Earpieces: Design / Customization
It was a mouthful explaining the technologies and complicated specs. Let’s now refresh ourselves by talking about the aesthetics and the outer features. First Light has a resin body with a metal faceplate. The cable connection is terminated with standard flushed 2pin connectors. The earpieces are slightly thick but not so significantly large or heavy compared to other summit-fi IEMs or multi-driver IEMs. The adequate nozzle length allows a firm enough fit and is very comfortable to wear due to its rounded, ergonomic shape.
What’s special about First Light is that the owner gets to customize the color of all metal copartments of the earpieces – the top cover, base ring, and inner artwork (hence the variation of earpiece color involved in this review). The colors are hand-painted and engraved, allowing you to specifically personalize their colors by whatever color hex code you’d desire.
However, R&W states that the original teal inner color is exclusive to the owners of the Limited Founder’s Edition and not available for the Special and Standard Editions of First Light (which will be launched once all the Founder’s Editions are sold out). While the resin shell is fixed as black (which I wish was also customizable), all First Light owners get to add a personalized engraving on the resin body, the spot where usually the serial number would be placed.
Special Cable Only for Founder’s Edition: Vortex Cables – Ana Vishuddha
As I’ve shed light earlier, First Light comes with two stock cables – and one of them is included only for the Founder’s Edition. This special cable is “Ana-Vishuddha” made in collaboration with Vortex Cables, a fastly uprising cable manufacturer from Hong Kong. As Ana-Vishuddha is only produced with 30pcs in total which is the same number as the Founder’s Edition First Light, this cable is not available for other First Light Editions nor is it purchasable separately.
Showing Vortex’s specialty for meticulously combining various wire materials, Ana-Vishuddha is comprised of 7N OCC Copper + 4N Pure Silver + Gold-Plated 7N OCC Copper cables, which are then shielded with SPC-OFC Copper wires. The outer sleeves are finished with teal fabric that matches perfectly with the standard design of the Founder’s Edition First Light. Further technical details of Ana-Vishuddha are as follows.
From my personal impressions, as well as what R&W has included in this special Vortex cable, is to provide a middle-ground sound that sounds more like an IEM than an “IEA”, to respect those who want to enjoy both aspects of First Light’s way of portraying the sound as an IEM or an IEA.
- Best for Female Vocals, Live-Stage Concerts
- 21.3 AWG Ultra-Twins Pair
- Shielding: Silver-Plated OFC Copper
- Core: 7N OCC Copper, 4N Pure Silver, Gold-Plated 7N OCC Copper
- Impedance: 1.0 Ohm @ 1kHz
Violinist-Endorsed Stock Cable: Luminox Audio Morningstar R2216 Limited
Meanwhile, Rossi&Wing has collaborated with Luminox Audio, a renowned Taiwanese cable manufacturer, on another First Light’s stock cable project. Together they’ve created a cable named “Morningstar R2216”. As Ana-Vishuddha is an additional special cable with Founder’s Edition owners, the Morningstar R2216 is the official “stock cable” with all First Light variants.
Despite Ana-Vishuddha’s limited availability may make Morningstar R2216 less special, the R2216 is just as significant as the cable’s sonic tuning is selected and endorsed by two concertmasters, to produce a sound that they believe First Light faithfully reproduces the natural sound of classical and live instruments – a sound that would allow First Light to offer an experience where instruments are being heard from the front seats of a concert hall (hence R&W stresses First Light as an In-Ear Auditorium).
As for the wire materials, the Morningstar R2216 is comprised of 6N SPOCC Copper, 4N SP Copper, and Graphene-plated Copper. Unlike the limited quantity of Vortex Ana-Vishuddha cable, the Luminox Morningstar R2216 is purchasable separately for $690 through R&W. Further technical details of Morningstar R2216 are as follows.
[ MORNINGSTAR R2216 ] – “Violinists-Endorsed”
- Best for Classical, Chamber Music, Strings
- 6N Silver-Plated OCC Copper + 4N Silver-Plated Copper + Graphene-Plated Copper
- Coaxial Design / 26AWG + 25AWG (Graphene Plated Copper)
- Coaxial Structure
- 4 Wires
- LumiFlex™ insulation
- Available only in Pentaconn™ 4.4 mm / CM 0.78 2-Pin
Next Page: Sound Impressions / How Does the First Light Sound?