Final Audio Piano Forte II - A short review

Heyo!

So sorry for the delay, I promised to have at least a review each week, but seem I broke it.
Today review will seem pretty unexpected, it was a free gift my friend when he bought a bundle set from Jaben Malaysia.

It’s from one of my favorite brand, Final Audio Design, Piano Forte II model. Surprisingly, this earbud is their cheapest model in product line, however Piano Forte series is their top end category.

I did have a quick go through on google for all relevant reviews, what I get was positive + negative impressions spreading around, so I decided to give it a go, considering myself recognize deep enough on final audio product signature.

Packaging & Accessories

Horrible I would say, you can expect it is exactly from Adagio II and III, no accessories (I do expect there will be replacement foam) or case included, are they cutting cost on production? Once again, bunch of kanji that I wouldn’t bother to read them, so I’m going to skip the packaging & accessories part.

Design & fitting

it is weird, this is the first time ever I saw this type of design on an earbud. Tradition design such as apple earbud, or Yuin PK series, it would have flat surface, however in PFII, the sound reproduction has a different “technique”.
It has a kind of “tube” extend out from the flat surface, and curve base on ear canal design. Besides, there are holes exist at the surface from front and behind, it is actually a sound tuning air vent, if you try and cover those holes, the sound will become awful. I believe it might be their Horn speaker technology tuning eh?
Fitting is a bit awkward,  if you have pretty small canal like me, don’t expect a clean comfortable fitting like Apple Earbud, sticking out is natural in this earbud, shoving all the way in is not required.
At first few hours are pretty bad experience on the fitting, after few days, everything seem went fine and I’m able to wear for couple of hours without feeling any pain induced.

Sound Impression

Yes, sound impression, the most important part, and I always forgot to include my burn in time from previous reviews.
Ok, I did a 200 hours burn in, pretty high consider a “review” unit, actually PFII now become my daily casual earphone, when I was in a tension working hours with lots of phone call, this will be my savior.

Music I use:
Christina Perri – A Thousand Years
Michael Buble(Meets Madison Square Garden) – Feeling Good (Live version)
Sara K – Vincent
Damien Rice – Blower’s Daughter

Vocal, I do believe this earbud can perform well in this section, and hey they did!

Summary of Final Audio Design Piano Forte II Sound Signature
*Musical
*Emotional
*Forward
*Open airy sound
*Average soundstage
*Smooth
*Bass shy
*Compressed High

This earbud is amazing, I did have a summarize on the signatures, it is pretty well balanced with nice mid, forward yet controlled.
The treble has slight roll off on the top end, which makes mid high to high transition sounded a bit veil.
Mid is superb, as expected from FAD product, musical, sweet, forward and smooth, you get the purity and emotion of a singer, airy and open effect really does make the song presented is peaceful and live effect.
Bass level is shy, as always, earbud + FAD; you wouldn’t expect a tremendous bass pump into your ears. Treat it as a clean and relaxing earphone, no harsh and critical listening needed for you to enjoy.
I do recommend for vocal lovers, this can surprises you, but don’t anticipate PFII will goes well with fast R&B pop or trance, they sounded messy and annoying.
Average staging, kind of towards grado signature, off course without the aggressive and fast impact, think of an easy version of grado headphone.
Does it worth it? The retail at RM199 from Jaben website, since I got it for free, I can’t put a conclusion on that.