Final Audio Design E3000 Review

Comfort is right up there with the best of them. Very easy to insert due to the small size and excellent included tips that easily form a tight seal.  I found the E3000 to be extremely comfortable for two reasons.  Firstly their size of them means minimal contact with the rest of the ear, and secondly, they are extremely lightweight.  

To get the most out of the E3000 sound, you don’t have to insert them too deep.  In fact, I found that shallow to medium worked best, making them easier to live with on a day-to-day basis.  Something similarly shaped like the Etymotic ER4XR usually requires quite a deep insertion and can be bothersome for the first few weeks until your ears get used to it. The E3000 are just straight-up comfortable, so I think people with all different ear shapes and sizes should really enjoy them.

Isolation is average.  I have heard much better and, conversely, much worse.  The driver housings are vented, letting in some external noise.  I could easily still use them on a commute or in the office, but they won’t completely block out all the external noise.

The Final Audio Design E3000 sounds incredible.

People would outright rave about the sound if these earphones come in a fancy shell with a fancy cable.  I hope they still get the respect they deserve, given that this setup has been used in a more modest build.  

The sound is enjoyable and engaging, plus they pull out a lot of detail from the track. The soundstage is big, and an almost out-the-head experience is created as there is, and there is plenty of width and depth to be heard.  It’s classic Final Audio Design tuning, on the grand side, and very much in line with how I listen to music.

Listening to electronic tracks from Infected Mushroom and Glitch Mob is a blast due to the crystal clear mids and tight, punchy bass.  It really gets your head bouncing and brings a stupid grin to my face on more than a few occasions. 

Rock and pop also sound excellent, as the midrange is solid, and the spacing between instruments and vocals is very defined.  It’s easy to pick up on the level of spacing between everything, and even in complicated classical tracks like Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, the E3000 remains completely composed. 

If I were to describe it, it would be like taking all the good stuff from a Shuoer Singer and building on it and adding a little more to the top end.  Or maybe even taking the best bits of the flawed Flare Audio R2Pro, i.e., that spacious 3d presentation and fixing the issues with speed.

Vocals sound incredible thanks to the warmth across the midrange, and male vocals, in particular, can carry a hefty grain to them that you often miss in more neutral-tuned IEMs (In-Ear Monitors).

The Treble is smooth for the most part, but there are still good levels of detail.  Surprisingly Jazz also worked very well with these earphones, and I flicked through the Whiplash soundtrack and Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew looking for some nasty peaking, but none was to be found.  As mentioned above, it’s smooth but not overly so that you lose too much top-end definition.

Mids are very reminiscent of the Yamaha EPH-100 (one of my all-time favorite earphones). There is lots of detail, clarity, and enough warmth to make you want to keep listening for hours. Performance across stringed instruments was very well received, with a nice decay to the notes, especially in acoustic tracks from the likes of Rodrigo Y Gabriela.  In fact, I outright recommend everyone who buys a set of Final Audio E3000 to download RyG’s song Hanuman right away and take them for a spin.

The bass is enhanced in a way that a lot of people will enjoy.  You get the tight pop I have been familiar with from other Micro-Driver IEMs, but they also hit very deep when required.  They aren’t as sub-bass-driven as the RHA t20, making them suitable for a wider range of genres.  There is absolutely no bleed into the midrange, perhaps adding the overall spacious sound, and boy, can they handle fast-paced electronic music well.

Honestly, considering the price, the sound of the Final Audio Design E3000 is incredible.  I have been listening to them for three weeks now in preference of the many more expensive models I have in my stable.

Pairing the Final Audio E3000 – Sources and Amps

Most of this review was done using a simple 02 DAC/Amp setup that I use for all my reviews for consistency between my reviews. However, I have also used the e3000 range of other sources for the past few weeks and can report that they can be driven easily and to full power from just about anything.  

In fact, the majority of sources have been far more capable than what someone who spends under $100 on earphones would be driving them from.  Of course, they sounded incredible paired with the Opus #1, AK70, and Questyle QP1r, but that is definitely overkilled. You don’t really need more than your phone to enjoy listening to the E3000.  

My day-to-day rig right now is pretty simple (the LG G5 with B&O HiFi plus Dac and Amp); they sounded great out of that but even straight out of most smartphones I tried always sounded like they were the effortlessly drive.  

What’s not to like?

Nothing really; again, when you consider price, I see no better way to spend your money right now.  Build and styling are nothing fancy, but nothing isn’t really wrong with them.  On the other hand, they don’t feel premium, but then, they aren’t meant to be, and when you hold them up against similarly priced earphones, the build is more or less in line with what you expect. 

Where the Final Audio Design E3000 does excel is on the sound front.  They do so much that makes the listening experience enjoyable. Despite my contempt for the statement, they really do compete against far pricier models from other companies… and dare I say it, even within Final Audio’s own lineup of earphones.

A great earphone is, so far, one of the best-sounding earphones when the price is considered.