Future Sonics \ XtremeMac FS1 Earphones

Listening Tests

So after a couple hours of listening tests the first thing to report must be the bass response one word ‘wow‘. Normally you would not use the word ‘detail’ to describe bass response but thats what you get. Tight, very well controlled and damped bottom end – move on no flapping to be found here!

I threw in a early 80’s cd and listening to tracks such as Bryan Ferry / Slave To Love , Paula Abdul / Rush Rush , and Jon Secada / Just Another Day took me back to my youth when 15″ subs where all the rage and where you had to feel the bass not just hear it. The punching bass is clean tight and very present, how it should be!

Just like my youth the tweeters and the midrange drivers never really matched the subs and here is where the FS1’s fail. They are sadly lacking in the mid and high end, adjusting the EQ on player helped. I gave a small boost from 1K up and a even greater boost from 8k up and I was really pleased with the sound – well balanced but lacking detail.

Moving on to classical music. I was impressed in a piece like Bizet / Overture from ‘Carmen’ the low notes felt like distance thunderstorms, very eerie! Albinoni / Adagio Academy of St. Martin-In-The-Fields intro with the organ was outstanding, the Cello was touch overpowering but the remaining strings were excellent. Listening to various other string pieces highlighted the fact that the FS1’s have a very smooth response curve with no abrupt changes, and I think this leaves you not missing the detail in this genre.

Next up was an album I know very well Jean Michel Jarre’s Revolutions. Surprisingly the earphones performed ok’ish I did however have to play with the EQ again, music like this needs to be bright and sharp. The smoothness which helped with the string music and vocals sadly lets it down in very dynamic fast changing music. In the title track ‘Revolution’ the instruments sound like they have all been crammed in to a small box and the lack of detail is very apparent – quick listen to the same track on a set of Shure E1’s really demonstrates the lack of detail from the FS1’s, you can hear the instruments stretching their legs!

Not one for giving up so quickly I moved on to some rock theme’s. We were definitely back in FS1 territory. On a track like Metallica / The Unforgiven the FS1’s produced a good balanced sound with an excellent punchy tight bass. Bass guitar was so good it made up for the lack of detail in the high’s.

Finally I got to some modern Rap & Hip-Hop tracks, like Rock the FS1’s done really well here. These genres need a big bass experience and the FS1’s can deliver. I listened to 2Pac / All eyez On Me and Snoop Doggy Dogg / The Doggfather with these if the bass is not right then the whole thing sounds wrong. Some of these songs have difficult and complex bass lines which would send some earphones on to some farting, flapping expedition not the FS1 which played it how it was recorded.