Review
text by WOJCIECH PACUŁA
translation by Marek Dyba
images by „High Fidelity”
No 253
June 1, 2025
˻ PREMIERE ˼
⌈ FINAL AUDIO, formerly using the name Final Audio Design, is a Japanese brand known since 1974. Its first product was a Moving Coil cartridge, designed by Mr. Yoshihisa Mori. For a short time Final offered turntables, amplifiers and speakers. In recent years, it's a company associated primarily with headphones. We are testing its latest over-the-ear headphones DX6000. This is their WORLD PREMIERE. ⌋
THE OFFER OF JAPANESE COMPANY FINAL is divided into many series, and these into types. It includes, for example, wired, wireless and gaming designs. Among the series it is possible to distinguish models with designations starting with the letters ZE, F, A B, D, X, UX, Collaboration Series, Sonorus and others. The English version of the manufacturer's website slightly modifies this division, indicating earphones, headphones, and accessories.
The headphones section lists three series: the UX, D and Sonorus; the X8000 headphones are additionally available in Japan. All of them collect over-the-ear models that differ in the technologies used in them: UX, with one representative, the UX3000, are wireless designs, D feature magneto-static drivers, and Sonorus use classic dynamic drivers. Interestingly, the top model represents the latter. The introduction of the DX6000 is also the opening of a new series.
▌ DX6000
THE DX6000 HEADPHONES ARE ABSOLUTE NOVELTY, and they have their world premiere (first test) in “High Fidelity”. Literally a few days before this article was published, the first information about them appeared on the Internet, along with some photos. So this description is based on the pre-release information sent by the manufacturer and knowledge of the company's previous headphones. It reads:
Final, known for innovation in the audio industry, is proud to introduce the first model in its new DX series, the DX6000 open-back headphones. Built on an entirely new design philosophy and dynamic drivers developed from the ground up, the DX6000 promise an unprecedented listening experience similar to high-end speakers, combining exceptional clarity, deep and uncolored bass and smooth treble.
⸜ final Unveils the DX6000 Open -Back Headphones: A Revolutionary Sound, pdf
The DX6000 feature dynamic drivers and are open-back, over-the-ears design. Their impedance is relatively low at 47 ohm, as is their efficiency, at just 83 dB (1 m/1 W). This means that they require a very powerful amplifier. Their ear-cups are made of magnesium-aluminum alloy, and the headband is made of aluminum. This is a design in which the headband is also the element that keeps the headphones on the head. Here it has been trimmed with black material. So are the ear-pads - these are high, much higher than in other headphone models. The fit is adjusted by sliding aluminum elements along the headband.
The drivers used in the DX6000 are a completely new design and were designed specifically for this model. Final chose for them, as it points out: a rare material - magnesium. As is well known, it's a difficult material to work with and expensive. However, as the manufacturer writes, “it is known for its neutral characteristics.” Magnesium, characterized by its lightness and rigidity, is said to provide “excellent sound with minimal distortion.” The magnesium ear-cup was treated with an oxidized finish and its edges were bent. This was done, it reads, to achieve a balance between hardness, bending resistance and durability.
This diaphragm is injection molded and connects - without glue - to the silicone foam element that supports it. Eliminating glue from the design was intended to reduce the weight of the vibrating element. The coil was also wound in such a way as to be as light as possible - with aluminum wire with trace amounts of other elements. These procedures, as the manufacturer points out, made it possible to reduce distortion and lower the cone's self-resonance. And lowering the self-resonance made it possible to, in effect, extend the lower frequency response without closing the ear-cups. Closed designs are usually characterized by a more “tightened” and stifled sound, and this was something they wanted to avoid.
The DX6000 design also controls high frequencies. As its engineers say, their excessively high levels are a common problem in lightweight vibration systems. And, recall, they were concerned with making the diaphragm as light as possible. Traditionally, high tones are attenuated by proper coil winding or by adding weight to the diaphragm. Final, as the technical materials say, “by integrating a new electronic circuit into the audio signal system, achieved precise control of high frequencies without compromising sound quality.”
The tested headphones come in a rigid carrying case, and the set also includes a three-meter cable made of OFC copper. The DX6000 is a design in which the signal is routed independently to each headphone. The cable connects to them with the help of unusual mini-jack plugs. It's really disappointing that the audio industry still has not worked out a common standard and almost every manufacturer uses its own plugs. The same goes for balanced plugs on the amplifier side. The cable in question is terminated with a four-pin XLR plug, without an adapter for TRS 6.3 mm. Optionally, a cable with a Pentaconn plug (ø 4.4 mm) can be purchased.
Final concludes the technical material with a description of the new technologies with a unusual note on the sound of the new designs:
(…) The DX6000s are designed to sound extremely natural and true to the source, without emphasizing certain frequency ranges or adding their own character to the sound. For this reason, their sound is so pure that they may not make a strong first impression on first listening. However, we believe that the longer you listen to them, the more you will appreciate their excellent sound.
▌ SOUND
HOW WE LISTENED • I tested the Final Audio DX6000 headphones in two systems. The first is simply the S.M.S.L CD200 CD player (actually an MQA-CD player), which stands to my right and which I use to write tests. It features an extremely good headphone amplifier with high current capability, and it sounds great on its own as well. The second system consisted of an Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition SACD player and a Leben CS-600X amplifier.
My references were three pairs of headphones I've been using for a long time: the IEM Lime Ears Pneuma (and for a while the Anima model), the HiFiMAN HE-1000 v2 magnetostatic headphones and the Sennheiser HD 800 dynamic headphones:
• LIME EARS Pneuma – IEM dynamic designs, impedance: 7/9 Ω/500 Hz (switchable), efficiency: 115 dB/V SPL, test → HERE,
- HiFiMAN HE1000 v2 - magnetostatic design, impedance: 35 Ω, efficiency: 90 dB/V SPL, review → HERE,
- SENNHEISER HD 800 - dynamic designs, impedance: 300 Ω, efficiency (measured): 103.77 dB/V SPL.
Along with the Final DX6000, we receive a cable terminated with an balanced XLR plug. Both the S.M.S.L player and the Leben amplifier offer unbalanced outputs. I didn't find a suitable adapter in the kit, so I used the one made for me by Forza AudioWorks (Noir Hybrid HPC).
RECORDINGS USED FOR THE TEST ⸜ a selection
⸜ MILES DAVIS, Sorcerer, Columbia/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab 88883731582/UDSACD 2145, „Original Master Recording”, „Ultradisc UHR”, SACD/CD ⸜ 1967/2015.
⸜ DEPECHE MODE, South My Soul, Columbia Records | Sony Music 8883730692, maxi-SP CD ⸜ 2013.
⸜ SKALDOWIE, The 70s Progressive German Recordings w: SKALDOWIE, Slaldowie – 50 lat Kameleon Records, Box 175/250, 14 x CD ⸜ 2015.
⸜ FILM & BB’s, Big Notes, DMP CD-454, CD ⸜ 1985.
⸜ JOHN COLTRANE, Giant Steps, „Deluxe Edition 60 Years”, Atlantic/Warner Music Japan WPCR-18311/2, SD 1311, 2 x SHM-CD ⸜ 1960/2008.
⸜ GLENN GOULD, Bach: The Goldberg Variations, Sony BMG Music/Sony Classical/Zenph Studios 9703350-2, „Zenph Re-Performance”, SACD/CD ⸜ 2007.
⸜ OSCAR PETERSON, Unmistakable, Sony Music/Zenph Studios 951702, „Zenph Re-Performance”, CD ⸜ 2011.
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LET ME PUT IT OUT THERE right from the start: I am in a way addicted to listening to music with the Final ZE8000 Jibun Dummy Head headphones. The wired headphones I have are better than them in most aspects, but still, adjusting the sound to the shape of my body and ears gave such an amazing sound improvement that I wonder why other companies don't offer this type of service. I think this is one of the best ways to improve sound; more about this model and procedure → HERE.
Switching whether to the Lema Ears in-ear or over-the-ears HiFiMAN HE1000 v2s, as these are the ones I use most often, I appreciate what the cable connection gives and how perfectly resolving sound I get. And yet, the pleasure of listening to music or audios with the ZE8000 JDH is unmistakable. That's why as soon as I connected the DX6000 to the headphone output of the S.M.S.L CD200 CD player, which I'm using to listen to music as I write my tests, and listened to the first disc, I took a deep breath. I was home.
The sound of the new Final headphones is incredibly velvety and deep. The velvetiness comes from promoting midrange and mid-bass breakthrough in this sound without extracting irritating details. The higher treble is withdrawn and at first glance seems put out. After some time, it becomes apparent that this is not the case, although the impression remains. And it isn't, because it is not clipped, but shifted in space. So it's dark, similar to what I got with the Harbeth M40.1 speakers. That's why the cymbals from the Sorcerer album by MILES DAVIS, in the Mobile Fidelity reissue, were full of energy, emanating power. However, it was an energy that was not striking, but supportive.
Indeed, the instruments set in the foreground came to the fore, including an incredibly nice double bass. The latter had a timbre that could be described as “wooden.” It was full, somewhat warm and soft, but above all deepened in the decay. There was a definite attack in this presentation, it's sound was surprisingly selective, but it was not the one that had the decisive “voice”. For that privilege belonged to the strong and deep sustain. Readability was thus excellent, with a readability that facilitated listening rather than hindered it. I am sure you know plenty of designs that kill you with detail in the first seconds of listening. Final's DX6000s play in exactly the opposite way.
And it doesn't matter what kind of music we listen to them with. Because also DEPECHE MODE from the digital maxi-single South My Soul, both in CD and CD-R versions, sounded great. Dense, low, and dynamic. These are very dynamic headphones. In addition, we're talking about well-controlled dynamics and serving something more, so it doesn't punch you between the eyes, but brings out the flavors, the tones of the music. Like when, in the version of Billy F. Gibbons and Joe Hardy remix we start the track with an electric guitar, sending us back to 1989 and the Personal Jesus single, only to switch in a moment from almost ambient si-fi style playing and return in the chorus to a dense, rocky rumble.
It all sounded low and dense. I didn't hear any hint of brightening of the sound, even though this particular album and the remixes from it have the tonal balance set quite high. Instead, there was, to repeat, fill and depth. At the same time, the bass kicked in a way that resembled the phenomenon known from listening through speakers, as if it physically hit my body. I know it's an illusion, but the emphasis, the tangibility of the slam of the low notes was fantastic, I didn't even have that with the Sennheisers and HiFiMANs.
Since I recently reviewed SKALDOWIE new CD remaster by Damian Lipinski for SACD release, I refreshed my memory of the music of this bigbeat band, especially their unreleased albums from the prog-rock era. And they are great! Even the ones in German, which doesn't quite rhyme with “prog” to me and more with “kraut” - but that's me, you may perceive it differently after all. In any case, listening to The 70s Progressive German Recordings on the Kameleon Records reissue, I again appreciated Final's unique way of driving the bass. It was deep and saturated, which made the listening experience almost as “gutty” as - I repeat - when listening through speakers.
I had a similar feeling regarding spatial aspects of the presentation. It's a thing that turned away many music lovers from headphones in the past, and which has disappeared in modern times. Nowadays, the vast majority use headphones on the way to and from work/school/college/walking/meeting/party/shopping, while working/exercising/on the road - you can type anything and it will be true. I think we've already become accustomed, as users, to the different perspective that headphones offer. And if so, the DX6000 show something different.
There are designs on the market conceived to expand space. The Beyerdynamics DT-990 Pro in its original 600 ohm version had a spatial enhancement element in the circuit, and the Sennheisers HD 800 had their diaphragms tilted in such a way that the sound entered the ear not straight ahead, but at an angle, as in listening through speakers. In which, by the way, they were reminiscent of the classic of this type of solution, the AKG K 1000. And then there are such designs as the Crosszone CZ-8A; more → HERE. The press materials for the latter read:
Unlike conventional headphones, which suffer from a problem known as “internal sound localization” (in which sound sources appear to be inside the head), the CZ-8A uses acoustic resonance technology (ART) and acoustic delay chambers (ADC) to achieve a natural and spatial sound field. The result is a simulated experience and sound familiar from listening to music through stereo speakers.
⸜ Crosszone CZ-8A Enhanced, → www.CROSSZONE-AUDIO.com, accessed: 9.04.2025.
Final uses neither, instead moving the diaphragm away from the ear through thick ear-cups (pads). And the effect is just as good, perhaps even better. For the sound of all the discs listened to with them was tonally deep on the one hand, and spatially deep on the other. And not wide, as usual, with elements located in the center of the head, but rather deep, as with a real stage. This came out wonderfully, by the way, with the DMP label's productions from the first half of the 1980s, recorded directly onto two tracks of a Mitsubishi X-80 reel-to-reel digital tape recorder (more about this technology → HERE).
The clarity of sound was above average, but it's what these recordings are like. What caught my ears was the saturation of the lower midrange, which resulted in DMP recordings that were not fully saturated in this range, such as from FILM & BB's album entitled Big Notes, having fantastic color depth. Fantastic indeed. And at the same time transparency and selectivity were maintained. Although nothing could be done about the snare drum beat, a bit “plastic” and shallow, but that's a problem of early digital technology, not the headphones - they just showed what we were dealing with at the time.
A comparison with Sennheiser and HiFiMAN designs showed that the DX6000 have a completely different personality. The HD 800s play warmer, with more midrange than the Final Audio. The American HE1000 v2, on the other hand, sound higher and more detailed. None of the models I listened to, including also the Lime Ears Pneuma and Anima, had such perfectly drawn bass and lower-midrange as the DX6000. None also knew how to show depth of stage so spectacularly.
▌ Summary
THE JAPANESE HEADPHONES ARE A special case of sound that appears dark on one side, but is rich with information on the other. There is both dynamics, and low bass extension, and depth of stage. Which is how it resembles, we circling back to the beginning of the test, the ZE8000 Jibun Dummy Head wireless headphones. It's as if the experience gathered by the company's engineers in measuring and matching sound with a sizable group of specialized journalists allowed them to average the measurements taken at the time and apply their results to a passive design.
Their only limitation is very low efficiency. I mentioned the AKG K 1000, right? - This is a very similar situation. The Leben CS-600X I used for testing, based on EL34 tubes, turned out not to have enough power for them to turn the volume knob up hard. With normal listening to jazz music everything was OK, but rock and classical required more power. That's why, in the context of the tested headphones, you have to think about powerful solid-state amplifiers, like the → dCS LINA or the → LAIV HP2A.
If you give them that, you'll find that the Final Audio DX 6000 are one of the most pleasant-sounding designs on the market that are also so resolving. And in addition, listening for several hours with them will be as comfortable as when sitting in front of the speakers. Therefore, from us the ˻ RED FINGERPRINT ˺. ●
▌ Technical specifications (according to the manufacturer):
Sensitivity: 83 dB/m/W
Nominal impedance: 47 Ω
Cable: OFC, 4-pin XLR, 3 m
Weight: 363 g (without the cable)
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THIS TEST HAS BEEN DESIGNED ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES adopted by the Association of International Audiophile Publications, an international audio press association concerned with ethical and professional standards in our industry, of which HIGH FIDELITY is a founding member. More about the association and its constituent titles → HERE.
→ www.AIAP-online.org
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