Audiofly is an Australian company producing a wide range of IEMs, and they have been kind enough to lend me two units, one on the more affordable end, and one higher up in their line. The first is the AF120, and priced at 200USD, this 1DD 1BA hybrid has some serious flaws. With an impedance of 12 ohms, and 108 dB/mW sensitivity, these are easily driven from any device, but for this review are being powered by both my iPhone 6s and Schiit Asgard 2, though there is little sound difference between the two with these.

Included in the packaging along with the earphones are three sizes of standard silicone tips, three sizes of triple flange tips, three sizes of Comply tips, a quarter inch adapter, an airplane adapter, a cleaning tool, and a canvas case. This case is very well made and sturdy, if the IEMs are quite cramped in there.

The housings are made out a very nice plastic, and feel plenty rugged to survive some abuse. The nozzle is unusually long, which leaves you unable to use any third party eartips, which is a bit of an odd choice. The one flaw with these that is visible is the complete lack of a port. Considering that these have a dynamic driver in them, this port-free IEM gets driver flex to the extreme. When I first put them in, the intensity of the driver flex startled me, as I was not expecting driver flex at this price point. The driver flexes even when simply moving your head funny. The cable is interesting; the main section of cable is made up of a tough fabric, terminating in a petite right angle jack. Moving up the cable, the section above the sturdy y-split is a thin, yet sturdy, plastic wire. The chin slider is a bit odd, being pretty much just a tube of transparent plastic, but it does its job well enough. The memory wire is unusually short, coming just shy of two inches, which is quite frankly not enough. The cable keeps falling off the top of my ear, as I cannot even bend it to conform to the first bit of my ear, so it just hovers above my ear, depositing the cable over the side. While this can be rectified by using the chin slider, I would certainly like to not be forced to do so. Unfortunately, you cannot simply swap out the cable for a better one, as the cable is affixed to the unit, which is disappointing at this price.

Fitting these in my ear is a bit finicky, as even the largest eartips are not quite large enough for me, though my ear canals are relatively large. Once they are in, though, and the cable is behaving itself, they are very comfortable. Audiofly’s entire over-ear IEM line uses the exact same housing shape, and when a company does this, they really should pick a good shape, and Audiofly certainly picked a great one. No part of the housing puts any undue pressure on any part of my ear, which combined with their light weight, makes these nearly disappear in my ear. Microphonics are also startlingly low, which is certainly impressive.

These sound very dark, with a strong emphasis on bass, and significantly reduced treble. The bass is perhaps the best thing about these; every bass note thumps very satisfyingly, but retains enough control as to certainly not sound loose. The midrange is where I take serious issue. Most of the upper midrange is absolutely missing, leaving vocals sounding absolutely hollow, as if they were heard through shooting earmuffs. Instruments, especially strings, utterly lose their character, and sound dull and lifeless. In the album Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, which is an excellent album by the way, Krauss sounded like she had a heck of a cold, though Plant only sounded dulled. At least the lower midrange is decent. The treble, while quite a bit pushed back, sounds nice and accurate, and images quite nicely. These manage to have a relatively wide soundstage, but manage to still sound cramped due to the midrange.

All in all, these need some work. There are three things, which, if added, would fix these. First: a port to fix the driver flex. Second: a detachable cable, because 200USD is too much to lose because of a bust cable. Third: upper midrange; the bass is very good, and the treble is pleasing, but the lack of upper midrange just kills these for me. I hear good detail from these, and good imaging, and I can just feel the untapped potential in these drivers. Fortunately, the AF180 is much better, and I can say that the upcoming review for those will be much more positive.

-TheOmegaCarrot