Introduction

After covering Final Audio's $40 VR500 earphones, we're continuing with a significantly more expensive member of the same product lineup, the $70 VR2000. This, too, is a product aimed toward mobile and VR gamers, but it has significant differences from the VR500 in almost every aspect, including build quality, wearing comfort, supplied accessories, and performance. While not all will perceive $70 as a ton of money, it's still a hefty 70% price hike relative to the VR500, so an adjustment of expectations is in order before diving into the actual review. The VR2000 versus the VR3000 is a much more relevant comparison, because the former is, in essence, a slightly retuned variant of the latter, with very little actual difference in terms of build, comfort and everyday usability.



I went over the benefits of using IEM earphones for gaming in the VR500 article; to quickly rehash, they offer superior portability, better comfort in hot weather, good passive noise isolation, and are generally easy to drive, even with weaker power sources such as the one you might find in cheap USB-C audio dongles. The sales pitch for the VR2000 is "fast reaction times and accuracy," implying that they offer great handling of spatial positioning and detail retrieval. This was already the case with the VR500, so I was interested to examine what Final did to potentially push things even further.

Like the VR500, the VR2000 are wired IEMs, so there are no batteries or wireless latencies to worry about. In other words, they're ready for the most demanding games in terms of reaction times, such as online shooters and rhythm titles.

Specifications

• Drivers: Dynamic (f-Core DU, 6 mm)
• Impedance: 18 Ω @ 1 kHz
• Sensitivity: 102 dB/mW
• Frequency response: Not specified
• Design: In-ear
• Microphone: Omnidirectional (in-line)
• Connectivity: 3.5 mm
• Cable length: 1.2 m
• Weight: 20 g
• Accessories: 5x E-Type eartips (SS/S/M/L/LL), in-line controller, a pair of ear hooks, cloth carrying pouch

Packaging and Accessories

The design of the box is consistent with the less expensive VR500, with the only difference being that the box is wider. There's a picture of the IEMs on the front along with a mention of certain features, such as the existence of an in-line controller with an integrated microphone. The dark olive color scheme is clear, although the green tint is exceptionally subtle, to the point where you'll have to take the earphones outside to notice it. I'll get back to that. Aside from the IEMs attached to a 1.2-meter rubberized cable, the box contains four extra pairs of ear tips (SS, S, L, LL), two rubber ear hooks, and a cloth carrying pouch. There are no differences in materials between aforementioned ear tip sizes – all of them are made of silicone.

Closer Look and Comfort

The design of the VR2000 IEMs is vastly different compared to the VR500. After pushing the ear tips into the ear canals, you have to loop the wires around your ears, which takes a bit more time, but results in far superior wearing comfort compared to the VR500, it's not even close. The VR2000 can be used for many hours at a time without any wearing fatigue or irritation. Final found a good balance of shape and weight, so the VR2000 earphones blend with the ears naturally – at least that's the experience I had. The ear tips themselves haven't changed, clearly showing that they weren't the cause of the slight comfort issues I had with the VR500. There are some online listings claiming that the casings are made of aluminium, but that's false. Final uses ABS resin, which perhaps doesn't feel as premium, but is definitely sturdy. The cable is likely to give up much sooner than the earphones themselves, regardless. The left and right channel markings are much easier to read this time around, thanks to being printed in a much lighter color compared to the outer shell. As for the dark olive color scheme, take it with a grain of salt. The green tint is apparent only under direct light. Most of the time the VR2000 IEMs look dark gray or anthracite – which I don't mind at all.


The nozzles are thicker than those on the VR500, but the ear tip bores are equally easy to put on (and take off), mostly due to the flexibility of the silicone they're made from. Out of five supplied ear tip pairs, I had the best experience with the medium one, which is the default, factory-applied option. For added comfort, you can attach the supplied silicone ear hooks to where the wires come out of the IEMs. I didn't find the VR2000 uncomfortable without the hooks, but adding them definitely does further improve the whole experience of using the product. The hooks can be a bit fiddly to put on, although once you do, they stay on, thanks to the clever channel and locking mechanism, holding them on the wire securely.


The in-line controller has a pair of clicky volume buttons and a single multipurpose button on the front, with a pinhole microphone on the rear. The multipurpose button is used to play and pause music (single click), skip songs (double and triple click), and answer phone calls (single click when receiving a call). The controller is so small and light that it requires no clothes clip.

Sound and Microphone Quality

After some digging, I was able to find out that the VR2000 is equipped with a pair of so-called f-Core DU dynamic drivers (one driver per earphone), 6 millimeters in diameter. The specified impedance is 18 Ω, and the sensitivity is rated at 102 dB/mW, meaning the VR2000 is even easier to drive than the budget VR500. During testing, I didn't run into any issues with a noisy floor with any of the devices I connected the headphones to, such as the Creative Sound Blaster X5 external sound card (reviewed here), Topping A90 Discrete headphone amp, or Sharkoon Mobile DAC (reviewed here).

Just about any USB-C audio dongle or a handheld console's 3.5 mm output will provide Final's earphones with plenty of driving power, the same goes for PC sound cards. I'm pointing that out because some PC gamers prefer the convenience and minimalism of IEMs over traditional gaming headsets. If you're one of those, just keep in mind you'll likely need a longer cable, as well as a Y-splitter, that's going to separate a combined 4-pole (TRRS) audio input/output into two 3-pole (TRS) connectors, one for your sound card's microphone input, and another one for the headphone output. An audio extension cable is cheap and easily obtainable, and Final isn't marketing the VR2000 to PC gamers anyway, so I can't take its absence in the factory packaging as a downside.

I've measured the frequency response of the Final Audio VR2000 with the miniDSP EARS headphone test fixture, probably the least expensive such device on the market. It consists of two miniDSP UMIK-1 microphones placed inside a pair of silicone ears and affixed to a steel headphone stand. It's a USB-powered device, perfectly integrated with the fantastic Room EQ Wizard (REW) software, which is used for headphone and microphone calibration, as well as doing the measurements themselves. Every single miniDSP EARS unit comes with its own microphone calibration files, which are loaded into REW before doing the measurements. The miniDSP EARS certainly has its quirks. The most important one in this case is the fact that the artificial ear canals aren't particularly deep, and that makes the fixture less-than-ideal for IEM testing.

With that in mind, here's what I got after fitting the miniDSP EARS with the Final Audio VR2000 and running a frequency sweep 10 times.



For reference, here's a direct comparison with the VR500, measured in an identical environment.



The comparison graph should give you a good idea of what to expect from the VR2000. The earphones are noticeably more bassy than the VR500. There's more bass in sheer quantity, and its quality is improved, too. You still won't get a ton of texture and nuance, but the stuffiness in the lower registers is mostly gone. It stays present well below 50 Hz, meaning that the VR2000 also manages to deliver that deep, guttural rumble in songs and games that contain it. The frequency response graph is almost flat all the way to 1 kHz, with only a slight dip between 400 and 900 Hz, followed by a visible (and audible) boost in the lower presence region. This is exactly how Final goes about achieving excellent spatial awareness, which I would rate as the defining feature of the VR2000. I was able to locate distant targets in games like PUBG with complete ease and hear even the most subtle cues originating from the game world. I constantly had a feeling I was hearing my approaching opponents sooner than they could hear me, in battle royale titles, that's quite a luxury to have. Add to that the aforementioned deep bass, which unquestionably adds drama and excitement to gaming endeavors, and what you get is a very capable pair of gaming IEMs.

When it comes to music listening, the story is somewhat different. The boosted presence region gives the sound a certain sharpness, which isn't easy to handle for extended periods of time. Many vocals sound sibilant, with certain female ones even becoming harsh. I had some success in softening the sound after subduing the 4-8 kHz in my sound card's equalizer, but this isn't something everyone will be able to do – or should have to do, for that matter.

For your reference, here's a comparison between the recorded frequency response graphs of the VR2000 and VR3000.



For a deeper dive into these results, take a look at our VR3000 review.

Before wrapping up, let's check out the microphone quality. The Final VR2000 uses the seemingly same pinhole microphone setup as the VR500. The microphone is placed on the rear side of the in-line controller. For comparison, I've included the sample recorded on the VR500.




Even though the microphone setups appear the same, there's a significant difference in their quality. The VR2000's pinhole microphone sounds cleaner, less congested, and, most importantly, louder. That instantly makes it a better choice for chatting over Discord and other VoIP apps.

With everything mentioned in this article in mind, I'm left with the impression that the Final Audio VR2000 is designed for gaming, with everything else taking a back seat to spatial awareness and swift in-game target pickup. Solid bass prowess won't leave you hanging in atmospheric single-player games either, so if gaming is the number one reason why you're looking for a pair of IEMs, the VR2000 could be what you're looking for. On the other hand, if you're in the market for a more versatile pair of earphones, ones that would work equally well for music without the need for equalization, you're better off looking elsewhere. Even the $40 VR500 strikes me as a better choice in that case, although it should be noted that it doesn't come close to the VR2000 in terms of wearing comfort.