Final Audio VR500

Verdict

Unless you’re a bass fiend, the Final Audio VR500 are approaching ideal when it comes to affordable, well-made and eminently listenable wired in-ear headphones.

Introduction

There’s a Final Audio pair of headphones at most price-points up to around the £5K mark – but the company doesn’t play any favourites. It takes the entry level just as seriously as it does the top end.

The VR500 wired in-ears are just the latest evidence of this – and as a little added extra, Final Audio has tuned them to be as much use to the mobile gamer as to the mobile listener. So does a pair of headphones that cost less than a few hours’ parking in the centre of London make any financial and/or sonic sense? 

Availability

The Final Audio VR500 are on sale, and in the United Kingdom they cost very nearly £30. They’re almost $35 per pair in the United States, and in Australia you barely get change from AU$50.

But while this is really not very much money at all to spend on some headphones from a brand as credible as Final Audio, the rules still apply. So unless the VR500 represent decent value for money, they won’t make a case for themselves no matter how affordable they might be.

Design

• 1.2m cable
• 15g all-in weight
• ABS resin construction

You only need to glance at the pictures to know there’s nothing unusual about the design of the VR500 – but that’s hardly an issue. Just remind yourself of the asking price, and the modest designing that has happened here all seems very sensible. 

A total weight of 15g lets you know these are comfortable earbuds once you’ve selected one of the five different sizes of silicone ear-tip Final Audio provides. The housing of the earbuds and the 3.5mm jack are made from clean, smooth ABS resin and seem to resist scratching well. Even the single-button in-line mic feels sturdy and built to last. Build quality in general is pretty good, in fact, and the 1.2m cable isn’t all that willing to tangle in on itself.

And really, that’s your lot as far as design goes.  

Features

• 6.4mm dynamic drivers
• Oxygen-free copper cable
• Three-pole 3.5mm jack

Just as in the design section, there are very few features involved with the VR500. But what features there are, are reasonably impressive at the money.

If these earbuds are indeed going to create the sort of open, spacious and positionally accurate sound that’s important to gamers, at least Final Audio has given them a chance. Oxygen-free copper connects the 3.5mm jack to the earbuds, and inside each one there’s a 6.4mm full-range dynamic driver of a design that’s familiar from more expensive models in the company’s range. 

And just as in the design section, that’s about your lot. Final Audio has covered the essentials and then left well enough alone.   

Sound Quality

• Large, organised sound
• Good detail and dynamism
• Not the punchiest listen

If it’s a sense of space, openness and positional stability that Final Audio was driving for when it decided the VR500 had to be of some use to mobile gamers, then a pat on the back is in order. By the standards of very affordable hard-wired in-ear headphones, the VR500 represent very acceptable pound-for-pound value indeed.

The soundstage they can generate is, sure enough, big and open – so no matter if you’re actively gaming or passively listening, the sound is laid out in a convincing and easy-to-follow manner. Detail levels are high, and the Final Audio pay close attention to the more transient stuff as well as the more obvious and upfront details. 

There’s a good sense of positioning, with every part of a soundtrack or song located securely in relation to every other part. The togetherness and singularity of even complex recordings is confidently achieved.

They’re quite a dynamic listen too, the VR500, and are more than happy to properly attack a recording or soundtrack when necessary. But when the going gets quiet and understated, they’re able to pay attention to the spaces around sounds and the silences that separate them too. 

In the final analysis they’re not the heftiest listen around – the sort of low-frequency impact and depth that some game soundtracks rely on is in slightly short supply. Bass information is controlled and decently rapid, so rhythmic expression is good and the overall sense of momentum to a recording is preserved – but if you want some heavy-hitting in-ear headphones, these may not be the pair you’re after.

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