Final Heaven II In-ear Earphone Review

Could a Japanese high end brand go on to produce a bargain?

by Ed Selley
MSRP: £90.00

What is the Final Heaven II?

One of the biggest criticisms of hifi in 2014 is the massive disparity in pricing and, following on from that, the biggest focus in development, technology and actual marketing buzz is focussed at the top end. There is certainly a great deal of evidence that price disparity is incredibly wide. The cheapest new, boxed (that is to say not discontinued or ex-display) amp I am aware of at the time of writing is the Cambridge Audio Topaz AM1 which is yours for £80. At the other end of the scale, the exact pricing of the Kondo Overture is hard to pin down but it is not unreasonable to expect that you would be able to buy 500 AM1s for the price of an Overture.

Compared to earphones though, this is paddling in the shallow end. A quick peruse on Amazon reveals that a pair of AMO earphones in a very fetching purple can be yours for £1.99 - or less than most supermarket sandwiches. At the other end of this spectrum resides the Final Piano Forte X-Dynamic which is a rather more sobering £2,900. Whether or not the Final is 1,457 times better than the AMO is a question for another time - although we will be visiting a slightly less lofty level of high end earphone shortly.

What is more unusual is that away from the rarefied world of the Piano Forte (and indeed the only marginally less crazy Pandora Hope IV reviewed recently), Final is also busy producing earphones at rather more competitive price points. The Heaven IV I reviewed last year was a truly excellent all-rounder with fine build, great sound and good comfort levels (not to mention the best carry case of the year). At £170, the pricing is competitive if not at impulse buy levels. Not content with this though, Final has released the Heaven II which shaves £80 off the price of the IV but retains the all-important balanced armature drivers which makes it one of the most affordable of its type. Can the makers of ultra high-end also be recognised for a bit of a bargain?

Final Heaven II Design

Final Audio Design Heaven II
I have gone on at length in the past about the differences between dynamic driver earphones and balanced armature type designs but the distinction is an important one. Armatures operate on a completely different principle to dynamic drivers which are effectively shrunken conventional speakers. By rapidly moving the armature in a magnetic field it is possible to move a diaphragm that is in turn not dependent on air. This in turn allows for a much greater ability to fine tune and tweak the performance.

The news isn’t all good though. Armatures are more expensive than conventional dynamic drivers and tend towards having less bass extension. This means that securing a perfect seal to the outside world is absolutely vital to the performance which means that you need to supply enough rubber domes to make this work. These factors combine to mean that balanced armature earphones are rarely seen below £150 - and recently we’ve seen dynamic driver models appear at higher prices too. Of course to add to the complexity, some of the most expensive earphones revert to dynamic drivers, albeit ones that have little in common with those at saner price points.
Final Audio Design Heaven II
This makes the Heaven II unusual and rather appealing for two reasons. The first is that this is a genuine balanced armature earphone for less than £100. The second is that you have to put a fair amount of attention into why the Heaven II is £80 less than the IV. The most obvious difference is the crazy cigarette style tin that comes with the IV has been dispensed with. This is perhaps a shame in sartorial terms - there really isn’t anything else like it on the market - but it ultimately doesn’t make any difference to the sound quality.

As such, the fact that it is very hard to tell the two Heavens apart, augers rather well. The design is effectively identical with a single armature housed in a cylindrical enclosure. This features the same Balanced Air Movement (BAM) design that the IV does and has the same slightly limited but effective choice of rubber domes to try and secure a decent fit. The choice isn’t huge but the quality of the domes themselves are very good and seem to fit well in the ear canal because they deform consistently. The major visible change is that the cable of the Heaven II is a little thinner and not as pleasantly soft touch as the IV but it still seems to be well able to transfer signal and although it isn’t as resistant to tangling as the IV, it is still pretty good in this regard.
Final Audio Design Heaven II
The simplicity of the design is something that helps the Final feel like a quality product
The biggest limitations to the Final are not ones specific to the II but shared with other models in the range. Unlike much of the competition, the Final is not fitted with any form of inline remote or microphone. Final seems extremely set on this as a design decision and depending on the device that you use, it might not be a big consideration but I have to admit that I miss a remote in particular when I don’t have one. One aspect of the design that is also shared with the IV is that the II absolutely will not on any circumstances stay put in a single ear. With both buds in place it works a charm but if you habitually have one ear out, prepare to be driven crackers.

In overall build quality the Heaven II is more than competitive for the price. The metal housings are very well finished and the manner that they combine with the plastic components is excellent. The II is available in a choice of black or the more intriguing blue grey finish of the review sample, that I think looks excellent but wasn’t universally praised by other people that saw it. The simplicity of the design is something that helps the Final feel like a quality product. There is sufficiently little to the design that it feels very elegant in a way that some of the competition at the price doesn’t. £90 is not a small amount of money but only the RHA 750i manages to feel as slick as the Final does at the price.

Final Heaven II Setup

The Finals have been used with my Lenovo T530 ThinkPad, with and without a Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS. On the move, they have been used with my Nexus 5, iPad 3 and a new iPod Touch. Material used included lossless and high res FLAC, Spotify, Grooveshark, YouTube and web material as well as Netflix and other on demand services.

Final Heaven II Sound Quality

Final Audio Design Heaven II
The main reason why I have advocated armature earphones over dynamic designs despite the issues in terms of fitting and the higher costs can be summed up in one word - detail. The way that a well sorted armature earphone goes about opening out a recording and really letting you hear what is going on in it is something that even capable box loudspeakers can struggle to do. I have listened to some fine dynamic driver designs at this price point over the last few years but returning to armature earphones is still like the day after having your ears syringed - you hear things that just aren’t there on other devices.

The Final manages to deliver these attributes without breaking a sweat but like the Heaven IV it avoids the most obvious pitfalls that can come with it. The first is that the bass response- often a weakness for armatures is pretty good. Final uses a process called Balanced Air Movement to try and augment the low end of their Heaven series and it seems to work well. What is interesting is that with many of the dynamic driver competition offering - and clearly stating - augmented bass, the Final can come across as bass light but the actual response is encouragingly flat. In very noisy spaces, the enhanced bass of the competition can lend them an advantage but in terms of accuracy, the Final has them beat. As the physical design is the same as the IV, it is not too surprising to learn that the II is also less picky about a perfect fit to achieve this bass response.
Final Audio Design Heaven II
There is also the same tonal accuracy that the more expensive models manage as well. The handling of voices in particular is truly excellent and Bjorn Berge’s Blackwood is reproduced with wonderful richness and detail that is impressive for any relatively affordable earphone. What gets forgotten with regards to acoustic material is that male vocals in particular have a depth to them that requires a response to be even down to the upper bass registers. This is something that the Heaven II manages with ease and the payoff is that vocals have a scale to them which greatly aids the sense of realism.

Where the cheaper Heaven II does seem to give a little ground to the more expensive model is the top end. There is plenty of it but the IV seems to be a little more refined than the II when volume is pushed and the material is less than perfect. The Heaven II shows a little hardening and harshness when pushed but it is worth pointing out that this is at listening levels I would not encourage for long term use. This never tips over into outright stridency but there is a sense that the almost liquid smoothness of the Heaven IV has been lost in the cost savings needed to create the II.
Final Audio Design Heaven II
The handling of voices in particular is truly excellent
By the same token, it is worth pointing out that the Heaven II can achieve these volume levels because in keeping with most armature designs, it is extremely sensitive. Even the hopelessly anaemic output of the Nexus 5 can drive them to high levels and the iPad can push them to terrifying levels. This sensitivity helps to keep most headphone amps operating in their quieter area so additional hum and noise is not a big problem for them. If you are using a laptop that throws a lot of mechanical noise onto the headphone output, this is a very useful thing even if the detail retrieval of the Final can do a capable job of highlighting this noise if you aren’t careful. Some tests with the sensibly priced Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS produced a combination that offers excellent volume with next to no background noise so if you have a truly terrible headphone out, this could be ideal.

Some tests with on demand film and video suggest that the Final is a good partner for this as well although the greater low end heft of some dynamic driver models can make action sequences sound a little more exciting. Equally, if you are trying to follow dialogue (and is it just me or is there a lot of muttering in modern dramas?), the Final’s peerless detail retrieval manages to make the incomprehensible come across as a little more intelligible. If this is going to be the major reason you will use earphones, the Final might not the perfect choice but it would be fine for periodic use.

Conclusion

Pros

  • Detailed and believable sound
  • Comfortable
  • Well Finished

Cons

  • No mic or remote
  • Can harden up at high volume
  • Less effective for film & TV

Final Heaven II In-ear Earphone Review

The choice of earphones at roughly £100 is vast - it seems to be a psychological break point for discretionary spending. The arrival of another make into the mix is not going to change the world at a stroke but I would argue that the Final Heaven II is a significant addition to the choices open to customers. This is a beautifully implemented balanced armature earphone that faces off against dynamic drivers and whatever it loses in absolute bass response it gains in superb detail and excellent tonality. Some people may miss a remote and microphone and the performance with bombastic action films might be a little less weighty than rivals but for sheer musical pleasure, this is among the best ways you can possibly spend £90.

Scores

Build Quality

.
.
8

Ease of Use

.
.
8

Sound Quality

.
9

Design

.
.
8

Sensitivity

.
9

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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