The Package

The Future Sonics Atrio box was mangled a bit during shipping from the States, but fortunately the earphones arrived without a scratch on them.


With each set of Atrios you get a fake leather carrying case and five sets of tips and a cleaning tool. The cleaning tool is the usual scraper you can use to get ear wax out of the sound tube. During the course of my testing I found that the Atrios are much less prone to scooping up ear wax because the sound tube stops about two millimeters before the tip’s end. This means that you only have to clean the tip which is much easier than fiddling around with the scraper.

Closer Examination

One of the things that make the Atrios stand out from the rest of the IEM crowd is the design. The shape is curvy and features a big rubber stress relief. Apart from the complex shape of the shell, the base construction is simple. You have your dynamic driver in a big hemispherical hard acrylic housing. One of the smart solutions featured on the Atrios is the massive rubber stress relief, because it both dampens the microphonics and reduces the stress on the cable.


The silicone dual flange tips are available in sizes from small through medium to large. The surface is quite smooth and should work nicely. However, with my ears, the small were way too small and the medium a little too big. This meant that I had to use some of the foam tips that Future Sonics also delivers with the Atrios. These are of a really good quality - on par with the finish and uniformity one would expect of aftermarket foam tips from Comply.


Above you can see the Future Sonics Atrios from the ear on out. The silicone tips have a big hole where the sound exits the sound tube. The diameter is roughly twice that of the sound tube which is different compared to most normal in-ears, where it is the other way around.


The hard part of the shell features a small Future Sonics “FS” logo. Otherwise the earphones are "branding" free which means that the design is quite elegant even though it looks fresh. If you want a set of IEMs to use on the move, the Future Sonics Atrio in-ears will probably do a good job. The amount of microphonic noise from the cable is relatively low and the noise attenuation is good because it is a completely closed design unlike that of other IEMs based on dynamic drivers I know of. I suspect that you can achieve better isolation with the silicone tips, but since I was unable to get a good fit I have not been able to test that aspect of their performance. Future Sonics calls their cable technology “Quietcables II” and it is basically a really soft cable with a semi-textured surface, a bit softer than the cables Sleek-Audio, Klipsch, and Head-Direct use on their IEMs.


Without the tip on you can get a view of what seems to be the front end of the driver along with the long and thin sound tube. Unlike most in-ears, the tips are only held in place by friction created.


The mini jack is of the right angled type, it feels quite solid. The y-split is made from solid plastic. It looks very anonymous unlike that on the recently reviewed Sleek-Audio Custom in-ears. All in all the Future Sonics Atrio in-ears are very plain looking, which is nice to see for a change. The only thing that counts in the opposite direction is that they stick more out of your ears than most quality in-ears do.