I've only had a chance to review a small set of Fearless products in the past, most notably the Crinacle collaboration product, the Dawn. In this rapid fire impressions article, I'll take a quick look at two popular products from this brand: The Tequila and the S8Z.
These items were loaned out to me from Headphones.com and were review samples provided by Fearless Audio indirectly.
Tequila
The Tequila retails starting at $399 USD and can be designed to the users liking as they are built-to-order, from what I understand. They come in a variety of shell colors and faceplate options with varying price levels based on the chosen design.
The driver configuration is 1 dynamic driver and 6 balanced armatures, making the Tequila a 7-driver hybrid. The Fearless packaging is similar across their brand now, and comes with sets of tips, a leather round case, a somewhat heavy black braided cable, and other little accessories all contained in a rather large product box.
The Tequila's tuning is very mid-centric, with a somewhat linear bass and mid-range response, and slightly elevated upper-mids and lower treble, but does have quite a recessed treble range extending out. It's not the most airy sounding IEM, and really does focus on an intimate, mid-forward presentation.
Despite how the graph may look, I actually don't think this IEM sounds half-bad. I do enjoy the close-up atmosphere. It provides a front-row viewing experience, and Fearless is able to drive up the resolution quite nicely and it feels quite natural and organic and I think its vocal timbre sounds appropriate, surprisingly.
It's a little bit on the lush side, especially with the warm mid-range and lack of upper treble, so those who are looking for something a little bit more open, and wider may be disappointed here. I'm a bit surprised it does not sound compressed or congested. It presents an overall pleasant and soothing sound that can only be described as mid-forward to me.
S8Z
The S8Z is a more expensive model starting at $589 USD and is an all-BA IEM with 8-drivers per channel. Like the Tequila, this model can be customized for an additional fee.
The S8Z's presentation is more of a traditional U-shaped and balanced signature and comes off more accurate across the frequency response, though it does lean a tad bright with an emphasis in the presence region. In this case, some of the female vocals I listened to had a slight nasally sound to them, but otherwise sound alright. Strings also sound a little stretched.
The bass has a mid-bass focus that is a little more punch and doesn't have a deep rumble that I would normally prefer. Like the Tequila, I think resolution is on-par and this one still has solid imaging and resolution at this price point. There's just a tad more air present on this unit which helps bring out the upper harmonics a little more, and this is more conducive to acoustical music for me.
While the Tequila is very warm and laid-back, the S8Z can come across as a little bright and maybe a tad fatiguing, especially when going back and forth between the two.
Quick Recap
In an interesting twist of events, I actually prefer listening to the cheaper and much more warm and intimate Tequila over the more generic, typical S8Z. Perhaps it's because its a more colored sound that isn't completely maligned with being different. It's quite smooth and natural, and enjoyable to me.
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