Welcome to the first of my Cliffnotes, a series where I push out rapid fire opinions of some of the IEMs I’ve heard while I was back in Singapore during the month of July. Thus I won’t get too in-depth, nor will I be too formal and technical. Less analysis, more… from-the-heart if you will.

Product details: https://www.64audio.com/product/Fourte-Noir-Earphone

MSRP: $3,800

So here we are with what is 64 Audio’s most anticipated release of 2019, their limited run edition of their ever popular tia Fourte.

Wait… scratch that. Their only release of 2019. (At least, it seems like so.)

From what I’ve gathered in their product page as well some early bird exclusive reviews of the thing, it seems that they’ve retuned the dynamic driver, smoothened the treble and possibly made it more coherent.

From my listening session (which was more than enough, I won’t say more lest the pedants come out of the woodworks), I can tell you that only one out of the three is undeniably true. They’ve certainly retuned the Fourte’s DD, so now there’s quite a bit more midbass as well as lower mids which kind of helps with tonal issues. Kind of.

Let’s get everything else out of the way. It is still just as incoherent as the old Fourte, the resolution actually takes a noticeable dip due to its DD (which is honestly not that capable of a driver) masking the rest of the drivers, and the treble is just as troublesome. Possibly even moreso. It seems like 64 Audio tried to make compromises in order to address some of the complaints the original Fourte had and ended up with removing the things that made Fourte a unique buy in the first place.

Honestly all this wouldn’t have been that big an issue if not for one teeny, tiny little detail: the tia Trio exists.

Come on, what even is the point of the Fourte Noir in the first place? Mundorf solder and “premium cable” be damned; you want something that’s warmer, smoother and more tonally correct than the Fourte? You already have the perfect option handed to you on a silver platter. And it’s cheaper.

64 Audio’s new Fourte Noir. Why.