Fischer Audio Tandem headphones test

If the Chinese company Head-Direct Hifiman can be called an Asian tiger world of audio, the Fischer Audio – a kind of American brown bear walking around, who managed to walk almost the entire world. Yes, you got it all right – Fischer Audio company really comes from America, and its products continue to slowly but surely march on the planet and win the hearts of music lovers by the excellent combination of price and quality.

Unusual design, interesting sound

Fischer Audio Tandem attracts attention with atypical acoustic transducer solution. It is constructed on the basis of usual loudspeakers, but… each earpiece has not one but two – and each is responsible for reproducing its own frequency band.

Ergonomics

The housings of the Fischer Audio Tandem are quite large, which prevents these headphones from settling deep into your ear canals. As a result – not the highest level of isolation from outside noise: for street walks and journeys in public transport it is enough, but in the subway and other strongly noisy places for a comfortable perception of the music have to significantly increase the volume.

Fischer Audio Tandem can be worn with both classic cable down and cable up. The method of wearing has no effect neither on noise isolation, nor on sound, so his choice depends only on personal preferences for comfort.

Sound

The bass in Fischer Audio Tandem is slightly elevated, the treble – not even slightly, but a little bit, “muted”, but the middle frequencies – presented smoothly, without significant “distortions. Sunrise Xcape has the same tonal balance, but the dominance of “bass” and muted “treble” is stronger in them.

If Sunrise Xcape sound is dark-atmospheric, then Fischer Audio Tandem doesn’t give any noticeable emotional coloring to music – their sound differs from “neutral” only with some extra “drive”, “power” and a slight lack of sharpness.

Plus, a little “beauty” to the sound of these headphones adds their two-driver design. Because one of the drivers is slightly farther from the earpiece than the other, the sound it produces reaches the listener’s eardrum a little later, creating a slight phase delay between the different frequency bands.

This delay is audibly perceived as a kind of reverberation. It intensifies the sense of space in the sound – the size of the imaginary room in which the music is playing is literally determined by your ears. This effect is especially noticeable on chamber music, and in general – on all “light” compositions with few instruments.

In addition, the Fischer Audio Tandem have, albeit not the most outstanding, but good resolution. You won’t hear as much clarity, speed and refinement as you would in Hifiman RE0 or Sunrise Xcape. But you won’t hear “instrument mush,” even with complex compositions.

Is that the headphones can be a little bit speedy for playing fast percussion parts in heavy compositions, the beats in such parts can sound a little blurred.