While Sony, Bose or Apple command the headphone headlines, other manufacturers are steadily writing their own narrative. Amongst them is Japanese company Final, who have spent the last few years carving their own spot amongst the audio giants. While we’ve recently looked at their excellent gaming-centric VR3000 EX, it’s now the turn of the UX5000, a premium pair of noise cancelling over-ear cans that are firmly aimed at the XM6 and QuietComfort’s hold on the market. It’s a damn good shot too.
This is a thoroughly black pair of headphones. There’s nary a sign of any other colour lurking here, and it gives the Final UX5000 a monolithic, immovable presence, and a seriousness that seems in keeping with the company’s other products. Final’s meticulous approach means that they feel crafted and certain, with a satisfying amount of weight and high-quality textured plastics giving them a very distinct look. Each earpiece boasts a rippling, Shibo-style, paper-like texture, and it’s not only unique, but also means that this is a pair of headphones that you’ll never find coated in fingerprints. Despite this being a hard place to innovate, and the UX5000 is fundamentally just a black pair of headphones, I really like the look and feel of them.
Final are doing things slightly differently in terms of controls. You’ve got two points of contact with the UX5000, and they’re both located on the right earcup, with a single button to shift between ambient sound and noise cancelling, and then a miniature stick control for power, volume, track selection, play and pause, and answering calls as well. While it seems odd at first, it’s far more reliable and precise than touch controls, and it has a pleasing action that lets you know you’ve actually done the thing you wanted to do. Imagine that.
So, how do they sound? Well, first things first, the noise cancelling is very good. From sitting in the kitchen blocking out the sound of the dishwasher, through to traipsing down the streets and removing the majority of car noise and outdoor hustle and bustle, the UX5000 has one of the best noise cancelling implementations outside of the monstrous, well-established companies I’ve mentioned before. It’s not quite as eerily quiet as Sony’s XM6 or the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, and the ambient passthrough is a little subdued, but it’s much closer than I’ve heard anyone get before, particularly in this mid-range, £200 price bracket.
The flat EQ setting isn’t as immediately impressive. As standard, the UX5000 lacks dynamism, and they’re not as instantly easy to live with as some of their more expensive brethren, or even the older iterations of them like Sony’s XM3 or XM4. However, you can definitely dial in something that’s much better via the bespoke app, and the 10-channel EQ it provides.
My only complaint? Final already had a hub app called Final Connect, but they’re now intent on releasing individual apps for their newer devices. I know most people won’t have more than one, maybe two, pairs of headphones, but it still makes hunting down the right app on the store a bit muddled, and someone like me will be filling up their phone with Final apps that feel completely unnecessary.
Once you’ve tuned the EQ to your particular tastes – mine need a heap of bass and treble, and a scooped mid-range – the Final UX5000 sound great. That might be a touch of faint praise. They don’t quite have the otherworldly sparkle and magic that the best headphones do, but for most people, these have enough detail and definition to impress, while undercutting the big names by a considerable margin.
I’ve had the new Fire From the Gods single ‘Unknown’ on repeat, and its blend of vicious chugging guitars and soaring vocals is an ideal showcase for the detail and wide soundstage of the UX5000’s drivers. The UX5000 supports high-res music via the LDAC codec, or AptX Adapative if you’re after something a bit more reliable, and there’s a great degree of clarity and precision that suits Final’s more monitor-like audio setup and delivery.
I then moved to an old headphone-testing favourite of mine, with Billie Eilish’s Bond anthem, No Time To Die, giving the UX5000 something quite different to work with. This is where the detail of the high-resolution output was most obvious, with Eilish’s reverb-heavy vocals sounding utterly enveloping, while the swell of the orchestra in the bridge had bags of depth thanks to its well-rounded bass response. It’s not overwhelming – bass heads may want to look elsewhere – but it’s thoughtful and precise, just like the UX5000’s manufacturer.
The UX5000 boast an impressive 65-hours of battery life without ANC, or 45 hours with ANC, and it’s felt fantastic to barely even think about charging them for days on end. The other key feature that I love is that you can also use them via a wired 3.5mm connection, which is fantastic, whether you’re out of power or want the reliability, need the lower latency of wired, or want to plug them into a gamepad for gaming. Besides that, you’re also getting a nice hard case to carry the UX5000 around in, giving you a package that’s about as complete as it’s possible to be, at a price that feels like the perfect midway point between entry-level and big-name flagships.
There are a host of competitors with similar functionality, but the UX5000 definitely have a unique look that sets them apart, alongside some seriously solid build quality. A clear alternative would be the Sennheiser Momentum, which has a similar standard of noise cancelling, long battery life, and adds a bass boost function, but isn’t quite as comfortable for long listening sessions.
