This is a Review of Fidue A71 dual driver HiFi in-ear headphones. http://penonaudio.com/FIDUE-A71
Fresh off review of Fidue flagship triple driver hybrid A83, I gave my ears some rest and jumped right back into a testing of their latest dual driver A71 model. To say that I'm a fan of Fidue design and sound tuning would be an understatement. These guys continue to impress me with every new pair of IEMs I get a chance to review (A31s, A63, A83, and now A71). Every pair of headphones feels like a little masterpiece Benny Tan and his team crafted in their Fidue lab, and A71 is no exception. Not quite sure about significance of their incremental model numbering, but it feels like every model occupies its own flagship space. Here is what I found after spending some time with A71.
Packaging of A71 follows their typical black and green theme, and you can find a lot of useful info by taking a tour around the box while reading highlights of the design and the sound signature (always found to be honest and accurate without marketing hype), detailed technical specification, and background history behind the company. It never seize to amaze me how much pride Fidue takes in their product and wants to share about their company. Under the box cover you find a foam cutout with headphones hard shell zippered case and A71 in a display setting. Included accessories are very basic with S/M/L pairs of single flange narrow bore tips, two pairs of double flange tips, and a pair of foam tips. As I mentioned above, a nice zippered case was included but I wish it would have a been a bit large since packing headphones with a memory wire is a PITA in a tight space.
Headphones comes with a slim textured straight 3.5mm gold plated plug with "A71" model marking. Slim nature of the plug will work with any DAP/amp or smartphone case and a durable strain relief is a big plus. Cable between the plug and y-splitter is a bit thicker but still very flexible and easy to manage. Y-splitter has a matching design as a plug and also comes with an excellent strain relief on both sides, including a small rubber chin slider going toward earpieces. That part of the cable after the split is a little bit thinner in comparison to the common cable part, but still durable and with a similar soft rubber shielding. The wiring of the cable is 7N OFC (99.99999% purity), not silver-plated but still with a high quality. Also, microphonics was down to minimum, especially when you move chin slider up to secure cables in a closer position.
Earpiece design has a rather large barrel shape and probably going to generate some polarizing opinion. I'm personally not a big fan of memory wires, but with my ear shape and preferred fitment - I found them to be quite welcome. The only drawback is that unlike other headphones that just go in your ear without any fiddling, here I had to spend a few extra seconds adjusting the memory wire with every single insertion. Though not removable, the molded plastic strain relief and the memory wire itself makes up for one heck of a sturdy design which I definitely appreciate! Due to a large size of the barrel, the earpiece was sticking out a bit from my ears, but still I was able to get a decent seal and after tip rolling actually settled down on my usual go-to UE900 tips with medium bore opening I use on bass-enhanced IEMs (more about it later). I guess the explanation for such earpiece shape comes from Fidue's description of partitioned acoustic chamber to host 10mm woofer and 6.8mm titanium dynamic drivers. I also found a small pinhole air-port opening at the base of the nozzle.
When it comes to a sound, I didn't spend too much time analyzing it out of the box knowing these are dual dynamic drivers that will settle down for sure after 20+ hrs of free air burn in (I never trust my brain burn in during actual listening). Though I started with included narrow bore tips, I quickly realized these contributed to a bit of a high frequency attenuation which I wanted to bring back, and successfully accomplished that by switching to UE900 medium bore tips that opened up sound more with a better balance between low and high frequencies. Sound testing was done straight out of HO of X5 which I found to be sufficient enough to drive A71 without any problem. As a matter of fact, I was able to drive A71 with any source.
The sound signature/tonality of Fidue A71 is a warm balanced sound with emphasis on mid-bass. Starting with a low end, you get a decent sub-bass extension down to a rumbling layer with a rich texture and a fast punchy mid-bass. Sounds like a typical description for a lot of basshead IEMs, except here Fidue was able to pull an amazing balance between sub-bass and mid-bass without turning it into a muddy bloat! I wouldn't call these basshead IEMs, but to my ears they will definitely satisfy anybody with an extra craving for bass! At the same time, there is a little bit of spillage into lower mids, but it's done in a very tasteful way to add full body thickness to midrange.
Mids also have a perfect balance with a bass which is so rare in bass enhanced IEMs where manufacturers like to implement fun v-shaped tuning. Here mids didn't feel recessed at all! They sound very smooth and musical, and with support from lower mids have a full body sound. Vocals are lush and flow smoothly with a natural tonality, and still have plenty of clarity and details!!! Treble doesn't extend as far, but still very clear and smooth, though not as crisp. There is no sign of sibilance and as a matter of fact the sound is perfect for extended non-fatigue listening. I found soundstage to be rather wide and deep, definitely above the average. Also, imaging was excellent but separation was just good where I felt like extra thickness/warmth made a sound to be a bit congested in some of the songs.
With this being a dual dynamic driver design geared more toward an enhanced bass, I couldn't wait to compare it to a few other of my dynamic IEMs. One thing I found in common, A71 made them all sound having a lighter bass and a thinner mids. In particular, VSD3 bass was a little lighter and thinner, and mids sounded thinner/brighter and even harsher in comparison, while treble was crispier with a bit more extension. IM50 felt like it had less sub-bass but a bit faster/stronger mid-bass punch, mids were thinner and more forward, and treble crispier. T1E sounded really pale in comparison where bass was less detailed and even sounding veiled, mids more recessed and less detailed, while treble being similar. B3P1 had a leaner bass with less bloat and more details, but also less quantity, mids sounding thinner and brighter and treble being crispier and more detailed. KC06A had less sub-bass, and mids were thinner and harsher, while treble was more extended.
Overall, this was another great release from Fidue team where they continue to explore new sound signatures, tuning it to a perfection to stand out from a crowd! From the moment I read the cover of the box where they mentioned "sub-woofer", I knew right away these will be bass oriented IEMs. But their ability to deliver a perfectly balanced upper mids with a high quality of vocals and a wide soundstage really sets them apart from all other v-shaped fun headphones that follow a standard tuning formula. If you want analytical smooth sound with a great bass texture, A83 will be hard to beat. But if you are craving a high quality bass and don't want to compromise on the clarity and details of your mids - A71 will be a tough act to follow!!!
Here are the pictures.
Fresh off review of Fidue flagship triple driver hybrid A83, I gave my ears some rest and jumped right back into a testing of their latest dual driver A71 model. To say that I'm a fan of Fidue design and sound tuning would be an understatement. These guys continue to impress me with every new pair of IEMs I get a chance to review (A31s, A63, A83, and now A71). Every pair of headphones feels like a little masterpiece Benny Tan and his team crafted in their Fidue lab, and A71 is no exception. Not quite sure about significance of their incremental model numbering, but it feels like every model occupies its own flagship space. Here is what I found after spending some time with A71.
Packaging of A71 follows their typical black and green theme, and you can find a lot of useful info by taking a tour around the box while reading highlights of the design and the sound signature (always found to be honest and accurate without marketing hype), detailed technical specification, and background history behind the company. It never seize to amaze me how much pride Fidue takes in their product and wants to share about their company. Under the box cover you find a foam cutout with headphones hard shell zippered case and A71 in a display setting. Included accessories are very basic with S/M/L pairs of single flange narrow bore tips, two pairs of double flange tips, and a pair of foam tips. As I mentioned above, a nice zippered case was included but I wish it would have a been a bit large since packing headphones with a memory wire is a PITA in a tight space.
Headphones comes with a slim textured straight 3.5mm gold plated plug with "A71" model marking. Slim nature of the plug will work with any DAP/amp or smartphone case and a durable strain relief is a big plus. Cable between the plug and y-splitter is a bit thicker but still very flexible and easy to manage. Y-splitter has a matching design as a plug and also comes with an excellent strain relief on both sides, including a small rubber chin slider going toward earpieces. That part of the cable after the split is a little bit thinner in comparison to the common cable part, but still durable and with a similar soft rubber shielding. The wiring of the cable is 7N OFC (99.99999% purity), not silver-plated but still with a high quality. Also, microphonics was down to minimum, especially when you move chin slider up to secure cables in a closer position.
Earpiece design has a rather large barrel shape and probably going to generate some polarizing opinion. I'm personally not a big fan of memory wires, but with my ear shape and preferred fitment - I found them to be quite welcome. The only drawback is that unlike other headphones that just go in your ear without any fiddling, here I had to spend a few extra seconds adjusting the memory wire with every single insertion. Though not removable, the molded plastic strain relief and the memory wire itself makes up for one heck of a sturdy design which I definitely appreciate! Due to a large size of the barrel, the earpiece was sticking out a bit from my ears, but still I was able to get a decent seal and after tip rolling actually settled down on my usual go-to UE900 tips with medium bore opening I use on bass-enhanced IEMs (more about it later). I guess the explanation for such earpiece shape comes from Fidue's description of partitioned acoustic chamber to host 10mm woofer and 6.8mm titanium dynamic drivers. I also found a small pinhole air-port opening at the base of the nozzle.
When it comes to a sound, I didn't spend too much time analyzing it out of the box knowing these are dual dynamic drivers that will settle down for sure after 20+ hrs of free air burn in (I never trust my brain burn in during actual listening). Though I started with included narrow bore tips, I quickly realized these contributed to a bit of a high frequency attenuation which I wanted to bring back, and successfully accomplished that by switching to UE900 medium bore tips that opened up sound more with a better balance between low and high frequencies. Sound testing was done straight out of HO of X5 which I found to be sufficient enough to drive A71 without any problem. As a matter of fact, I was able to drive A71 with any source.
The sound signature/tonality of Fidue A71 is a warm balanced sound with emphasis on mid-bass. Starting with a low end, you get a decent sub-bass extension down to a rumbling layer with a rich texture and a fast punchy mid-bass. Sounds like a typical description for a lot of basshead IEMs, except here Fidue was able to pull an amazing balance between sub-bass and mid-bass without turning it into a muddy bloat! I wouldn't call these basshead IEMs, but to my ears they will definitely satisfy anybody with an extra craving for bass! At the same time, there is a little bit of spillage into lower mids, but it's done in a very tasteful way to add full body thickness to midrange.
Mids also have a perfect balance with a bass which is so rare in bass enhanced IEMs where manufacturers like to implement fun v-shaped tuning. Here mids didn't feel recessed at all! They sound very smooth and musical, and with support from lower mids have a full body sound. Vocals are lush and flow smoothly with a natural tonality, and still have plenty of clarity and details!!! Treble doesn't extend as far, but still very clear and smooth, though not as crisp. There is no sign of sibilance and as a matter of fact the sound is perfect for extended non-fatigue listening. I found soundstage to be rather wide and deep, definitely above the average. Also, imaging was excellent but separation was just good where I felt like extra thickness/warmth made a sound to be a bit congested in some of the songs.
With this being a dual dynamic driver design geared more toward an enhanced bass, I couldn't wait to compare it to a few other of my dynamic IEMs. One thing I found in common, A71 made them all sound having a lighter bass and a thinner mids. In particular, VSD3 bass was a little lighter and thinner, and mids sounded thinner/brighter and even harsher in comparison, while treble was crispier with a bit more extension. IM50 felt like it had less sub-bass but a bit faster/stronger mid-bass punch, mids were thinner and more forward, and treble crispier. T1E sounded really pale in comparison where bass was less detailed and even sounding veiled, mids more recessed and less detailed, while treble being similar. B3P1 had a leaner bass with less bloat and more details, but also less quantity, mids sounding thinner and brighter and treble being crispier and more detailed. KC06A had less sub-bass, and mids were thinner and harsher, while treble was more extended.
Overall, this was another great release from Fidue team where they continue to explore new sound signatures, tuning it to a perfection to stand out from a crowd! From the moment I read the cover of the box where they mentioned "sub-woofer", I knew right away these will be bass oriented IEMs. But their ability to deliver a perfectly balanced upper mids with a high quality of vocals and a wide soundstage really sets them apart from all other v-shaped fun headphones that follow a standard tuning formula. If you want analytical smooth sound with a great bass texture, A83 will be hard to beat. But if you are craving a high quality bass and don't want to compromise on the clarity and details of your mids - A71 will be a tough act to follow!!!
Here are the pictures.
