Introduction

Shortly after my review of the Lime Ears Pneuma earlier this year, I found myself looking further into the underrated Polish audio community—especially when it came to smaller brands making some of the best looking in-ear monitors (IEMs), that seemed to also get rave reviews from customers. Among these companies was Custom Art, founded in 2012 by a former audio reviewer who had seemingly realized there’s only so much one could do reviewing IEMs before learning enough to make some himself based on his preferences. Indeed, this very approach has led to a few fascinating audio brands over the years across the world, and Custom Art soon made a name for itself by providing both universal-fit IEMs (UIEMs, which is the default these days) and custom-fit IEMs (CIEMs), with the latter made available not only in the usual resin but also silicone. Things were steadily going to plan as the company expanded in both manpower and a burgeoning product lineup—until 2015 came and FIBAE was born.

FIBAE stands for Flat Impedance Balanced Armature Earphone and was the world’s first such technology, allowing for flat impedance and phase in IEMs that use balanced armature drivers. This helps address the issue of output impedance affecting the tonality of sensitive all-BA IEMs in particular, which we addressed previously with the 64 Audio U18t that does not have such tech implemented. Indeed, it took until last year for 64 Audio to release its own take on this with the U18s that also made its way into the 64 Audio Duo we covered earlier this year. Then came Symphonium Audio w/Subtonic Audio to showcase another flat impedance implementation in the highly successful Helios, and by now I was eager to find out how the OG FIBAE worked in practice. Custom Art had at this time come out with its latest and greatest release in the form of the FIBAE 7 Unlimited, and a few emails back and forth led to a set of custom-fit units being prepared for review! Thanks to Custom Art for helping with this coverage on TechPowerUp and we begin our examination of the FIBAE 7 Unlimited with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications