Introduction

AFUL Acoustics, also referred to as AFUL Audio or simply AFUL, was established in 2018 and immediately won awards and patents alike. The Chinese audio brand is new to the western market and has created somewhat of a sensation recently, owing to good marketing from its primary distributor HiFiGo. AFUL stands for “At Full” with the goal being to “provide users the best sound, and bring you products with higher-cost performance at the same price,” although I already know there are going to be comments galore about calling the brand Awful instead. Indeed, I do wish the brand had gone with a different name given it now has a tendency to be a distraction to what is shaping up to be an excellent debut into the IEM world.

Today we examine the AFUL Performer 5, which I’ve also seen written as Performer5 to be a play on the word performers. This is a set that been hyped up even before release owing to the use of some innovating engineering and design and is a hybrid set using one dynamic driver and four balanced armature drivers paired with 3D printed acoustic tubes, an air-pressure balance system, as well as an intricate crossover system to promise performance on par with tribrid sets that use expensive Sonion EST tweeters. These are certainly bold claims, and the design itself would no doubt remind people of the impressive ThieAudio Monarch MKII—a $1000 set of IEMs that some have compared the AFUL Performer 5 to! Let’s see how these claims hold up in our review today which begins with a look at the product specifications in the table below. Thanks to HiFiGo for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!

Specifications