We are now reviewing FiiO FD1, FiiO is in the among of the most solid brands of the Far-East. What makes this IEM so special? FD1 is one of the first Beryllium Drivered in ear monitor. Well, it’s beryllium plated but FiiO bring this element to the in ear monitors. Thanks to HES Audio for sending this review unit!
Box, Unboxing, Driver and Cable
Box is black and simple. FD1’s picture on front cover, Hi-Res logo on top right corner, FD1 writing on bottom left. On the back there’s only minimal text. Box opens from side just like book cover which is new trend. Earpieces buried in cardboard, thick black cardboard on bottom. In the box; under the black handbook (EN/CN), there’s a Fiio HB1 Waterproof Case and eartips wrapped in nylon, never seen this before. Cable lies under the drivers. That’s the box contents.
Earpieces looks like (but consist of 3 pieces) 3D printed and in a curved shape for ergonomy and aesthetics. Logo on the blue or black earpieces, inside is clear so you can see what’s inside. I wish nozzle, back and trunk would be one piece. Cable is 4 core, densely braided, and polished. Y split piece is metal, there’s FiiO writing on it and have chin slider. Also strain reliefs are nice too.
- 10mm Beryllium plated dynamic driver unit.
- N50 Two-Way Magnetic Circuit.
- Balanced pressure relief technology.
- Celluloid faceplates.
- 4-Strands High-purity single crystalline copper cable.
- Frequency response range: 10Hz-40kHz.
- Sensitivity: 109dB/mW.
- Impedance: 32Ohms.
- 0.78mm 2-pin connectors.
- 3.5mm termination plug.
- HB1 Carry case.
- Hi-Res Audio Certification.
FiiO FD1 – Sound
Sound nature is serious and shape is balanced. On metal music, it’s not like bass-oriented headphone, since it’s laid back sounding, things happens on front of you BUT tracks that complex backgrounded like Slipknot-Solway Firth; delay effect behind vocal, drums, gutars can be separately audible. But only in this track, stage depth suffers little bit. Drums are not much overshadowed by vocals. In Electronic music, it’s like thunder! But on bass drop moment, those ears heard better that shakes. After turning down the tempo, an Elvis Presley classic In The Ghetto clearly hearable bass guitar and back vocal ladies on stage, strings and drums on the left and right. On one of the mad lads of music history Zappa’s Dancin’ Fool is just like Presley’s; stage is wide and controlled like listening on open-back headphones.
Detail level is high but since it’s nature is soft, microdetails aren’t much high
Bass, Mid, Treble
Bass is suprising and FD1 showed it’s sub-bass performance with this track. Without amplification, sub-bass does not reach down lower frequencies but does shows its presence. There’s plenty of bass. They are not edgy but not soft either, also does not bleed into other frequencies. On dubstep, it does not shake but there’s presence of sub bass bursts.
For midrange, we have to knock Muddy Waters’s door. While stage locating is good, Waters’s mellow and weary voice sounds clear as the dark atmosphere. Drums and guitar behind him. Even you can clearly hear each notation. And in Ozdemir Erdogan, you may reach to musical nirvana. Especially in Kafkas song, you can feel every instrument with FiiO FD1.
On treble, cymbals and bells does not pierce your ear (reference: Oldfield – Tubular Bells). And it’s not restricted with this track, it’s smooth on the other tracks too. It tames treble well. And just like other frequencies it’s easy to hear notation differences. As you see in the Hans Zimmer tracks, while instrument separation is really good, treble does not sharply excels.
Fiio FD1 Review – Conclusion
While we come to conclusion on this review, FiiO FD1 sounds 60 dark over 100 and does have better control and balance without amplification. That being said laid back sounding that does not exhaust in long listening sessions and makes you listen for hours easily. FiiO FD1 is latest tech Beryllium plated Dynamic driver in ear monitor. It’s good that it sounds really good without amplification too. But with amplification; bass sounds slappier, guitars starts shredding, layering and imaging increases, textures becomes more realistic and instruments comes alive. Because of that i recommend to drive FD1 with (even it’s portable or not) amp. To check out other FiiOs we reviewed, click here.