Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the right channel of the final ZE8000 MK2 earphones placed into an artificial ear mold with the pre-installed silicone size M ear tips on. I have average-sized ears, and the ear mold above represents my own experiences well enough as a proxy. Size M silicone tips are my go-to for testing since foam tips are not included by some, and ultimately you need to decide on the type of ear tips based on how good a fit and seal you get with the ones provided here. In this case, however, you are tied down to the ear tips provided by final, given how they fit over the two inner sections of the earphones. You will need to make sure the tips are completely through the base of the ear canal—not actually as deep as you may feel like going—but there will still be some slight discomfort initially as a result of the ear canals being blocked, but you will know the fit is secure when you slowly start to feel the pressure equalize from inside the ear canals to the outside. The end result is silicone that is not only in the ear canals but also the concha to make for one of the best fitting sets and I do appreciate final giving five different sizes of ear tips to choose from. At ~7 g per side, the ZE8000 MK2 is on par with typical resin-shell wired IEMs too, so there should not be physical fatigue either. The stem naturally points towards the mouth to better pick up your voice and minimize external noise.

Battery life is nothing to write home about. You get an advertised five hours of typical use, which based on my testing is at relatively loud volume and ANC on, although maxing out the volume, going for the highest ANC level, and turning on 8K Sound+ can reduce the battery life to under four hours. The good news here is I didn't notice much difference between Bluetooth codecs, so you might as well go with the higher bitrate aptX adaptive if your phone or DAP supports it. Part of this reduced battery life is due to the inclusion of a standalone Class-AB amplifier here instead of just relying on the typical low energy Class-D amplifier that comes as part of the Bluetooth SoC for TWS earphones. The case can provide 17-18 more hours of use in my experience, and it takes ~2 hours to charge with quick charging on offer too, so I feel more lenient towards final now.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

final Audio has been developing and using a scalable platform of dynamic drivers for its IEMs in the past few years now. Called "f-CORE," there is little known about the actual driver composition aside from that final goes for a custom combination of driver diaphragm, surround, magnets, and voice coil depending on the application. With the ZE8000 MK2, as with the ZE8000 before, we get a relatively large 13 mm dynamic driver that is also supposedly thicker than usual given the space allocated here. It's an ultra-low distortion driver that final then pairs with a dedicated digital signal processing (DSP) unit and the aforementioned Class-AB amplifier to put out a highly controlled sound that should present as extremely clean and resolving, assuming all things work as expected. The original ZE8000 was on the quieter side for some people and the newer MK2 has raised the max volume by 5 dB to help. We don't know the identity of the other components such as the Bluetooth SoC but at least I can tell you the microphones used for voice pick-up work quite well for online calls etc. ANC worked quite well until ~500 Hz to cut down persistent noise—it does better with inconsistent sounds than the original ZE8000, as well as most other TWS sets in the market—and is complemented by good passive isolation. I'd place transparency mode on par with mainstream TWS sets from a generation ago though, especially since you still have that annoying hiss in the background and things get worse if there's a breeze. Also seen above are the pre-programmed touch controls on the ZE8000 MK2 which are logical and work without frustration.

Frequency Measurement and Listening

I will mention that I have a general preference for a warm-neutral signature with a slightly elevated bass, smooth treble range, detailed mids, and good tonal separation. I also generally prefer instrumental music over vocals, with favored genres including jazz and classical music.


Our reproducible testing methodology begins with a calibrated IEC711 audio coupler/artificial ear that earphones can feed into enough for decent isolation. The audio coupler feeds into a USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running and these TWS earphones connected to the laptop through Bluetooth. I begin with an impulse measurement to test for signal fidelity, calibrate the sound card and channel output, account for floor noise, and finally test the frequency response of each channel separately. Octave smoothing is at the 1/12th setting, which nets a good balance of detail and noise not being identified as useful data. Also, the default tuning was used for testing, and no app-based settings were chosen unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is tested thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the three individual measurements for statistical accuracy. For those products that get a full review, I am also using the appropriate ear mold fitted to the audio coupler for a separate test to compare how the IEMs fare when installed in a pinna geometry instead of just the audio coupler. The raw data is then exported from REW and plotted in OriginPro for easier comparison.


The IEC711 is such that you can't really compare these results with most other test setups, especially those using a head and torso simulator (HATS). The raw dB numbers are also quite contingent on the set volume, gain levels, and sensitivity of the system. What is more useful information is how the left and right channels work across the rated frequency response in the final ZE8000 MK2 which is seen above. The left channel was separately tested from the right one, and colored differently for contrast. I did my best to ensure an identical fit for both inside the IEC711 orifice, so note how the review sample—a randomly chosen retail unit—shows very good channel matching. The slight discrepancy in the lower frequencies feels more an artifact of the seal achieved in the coupler if my own ears are anything to go by, or at least small enough to where my ears did not notice it. The response with the anthropomorphic pinna in place matched the ideal scenario in the coupler fairly well and this is an indicator of how good the fit and seal was when installed in the artificial ear. Here too, the slight bass drop could be a result of the different fit in the coupler tube vs. that in the silicone pinna, which isn't as soft as the human ear anyway.



Here is the average frequency response for both channels of the final ZE8000 MK2 plotted against my personal target taken from VSG.squig.link, which also gives you an idea of my personal preferences to better correlate any possible biases. The tuning of a set of headphones or earphones does not have to match my target as long as it is tuned with some direction, makes sense, and is executed well. After all, no one set will appeal to everyone, and having different options is what makes this hobby so interesting and hard to quantify. This is in addition to a second graph using a newer target that's based on a more scientific methodology involving a -10 dB tilt (-1 dB/octave) applied to the diffuse field target for the newer, more reliable B&K 5128 but then compensated for my exact 711 coupler instead. Do scroll down to the targets in my database linked above and see the new 5128 section to the left where you can click on the yellow question mark for a brief primer. The bottom line is this target is closer to what many people are likely to prefer out of IEMs and headphones alike. I have chosen to plot this graph with the frequency response normalized/compensated to the target to make it easier to see where the ZE8000 MK2 deviates from this target. This helps visualize the various elements of the set's tonality—elevated, bloated bass and then pretty much a flat line all the way to the higher frequencies.

final has a bunch of marketing about how the 8000 in ZE8000 means this is analogous to its A8000 flagship wired IEMs and D8000 flagship wired headphones. Then there's the part where it has some cringe-worthy 8K sound in the marketing materials that tries to make it feel similar to an 8K TV, but for sound. There is even an 8K Sound+ mode in the app and final makes a big deal about its driver, the DSP engine, and the Class-AB amplifier used. Unfortunately all this is for nought when the IEMs are tuned like nothing they should be. I really don't understand what final is going for here with a bass shelf starting from ~500 Hz and this is all you really hear. I don't care if these have the best bass in the world if there's no balance elsewhere to help appreciate it. There are no upper mids, no ear gain, no lower treble, no mid-treble (the resonance peak is a coupler artifact) and barely any upper treble either. So almost every single music genre sounds hollow and being played through a pillow case at best with no harmonics in play and even some fundamental tones being heavily subdued. I suppose if you were only listening to electronic music then the ZE8000 MK2 might work well, but there was no way I could do any real testing without EQ.

The app-based EQ helps to a good extent, but there are limitations there as we saw on the previous page. I found it more useful to have a client device-based parametric EQ and a lot of filters to get it sounding correct enough, and I'm worried this is beyond the patience and effort levels of most end users—there is enough leeway with this ultra-low distortion driver to go for more extensive EQ profiles thankfully. Knowing that this is a deliberate decision by final to get the tonality as much is all the more mind-boggling given how much improvement there is with EQ. Now you have a set which has good technological features and ANC paired with one of the better drivers and amplifiers in any TWS set. Bass now hits hard, it's resolving enough to differentiate different stringed guitars, there is enough dynamic range to appreciate playback at lower volume too. The mids are no longer muddy or missing either and make for enough range for various instrument classes to shine while vocals are at the forefront with some much-needed ear gain added. I didn't do too much to the mid-treble except to add a single shelf filter to aid with my jazz and classical music library, but here I did feel the driver itself was perhaps being stretched too much. It's not uncommon for TWS IEMs to lose out on bass and treble extension in general though. Anyway the bottom line is the final ZE8000 MK2 is a case of wasted money with the current firmware/tuning and EQ is absolutely a must.


The obvious comparison to make here is with the original final ZE8000 which I had had my hands on not even 6 months before the ZE8000 MK2 was announced. The ZE8000 arrived with firmware 1.8.0 which I first heard and found to be a fairly energetic V-shaped set with a bit too much going on in the low-to-mid treble. This was simple enough to fix via even the app-based EQ itself though and all the novelty surrounding the design and driver tech inside was keeping me positive about what was shaping up to be a rather good sounding TWS set. A week later final dropped firmware version 1.8.1, and I could not believe this was on purpose. I immediately contacted them, via the UK distributor, but never really got any response back. This delayed the review until final surprised me, and probably most others, with the ZE8000 MK2, and unfortunately it seems obvious that final has decided this tonality is the way to go. As it stands, the two ZE8000 sets sound really alike and not to my liking at all. The ZE8000 MK2 improves upon the original in quality-of-life aspects such as a more comfortable ear tip set, better ANC, louder max volume etc., and it does come in at the same, if not slightly less, than what the original ZE8000 did. So if I had to pick up one of the two then it would obviously be the ZE8000 MK2. But realistically, I will be more likely to save the cash and go for the final ZE3000 instead.


When we step beyond final's offerings then things get more complicated. There's the HIFIMAN Svanar Wireless which happens to be the most expensive set of TWS earphones I've reviewed to date, but even this is far from being the most expensive TWS set out there. Even ignoring the ridiculous examples using precious stones and metals, I've tried on multiple TWS sets in the $600-1000 price range in the last few months at different trade shows and audio stores. Somehow, all of these have poor tonality in common, and the Svanar Wireless isn't escaping that trend either. However, it has more in common with the ZE8000 MK2 courtesy another in-house developed dynamic driver and the use of a standard amplifier (R-2R or Class-AB depending on which version you go with). The Svanar Wireless is one of the more impractical sets when it comes to the carry case and can be quite flashy even after installation. It also has a mediocre battery life, although you do get LDAC support, and the tonality is fairly V-shaped similar to the original ZE8000 before the big tuning update. Despite sounding quite peaky and compressed in the upper mids, the Svanar Wireless at least reproduces most instruments and vocals out of the box. Another set with questionable tuning, and one that I believe has been discontinued already, is the Campfire Audio Orbit. The best thing I can say here is it makes the final ZE8000 MK2 feel somewhat sensible. It's one of the worst audio products I've tried to date and I would not be surprised if Campfire Audio never gets into TWS sets again based on how big a failure this was. The Status Between 3ANC costs a lot less now that it's seemingly on a permanent sale and yet is the easy recommendation for most people reading this review. It's also the most complete set in that you get a nice looking comfortable pair of TWS earphones with decent battery life, a good app with lots of customization, reliable touch controls, and multiple listening and ANC modes to try out. It might feel overwhelming at first, but the sound signature works with a lot of music genres, and you can go from V-shaped to Harman which is quite rare for wireless IEMs even if it's become a menace for wired sets. I'd pick this over the ZE8000 MK2 any day of the week!