Future Sonics Atrio Canalphones - Articles / Reviews

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Future Sonics Atrio Canalphones

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Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
Future Sonics
Oct. 3, 2007

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Comfort

As I mentioned earlier, I prefer Shure's black foam sleeves to every other sleeve I have tried. The Atrio series canalphones come with a couple different types of sleeves, but none that really tickled my fancy. If you've never used canalphones before, they will take some getting used to, and they do have to be placed in your ear just right for the best sound quality. I found the dual-flange rubber sleeves to fit me the best and were comfortable enough. They do get a little bothersome after a while, like most headphones will, but nothing out of the ordinary. I still recommend purchasing the Shure sleeves.

Sound Quality

For audio testing, I direcly compared the Atrio series to several other canalphones of varying qualities (both above and below the Atrio's price point) while listening to a variety of songs from various artists and genres from my MacBook so I could compare both CDs and MP3s.

After I had toyed with the fitment of the canalphones, making sure they fit well I threw on a few tracks and was instantly amazed at the bass these tiny little drivers produce! I have never heard such low frequencies so loudly from any ear or canalphone. After a while though, I noticed that in most cases, the bass was maybe a bit too much, too boomy, and the overall sound coming from the Atrio seemed much... warmer than what I am used to. Future Sonics seems to have placed too much emphasis on the lows and ignored the mids and highs, causing the music to sound distant and lack vibrance or punch. Heck, while canalphones such as the less-than-half-price Shure E2C aren't nearly as close when it comes to sound quality, they still do a better job of reproducing the tones than the Atrio series.

The sound quality was good as far as the clarity of each instrument (rarely did I hear any muddiness), but everything just sounded so distant. When I listen to music I want to hear every note as it was played in the recording studio. I want to feel like I'm right there in front of the band and these canalphones just do not give me that experience.

One feature that Future Sonics boasts is that you get accurate sound reproduction at lower volumes. While I wouldn't call the sound reproduction accurate at all, you are able to hear the various instruments quite well at lower volumes. I didn't have to turn the volume up as loud to hear each note, even though I wanted to just to give the mids and highs more emphasis.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions
Page 3: Testing
Page 4: Conclusion

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3 User Comments

1 - Posted by none on December 11, 2007 - 1:15 pm

you do realize that you have to burn these in for a while before they reveal their true tonality, right? play them at a loud volue (while not wearing them) for 50 hours or so and then judge them.

2 - Posted by Kurtis on December 11, 2007 - 1:38 pm

And you do realize that he used them for an entire month, right?

3 - Posted by tchou on April 19, 2008 - 7:56 pm

Do you realize that the best performance is when using foam ends not the rubber ones...
He seems to have used them with other brand rubbers... not sure it's the right way to test a product...
The bass is not boomy, it is very clearand powerfull, and the mids and high are also very clear...

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