CONCLUSION

   The FA9 IEMs are the most expensive to ever arrive in the office so naturally i had very high expectations from them and luckily i wasn't disappointed one bit. You need to understand however that the FA9 are far from your typical IEMs since thanks to the 3 audio switches they can perform differently and that means a far wider audience compared to regular ones. For example, depending on what you want the focus of the FA9 can be to sound just like either the Carbon (crisp highs) or the Beryllium (deep bass) by Periodic audio and/or like the Falcon-C (detailed mids/highs) by DUNU. They may not be worlds apart with any of the three that i mentioned but the fact alone that you can adjust/calibrate their audio quality/performance to fit your taste (or music genre) at will is pretty much amazing. On top of that the 3D printed shells fit exceptionally in my ear and according to FiiO the same should apply for pretty much any ear out there so again this is a huge thing. Add the 15 available pairs of eartips and honestly i doubt there are many IEMs out there which can compete in that area with the FA9 IEMs. Of course, much like everything else in the market not all is perfect so even though i admit that the 8-strand copper cable is of the highest quality I’ve ever seen used with an IEM the fact remains that this is a very thick cable which is also far from tangle-proof. Again, i might be nitpicking here and i do realize that you can't have both a high-quality cable with high durability which can also be thin (or perhaps you can but the cost could be many times over this one) but it is what it is. The color of the bundled storage/carrying case may also not agree with many of you out there (would prefer black or red myself) but again, nitpicking.

   The FA9 IEMs are currently FiiO’s flagship model and with a price tag of USD499.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at around 530Euros inside the EU these are far from what anyone would call affordable. We are however talking about a pure audiophile product and judging but what we see in this industry from time to time there’s certainly a target audience FiiO has set their eyes at. Honestly there’s not much more I can say about the FA9, build quality is excellent, audio performance is amazing and the bundle well it’s second to none really so since these are clearly the best IEMs, I’ve had the chance to test (at least to date) they naturally deserve our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Audio Performance (Mids /Highs /Bass)
- 6 Knowles BA Drives (8 Possible Audio Combinations)
- Design (For Some)
- Detachable Cable with MMCX Gold Plated Connectors
- Very Comfortable And Secure Fit
- Rich Bundle (Carrying Case /15 Pairs of Eartips /Magnetic Cable Organizer /Cleaning Brush)

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Cable Thickness