AFUL Acoustics Launches Cantor Flagship 14 BA In-Ear Monitors

[VSG]

AFUL Acoustics, the innovating brand behind IEMs such as the impressive Performer 5, Performer 8, and the MagicOne has released its latest entry, which also happens to be its new flagship. The AFUL Cantor uses 14 balanced armature drivers per side and pairs it patented innovations developed and used in its other IEMs in addition to brand-new tech, and for a seemingly attractive price of $799 relative to the competition. Some of the engineering used here includes dual channel acoustic maze technology, non-destructive direct drive topology, multidimensional frequency division architecture, high-precision 3D-printed acoustic tube, and RLC network frequency division correction technology. Look out for our future review of the Cantor to know more about these, as well as how these IEMs sound. The Cantor is available in two faceplate options, the StarryNight and MarineEcho, as well as your choice of 3.5 mm or 4.4 mm cable terminations. It can be currently purchased on the Hifigo Aliexpress store, with the main website due to release it next week for those interested.



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[Onasi]

Is a balanced cable even meaningful for IEMs? I see more and more of them at different price ranges either coming with by default or having them as an option. Not like they need much power to get loud, right?

Also, considering how many near-endgame options there are at significantly lower prices nowadays I struggle to see any point in paying even 800, not even speaking about significantly more expensive options, unless we are talking full custom. These won’t be two times better than, say, the DUSK.

 

[azrael]

Let's hope the sound isn't AFUL...

 

[Bwaze]

"The AFUL Cantor uses 14 balanced armature drivers per side and pairs it patented innovations developed and used in its other IEMs..."

Is that really 14 speakers per one small IEM? Why? How? Even large floor standing behemoth speakers rarely use more than 3 drivers per speaker, and they are shifting more air mass than these IEMs weigh...

 

[The Terrible Puddle]

Is a balanced cable even meaningful for IEMs? I see more and more of them at different price ranges either coming with by default or having them as an option. Not like they need much power to get loud, right?

Also, considering how many near-endgame options there are at significantly lower prices nowadays I struggle to see any point in paying even 800, not even speaking about significantly more expensive options, unless we are talking full custom. These won’t be two times better than, say, the DUSK.

A lot of small dongles achieve great performance (low distortion and all that) by using two dac chips in a balanced configuration.

 

[Onasi]

@The Terrible Puddle
That’s not what balanced cables are for though. It’s an amplifier thing, not a DAC related one. If we oversimplify to the extreme - it’s all about providing more power.

 

[The Terrible Puddle]

@The Terrible Puddle
That’s not what balanced cables are for though. It’s an amplifier thing, not a DAC related one. If we oversimplify to the extreme - it’s all about providing more power.

If you look at how these dongles work then most of the signal amplification actually happens in the DAC chips themselves. There is not much space for additional amplification circuitry.
And running dual dac chips is an easy way to do it. You get L-, L+, R-, R+ right out of the box and up to four times the power of a single chip. Great measurements too.

 

[Pictus]

Let's hope the sound isn't AFUL...

Tone Deaf Monk loves it.