Final Audio Design Adagio II Review

Hi Everyone,



just want to have a share of experience with you guys about my recently new bought earphone, it’s from Final Audio Design Adagio II.

When I stumble across this brand from the audio store, it shocked me. “What the hell is this brand? I had never heard before”
*I was looking at Shure or Sennheiser that time after god knows how long on review reading.

I quickly do some research on the brand through internet, sadly not much information provided, and most of them are written in japs.

After some intensive couple of hours listening and comparing between Shure,Sennheiser, klipsch and  jays,  I finally play my bet and place money on the table for this new baby.

Well, I’m no pure audiophile music listener, so my music collection mostly on everything, modern pop, R&B, metal, acoustic, vocal, smooth jazz etc..  hopefully my review will be readable for everyone.

In this review I will be using Ipod Classic direct use with earphone, no EQ will be set as I want to keep the sound as original as possible.

 

Packaging & Accessories


The package comes with one earphone and 3 sizes of sleeve, I was pretty skeptical when first purchase due to without any casing or pouch, however the audio store kindly gave me a hard case, so I was quickly forgot about this issue, since it won’t really matters whether the package comes with case or without, as I experienced some earphone in the market offer much expensive price doesn’t come with case too.
The box doesn't consist anything remarkable, just bunch of “you know me, I don’t know you” Japanese words
The sleeves come with Large, Medium and Small size, they fit pretty well in my ear and provide great isolation too. Finally it comes with a warranty card full of japs.



Design & Build Quality & Fit

*Picture credited to tokayaki


Pretty unique design I would say, simple and elegant, especially the “Final” word on the housing, clean and outstanding.
At the end of the housing, it is the design of vented sort of airplane engine, I believe it might be the design required for their sounding.
Anyway, it looks fun on the earphone, at least won’t be dull and too fancy for my liking.




 Build Quality is acceptable, the cord is thin, but I wouldn’t complain much as it’s made for portable usage, I don’t expect a thick and stiff cord for my over-ear usage.
Plastic housing for lighter weight design which quite similar with other earphones I tried in the store, as heavy metallic housing might cause weight problem.
Cord Slider provided for more firm earphone usage, which kind of standard for the manufacturer
nowadays. The cord which connect to the earphone have slight angle different instead of straight line, so it shouldn't cause any disturbance when you want to insert deeply
 

Fitting is pretty personal, as I have a “standard” ear canal size (I wouldn’t imagine what is the means of “not standardize”), medium eartip suit my ear pretty well, and provide total isolation when the music is on, very minimal sound leakage spotted with the help from my friend (which he stick very close to my ear and listen), mainly due to the “vented” “open” air design for the earphone which able to enhance the sounding experience. However, it wouldn’t cause much disturbance to the person right next to you, as it’s not a huge diaphragm open air headphone.
  
I love the material of the tips, it is soft yet sit firm in my ear, with long hours of listening (2-4), I’m still able to sustain it inside my ear without much pain caused.
As the tips are presented in oval shape, so I still can fit in perfectly in position without squeezing hard with the feel of raping my ear canal.

All right, Decent build quality, standard accessories provided, awesome comfortable fitting,  here comes the sound impression.



Music Impression

First Song – Without you from David Guetta (feat. Usher)

In the first part of music, I like the way how Adagio II handle the music, I was shocked by the open sound staging of the earphone, feels like listening the music from open save,  personally I don’t like constrain sound, it just doesn’t sound comfortable to me.
Music instrument sounded pretty decent, I don’t get any sharp bright sounding towards my ear, and controllability is amazing, I get the instrument note hit clean and relaxing.
With the vocal comes in, it is natural and clear, I can feel the singer whispers directly to me. It is dynamic and smooth to my ear, I get the live element inject to my ears, high treble has nice control, however there are slight sibilance on some notes which I spotted. However from other users, with longer burn in, it will reduce the sibilance.
When the bass part kicks in, you will get amaze by the bass quality and quantity. It is tight, punchy, adequate amount and blend very well with the speed and pace. I like the way of impact from adagio II, it has a direct hit and deep presentation.

I like the synergy feeling with this combo; it has nice mid high presentation for the instrument and vocal, good mid low, low bass transition during the music.
Surprisingly it’s able to keep up the pace of the music despite the sound staging, I’m able to enjoy the music through the end without feeling any bit of boring in the song.     

Separation is decent, I wouldn’t say it has the best, but sufficient for the music, there are some overlaps but is tolerable for me.


Second Song -  We are Young from fun.

In first part, drum hits are outstanding, easy for your ear and still can feel the drum roll and feel, the texture of the drum is persistent, decay and speed matched very well, every hits just stand firm inside the music, there is no airy effect cover up.
Vocal is superb, natural, clean, dynamic and forward, I feel engaged by the music, very analog and able to present the feeling of singer to me,  personally I hate flat and cold vocal, which I couldn’t experience the musicality of the song.
Separation is pretty decent here as I mentioned on point above.  I’m still able get a clear distinguish between drum, vocal, piano, and they mixed in so well, which I get the flow of the music, everything just work fine in their way without much conflict.     

In the middle part, the transparency is slight lose out which makes the music don’t positioned very well.



Conclusion:
Treble : 4.5/5
Good handle and control, personally I don’t feel sharp bright or squeaky in the earphone, however there is slight sibilance, but totally tolerable for me, as long it doesn’t  affect my listening.
Transition is good, vocal won’t feel squeezy to the top and smooth presentation, I’m able to feel the dynamic and synergy straight to the top end, dull and boring is not an option in this earphone, as it doesn’t link to flat sounding.

Mids : 4/5
Nice smooth, warm and thick. Airiness can enhance even more live experience inside the music. Vocal, guitar, instruments sounded precisely, very organic sound generated.  Slight recessed on mid, however every frequency chain able to present toward as balance as possible in this earphone.

Bass : 5/5
Impactful, accurate, punchy. If you like bass a lot, this earphone able to provide the bass quality and quantity that you never imagine. It provides the decent amount of quantity for certain music, but still maintain a tight and strength bass. With the dynamic driver in status, it offer much more deeper bass, straight to your heart feeling.

In the price of Rm200+, this earphone could really outshine lots of earphone in the same range, despite the brand which people don’t aware of, they are doing damn good job for their product, I believe it is time for them to create more opportunity and awareness to the market to make it famous.