u/JoshBiv

I’ve posted quite a few times in this sub but I’ve come full circle so to speak.

I’m a musician but long story short my first “audiophile” headphones were the final audio ZE3000 Bluetooth earbuds that I bought back in 2023 & it made me realise how muddy & v shaped my sennheiser momentum earbuds were. Then I tested the final audio A5000 wired IEMs & I remember the first song I played was Paramore the only except & the guitar was rendered so beautifully, I decided to buy the A5000 as well.

I used the ZE3000 & A5000 for 3 years until the next A Series iem got released which was the A6000 & I ended up passing my A5000 to my best mate. I eventually fell down the rabbit hole & somehow accumulated 20 pairs of IEMs, ranging from $200-$1000 etc… & even bought an open back pair for my computer which was the Fiio FT1 Pro

Eventually, I gave the majority of my audio gear to friends & family as I felt like there was no need to have that many, and I didn’t listen to all of them lol.

Now In 2026 I use the newly released Final Audio Tonalite Bluetooth earbuds & still have my Final Audio A6000! Other two I kept is the Xenns Tea Pro SE IEMs & FT1 Pro for my pc

But it’s strange how I started my audiophile journey with the Final ZE3000 Bluetooth earbuds for the gym/ every day use & the A5000 IEMs. Now In 2026 I use the Final audio Tonalite Bluetooth earbuds & A6000 IEMs

Yes, I know I’m kinda yapping but Hope you enjoy my Ted talk & I love final & I’m from New Zealand haha

I was at the mall taking my mum grocery shopping & these guys the ones that stand asking for donations on behalf of a “charity”

I was walking by & happened to approach them as one of my mates used to do that job so I understand the gist. They asked me questions like do you know what’s the leading cause of child death around the globe? I was like I’m guessing it’s hunger right? They were like yeah & our job is that we help children around the world get food.

For reference I was born in nz but I’m East African, the guy probably assumed based off my skin colour that I’m African & he was like we also help in Ethiopia too. He had a map on his iPad of countries they help so I went straight to east Africa to look for my country Burundi.

I was like looking around Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia etc… which they do “help” but I checked my country Burundi & noticed nothing 😂 I was like you guys don’t help Burundi ? They’re like hmmm apparently not.

I was like it’s kinda ironic that my country is of the poorest countries in the world based on the global ranking but you guys don’t help there. He goes well I can understand that, maybe the government over there doesn’t want our help.

Then he tried to say for just $1 a day then you jump on a subscription for $30 a month. I was like I already got family back in Africa asking me for money why would I commit to a subscription 😂 he’s like well maybe next time you see us again we’ll have Burundi on our list.

My most used iem this year was the Xenns Tea Pro SE. That tuning on that thing is like crack idk what they did but the tonality & tech is insane.

The iem I regretted buying is the Yu9 Que. I fell for the hype & at first it wowed me but the more I listened the more I started to dislike it. I’m thinking of giving it away to one of my friends as a gift or something

My 27” 1440p gaming monitor broke while moving house so I decided to upgrade to a benQ 27” 4K monitor. It had arc over hdmi so you can add a soundbar to the monitor which is interesting as well as 65w usb c etc… it mentions about the headphone port but most of the time I just ignore it since I know most of these dacs in computers or monitors are usually trash.

I have a Fiio QX13 dac/ amp which is enough to power all my iems & my Fiio FT1 Pro open back headphone. I decided to plug my ft1 pro into the benQ monitor & it had a bunch of presets regarding the headphone & volume etc… as well as high or low gain. I just kept everything on standard or normal I guess & I put on Apple Music lossless & It was actually really good.

I did some research & apparently it’s using a ESS DAC Chip. I haven’t tested it with my iems as I’m more of a an iem person compared to headphones

Let’s discuss in the comments

I guess this debate has been going on for a long time now

I used to use my pair of iems quite a bit, on the bus, late at night in bed, when I’m in the studio working on music etc… but now tbh I hardly use my iems, I’ve got two pairs now that I rotate between but atm I mostly just listen to my Bluetooth earbuds especially in the gym.

I’ve been locked in with the gym & I find that Bluetooth isn’t really
a bottleneck nowadays you just gotta find one that suits your preferences. People will say Bluetooth is tuned like trash or is bass bloated but even as of recently there’s Bluetooth earbuds offering micro planar & BA drivers now although I haven’t tried any of those like the ones from noble audio & a few other brands.

For my computer I do have over-ear pair but tbh depending on the day since I record content I may use my iems or headphones.

Recently tho I was going through a lot & I just took my Fiio Qx13 dac with my iems, plugged into my iphone just went to the beach & wrote some poetry was a pretty great experience.

I shoot portrait photos & I was gonna do a photo book but then I thought about framing a couple of my favourite images in my office. I asked the models I photographed & they’re happy for me to do so.

I understand it’s quite common to frame landscape images but curious if that’s the same for portraits.

Mods feel free to delete if this post isn’t allowed

I’ve never been a fan of AirPods, largely due to the fact that the regular Apple earphones never stayed in my ears. But my older brother had been using his AirPods Pro 2 for a while but lost one of the ear pieces so he was only listening to music on one side & in a gym setting It can be kinda annoying with the gym music on as well.

So I bought him the AirPods Pro 3 as a gift for his birthday & I was curious about the sound as I’ve never tried AirPods before. I’ve used Sonys, sennheiser etc… & now I use final audio Bluetooth earbuds

But I was underwhelmed ngl. I know some people say the pro 3 is tuned darker than the pro 2 while looking at the graph it seems to be more v shaped. I seen people complain about the bass which I didn’t realise people hated bass & treble lol but regardless it felt like the music was under water & I had to boost the volume to even get to a point where I was like “eh it sounds okay I guess but not something I’d buy for myself”

The transparency mode & the noise cancelling is the best I’ve heard in any consumer earbuds but that’s the only redeeming feature I was wowed by.

This is post is gonna stir some people in the comments but end of the day this hobby is subjective & btw I still think the Sony wf-xm3 from many years ago sound way better than the AirPods Pro 3. I understand Apple has to appeal to a lot of people & I can see why they’re popular due to the convenience & Apple integration