Closer Examination

FiiO is among the few companies with modular plug cables out of the box, and the FA7s continues the trend. The cable comes with a 3.5 mm TRS single-ended connector out of the box, placed on a large aluminium housing with a knurled finish on the end for grip and a polished surface that has the "born for music" slogan etched in. The grippy surface helps unscrew and pull off the connector, revealing four pins that go into the replacement plug if, say, using a 4.4 mm connector for a balanced cable. This is a nice way to get around using adapters, but the plugs can be extremely tight and require more force to pull out than you would think. FiiO mentions as much in the user manual, asking you to use grippy materials. It's not the best such modular implementation, but one of the most secure.

The cable is very good even outside of the modular plugs, with a dark brown thermoplastic polyurathane (TPU) sheath that works well with the slightly dark aluminium housings used throughout, including on the splitter and cable cinch. No microphonics were felt in use, and the cable feels ready to be re-shaped without much resistance. FiiO is using an 8-strand, 152-core Litz-style silver-plated monocrystalline copper cable with the FA7s, with four strands per channel past the splitter with the FiiO logo. A clear plastic sheath on top at the other end helps form the ear hooks which then terminate in angled clear housings with MMCX connectors. Blue and red rings in addition to subtle L/R markings here denote the left and right channels. I would have preferred 2-pin connectors, but there is still a use case for MMCX paired with a removal tool compared to some 2-pin cables with easily bendable pins. All the plugs, including the replacement ones, are gold-plated for oxidation resistance.


For an all balanced armature driver set, the FiiO FA7s is shaped uniquely. It's also a departure from other FA-series IEMs from FiiO, with this circular form factor adopted from FiiO's other recent single dynamic driver IEMs. The FA7s shells are made of medical-grade 316L stainless steel manufactured through powder metallurgy at 1000°C sintering after an injection mold. The face plate is CNC-machined and has a tri-spoke cutout with a blue-colored mesh insert. I say blue, but a second color option set is the more limited edition. You see, the shells are PVD-electroplated to get the silver and blue colors, but there is also a black and gold finish if purchased directly from FiiO. Most FA7s units sold worldwide have this silver and blue finish, and regardless of which you get, the shells are hand-polished for the glossy, mirror-like finish that can be a fingerprint magnet but is easily cleaned as well.


A closer look at the shells and face plates confirms the polish on the sides only, and the face plate has some telltale machining marks. These are not easily seen or felt, though. The blue accent is what your eyes will be drawn to more anyway. These are otherwise quite small for IEM shells, with no vents or bass ports on the sides or underside. The cable connectors are to the side with matching L/R rings around the MMCX connectors to identify the left and right channels similar to what we saw on the cable, and L/R markings are on the inner side of the shells, too. The shells are fairly reflective, which is a non-issue when in the ears. Note the quite long nozzle relative to the shells themselves. It is built with a deeper fit in mind, and the insertion angle is shallow, too. A small lip on the end keeps the ear tips in place, and the nozzle is ~6 mm at its widest point—replacement ear tips best have a ~5-5.5 mm bore. A pre-installed metal filter prevents contaminants from entering the acoustic chamber.


Fitting the different ear tips is trivial, and the notch on the nozzle holds them securely. Seen above are the four different size M silicone ear tips. I omitted the foam tips since that would just take up too much room. Just make sure you go around the tips to ensure they are not in at an angle. Given the relatively wide nozzle, I had to stretch the ear tips slightly to get the bore around, which is not tedious, and the silicone tips were much simpler to fit than the foam ones. Try out the various different tips and sizes, and keep in mind that it's not necessary for both ear canals to have the best seal with the same set or size, either. Regardless of which tips you go with, the next step is to re-connect the cable by carefully identifying the matching channels and orienting the ear hooks around your ears when connecting the IEMs. Doing so is simple since you just push the MMCX plugs in until they click in place. As these freely rotate, route the ear hooks without being constrained by your best fit of the IEMs. Now simply connect to the source using the 2.5/3.5/4.4 mm connector of your choice. I know there are many who prefer using IEMs throughout, but I like to use over-ear headphones when sitting down and IEMs on the go. I paired the FiiO FA7s with many of the tested portable DAC/amps to date and personally like the cleaner profile and handy EQ options of the FiiO BTR5 and the the Qudelix-5K as the source, in turn paired to my phone or laptop.