Custom Art FIBAE 4 Earphone Review
FIBAE 4
€725
Pros
- Solid V style, accessible signature. Impactful bass.
- Mainstream fun beautifully textured character.
- Immersive meaty staging, wonderful design style and build quality.
Cons
- Tips supplied could be better.
- Micro details taking a little bit of a back seat
Sound Signature:
Moving onto the most important part of any earphone review is the sound signature.
Luckily these shells are relatively small and fit snugly in my ears, pushing with the right depth and very comfortable when on the move.
The fit follows the standard IEM over the ear style and the cable is an elegant non microphonic and light in weight with a strong re-enforced L shaped single ended jack.
The 2 pin 0.78mm connectors fit very tightly, in fact I was a little concerned that they were so tight that I may snap them or damage the shells, however my fears were put to rest as I have now cable rolled many options with no issues. For the purpose of this review I will am using the stock supplied silver style cable. I elected to use my preferred Spin Fit tips as these work well for my audio preferences.
The FIBAE 4 certainly sounds smooth and powerful straight out of the box, but after the standard 120 hours burn in, either my brain perception or the IEM opens up even more, resulting in a grander textured fluid signature character.
The V style signature tuning is very appealing and certainly provides an enjoyable unrestrained pleasurable experience. It’s rich smooth buttery bass hits tight and with a relaxed recovery pace adding to the effortless ease of listening. The weight is sizeable but not dominant to mask or fuzz over the rest of the sound spectrum. Able to kick hard with impact but also with finesse when needed.
Sub bass is silky smooth and you can get some deep jaw rumbling moments at times but again no shadowing or distortion. At times it feels a little coloured but I see this a good thing as it helps with the overall body weight and immersive musical qualities.
The general tuning has a natural character without any brightness experienced at all, expertly tuned for full musical enjoyment. Never having to think or concentrate too much on the technicalities, audio pleasure is at the forefront of this desirable earphone.
As the low and high end of the tuning spectrum are raised relative to the mid region, the sheer weight of the FIBAE 4 signature style drops some focus from the mid range but it doesn’t result in distant or far sounding lost mids but it just means that the clarity of instruments and vocals are more neutral in style with a laid back presence. The mid range has a more blended natural balance, again with a smooth rich verve giving rise to a delicate warmth and ease of fluidity.
Electronica, rock, pop, dance, trance, jazz and other fast punchy styles of music are a perfect selection for this earphone, for classical, folk or acoustic you may want to try some of the other models from Custom Art. Many musical genres are navigated expertly with no effort and resulting in long non fatiguing relaxed listening sessions.
There is a strong emphasis on the sound staging size and it has a large spacious range, heavily immersive due to the overall meaty nature of the tuning.
There is still distance present between the instruments but the space around feels full and with a textured aspect.
With all this talk of a weighty meaty size signature you might think that the clarity is missing but that is not the case and the raised upper end stays clean and present, maintaining clear non spiking detail articulation. Certainly not any brightness or clinical treble presence but maintaining a smooth relaxed energy in line with the fun factor set to 10 at all times.
Easily accessible for the mainstream and audiophile crowd alike there is a lot to praise on the FIBAE 4 and I can see it being many peoples go-to earphone, perfect for helping those commutes or for stage monitoring or those energetic gym workouts.
Layering is excellent and with a tapestry of textures weaving effortlessly together resulting in a grand velvety natural immersive experience.
Treble is kept under control and should please even the most sensitive of ears, shining where required and also with a slick feathered decay.
As you can tell the team at earphonia.com have certainly enjoyed our time with the FIBAE 4, you would be hard pushed not to get a pleasurable listening experience from this fun mainstream beautifully textured signature style and expert workmanship from the Polish Legends at Custom Art.
We certainly are keen to try others in their solid catalogue of earphone releases and hope to share our experiences with our followers in future.
Contact details for Custom Art are below:
email:[email protected]
website: https://thecustomart.com/fibae-4/
