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

Packaging and Accessories

The product box for the AFUL Performer 5 shows immediately how unprepared the brand is for a global release, with very little English in use. Indeed, I can't see how it expects the average end user to appreciate all the Chinese characters used for the marketing and tech specs on the back, although it's not a big deal in itself. What makes things worse is the website link on the back is incorrect, with this being the correct link that should have been used. Likewise, there is no 4.4 mm cable termination option either, as the box might make it seem. It's small things like this that make the branding exercise worse in addition to the name itself. Regardless, the company logo and product name are on the front along with marketing features and a render of the set. On the back are product specs and contact info for the company, and a look from the side reveals this is an external sleeve placed over an inner box that is somewhat hard to slide out without damaging the sleeve.


The inner box is plain black cardboard with magnets securing it closed. It opens up sideways as seen above to reveal a cardboard/foam sheet with AFUL branding on it and the actual contents underneath. A thick foam sheet with machined cutouts holds the IEMs snugly in their individual compartments in addition to the carry/storage case on the left.


The storage case is primarily black and has a matte finish that is scratch-resistant. It takes the shape of an ice hockey puck with the AFUL logo on top and happens to be a design I've seen used by other brands before. A rubber lining in the middle keeps the lid closed in use, and the inside is similarly lined to prevent the IEMs from getting scratched or damaged easily. There isn't a lot of room inside, however the Performer 5 IEMs with the stock cable and installed ear tips fit just fine. We see the stock cable is inside to begin with, which we will get to on the next page. The bottom layer has more foam for added protection, with paperwork in the form of a short guide going over the setup and usage of these IEMs in addition to what appears to be a QC card.


AFUL does something different with the ear tips in going with color-coordinated sets. One set with a blue bore (left channel) and a red bore (right channel) come pre-installed on the IEMs and the rest are placed inside the foam sheet seen earlier. What you end up with is effectively just one type of translucent flange silicone ear tip in three sizes (S/M/L) but two sets of each size given the two colors employed. You could thus go with, say, medium-sized tips in all blue, all red, or mix them up.