I decided on a pair of Edition XS and a Capra strap headband for comfort with a good balanced cable, running from a Fiio K11 R2R. It makes for a very decent budget setup. It was either the FT1 Pro or the XS. Boy am I happy I chose the Edition XS. Thanks for the heads up! As always, excellent work!
Thank you for this honest review. I purchased my FiiO FT1 Pro a few weeks ago and I'm happy with it. Application is mostly to rehearse digital piano and transcribe parts of recorded music. I know, I would never be able to argue on issues experienced hifi reviewers may discover when using it. I guess, my headphones have quite an easy job to please me.
I ordered 2 pairs both came with that issue and for me it was unbarable to the point i would describe it as rattling. Didnt find much info on the internet about that so thanks for sharing your experience with this headphone.
As i said already said before, always the most relevant review. Fortunalty i waited before buying it ! Hopefully maybe they will maybe find a way to fix these issue. Always worth to wait for your review, Thank you so much sir !
Thanks for this review. Been waiting for your take. I'm interested to hear how you think the Pro compares tonally to the Sundara. If it's competing with the Ananda Nano, do you think it totally eclipses the Sundara? Ease of pad swapping might make the difference for me either way. Also curious if you did any pad rolling.
OH THANK GOD. I'm not the only one. Every time I buy a new headphone I always like to test deep sub bass such as " Eminem, Killshot " that goes pretty deep to see if the driver could handle it, and my FiiO FT1 pro the left driver somewhat as you describe " distort "? Mine was distorting, rattling, or buzzing though. Send it back, told them about it and hopefully they would give me a new pair exchange. lol
My pair also seems fine without any bass issues, although they have old screw system. So, it could be indeed a QC problem or a driver one in first batches, unrelated with the screw revision. Maybe Fiio did a silent update or fix in the driver department 🤷🏻♂️
Very tempted to see if my Lokius EQ wipes out that sub-bass issue on an FT1 Pro. My HD 800s liked 20hz cranked up, suddenly giving that headphone the punch some may find they were looking for. Sounds like the FT1 Pro could use a little bass reduction at times. (Yeah I probably will pass until that next get version.) I'm reminded of the Hifiman HE400SE. Those can start to loose clarity in the mid-range and bass if there's a lot of bass until dropping the Custom Cans grill mod that both opens up the sides and also somehow tightens the bass by putting a physical brace up against the magnets. I'd venture to say THEY are a contender for the best value ever. The grill mod knocks out bass distortion about 95%. The modded HE400SE become amazing. No, they do not sound better than the HE1000SE (over there) but how much did those cost? Right. I'm curious about this FT1 Pro but I don't know if I want to drop $200 on an experiment.
I don't have the Pro version but i have the FT1 with the dynamic driver. Mine's unfortunately pre-revision, and i have a channel imbalance of 1.1db which may seem like not much but it was painfully obvious. Thankfully Equalizer APO made that correction very easy (only using to correct driver volume difference) and the headphone sounds glorious otherwise. I'm waiting on FiiO support to get back to me on the pins, and I'm wondering if it's even worth sending them the headphones to actually driver match them. Frustrating.
I don't have the bass issue on my FT1 Pros. The screws on my FT1s both failed though, and I replaced them with more robust screws of my own. My FT1 Pro screws haven't failed yet, but I'm assuming they will, and I have enough extra screws already for when that happens.
This is good to know that it’s likely a quality control issue, I have a pair on order and after this, and hearing that it’s effectively performing like an Ananda nano for half the price make me even more excited because my buddy has the Nanos and I think they sound great. I don’t mind needing to swap them out if I get a bad pair considering price they’re selling them at. Also, I’m pretty sure that the ones coming in February are a second production run, and all the ones that were sent to reviewers were early production samples. Fingers crossed.
This is Chi-Fi and in general Chinese product. They don't test rigidly their product design & QC and not willing to support their product after sales. You are the king before you buy. After you bought you are no body.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of cheaper headphones have this kind of problem with weird electronic music. I really want to know is how does it sound with real music such as Metallica or the Danish national Symphony Orchestra or Beethoven's piano concerto number 5 or Fleetwood Mac or meatloaf
@@dangerzone007 real music? This is Hans Zimmer, one of the biggest names in film scores. At any rate, I recorded the most obvious example I heard to hopefully make it clear what a buyer is risking here. The distortion happened across genres and tracks enough that I knew I needed to queue Why So Serious? as an acid test. Now I can't go back and check very easily because the screw on the gimbal broke 😩
They sound amazing with all types of music. This is actually my second pair, and I checked the one I have with me now and its fine, and I've had it less time. The other one I've had a couple of months now and they've become my office cans. I mainly listen to rock, progressive metal, and like 90s and early 2000s hip hop stuff and everything sounds fantastic. Oh, and the helicopter from Pink Floyd - The Wall is LOUD AND MORE IMPORTANTLY CLEAR and distortion free!!! Hope I helped you! I've heard some of the same things as WaveTheory as far as the side screws for the gimbal/frame coming loose for some. I heard FiiO knows and is on top of it, and may be replacing the screw mechanism, or could have already.
i cannot hear the disotrtion on mine or reproduice it maybe it's just yours, EDIT : i retried multiple time and there is a small crinkling on the top of my right cup i think like 20-25° in front. so it's reproducible but i was using mine for 2 weeks now and it's the only time i caught that ... i think the are struggling with that big of a driver and they might fix it with time it is still an amazing 200€ headphone. i wonder what other song you noticed theses problems on, would also try. but in about 80 hours of listening with it, it was fine even in game nothing to complain except this song (witch to be honest is probably a metric that many movie theater did pass properly. I had to disassemble and reassemble the headphone to fix the screw problem as well but it's easyish to reassemble except the linning of the connection of the headband to the fork of the cup to many layer i find maybe they could do a better headband. (witch would be easy to swap) all same screws tho a good point for someone working in IT. wish you the best.
I have one from the latest lot, they changed the screws with spring clips 👍🏻 Also no bass problems 😊
where'd you purchase your pair?
@@gape_fetishHifigo, I had to wait a little longer because first stock was sold out..luckely for me because these 2 issues were fixed 😊
Awesome review! That bass is scary , literally and thank you for being so honest!
I decided on a pair of Edition XS and a Capra strap headband for comfort with a good balanced cable, running from a Fiio K11 R2R. It makes for a very decent budget setup. It was either the FT1 Pro or the XS. Boy am I happy I chose the Edition XS. Thanks for the heads up! As always, excellent work!
Thank you for this honest review. I purchased my FiiO FT1 Pro a few weeks ago and I'm happy with it. Application is mostly to rehearse digital piano and transcribe parts of recorded music. I know, I would never be able to argue on issues experienced hifi reviewers may discover when using it. I guess, my headphones have quite an easy job to please me.
I heard the distortion. You should run this test on all headphone going forward .
I wish reviewers would do this sort of review more often, especially since there are a lot of products that sound great but suffer from poor qc.
I ordered 2 pairs both came with that issue and for me it was unbarable to the point i would describe it as rattling. Didnt find much info on the internet about that so thanks for sharing your experience with this headphone.
As i said already said before, always the most relevant review. Fortunalty i waited before buying it ! Hopefully maybe they will maybe find a way to fix these issue. Always worth to wait for your review, Thank you so much sir !
Thanks for this review. Been waiting for your take. I'm interested to hear how you think the Pro compares tonally to the Sundara. If it's competing with the Ananda Nano, do you think it totally eclipses the Sundara? Ease of pad swapping might make the difference for me either way. Also curious if you did any pad rolling.
these cans would be an insane value without those 2 issues.
OH THANK GOD. I'm not the only one. Every time I buy a new headphone I always like to test deep sub bass such as " Eminem, Killshot "
that goes pretty deep to see if the driver could handle it, and my FiiO FT1 pro the left driver somewhat as you describe " distort "?
Mine was distorting, rattling, or buzzing though. Send it back, told them about it and hopefully they would give me a new pair exchange. lol
I've heard a little discussion on this set, the buzzing/rattle is said to be the driver/s reaching excursion limits.
My pair also seems fine without any bass issues, although they have old screw system.
So, it could be indeed a QC problem or a driver one in first batches, unrelated with the screw revision.
Maybe Fiio did a silent update or fix in the driver department 🤷🏻♂️
Very tempted to see if my Lokius EQ wipes out that sub-bass issue on an FT1 Pro. My HD 800s liked 20hz cranked up, suddenly giving that headphone the punch some may find they were looking for. Sounds like the FT1 Pro could use a little bass reduction at times. (Yeah I probably will pass until that next get version.) I'm reminded of the Hifiman HE400SE. Those can start to loose clarity in the mid-range and bass if there's a lot of bass until dropping the Custom Cans grill mod that both opens up the sides and also somehow tightens the bass by putting a physical brace up against the magnets. I'd venture to say THEY are a contender for the best value ever. The grill mod knocks out bass distortion about 95%. The modded HE400SE become amazing. No, they do not sound better than the HE1000SE (over there) but how much did those cost? Right. I'm curious about this FT1 Pro but I don't know if I want to drop $200 on an experiment.
EQ the deep bass out a bit. New screws and washers. Pad swap?
I don't have the Pro version but i have the FT1 with the dynamic driver. Mine's unfortunately pre-revision, and i have a channel imbalance of 1.1db which may seem like not much but it was painfully obvious. Thankfully Equalizer APO made that correction very easy (only using to correct driver volume difference) and the headphone sounds glorious otherwise. I'm waiting on FiiO support to get back to me on the pins, and I'm wondering if it's even worth sending them the headphones to actually driver match them.
Frustrating.
Play The Sweet - Man With The Golden Arm from Desolation Boulevard (not the live version). Does the bass still distort in a bad way?
I don't have the bass issue on my FT1 Pros. The screws on my FT1s both failed though, and I replaced them with more robust screws of my own. My FT1 Pro screws haven't failed yet, but I'm assuming they will, and I have enough extra screws already for when that happens.
This is good to know that it’s likely a quality control issue, I have a pair on order and after this, and hearing that it’s effectively performing like an Ananda nano for half the price make me even more excited because my buddy has the Nanos and I think they sound great. I don’t mind needing to swap them out if I get a bad pair considering price they’re selling them at. Also, I’m pretty sure that the ones coming in February are a second production run, and all the ones that were sent to reviewers were early production samples. Fingers crossed.
@MechAdv Yeah, the screws on both my FT1 and FT1 Pro are from the original run, so you may be good to go in that department.
U think its better than hifiman edition xs then? If its not for the QC issues ?
Sometimes cheap brings along unwanted QC issues. Hopefully Fiio can get this worked out.
This is Chi-Fi and in general Chinese product. They don't test rigidly their product design & QC and not willing to support their product after sales. You are the king before you buy. After you bought you are no body.
Play Pink Floyd Another Brick in the Wall. Does the bass distort with the helicopter?
Professor, thank you for another wonderful headphone review.
Keep-up the good work! 🙏
Reverend Dr. Thomas,
✝️ The Vegan Vicar 🌱
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of cheaper headphones have this kind of problem with weird electronic music. I really want to know is how does it sound with real music such as Metallica or the Danish national Symphony Orchestra or Beethoven's piano concerto number 5 or Fleetwood Mac or meatloaf
@@dangerzone007 real music? This is Hans Zimmer, one of the biggest names in film scores. At any rate, I recorded the most obvious example I heard to hopefully make it clear what a buyer is risking here. The distortion happened across genres and tracks enough that I knew I needed to queue Why So Serious? as an acid test. Now I can't go back and check very easily because the screw on the gimbal broke 😩
Cringe. Bass is bass my guy. It can either reproduce it or it can’t. Variations in tambre shouldn’t change that.
@@Del_987 Agree! That's why all subwoofers use the same cone and box material, because timbre doesn't matter!
What?? 🤣🤣🤣
They sound amazing with all types of music. This is actually my second pair, and I checked the one I have with me now and its fine, and I've had it less time. The other one I've had a couple of months now and they've become my office cans. I mainly listen to rock, progressive metal, and like 90s and early 2000s hip hop stuff and everything sounds fantastic. Oh, and the helicopter from Pink Floyd - The Wall is LOUD AND MORE IMPORTANTLY CLEAR and distortion free!!! Hope I helped you! I've heard some of the same things as WaveTheory as far as the side screws for the gimbal/frame coming loose for some. I heard FiiO knows and is on top of it, and may be replacing the screw mechanism, or could have already.
i cannot hear the disotrtion on mine or reproduice it maybe it's just yours,
EDIT : i retried multiple time and there is a small crinkling on the top of my right cup i think like 20-25° in front. so it's reproducible but i was using mine for 2 weeks now and it's the only time i caught that ... i think the are struggling with that big of a driver and they might fix it with time it is still an amazing 200€ headphone. i wonder what other song you noticed theses problems on, would also try. but in about 80 hours of listening with it, it was fine even in game nothing to complain except this song (witch to be honest is probably a metric that many movie theater did pass properly.
I had to disassemble and reassemble the headphone to fix the screw problem as well but it's easyish to reassemble except the linning of the connection of the headband to the fork of the cup to many layer i find maybe they could do a better headband. (witch would be easy to swap) all same screws tho a good point for someone working in IT.
wish you the best.
The bass issue cannot be fixed without sending you a new pair and I doubt they will TBF or the fix is called FT1A Pro.
@tonycheung1559 i'll put a request
Well this confirms them as a must buy!
1 in a 10000 SQ issue and a solved QC one.
Adios HiFiman
For the algo
Highest cost to performance ratio which I can’t recommend. Just say it’s bad.
it isn't though, lol...he just knows he lost the QC olympics...and hence can't rec them.
Ear rattling bass 👂
Seems like big missed oppertunity
I’m around Asia and I cannot find a single unit that handles sub bass properly. Overhyped model.