Fearless Roland Review

Today we take a detailed look at the Fearless Roland, the company’s Tri-Hybrid monitor, priced at $1,009 USD.

 

Disclaimer: The Fearless Roland was provided by Linsoul for this review. The IEM doesn’t have to be returned. Some sections of this article have similarities to the Fearless S12 review, since they share the same features in terms of design, build quality & fit.

About Fearless Audio

Fearless Audio is in operation since 2012, which means they have 7 years of experience in IEM production. Considering today’s market standards, this actually is quite a long time. But despite their 7 years of work, it’s not easy to find detailed information about the brand and the people behind it.

There’a dedicated website, but it’s all Chinese, so there isn’t an awful lot of information on there either. What we do know though, is that they’ve started to use the 3D printing technology back in 2016. A lot of brands initiated the usage of this method roughly 1-2 years ago at best, but Fearless was one of the very first brands to use 3D printing for their shell design.

The Headfonia crew likes Fearless IEMs as you can see that in the reviews. This is our 6th Fearless review already, the latest being about the HyperS12 as below:

Lieven and Nano also reviewed a few Fearless Audio IEMs, such as S10 and S8:

Fearless Roland

About Fearless Roland

Belonging to the new Paladin Series, the Fearless Roland is the company’s answer to the EST driver (Electrostat) madness in the market. Roland has 2 EST + 2BA + 1 Dynamic drivers inside, making it a very serious IEM, supposedly a good all-rounder. Of course we will see that in a bit in the sound section.

There are several Tri-Hybrid IEMs on the market already and especially the ones that have EST tweeters attract attention. So far we have seen the likes of Vision Ears Elysium, Shozy POLA and POLA39, Jomo Audio Trinity, Noble Khan and Empire Ears Valkyrie. However, another thing in common between these IEMs -with the exception of the POLA series- is the high price level. Even if you take the POLA into account, the average price among these 6 IEMs is still approximately $2.000 USD , which is certainly not cheap.

Fearless Roland

The Roland however is priced at the $1,000 mark. This is not cheap either, but at least its half of the average I calculated above. I absolutely love the Tri-Hybrids’ abilities and what they put on the table. However, I hope and actually assume that the technology will become more affordable in the near future.

You can find more info about the Roland on Linsoul’s page for the Paladin series.

Design

This is my second encounter with a Fearless Audio IEM and once again, I’m pretty impressed. The Roland boasts a very cool design and color scheme just like the HyperS12. Again we have a blue color, which is lighter this time round, and it is mixed with black spots, combined with sparkling details. This thing is absolutely beautiful to look at, especially with daylight. I also really liked the “Roland” logo on the left earpiece. I can definitely say that Fearless have nailed the looks.

Fearless Roland

There are two more versions you can purchase though. One of them is the black model, which has the same design but only the blue is replaced with a black color. Another version is the “gold” one, and as the name suggests, you get a gold color instead of blue, and the sparks are replaced with gold as well, instead of silver.

The shells are very compact and small for a hybrid IEM with 3 different driver types. That makes it very ideal for many ears, and it helps providing a good fit. The shell is also very smooth and curvy, so that also affects the fit positively. The shape is almost the same as the S12’s, the only difference is that the Roland is just a tiny bit larger.

Build Quality

The Fearless Roland has very good build quality just like the S12 and I couldn’t find any weakness in its structure. The body has a mono block impression thanks to a very smooth face-plate closing, and the nozzles are very sturdy since they’re a part of the chassis. The nozzles with a separate assembly always worry me in the long run, so this is a good thing to have.

Fearless Roland

Roland also has recessed 2-pin socket areas to improve reliability. We have seen this solution with many IEMs already, but it’s nice to see that Fearless also opted for this design. 2-pin connectors are prone to loosen over time, but the recessed sockets create additional contact area to ease off the load on the pins. However, I would’ve preferred an even deeper recession in this area as I’ve seen with different IEMs before.

The cable is an 8-wire one which I assume is from SPC, but I’m not sure since there’s no official information in terms of that. It is very soft and it also has good strength overall. The splitter and the neck slider are from silver aluminum. Overall the cable is exactly the same as the one with the HyperS12, except the 3.5mm jack, which to me has higher quality with the Roland.

The review continues on PAGE 2 by clicking here using the page numbers below

3.3/5 - (193 votes)
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedin

A keen audiophile and hobby photographer, Berkhan is after absolute perfection. Whether it is a full-frame camera or a custom in-ear, his standpoint persists. He tries to keep his photography enthusiasm at the same level as audio. Sometimes photography wins, sometimes his love for music takes over and he puts that camera aside. Simplistic expressions of sound in his reviews are the way to go for him. He enjoys a fine single malt along with his favourite Jazz recordings.

Be first to comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.