Review: 64 Audio Fourté Noir – Uncovered

In this review we’re taking a closer look at the Fourté Noir by 64 Audio, a limited edition tia Fourté with a new tuning.

Disclaimer: 64 Audio provided the Fourté Noir at no cost, I only had to pay to import them. 64 Audio is not a site advertiser or affiliated with Headfonia. Many thanks for the generosity and opportunity!

About 64 Audio:

64 Audio is an American brand of universal and custom fit In Ear Monitors seated in Vancouver, Washington. They have been previously known as 1964 Ears before they rebranded themselves to 64 Audio. The company was founded by Vitaliy Belonozkho, who is also their chief sound engineer.

Back in 2010 the company was started after Vitaliy was building a monitor for his wife. Now, nine years later, they are one of the driving forces in the field. 64 Audio is one of the brands that continuously pushes the envelope for technologies. They have brought many inventions to the market. With their tia drivers they have introduced a completely new balanced armature design, of which you can think as a hat-less design where the membranes radiate freely.

64 has also introduced apex™ modules, which stands for Air Pressure Exchange, these help your eardrums handle the pressure built up by conventional, fully closed CIEMs. Think of it as a secondary eardrum, placed in the audio path before it reaches your human eardrum. Apex relieves pressure and thus makes it easier for your ears to handle the audio waves.

Aside from these two inventions, 64 Audio has also released LID – Linear Impedance Design. This flattens the impedance curve of the monitor, making it more resistant to varying output impedances of many sources. Since 64 Audio is a pro-focussed brand, it only makes sense that they release a monitor that works well with high impedance pro-gear as well as low impedance audiophile electronics.

Many professional musicians use 64 Audio custom IEMs on stage. You can find performers like Beyonce, John Mayer, Bon Jovi and many others on their artist roster.

About Fourté Noir:

The Fourté Noir is a limited edition of the regular tia Fourté. Only 500 units will be sold world wide. It features the exact same driver configuration like the original, but it has seen a slight retuning. The Noir and the original also differ in physical appearance. As the name spoils it does come in all black with a Copper face plate.

Unlike the tia Fourté, Noir is equipped with an eight-wire silver plated copper cable that’s terminated to a 2.5 mm balanced plug. You will also get a pigtail adapter to 3.5 mm stereo.

Identical to the tia Fourté is the internal construction of the monitors. It’s a fully tube-less design that uses acoustic chambers to let the sound travel to your ears. 64 Audio makes use of room acoustics for this here, which is a very well known aspect of sound in the two channel hifi world, but gets often overlooked in our scene.

64 Audio Fourté Noir

Fourté Noir uses a 10 mm dynamic low end driver, a tia mid BA, one conventional BA for upper mids and a single tia high driver. It uses a four way crossover system and an internal apex m20 module, that reduces pneumatic pressure but lowers isolation to 20dB. With its sensitivity of 114dB per mW and an impedance of 10 Ohms (@1kHz) its a fairly easy to drive monitor. You shouldn’t have any issues getting Noir driven to its peak.

64 Audio uses Mundorf Supreme Silver solder for the cable and internal solder points of Fourté Noir. For internal wiring they have opted for 99.9999% pure silver Litz wires with seven strands each. What’s also interesting is that they use the shortest signal path possible from 2-pin connectors to the dynamic driver. According to 64 Audio that results in a warmer and richer low end sound. The original tia Fourté does not use the Mundorf Supreme solder, but a different one with lower silver count.

Fourté Noir can be acquired from 64 Audio or one of their many retailers for $3,799 as long as stock lasts. As said there are only 500 units out there.

The review continues on the next page.