Forté Ears Macbeth Review: Magnum Opus
If I have to refer to one of the hottest potatoes in the high-end IEM scene, Forté Ears would be the first to come to my mind. Dedicated to exquisiteness in both sound and product design, Forté Ears is a high-end IEM brand founded by Riccardo Yeh – the co-founder of Eletech. While Riccardo was thoroughly involved with Eletech as a co-founder previously, Forté Ears highlights that Forté Ears is an independent brand solely operated and directed by Riccardo himself and him only, desiring a different approach when it comes to designing, creating, and tuning the products.
The first debut product is the Forté Ears Macbeth – a tribrid IEM featuring 5BA+2BC+4EST drivers, priced at $3999. Since the high-end IEM communities have been flooding with positive feedback about Macbeth, let’s check out the what and hows, as well as going in-depth in sound impressions and comparing Macbeth with its competing IEMs.
The Birth of Forté Ears – New, Not a Newbie
As for the Forté Ears identity, Riccard highlights that he desires to create IEMs “that are not only technically superior but also rich in artistic inspiration“. Due to Riccardo’s passion and enthusiasm for Western opera and its art, another core identity of Forté Ears is the product design, concept, and tuning, which are thoroughly inspired by opera, art songs, ballet, and other theatrical art. After years of extensive R&D and trials, Forté Ears eventually debuted with its first premium IEM – the Macbeth. If you’ve managed to join Canjam or other audio exhibitions and listen to two unknown, mysterious IEMs, “Romeo” and “Juliet”, this is what it was. Forté Ears Macbeth retails for $3999 and is greatly praised throughout the communities as soon as it hits the market. With that being said, let’s check how it sounds, performs, and compares with its keen competitors.
Elegant Unboxing Experience
The user experience and the story it speaks as a product are what Forté Ears takes seriously and is important. This also extends to the packaging design and the unboxing experience. Macbeth’s packaging box isn’t a mere box but extends beyond being an “objet” (art for art’s sake). All sides of Macbeth’s box are designed with its concept art, description, and stories behind Forté Ears and Macbeth, serving as a prologue before Macbeth begins to sing its story to us.
Opening the box greets you with a Macbeth display plexiglass plate with three divided storage rooms where the IEMs and the accessories are stored. Apart from the IEMs, Macbeth comes with a premium genuine leather case, a full set of Eletech Baroque eartips (each pair of S/M/L/XL), and a microfiber cleaning cloth designed for its deep-red Macbeth concept art.
Earpiece Design, Encased with a Story
Inspired by the hero in Verdi’s Opera “Macbeth”, Forté Ears featured perhaps the most meticulously designed faceplate art through their debut IEM, with a black opaque resin body with an unprecedented faceplate design that reflects the story and theme of the story and opera of Macbeth. The faceplate is made of rhodium-plated copper with silvery rims, and the decision to use which metal type was made after testing different materials and how they affect the sound, and rhodium-plated copper turned out the answer.
The complicated red, spatial background cover is topped with multiple swords and the royal crown. The head of the crown is engraved with the FE logo for the right earpiece and a crimson red jewelry bead is inserted for the left earpiece. Different colors of jewelry needs are covered across the crown, with the lower-bottom side of the crown engraved with “Forté Ears”. While the faceplate art may not look like a big deal or a hard enough task, you’ll realize how meticulously the faceplates had to be designed and manufactured once viewed in real scale and size. I’d say this is the most beautiful faceplate art I’ve seen from an IEM throughout my decade-worth audiophile hobby.
Proprietary Inside Out: Forté Ears Techs
Since the photos would do the rest of the talking for its fine design and art, let’s now move on to the technical side of Macbeth. Forté Ears Macbeth is an 11-driver IEM comprised of 5 proprietary Balanced armatures, 2 Bone Conduction, and 4 Electrostatics with a 5-way crossover design. While the outer cable (for plug and play) matters a lot, the internal wires matter even more.
Forté Ears applied vintage copper inductor coils for the internal connection, as last but not least, adopted the “Diablo” BA woofers. The Diablo BA driver is exclusively designed for achieving deeper bass than the stock ones, and the Forte Circuitry Relay (FCR) system applied to the 5-way crossover further enhances the harmonic vibrations of Macbeth. With the trinity of these core Forte technologies are the elements that perfect the sound of Macbeth – which we’ll be covering shortly!
Technical Specifications:
– 5 Balanced Armature, 2 Bone Conduction, 4 Electrostatics
– “Diablo”; Exclusive Sonion Customized Bass Driver
– Forte Relay Circuitry System （FCR）; 5-Way Crossover
– Acoustic Resonance Chamber (ARC)
Impedance: 7.3ohms @ 1 kHz
Sensitivity: 104.2dB @ 1 kHz
Frequency Range: 10Hz – 45Khz
Construction:
- 3D-printed resin shell
- Rhodium-plated Copper faceplate
- 2-Pin connector
Proprietary, “Bloody” Gorgeous Eletech Cable
Although Forté Ears declares itself as an independent brand from Eletech, it would also be sad if Macbeth’s stock cable wasn’t from them. Macbeth’s stock cable comes with a proprietary Eletech cable that is specially produced and fine-tuned solely for Macbeth. FYI, there’s a little backstory that Eletech went through quite a struggle to satisfy Forté Ears’ highly-demanding needs for achieving the desirable sound, having Eletech send back and forth prototypes 3-4 times until finally receiving the OK sign from Forté Ears.
The Eletech stock cable is a 26AWG, 4-braided OCC Pure Copper Litz cable and has a brown-red color, a color that sits vaguely between crimson and copper, matching Macbeth’s color concept. The cable thickness is similar to a typical 4-braided cable and is extremely soft, causing no discomfort or microphonics. Both end terminations are 2pin Eletech connectors with a 4.4mm balanced Eletech plug.
Next Page: In-depth Sound Impressions of Macbeth