Multiple Japanese audio brands have been doing weird things that can best be described as "Japanese quirkiness" but really this is a polite way of saying they don't seem to really see where the rest of the market is going. final Audio is a mixed bag in that it puts out some of the best designed products that look and feel luxurious, and then they may not sound anywhere like you would want them to. Things have improved lately with the UX3000 and ZE3000 wireless products offering good value for money and the D8000 Pro Limited being one of the better flagship headphones on the market today. But then the brand does things which I don't understand and the saga of the ZE8000 TWS earphones is a great example. The original ZE8000 launched early 2023 and had a lot of good things going for it to help justify the cost. But a firmware update soon took away any chance it had to be a mainstay in the audiophile TWS market. There were other issues too, such as mediocre ANC, but still nothing that justified final putting out a ZE8000 MK2 mere months later. It improves upon the original in a lot of ways and yet manages to retain the biggest issue I had with the ZE8000, in that it simply does not sound very good out of the box.

All of this has to do with the tuning final went with, especially given how much is being flaunted about the dedicated DSP engine and 8K sound that leaves no doubt that the ZE8000 MK2 sounds exactly as final intends—especially with a matching frequency response compared to the original ZE8000 after the notorious firmware update. This is a shame because you end up with a bloated mess that doesn't do much of anything except bass. There is a ruler flat line from 500 Hz going up which is not how neutral IEMs are supposed to sound. The end result is you can barely appreciate instruments and vocals as they get rendered into a mushy smoothie no one asked for. The bigger shame is how capable the platform really is. The in-house developed dynamic driver is massive compared to what you typically get in TWS sets and is backed by decades of audio engineering expertise too. It's an ultra-low distortion driver which thankfully allows for more complex EQ profiles, and now you really see what the ZE8000 MK2 is capable of. I also appreciate final adding a lot of technological features on top of what it's usually known for, and the dedicated Class-AB amplifier is another ingredient that could have gone into making this a very compelling set. As it stands I can only recommend the final ZE8000 MK2 for those willing to put in the EQ work to make it sound as they want it to, and do note that the app-based EQ may not suffice either. The asking price makes it all the harder for people to go this route, although I will say it's more competitive outside the US for once, so Europeans can finally rejoice at having something going their way.