Review: CustomArt FIBAE 2 – Surprising!

Disclaimer: The CustomArt Fibae 2 was sent to us free of charge in exchange for our honest opinion in this review. The monitor is a custom one and doesn’t need to be returned.

 

CustomArt

Our Polish friends probably are mostly known for their flag ship model called “Harmony 8.2” and their successful Massdrop “EI.XX” ciem but we’ve also covered the original Harmony Pro and the Ei.3

CustomArt is a Polish based company that was founded in May 2012 by Piotr Granicki. Piotr was a reviewer at the time he started his own company and with the experience he had, he was convinced he could make great sounding monitors. The special thing about Custom Art is that they offer the choice between acrylic and soft silicone monitors for several models. Click here to check out the full comparison between silicone and acrylic.

CustomArt’s popularity increased a lot compared over the last few years. Beside the fact that they simply make great monitors (best advertising there is) they also got a lot of new clients by successfully offering special editions on Massdrop and by redoing their Harmony flagship monitor. Now CustomArt is back with a new technology named FIBAE. I listened to it at Canjam Essen 2016 for the first time so it’s clear we’re a bit late with the FIBAE review. I have to appoligze to CustomArt about this, but then again: better late than never, right? 😉

FIBAE

So what exactly is FIBAE and does it stand for anything? FIBEA is the abbreviation of Flat Impedance Balanced Armature Earphone and it’s the world’s first In-Ear Monitor design providing flat impedance and phase. By changing Balanced Armature driver character from inductive to resistive CustomArt solved one of the oldest problem in the industry – dependence on output impedance of sound source for correct earphone output. With FIBAE™ technology your earphones will always perform best from any DAP.

So basically it means that the FIBAE monitors in theory will sound almost the same no matter what DAP, phone or amplifier you use. You can find the full information on the FIBAE technology right here on CA’s page and there’s also a dedicated FIBAE thread on Head-Fi. Piotr, CustomArt’s founder and owner, tells us the following:

In early 2016 we stumbled across an interesting occurrence during work on IEM designs, which prompted us to investigate possible applications for In-Ear Monitoring. We discovered that our design resulted in nearly flat impedance and electrical phase plot of a Balanced Armature driver, reducing dramatically the load for audio amplifiers and providing near-identical response (either frequency or CSD) when switching between sound sources with substantial difference in output impedance. In that moment FIBAE technology was born. In mid-2016 we filed for international patent on our Flat Impedance driver.

FIBAE 2 (and FIBAE 1)

The FIBAE monitors are available in two different models but CA’s confident more models featuring this technology will follow. The FIBAE 1 is their entry level featuring the most advanced, meticulously tuned single custom Balanced Armature driver. In this review we will be looking at the FIBAE 2 however, which is their dual-driver mid-level IEM featuring a single low-mid and single proprietary high frequency driver for bold, powerful, yet smooth sound.

The FIBAE 2’s sensitivity is 113dB @1kHz @0.1V with an impedance of 7.1 Ohm @1kHz (+-0.5 Ohm 10Hz-20kHz). Its frequency range is between10Hz-16500Hz (+-10dB into IEC 60318-4 coupler) and it’s available in both a silicone as well as an acrylic body. Our review sample, which is featured on FIBAE 2’s webpage, is the acrylic version.

According to Piotr, the FIBAE 2 is tuned for enjoyment and fun without sacrificing details. A great choice for both audiophiles and stage-performing artists.

Breakdown

In contrary to a normal review I will use the same breakdown as I always do for my custom inear reviews:

  1. Build quality & Comfort
  2. Personalization
  3. Cable
  4. Price & Accessories
  5. Customer Service
  6. Sound
  7. Source & Cables
  8. Competitors/Comparisons

The review continues on Page 2 of this article. Click HERE

4.8/5 - (152 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

2 Comments

  • Reply October 6, 2017

    Gurtej Virdi

    Excellent review. Been looking at buying my first CIEM, and these are on my list, think you might have just convinced me to get them… By any chance have you heard the ACS Evolve? They are the other CIEM been looking at as they are similarly priced. Time to save up!

  • Reply October 7, 2017

    LLK

    What a very great review! I think there is no better site in terms of ciems alone, well done Lieven!
    But I digress, I would like to get some opinions on whether to get MMCX or Two Pin connections on a CIEM, which one has bigger variety when it comes to aftermarket-cables, which one is more comfortable, which one has a more reliable connection? If someone coule answer all these questions to this ciem noobie then I’d be very thankful!
    Cheers from Germany

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