Disclaimer: The Fearless Audio S10 Genie was given to me by Linsoul in exchange for this review. The unit doesn’t need to be returned.
Fearless Audio
It’s really hard to find real or English company info about Fearless Audio. What we do know is what Nano has told you before and that you all love Fearless Audio gear.
Founded in 2012, Fearless audio produces IEMs and CIEMs for professional users. They’ve been making IEMs for more than 7 years and they began to experiment with 3D-printed models in 2016. A lot of their models are now available in universal and custom version.
Fearless Audio reviews are very popular with our readers and Nano has reviewed multiple units already:
Crystal Pearl: https://www.headfonia.com/fearless-audio-crystal-pearl-review/
S6Rui: https://www.headfonia.com/fearless-audio-s6-rui-review/
S8F: https://www.headfonia.com/fearless-audio-s8f-review/
In this review we’ll be looking at the Fearless Audio S10 Genie. Soon we will also feature the (Hyper)S12
The S10 Genie
The Fearless Audio website can be found here. You can also find out all about the S10 Genie right here on Linsoul’s page: https://www.linsoul.com/product-page/fearless-audio-s10-genie-IEM
The S10 Genie was a flagship monitor for a while but as these so called Chi-Fi companies release new monitors each week/month, it no longer is the TOTL monitor in the product line-up. That being said, it’s still an impressive IEM.
The S10 Genie features 10 balanced armatures, set up with a 4-way crossover and with 3 sound tubes. The drivers inside are Knowles and Sonion balanced armatures of which 2 Sonion compound for ultra-low frequency, 1 Sonion compound for middle-low frequency and 2 Knowles compound for high-middle frequency. Fearless Audio explicitly chose Knowles and Sonion drivers to guarantee the highest sound quality. And….that’s about all the detail we get here.
The price starts at $699 and you’ll have to pay extra for some of the customization options. The S10 Genie actually is also available in a custom version, but we are looking at the 3D-printed universal one.
Technical Specifications
Driver: 10BA
Impedance: 13 ohm
Sensitivity: 115dB/MW
Passive noise reduction: 26dB
Frequency response range: 15Hz-20kHz
With a low impedance of 13Ohm and a sensitivity of 115dB/mW, the Fearless Audio S10 Genie is very easy to drive and all sources will be able to drive this monitor. That being said, it does scale up nicely with higher end DAPs.
Build Quality & Design
As said the S10 Genie is available in both custom and universal version. It’s impressive how many customization options there are for the universal version. All of them can be checked on Linsoul’s website. Some are free, other will cost you $25USD extra.
The version we received is with the SM17 wooden face plate finish. The build quality, or should I say print quality, is excellent and I can’t spot any flows anywhere. The canal is short and has no sharp edges, the 2-pin connector is sturdy and beautifully finished and the face plate closing is seamless. For a 10-driver universal IEM the S10 Genie is really small in size, meaning the drivers are ideally placed. Even the internal construction is perfectly symmetric and I love how the word “Genie” is printed on both side of one of the drivers. The sound tubes are very short but because of the design of the universal shell, it does stick out of your ears somewhat.
The only thing I have to remark here, and I think it’s something Nano also reported, is the fact that the canals don’t have a sort of ridge/container to keep the tips in place. You just slide over the tips and because of the lack of locking mechanism, the ear tips can easily end up stuck in your ear canal, so be careful.
Box, Accessories & Cable
For a $699 you expect a good level of packaging and accessories, even from Chinese companies. The S10 Genie comes in a very simple colourless brown card wood box, and it doesn’t immediately scream flagship or luxury at all. It just has the Fearless logo on the front and the S10 Genie specs on the back.
Inside the box you find a plastic case/container and that’s it. Everything that comes with the S10 is in this carrying box. It’s not fancy or sexy and it doesn’t even have the company logo or anything but it does keep the content safe.
Inside the box you find the S10 Genie with the standard 8-wire cable, a shirt clip, a metal warranty card with the serial number, the date and name of the maker. Next to that you also get a small plastic bag containing a cleaning tool and a whole series of foam and silicone tips. There isn’t really a lot of info on the cable but it clearly shows this is a silver variant and the cable is terminated with a 3.5mm single ended connector.
It’s a pretty basic package for the price, so let’s hope they invested all our money in sound development.
The article continues on page two, just click here: https://www.headfonia.com/fearless-s10-genie-review/2
