Picking the right pair of headphones is never easy, and if you like your audio to be perfect, doubly so, but one brand hopes to deliver a sense of finality.
This attempt comes from a suitably named company, Final, and while the attempt isn’t the first time Final has made headphones — far from it, actually — you’ll actually get a choice of two here.
The first choice is in the Sonorous II while the second is the Sonorous III, and both of these come from the work Final has made with its predecessor, the Sonorous X.
These names do get a little complicated, so instead just think of them as the two (II) and three (III).
Both models rely on a titanium diaphragm, something we don’t see all that often in headphones and last saw it in the French Aedle VK-1, which helped to produce a loverly clear and distinct sound for those cans, which we expect will happen here.
Final has improved on the driver, however, by delivering a front plate to the headphones to quell vibrations and cut down on resonance, and added a mechanism Final calls the “Balancing Air Movement” or “BAM” mechanism to optimise and balance pressure between the front and the back of the diaphragm, keeping the audio crisp.
One surprising thing is the padding, and for that Final has gone with pleather on top of sponge which is says provides an equal amount of flex, even if you don’t get that smell of leather you might be looking for.
You don’t always go for headphones for smell, though, with sound being more important, and in the case of the Sonorous two (II) and three (III), that’s what you should be expecting, and even though they’re practically identical — we tried searching through the specs to find the differences — it appears the Sonorous II are more for people who like acoustic music, with jazz, classical, and the unplugged nature made for these cans.
For all other types of music with a bit of bass, Final suggests the III.
Both models are wired — sorry, no wireless here — and pricing starts at $449 where you’ll find the Sonorous II, while an extra one hundred will see the Sonorous III at $549. As for what we think, not having tested them we can’t say, but given the price, we’d surely audition them first if you were considering plonking down the cash.
