Final x Dragon Ball Z

Verdict

A fun pair of earphones for Dragon Ball Z fans that offers balanced audio and good, noise-isolating fit.

Introduction

Japanese audio brand Final has been divvying its focus between its high-end headphones and affordable ones, but this collaboration with Toei Animation might be its most fun.

The Final x Dragon Ball Z true wireless are a collaboration between Final and Japanese animation giant Toei, offering fans a choice to own a pair of earphones in the colours of the main characters.

Fairly inexpensive and bearing Final’s belief in balanced audio, are these headphones to savour for Dragon Ball Z fans or one to skip?

Design

• Touch controls
• IPX4 rating
• Original Japanese audio

Fans of Dragon Ball Z will be happy with the design choices while non-fans will probably be non-plussed. Put bluntly, you’re not buying these headphones if you’re not a fan of the anime.

There are three choices to pick from: Frieza, Goku, and Vegeta, with each true wireless adorned in the two-tone colours of the character (in this case, the orange and blue of Goku). Upon power up you’ll hear the voice notifications of each character by the original Japanese actor, which for fans is lovely touch.

If like me you’ve only seen a sliver of Dragon Ball Z you’ll be confused as to why someone is shouting at you in Japanese, but it’s good fun nonetheless, and you can apparently switch it into English (though I’m not sure how). The provided manual offers a translation of what is said in case you want to know.

Like Final’s ZE3000, the earphones’ shape is about the fit and the tight, noise-isolating seal they encourage to combat external sounds. They ship with Final’s new Type E ear-tip, which is meant to create a soft interaction between the earphone and your ears. Sizes come in small, medium, and large.

It’s a tight, snug but ultimately comfortable fit that works well to block out traffic and people. It’s not compete silence but not much gets past these earphones. It’s a good alternative to having noise-cancellation but if you want to hear what’s around, you’ll have to take the earphones out.

Touch controls are the way to operate these headphones with a single tap covering playback/pause, a double tap covering volume, while a tap, hold, and release on the sound of the beep skips forwards or backwards. The voice assistant on a mobile can be accessed through a double tap, though only when music is paused. Taps work well for the most part and they’re not too difficult to remember either.

The charging case is compact, and depending on the character you choose they come in a white finish with a different colour. It’s small enough to fit into any pocket.

Features

• aptX Bluetooth
• 20 hours total battery life

You could view these earphones as simple from a feature-set or limited. There’s no noise-cancelling, no ambient awareness, and no app support.

Call quality is ok. These are the type of earphones that work fine in quiet environments but as soon as you stray into noisier places, the microphones let in surrounding noise and it becomes harder for the person on the other end to hear what’s said.

Bluetooth 5.2 support equals SBC, AAC, and aptX; and the wireless performance has been sketchy in busy areas. It’s reliable enough when there’s few people (or little interference in the air), but step in Waterloo terminus and it’s as if the signal transforms into Morse code. there’s been no mention of Bluetooth multipoint support for connecting to two devices at once.

Battery life is claimed to be five hours on a charge and twenty hours with the charging case. I found through a battery drain over an hour the earphones saw a 10% drop, while across two hours it fell to 72%, which implies six to seven hours if you listen at about 50% volume.

There’s no mention of any fast charging or wireless charging support.

Sound Quality

• Balanced approach to the frequency range
• Not the biggest bass performance
• Good levels of clarity and detail

The solid performance of the Final x Dragon Ball Z in-earphones continues with the sound. While the design is on the flashy side, the audio won’t blow your socks off but that’s no bad thing here.

What Final is going for is a performance that’s clear and detailed, and it’s succeeded on that remit. The default EQ of these earphones is flat, the sound soundstage is proffered with plenty of width, and there’s a fine amount of detail and clarity from the midrange upwards.

They’re not the brightest sounding pair of wireless earbuds when listening to GoGo Penguin’s Raven and Erased by Sunlight, the edges of the piano sound a little unremarkable but there’s good levels of clarity, detail, sharpness, and decent variation to treble notes. There’s no harshness either for what I’ll defer to as a fairly neutral and uncoloured performance.

I wouldn’t describe the bass as the most forceful or biggest – a pair of earphones such as the Earfun Free Pro 3 have a weightier, richer sense of depth and thump to low frequencies with Massive Attack’s Angel. But the Final is all about upholding balance and with Angel the midrange is preserved in terms of clarity, the cymbal crashes register with more detail and crispness than the Earfun.

The midrange is the biggest beneficiary from the neutral approach. Voices sing through with clarity, any sharp or sibilant edges smoothed out in nice fashion with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, while with Adele’s Rollin in the Deep, her soulful tones come through intact with the track’s bass beats and instrumentation not encroaching on the clarity of her voice.

Problems? They are not the most dynamic nor the most energetic or punchy – high tempo dance tracks or music with lots of bass aren’t what you’d feed the Final. Nevertheless, the Final x Dragon Ball Z entertain thanks to the balanced approach to audio.

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