D8000 DC HEADPHONES FROM FINAL

Top of the range, planar magnetic headphones from Japan, Paul Rigby gets an earful

D8000 DC. DC? Well that’s stands for Da Capo, apparently. A Italian musical term meaning ‘from the beginning’. In this case? A reset, you might say. This is a seven-year old design but it now arrives with a rethink. 

The initial Air Film Damping System (AFDS) technology was introduced to examine low frequency response, to push then planar magnetic tech beyond normal limits. AFDS has now had a complete redesign, right down to the mesh patterns in front and behind the driver. Plus a reduction in weight, aided by etched aluminium foil.

And that weight spills over to the entire chassis at 431g, 120g lighter than the earlier model.

These 50 Ohm headphones, arrive with two, easy to swop over, cables offering 4.4mm Pentaconn and 4-pin XLR terminations. You will need convertors for other outputs which is a shame, I have to say. I would have liked to have seen a 6.35mm cable in there too. Especially for the price. 

Arriving with a 90 db sensitivity, these headphones are very comfy and gave my super large head no issues over extended listening. 

So how do they sound?

SOUND TEST

To begin, if I was a headphones fan and had bothered to filter the good and bad and settled on a – not exactly budget – pair of headphones like, oh I don’t know, the Sennhesier 660 S headphones for the (then new) price of £430, what if I had decided to go for broke, decimating my credit card with a pair of £4K models like these Final examples, what would be the differences?

What would you get for the extra cash?

I played the Yes album, Fragile, reissued many moons ago on a gold CD by Mobile Fidelity and I listened to Roundabout on a Leema Elements CD player, used as a transport for a Topping D90LE DAC. And I hooked that to an Icon Audio HP8 Mk.II valve headphone amplifier. 

Vs SENNHEISER 660 S

Differences? Yes, they were there. The Final designs were harder to drive so I did have to up the amplifier gain. Apart from that? There was a greater focus, a greater precision from top to bottom over all frequencies. Acoustic guitar strumming offered a greater physical attack as Steve Howe leant into the guitar.

Bass was crunchier and more aggressive, Jon Anderson’s lead vocal provided a more complex delivery with more grain and texture to his voice now. And then there was the soundstage which was impressively broad, pushing the channel extremes further left and right. 

Vs FINAL D7000

So what if you have already got a higher-end pair of Final headphones? Something like the 7000s for around £3k? Is it worth the upgrade? Playing the same track on the same album, I was impressed by the 8000’s clarity. That sense of air and space around the mids, the – again, extra focus and precision across the board, the greater naturalism across each frequency and the sense that tonal realism was dominating.

There was extra bass intensity, treble had both delicacy and fragility but the detail from the mids was impressive indeed. Having heard the 8000s? I couldn’t go back to the 7000s. I had been spoiled. 

Vs STAX 009 & ENERGISER

I paired the electrostatic Stax headphones with its valve-driven energiser and compared those to the Final. Which hit a similar price point. This time I brought in a Benchmark DAC fronted by an Audiolab 6000CDT transport.

As much as I adore the valve-driven Stax set up and the Stax’s upper mid and treble delicacy, the Final did offer a broadly more balanced output with enhanced clarity and – once again – impressive focus and precision. The sense of tonal accuracy was, once more, in evidence here. While bass punch was never a big deal on the electrostatic headphones, it certainly was a real boon on the Final model.    

BALANCED, DIN SOCKET

I then tested the balanced output via the DIN socket with a Violectric HPA V340 headphone amplifier and flip flopped between unbalanced and balanced mode, swopping around the output cables. I felt that, in balanced mode, more was being made of the expensive Final D8000 DC hardware. That the V340, in particular, was getting the most from these headphones.

In single-ended mode, I almost felt that the D8000 DC designs were not trying too hard. That they were merely ticking over. The balanced option stretched these headphones which is what you want to experience if you’ve spent out serious money on the things. 

Playing Elton John’s Honky Cat from the LP, Honky Chateau confirmed the maturity of the sound in balanced mode.

That classic warming 70s production was better expressed in balanced mode providing both a cuddly yet firm bass and plenty of subtlety from the banjo and piano. 

ASTELL&KERN KANN ALPHA PLAY

I wanted to check out the Pentaconn cable so attached them to my favoured DAP and listened to Cat Power, Bob Marley and Miles Davis. That DAP took a bit of effort to drive the 8000s but did so at comfortable volumes. Even so, I didn’t feel that a ‘mere’ DAP brought he best out of the D8000 DC headphones. 

The power behind it just wasn’t substantial enough. It struggled to really command the headphones. And the Kann Alpha is no slouch. On the contrary, I felt that the headphones were in control here. It was like trying to control a sack full of ferrets. Which I’m sure you do on a daily basis and so understand what I’m on about. And as such, you will know that you can never relax in that configuration, the whole experience is a bit unsettling and a struggle. So no, these headphones are for static HiFi headphone set ups, methinks. 

CONCLUSION

I have to say that I was surprised by the Final D8000 DC headphones. Surprised how good they were and are, that is. The level of tonal realism allied to an overall balance and neutrality from these designs really made me stop and think. Their open and airy nature allows both the energy and excitement of music to push on through. There is no colour here, no masking of fine detail either which allows the music to impress. 

If I was in a HiFi dealership and I heard these headphones on demo? There is absolutely no way I would be able to leave that shop without these headphones in a bag. Legally or otherwise.  

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FINAL D8000 DC HEADPHONES

Price: $4,299/€4,299/£3,999

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GOOD: focus, precision, wide soundstage, tonal realism

BAD: no 6.35mm cable

RATING: 9

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