Final Audio ZE8000

Flagship Truly Wireless Stereo Earbuds.
Remastering Your Music Listening Experience with 8K SOUND.
Through the journey of pursuing truly high-quality sound, by thoroughly exploring our creativity and innovation, and subsequently performing intensive R&D in audio, acoustic, psychoacoustic and material engineering, we came up, in 2017, with the Air Film Damping System (AFDS) planar magnetic flagship headphone model, the D8000, and we introduced, in 2019, the truly Pure Beryllium diaphragm-driven flagship In-Ear Monitor (IEM) model, the A8000. Both flagship models deliver the highest level of “Transparency” in music playback and have achieved a breakthrough in hi-fi audio, presenting a completely new perception of and experience in discovering music. The code “8000” became synonym to the milestones of final in our relentless pursuit of new and innovative ideas, challenging limits and realizing the impossible.

Now, in 2022, we proudly introduce another new model into our 8000 flagship lineup, the ZE8000. ZE8000 is a pair of Truly Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds that has been delicately designed in both its hardware and software so as to manifest the acoustic properties — what we call 8K SOUND — newly discovered by final. Utterly different from conventional sound design approaches, this brand new 8K SOUND technology exceeds the achievement of “Transparency”, accomplished by D8000 and A8000, and delivers an unprecedented level of clarity, with the true identity of every bit of sound revealed in its full form, promising a whole new level of music enjoyment.

Features

8K SOUND
In visual technology, the 8K UHD (Ultra-High Definition) standard utilizes 16× more pixels than the general standard to deliver 16× more information and allow smoother color gradient between pixels, resulting in crisper imaging, more natural color toning and smoother motion presentation.

Meanwhile, in audio technology, delivering all the information residing inside a musical piece with utmost accuracy has always been a great challenge. Due to the physical limitations of the equipment used, a lot of this information was left out. Methods used to address this problem vary from employing hardware of different shape, size and material to performing sound tuning focused to a particular frequency range, with all of these methods aiming to improve the overall clarity.

The 8K SOUND technology that has newly been developed by final offers an innovative breakthrough. Instead of focusing only on fine-tuning of particular frequencies, the time element of every single bit of sound is also carefully calibrated with digital signal processing. In doing so, all information residing inside a musical piece is distinctly revealed in its best quality and aesthetics. Overall, 8K SOUND delivers an exquisite sound experience at a level of distinction, detail, separation and speed that has never been accomplished before.

Division Design for Best Fitting
Many of the TWS systems on the market are designed to place all components into the concha area, which may result in a size that does not fit people with small ears.

For ZE8000, we took a novel approach, by creating a dedicated ear-fitting division that is small enough to fit all ear conchas.

Complemented by the newly designed dual-layered TYPE Q ear tips, ZE8000 stays fit into the concha by mainly utilizing the interlocking mechanism contributed by the round-shaped division and the ear concha. The part that lies into the ear canal has been designed to be softer, providing a comfortable fitting with a soft touch. Additionally, different from most typical TWS systems, where the hard surface of the housing is directly in contact with the ears, the dual-layered TYPE Q ear tips offer a soft silicone contact surface for supreme comfort.

Sound Quality Prioritized Active Noise Canceling
Turning on Active Noise Canceling (ANC) in many headphones and earphones degrades sound quality and makes users to feel oppression, stress and discomfort (particularly when no music is playing).
To solve this problem, our engineers conducted numerous experiments with customized equipment and evaluations with actual humans. As a result, we succeeded in designing a noise-canceling algorithm that effectively eliminates ambient noise in the ear, creating a quiet environment ideal for listening to music, while remaining faithful to the original sound and enabling a stress-free listening experience. To enhance the accuracy and performance of the ANC algorithm, high-quality Knowles MEMS (Micro Electromechanical Systems) microphones are used.

4 Modes for Convenience of Use
ZE8000 can switch between four different modes for convenience of use via either touch control or mobile apps. Three of these modes are related to ambient noise and one to wind noise.

Active Noise Canceling Mode - Eliminates ambient noise and allows the user to concentrate onto the music.

Ambient Sound Mode - Seamlessly blends music and ambient sound, allowing users to be aware of their surroundings while listening to music.

Voice Through Mode - Ambient sound is prioritized over music, allowing for clear conversations without removing the earphones from the ears.

Wind-Cut Mode - Significantly eliminates wind noise captured by the microphones when there is a lot of ambient air movement.

Volume Step Optimizer
Volume is one of the most important factors affecting music listening experience. Due to the short distance between the eardrum and earphones, the latter are more sensitive to volume changes than speakers or headphones.

Unlike dedicated hi-fi devices though, smartphones often vary greatly each time the volume is turned up or down, making it difficult to set the volume precisely to one's liking.

Volume Step Optimizer is an innovative feature designed for ZE8000 to solve this problem. Starting from the regular listening volume level set by the user (reference volume), Volume Step Optimizer transforms the smartphone’s standard volume control to a finer volume adjustment tool offering higher precision around the reference volume. This allows users to easily pinpoint volume level with the volume control control on their smartphone.

Ultra-Low Distortion Driver, f-CORE for 8K SOUND
8K SOUND can only be realized when hardware and software are designed in parallel and the two complement each other. In order to realize the full potential of digital signal processing technology, the driver unit must be highly accurate and have extremely low distortion.

ZE8000 features the newly developed "f-CORE for 8K SOUND" ultra-low distortion driver with a large 13mm equivalent* diaphragm, unprecedented for TWS earbuds. A lightweight aluminum-magnesium dome in the center is injection molded onto a highly flexible special silicone surround, and a floating mechanism is used for the CCAW voice coil leads. This design has resulted in a significantly lighter diaphragm and, because no common adhesive is used, stable piston motion during vibration is achieved. The "f-CORE for 8K SOUND" is said to be the dynamic driver with the lowest THD+N (Total Harmonic Distortion Plus Noise) in wireless earphones and IEMs.

This superior physical characteristic of "f-CORE for 8K SOUND" not only provides the highest precision in digital signal processing, but also allows for the fullest possible portrayal of sound texture and detail.

* An approximate diameter calculated from the area of the central dome

8K SOUND Dedicated Digital Signal Processing
Meanwhile, in audio technology, delivering all the information residing inside a musical piece with utmost accuracy has always been a great challenge. Due to the physical limitations of the equipment used, a lot of this information was left out. Methods used to address this problem vary from employing hardware of different shape, size and material to performing sound tuning focused to a particular frequency range, with all of these methods aiming to improve the overall clarity.

Noise Suppressing System with AB Class Amplifier & PML CAP
To complement the ultra-low distortion driver "f-CORE for 8K SOUND" and the digital signal processing dedicated to ZE8000, high-quality electronic hardware components are used to minimize both distortion and noise in the musical signal generation circuitry.

ZE8000 uses a Class-AB amplifier, which is known for its excellent balance between sound quality and power efficiency, rather than the power-efficient Class-D amplifier used by many TWS systems. Class-AB amplifiers contribute to more faithful music reproduction because of their lower distortion.

The decoupling capacitors of the microchip for digital signal processing are high-performance, low-distortion PML CAPs (Polymer Multilayer Capacitors) designed by the renowned Japanese manufacturer Rubycon. By using the latest manufacturing technology, PML CAP has achieved significantly lower distortion than a typical MLCC (Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor). This makes the output of digital signal processing, which is essential for 8K SOUND, cleaner and more accurate.

aptX Adaptive™ & Snapdragon Sound™ Compatible
In addition to SBC and AAC codecs, ZE8000 supports the uninterrupted, high-quality Qualcomm® aptX™ and aptX™ Adaptive codecs for wireless transmission up to 24bit/96Hz.

Users of Snapdragon Sound™ enabled devices can now upgrade their wireless connectivity even further with Snapdragon Sound™ technology, designed to give listeners the best possible audio experience for gaming, music streaming, voice and video calls and more. Snapdragon Sound™ is designed to deliver lossless music and ensure industry-leading low-latency connections.

Snapdragon Sound™ is optimized to work with a variety of devices and is designed to provide a robust connection with minimal dropouts and audio glitching, even in environments where users may experience interference from many other devices, such as at home, at work or on the road.

Beamforming for Crystal Clear Call
Final's proprietary beamforming algorithm has been introduced to improve phone call quality of ZE8000. Two high-performance microphones are placed at the top and bottom of ZE8000 at calculated distances between them.

During a phone call, the two microphones simultaneously capture the user's voice and ambient sound, and their signals are spontaneously calculated by the beamforming algorithm. ZE8000 effectively extracts only the user's voice, by calculating the time difference between the sound picked up by both microphones, resulting in a clear call.

Dedicated Mobile Application
By installing the dedicated mobile application "final CONNECT" on a device paired with ZE8000, the following functions, unique to ZE8000, are opened in addition to basic functions, such as checking the battery level of the earbuds.

•Switch between 4 modes: Noise Canceling, Voice Through, Ambient Sound and Wind-Cut.
•PRO Equalizer allows users to make adjustments onto sound presentation in the most effective way, without causing degradation of sound quality.
•Setting up the Volume Step Optimizer to upgrade the smartphone's volume control, allowing for finer volume adjustment near the preferred volume with greater precision.
•Switching the voice guidance language (Japanese/English)
•Activating 8K SOUND+

New functions are scheduled to be added through firmware updates.

Color Variations
Two color variations: BLACK & WHIITE.
The main body of the earphones and the charging case are made of a lightweight resin housing with a glossy grainy finish reminiscent of the warship of a high-end camera. Normally, this type of grainy coating is baked onto metal surfaces, but we have developed a special process that can be applied to resin surfaces as well.

Technical Specifications