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Similarly to the Sonorous X, the VIII comes with a pair of single-ended flexible cables of different lengths finished in a sort of rubber that does not match the feel and quality of the rest of the tactile experience. Balanced cables are unavailable and due to Final's proprietary locking mechanism to connect headphones and cable, third-party options are limited. Nonetheless, a few headphone cable manufacturers like Forza Audio Works can provide them fitted with Final connectors and I ordered such a balanced harness for upcoming amplifier reviews. For this first assessment though, the stock cable was used throughout. On the positive side, maybe, is that the warranty card comes etched in a metallic plate. I guess Final expect the Sonorous VIII to become a family heirloom and built it to deliver on that ambition.

Before getting to the listening notes, let me share a few additional practical observations. The first one is that the Final Sonorous VIII takes a very long time to fully break in. I played the Isotek burn-in tracks at lively levels for over a week non-stop. That typically gets the job done. Although I could hear a significant improvement in the upper midrange and treble, it was only after a full month of frequent listening that the VIII blossomed into its full potential. At first it sounded constrained, dynamically flat and tonally dark. This progressively changed over time into a still very rich pair of cans, heavy cream in my chocolate milk please, but certainly not one I’d call dark, flat or limited.


The second observation is that 105dB sensitivity plus 16Ω impedance matched with extreme transparency makes for a very demanding load that will show how good the gear ahead truly is; or not. The Sonorous VIII with its very high sensitivity is a noise sniffer unlike any other I have owned. It revealed a failing regulator tube in my Lampizator Golden Atlantic DAC when there was absolutely no noise from the listening seat through the Ocellia speakers. It also allows me to hear a small hiccup in the music whenever the SOtM DAC switches from battery one to battery two in the middle of playback. Imagine what kind of insights you might get about your music with that type of micro resolving power?

Its lowish impedance by headphone standards will make it unsuitable for a lot of cheap amplifiers that'll struggle to keep bass under control and dynamics as elevated as they could be. The general rule of thumb recommends that the output impedance of the amplifier be at least eight times lower than the impedance of the headphones. This means no more than 2 ohms to successfully drive the Final headphones, a spec which most cheap headphone amplifier chips cannot dream to achieve. That’s the fate that befell my Musical Fidelity XCan V3 amplifier which sounded woefully incompetent; in and of itself not a bad amplifier and a decade ago a reference below $500 that still works great with my AKG K701 but simply could not coerce the Sonorous VIII to wake up, delivering a lifeless and unexciting presentation. Just like you would not expect your Avantgarde horns to cotton well to lesser electronics, the Sonorous VIII demands gear that is ultra quiet and highly dynamic to show all it can do. The Burson Conductor I used held up respectfully despite a hint of power supply noise but I suspect it is possible to find even better-matched electronics with greater transient fidelity and transparency to reach the full potential of those cans. That in fact will be one of the areas I want to explore over the coming months.