AFUL PERFORMER 8: Drastic Improvement, Total Refinement

"Without music, Life would be a mistake"

~~Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, composer and a cultural critic.

This is AFUL Performer 8, this is a follow-up model and an improvement of the highly popular, AFUL Performer 5. I did a review of the AFUL Performer 5 before and to be honest, I find it not that impressive given its popularity among audio enthusiasts out there.

Like its predecessor model, AFUL Performer 8 is a hybrid driver IEM but the difference was the improvement of some of its patented technologies like High Dampening Air Pressure Balance System (HDAPBS) and RCL Network Frequency Division Correction Technology. The HDAPBS was supposedly lessen the air pressure build-up in the ear canal and improves a bit on bass tone, depth and texture while RCL Network Frequency Division will enhance the seamless transmission of sonic frequencies to even out some peaks due to some resonance effect and at the same time, it will deliver a smoother treble response.

As aforementioned regarding being an IEM earphone with a hybrid driver configuration, AFUL Performer 8 has an 8mm dynamic driver with bio-cellulose diaphragm which is also known as paper-cone diaphragm which gives a deeper, more responsive and tighter bass quality. The supporting drivers which consist of 7 balanced armature drivers will handle the rest of the frequencies, from mid-bass to ultra highs in which gives a textured yet detailed midrange presentation and then, a smooth and airy treble response.

The drivers were encased along with its patented technologies in 3D moulded resin shells in a UIEM-style shape, even its internal acoustic tubes which are also moulded. Its shell chassis underwent some processes like chemical treatment to ensure stability and durability of its structural integrity. The drivers were organised and connected into a 4-way acoustic tube layout with each specific diameter size for each frequency to lessen some potential resonance peaks. The design of its faceplate appears to take inspiration from an orange-red coloured semi precious stone with some glittery surface to give that premium feel. Like its predecessor, Performer 8 utilises a 2-pin connector as its interlocking mechanism which is a standard and a better choice for ease of cable replacement and stability.

AFUL Performer 8 IEM comes along a premium cable, a 4-core high purity single crystal multi-wired silver-plated copper. The cable is quite malleable and supple to hold with enough thickness to have a balanced weight. It has a standard 3.5mm single ended as its termination plug and it was gold plated for better conductivity.

Regarding its wearability, like the AFUL Performer 5, Performer 8 has an excellent fitting due to its UIEM-style shell which is quite ergonomic as it rests well into my lugholes without discomfort or ear fatigue. It has remarkable isolation as it was able to block some external noises from the outside surroundings.

As for product packaging, the product presentation of AFUL Performer 8 is quite similar to the almost midrange sets that I have encountered so far. It has a medium-size rectangular box with a product illustration at the front and some basic specification and contact information at the back.

Here are the following contents inside of its box:

■ Pair of AFUL Performer 8 IEM

■ Stock cable

■ PU-leather round IEM storage case

■  5 pairs of black-coloured balanced bore ear tips in different standard sizes.

■  2 pairs of opaque wide bore ear tips in different standard sizes. (M & L only)

■ 4 pairs of black-coloured narrow bore ear tips in different standard sizes.

■ Paperwork like Q.C stub and instruction manual.

With a resistance rating of 30 ohms and high sensitivity mark of 115dB, AFUL Performer 8 is quite efficient on power amplification that a typical source with normal gain output is enough to be able to drive properly. With just a medium setting of its amplitude level, this set will already sound very complete, well-dynamic and in full range scale.

To determine its tonality, Performer 8 is more of a mild U-shaped sound profile but I also consider this set as a balanced-neutral sounding in my new classification on tonal profiles as there are mild U-shaped sounds which have different variances of texture and volume.

(The graph was provided Practiphile, credits to him)

LOWS/BASS:

The bass quality of this set is quite evened on how it presents both of its sub bass and mid-bass frequency. It has an incisive, precise and clean bass response as it is quite well-separated from other frequency parts, so assuredly, bass bleeding is nigh on impossible.

Sub bass are clearly perceived as definitely hear some rumbling and reverberation coming from sub-bass focus instruments like octabasses, low tone bass guitars, synthesisers and drum machines. Mid-bass has a rather balanced texture as it has neither lean nor thick note weight as it gives an ample volume on instruments and vocals. Bass guitars have a sombre and resonant sound as I was able to hear clearly from the plucking of their strings either fretless or slapping.  Bass kick drums have those rumbling and resonant sound on every stroke that fast double bass kicks from metal and rock tracks will be effortless to be played clearly. Bass-baritones are able to have an enough dense but I also noticed that it rather less dark tone and depth to give a more gravelly sound from them.

Tracks Tested:

Sub-bass

● New Order - Blue Monday

● The Camouflage - The Great Commandment

● Oktoplut - Le delta de l'Okavango

Mid-bass

● [Patricia Morrison - Bass guitar] Sister of Mercy - Lucretia My Reflection.

● [John Bonham - Bass kick drum] Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks

● [Peter Steele - Bass-Baritone] Type O Negative - I Don't Wanna Be Me

MIDRANGE:

This is one of the highlights of this set or probably its major factor. It has good texture, forward in presentation, vivid and detail which will give a substantial body on most vocal types and instruments. It also sounds clean, transparent and well-extensive that female vocals and instruments types like strings and woodwinds will fare even better.

Male vocals have a rather decent texture, depth and volume while female vocals seems to have more emphasis as it has more energy, detail and range as it is able to project the highest register that a female singer could reach although there are some minor caveats in this one on which I expound it later. On male vocals, standard baritones have a velvety and smoothness on their voice quality but I also noticed that both verdi and  kavalier baritones seems to have less fuller, less darker tone and too smooth that their distinctive characteristics lose those vivid, darker and metallic timbre. Tenors and countertenors sound better on this one as they sound more organic and able to gauge a better vocal dexterity on this set. Tenors have brassy and clear vocals with sufficient richness and strength as I was able to hear different vocal ranges of this particular voice type, from Heldentenor to the rarer Legerro tenor. Countertenors seem to have a similar tone, pitch and timbre with mezzo-sopranos in which I will explain later on the female vocal part. Contraltos appears to have rich and smokey albeit it has a less depth and a tad lighter tone in contrast that it should have a heavy one (kindly check out both Toni Braxton and Tracy Chapman's vocals). Mezzo-sopranos sound very euphonic and captivating as I was able to enjoy the tenderness, coppery and glowing vocal qualities while sopranos projects the best possible vocal quality on this set. Dramatic sopranos have rich and expressive sound from their vocals, spinto and lyric sopranos have creamy and mild sound quality,   Soubrette sopranos has sweet and silky vocal timbre and coloratura sopranos have that vocal velocity that able to execute a shimmering and able to sustain upper register range but there are some snag that I should raise, it might be a tad shrilly and tinny sound to some listeners might be sensitive on this particular frequency.

On instruments, I'll start with strings and woodwind instruments as Performer 8 will give a better edge on them. Strings like guitars and violins, the former have a crisp and lingering tone as I really enjoy guitar lines in a track whether it is an acoustic or electric ones and the latter ones in which I'm always enjoying to listen on classical, orchestra or symphonic metal have a vibrant, full and lively sound on every bowing movements on its strings. On woodwinds, concert flutes have rich and ethereal sound while piccolos have bright and intense sound and then on clarinets and saxophones, they have a penetrating, brilliant and reedy sound from them. As for brasses like trumpets, horns and trombones, a metallic, brilliant and penetrating sound on trumpets, a resounding and brilliant sound on horns, and then, a penetrating and tense sound on trombones. On percussives, a dry and sharp sound from every stroke on snare drums, a resonant and dry sound on both tom toms and field drum while there's an added rumbling sound on kettledrums. Pianos have a balanced to sufficiently bright tone from them while harpsichords have a soft yet resonant sound characteristic as I listen to Baroque period pieces particularly the works of Handel.

Tracks Tested:

Vocals

● [Kavalier baritone] Dmitri Hvorostovsky/Handel - Ombra Mai Fu

● [Baritone] Eddie Vedder/Pearl Jam - Daughter

● [Spinto Tenor] Luciano Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma

● [Tenor] Robert Plant/Led Zeppelin - The Rover

● [Countertenor] Andreas Scholl/Handel - Ombra Mai Fu

● [Countertenor] King Diamond/Mercyful Fate -  The Dangerous Meeting

● [Contralto] Toni Braxton - Un-Break My Heart

● [Contralto] Tracy Chapman - Fast Cars

● [Mezzo-Soprano] Nadja Michael/Bizet - Carmen

● [Mezzo-Soprano] Sharon Den Adel/Within Temptation - The Cross

● [Coloratura soprano] Diana Damrau/Mozart - Die Zauberflöte: Der Hölle Rache

● [Dramatic soprano] Tarja Turunen/Nightwish - Sleeping Sun

Instruments

● [Guitars] Eagles - Hotel California

● [Violin] Felix Ayo/Vivaldi - Summer III. Presto: Tempo impetuoso d'Estate

● [Flute] Men At Work - Down Under

● [Trumpets] Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Wagner - Der Walküre

● [Trombone] Bad Manners - Just A Feeling

● [Drums] Hellhammer/Mayhem - Buried By Time And Dust

● [Piano] Yiruma - River Flows In You

● [Harpsichord] Barry Lyndon/Handel - Sarabande

HIGHS/TREBLE:

The treble response of AFUL Performer 8 is actually quite well-balanced as I noticed and  observed the evenness on upper midrange to presence part where there is a fairly enough shimmer and crisp due to a slight elevation on the upper-mids just to give a well-articulated and good attack on instruments and a more coherent vocal projection. There's a hint of tad sibilance especially when I tested some of my test tracks which are known to be sibilant-laden but I consider it as well-controlled as it doesn't occur  in most cases and good thing that I don't hear any strident sound on this one.

The cymbals have a good shimmer and glistening sound while hi-hats sound quite detailed on this one with their shortened buzzing sound. Celestas have a bright and glistening sound while glockenspiels have brilliant and penetrating sound. On the brilliance treble, it has a good amount of harmonics as it was able to give more sparkle and substantially moderate air.

Tracks Tested:

Instruments

● [Cymbals] Bobby Jarzombek/Riot - Fight Or Fall

● [Cymbals + Hi-hats] - Chad Smith/ Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway

● [Glockenspiel] - Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France/Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre, Op. 40

● [Celesta] - Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra/Tchaikovsky - Dance Of The Sugar Plum

SOUNDSTAGE, IMAGING AND OTHER TECHNICALITIES:

As I'm quite critical on how the PERFORMER 5 sounds so intimate and congested within  my head room in my previous review, AFUL PERFORMER 8 was able to fix some of its issues from sound field imaging up to the timbral incoherences. As it still doesn't have  the widest sound/speaker stage set in the  midrange category, but at least it has an above-average width span and good height ceiling and good depth as it gives me a moderately-sized head stage.

As for stereo imaging presentation, it projects a 3D-like spatiality as I was able to panned out certain placements of instrument and vocal with good spacing and gaps on each part of a well-organised tonal and frequency layers in a pitch black sonic canvas. Even the most complex tracks such as Jazz ensemble, Philharmonic orchestra and musical movie scores will be an easy-peasy for AFUL PERFORMER 8.

On its multi-drivers performance, it is noteworthy that all of its drivers able to deliver a very cohesive sound with a such a coherency of its dynamic driver to have faster transients response and a well-done gradual decay while the balanced armature drivers able to have a smooth and uninterrupted sonic performance.

AFUL Performer 8 has an excellent resolution capability in both macro-dynamics and micro-dynamics. As it has a rigid texture on its note weight while it also a sharp transient response as it is quite capable of  extracting a substantial amount of nuances and details from an audio track.

PEER COMPARISONS:

AFUL Performer 5

● This is Performer 8's entry-level predecessor, it also has a hybrid driver configuration and it has resin shell chassis. The only difference between them physically was a shell chassis in which the Performer 5 has a tad smaller form factor and less number of balanced armature drivers that were implemented on.

● As for tuning, Performer 5 is more of a U-shaped sound profile. It has more focus on sub bass but its midbass is somewhat hollow and soft impact with recessed midrange midrange presentation in which it gives me some odd vocal and instruments timbre. Treble response of this one is quite strange as it has a noticeable peaks on its upper mids and presence treble to give that dissonant and jarring sound on brasses and sopranos and then a sudden slope down on presence to brilliance part of the treble region with a moderate amount of air and sparkle.

● On technical performance, Performer 5 is quite inferior in some aspect like sound/speaker stage size, less cohesive performance of its drivers and that tinny and metallic sound coming from its BA is very noticeable that I speculate that it might uses a cheap, run-of-the-mill balanced armature or improper implementation of dampeners.

YANYIN CANON II

● Performer 8's one of the major rivals in this price range. Like the Performer 8, it is also a hybrid driver and also has resin shell chassis though the Canon II's was a quite a tad more solid and it also has a larger size due to tuning switches. Both sets have similar asking prices.

● Due to its tuning switches, it gives a Canon II an edge over Performer 8 due to its 3-4 variants of U-shaped tuning. Overall, Even in all tuning variants that Canon II has, it is more warmer and a tad more coloured rounding. It has more dominant and tactual bass response, a warmer midrange to give more body on male vocals and brass instruments and a more smoother, less sheen on its treble response.

● Both sets have almost similar technical performance but Canon II has a bit more spacious sound/speaker stage and even more solid macro-dynamics. Although Performer 8 has a sharper definition on extracting micro-details.

THIEAUDIO HYPE 2

● Another new rival of Performer 8 and like the aforementioned set, it is also of a hybrid driver configuration and made of high quality resin shell as well. The difference was the number of drivers and implementation as HYPE 2 has dual dynamic drivers in a isobaric set-up and just two balanced armature drivers which are more premium as they are made by Sonion.

● Tonality-wise, HYPE 2 is somehow similar with the Performer 8 as they are both of a mild U-shaped sound signatures but the difference was that the HYPE 2 has more emphasis low frequencies which can be classified as a " bass boost neutral" or simply an L-shaped sound profile. It has more tactile and punchy bass response, a more linear, a tad warmer and less energetic midrange, and then, a more smoother and less shimmering treble response.

● When it comes to technical capabilities, HYPE 2 has an edge a bit over Performer 8 as it has a larger sound/speaker stage particularly in height and lateral sound field dimensions which makes it more roomy. Although the micro-detail definition of the Performer 8 is still sharper compared to HYPE 2. And the rest of their technical capabilities are quite similar on a case to case basis.

In summary, AFUL Performer 8 is a follow-up model of the previous model, The Performer 5 and there are some drastic changes between them. AFUL did some serious work and further improvement on the Performer 8 from shortcomings of the previous model like congested soundstage, inconsistencies of its tonal colour, less cohesion of its drivers and a noticeable tinny sound from their BA drivers. And finally, AFUL did an excellent job on this one and it shows that they are up for continuous refining and well-polished on their products.

As I end my assessment on AFUL Performer 8, this is another moment that first impressions last is quite irrelevant to the current state of our enthusiasm on portable audio. AFUL Performer 8 will be an excellent choice on a midrange segment if you are looking for a well-tuned, balanced sounding and impressive resolution capability that makes it more appealing towards audio enthusiasts. There are still some deficiencies on set but for its asking price, we can simply outweigh it with its more positive aspect on its tonal performance.

AFUL PERFORMER 8 is available exclusively on HIFIGO, You can check out the unaffiliated link down below.

★★AFUL PERFORMER 8 - HIFIGO★★

SPECIFICATION:

MODEL: AFUL PERFORMER 8

IMPEDANCE: 30Ω

SENSITIVITY: 115dB

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 20Hz – 40KHz

CABLE LENGTH: 1.2M

PIN TYPE:  2-PIN CONNECTOR (0.78MM)

PLUG TYPE: 3.5mm

DRIVER UNIT(S): (1) DYNAMIC DRIVER + (7) BALANCED ARMATURE DRIVER(S)

PROS:

△ Certainly a big leap improvement over its predecessor.

△ Medical-grade high quality resin shell chassis.

△ Its UIEM-type shell chassis are one of the best on fitting and comfort just like the previous model.

△ High quality stock cable.

△ Premium faux leather IEM case for storage.

△ Easy to drive set.

△ A likeable sound profile for vocals and instrument lovers.

△ Well-done balanced tuning of this set

△ Precise, impacting and tidy bass response.

△ Clear, sufficiently textured and well-detailed midrange presentation.

△ Coherent, energetic and expressive female vocals 

△ Crisp and bright sound on string instruments

△ Woodwinds instruments sounds pretty well on this set too

△ A noticeable improvement of its technical capabilities over the AFUL Performer 5.

CONS:

▽ Just an average to above average sound/speaker stage for a midrange set as my standard on technical performance is quite high especially on this price range segment. (simply my niggle moment)

▽ A fair few of sibilances on sibilant-laden tracks in some cases.

▽ Some occurrences of shrilly and jangling sound particularly on high register female vocals.

▽ Sorry uber-bassheads, this one isn't for you.

▽ Mediocre stock ear tips.

Some Tracks Tested: ( * = 16-bit FLAC, ** = 24-bit FLAC, *'* = MQA, '*' = DSD, *'= .WAV)

Alison Krauss -When You Say Nothing At All *

Jade Wiedlin - Blue Kiss**

Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks **

Mountain - Mississippi Queen *

Queen - Killer Queen **

Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*

Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'

Sergio Mendes- Never Gonna Let You Go '*'

Pearl Jam - Daughter **

Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *

Assassin - Fight (To Stop The Tyranny)*

Celtic Frost- Visual Aggression *

New Order - Blue Monday *

The Corrs- What Can I do (unplugged version) *

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child *

The Madness- Buggy Trousers *

Metallica - Motorbreath **

Mariah Carey- Always Be My Baby *

Destiny's Child - Say My Name *

Malice Mizer- Au Revoir *

Mozart - Lacrimosa *

New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Dvorak- Symphony 9 " From the New World." *

Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (Sting cover)*

Michael Jackson - Give In To Me *

Exciter - Violence and Force *

Diana Krall - Stop This World **

Debbie Gibson - Foolish Beat *'*

The Sisters of Mercy – Lucretia My Reflection**

Suzanne Vega – Luka **

Lauren Christy – Steep *

Ottoman Mehter - Hucum Marsi *

Diana Damrau - Mozart: Die Zauberflöte*

Type O Negative - Black No.1 *

Felix Ayo - Vivaldi: Presto **

Three Tenors - Nessum Dorma *

Mercyful Fate - Witches' Dance *

P.S.

I am not affiliated to AFUL AUDIO nor receive monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

Once again, I would like to send my gratitude to LVY YAN of HIFIGO TEAM for providing this review unit. I truly appreciate their generosity and trust towards me and other reviewers.