significantly reduced when compared to using them mostly for audio playback. For example, the Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds I switched out have an estimated five hours of “continuous communication time” with noise canceling on, but that number jumps to eight hours for all other uses.
So, if you spend a lot of time making voice calls, wired earbuds may be a much better choice for you.
“You’ve got to COORDINATE!!”
As good as Final’s A2000 sounds, the IEMs aren’t specifically designed to ease the transition back to wired carrying, so you’ll need a microphone. Fortunately, there are some good options on the market for replacement cables with two-pin connectors and inline microphones. Even Sennheiser offers a microphone-cable upgrade for its IEM series, such as the venerable IE900 that I reviewed, and there are options from other brands as well.
I already have a few mobile DACs at my disposal, and the PR rep from JackRabbit Media, who arranged the Final A2000 review, also sent me modular cables from Dekoni’s Audio Ensemble collection. The combination of the two made my transition back to wired everyday carry a bit easier.
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The Dekoni cables have been a godsend, allowing me to connect to the DAC of my choosing, or one of their own, by simply twisting the lower half of the cable connector, then twisting on the cable ends I want to use.
I found myself coming back to one of their modular ends terminated in a USB-C DAC, which supports up to 32-bit/384kHz DSD256, and at times, I switched to another end terminated in a 3.5mm connection, which I used to connect to the excellent Questyle M18i, which has a microphone on it that is better than most Bluetooth earbuds.
I also used this opportunity to test a wireless connection when necessary with the high-quality iFi GO blu Air Bluetooth DAC, which comes with a magnetically attached clip (and those magnets are strong!) and has a great microphone.
Final thoughts
For tinkerers, one of the most compelling realizations I walked away with was that instead of buying a Bluetooth earpiece and learning it, you can literally build your own ideal everyday carry audio setup. You can buy IEMs based on your budget or level of music appreciation, and if you want to keep things simple, some options include a microphone cable.
And if you want, you can pick up one of the great mobile DACs that bridges the gap between Bluetooth earpieces and wired IEMs, like the iFi GO blu, which can be used both wired and wirelessly, unlike the GO blu Air, which is designed for wireless use only.
Big sound, “little” price
Solid build quality, bright treble, good bass response, and a price tag that’s easier on the wallet, Final Audio’s new A2000 IEMs provide an entertaining listen! Complete with almost everything you need to start your wired journey, they’re worth a look.