FiiO FT1
A closed dynamic with a real bass shelf and a forward upper midrange. Measured twice on our bench, and the second one is the one you can trust.
Our take
The FT1 does not pretend to be neutral: there is a genuine low shelf under 60 Hz, a scooped lower midrange, and a lift through the presence region with a peak near 5 kHz. That combination reads as punchy and clear, and it is a shape that takes EQ well: pulling the presence down a couple of dB is most of the way to a much more even headphone, which is exactly what Attune is for.
Measured by Warren Labs on a miniDSP EARS Pro. The headphone is seated deliberately for the best fit, the way someone who cares about sound adjusts a headphone before they settle in to listen, rather than placed at random, and the published curve is a single real seating chosen by an objective rule, never a blend. Both channels are measured and stored separately; the line drawn here is their average. Raw response, normalized to 0 dB at 1 kHz. An EARS Pro is not an industry reference coupler such as a GRAS 45CA, so read this as a house reference: repeatable against our other EARS Pro measurements, not directly comparable to another lab. Seating repeatability was characterized in August 2026 and turned out to be a property of the headphone rather than of the rig: reseating moves the midrange by about 0.06 dB on some models and 0.32 dB on others, so no single variance band is drawn here. The instrument itself contributes 0.002 dB. Do not read fine treble detail as settled. How we measure →
Common questions
Straight answers, the same ones our measurements support.
Why was the FT1 measured twice?
The first capture was driven too hard. At −12 dBFS it lost about 1.3 dB of bass to driver compression, confirmed by a same-placement A/B against −22 dBFS. The published curve is the quieter, correct one. Compression at high drive is a real property of the headphone, but it is not what a frequency-response measurement is supposed to show.
Does the FiiO FT1 need an amp?
No. 32 Ω and around 98 dB/mW is dongle territory. Given the compression behaviour above, running it at sane levels is the better habit anyway.
Is it bass-heavy?
By measurement, yes, roughly 4–5 dB up in the sub-bass relative to the midrange. Whether that is too much is a preference, and it is one you can dial out.
If you like the FT1
Close on the graph, or a deliberate step in one direction.