I tested these chic sub-$100 true wireless earbuds, but their lacklustre sound is too hard to ignore

Final Audio ZE3000 SV: Two-minute review

The Final Audio ZE3000 SV arrive in a very competitive sector of the best budget earbud market equipped to compete. A combination of app and touch control, very decent battery life, some swanky new 10mm dynamic drivers (that word in conjunction with a port to keep pressure levels within the earbuds acceptable), and a light, comfortable design all bode very well.

Then you realize the app and the touch controls don’t really do as much as you’d like. And that Final Audio has deliberately tuned the active noise-cancellation to impact as little as possible on sound quality rather than to impact as much as possible on external sounds. As a result, you start to wonder if perhaps spending $99 on a pair of ZE3000 SV might not be as good an idea as spending it on, say, a pair of Sony’s excellent WF-C710N.

Fortunately, the Final Audio reassert themselves, to an extent, when it comes to audio performance. No, the ZE3000 SV aren’t the most exciting listen you’ve ever experienced, and for some people this lack of audio energy will be enough to rule them out of the best earbuds race, irrespective of budget. But they are balanced, detailed, fairly dynamic and very revealing of the minutiae of a recording. Their midrange reproduction, in particular, is naturalistic and convincing, while low-frequency presence is impressive too. Or, at least, it is provided you’ve made sure the earbuds fit just so.

Final Audio ZE3000 SV review: Price and release date

• Released on February 27, 2025
• Priced $99 / £89 / AU$169

The Final Audio ZE3000 SV have been on sale since the very end of February this year, and in every territory in which they’re on sale, they’re aggressively priced. That’s not the same as saying they have a clear shot, of course – very similar money to this buys well-regarded alternatives from the likes of JBL, Nothing and Sony, to name just three…

Final Audio ZE3000 SV review: Specs

Final Audio ZE3000 SV review: Features

• 10mm ‘F-Core’ SV dynamic drivers
• Bluetooth 5.3 with SBC, AAC and LDAC codec compatibility
• 28 hours of battery life (including charging case) with ANC on

The Final Audio ZE3000 SV use Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless connectivity, and have multipoint connectivity if you need to connect them to two devices at once. They’re compatible with the LDAC codec as well as the bog-standard SBC and AAC alternatives, so an appropriate source player will be able to stream at half-decent quality.

Once audio information is on board, it’s delivered to your ears by a couple of newly developed 10mm ‘F-Core SV’ dynamic drivers. Final Audio is claiming a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz from this new design, and they work in conjunction with ‘F-Link’ port technology in an effort to optimize acoustic pressure within the body of the earbud.

Active noise-cancellation is a four-stage system: ‘off’, ‘on’, ‘wind-cut’ and ‘ambient sound’. With ANC on, you can expect around seven hours of action from the earbuds, and there are a further three full charges stored in the case. Ten minutes charging via the case’s USB-C slot should be good for around an hour's listening.

You can use the capacitive touch surface on the left earbud to toggle between ‘on’ and ‘ambient sound’. The left earbud also takes care of ‘skip backwards’ and ‘volume down’, while the right earbud is in charge of ‘play/pause’, ‘skip forwards’ and ‘volume up’.

The Final Connect control app is similarly brief – there are no playback controls here, and no ability to embed a streaming service. All you get, in fact, is the ability to check for firmware updates, an indication of remaining battery life, full ANC control, and access to a seven-band equaliser with storage space for one custom setting. You can also switch ‘gaming mode’ on or off. Final reckons latency is down below 60m/s when it’s engaged.

• Features score: 4/5

Final Audio ZE3000 SV review: Sound quality

• Balanced, detailed and quite direct sound
• Decent dynamism and good low-end presence…
• Provided you’ve got the fit just right

Some earbuds at the more affordable end of the market like to make things as exciting as possible, a sort of sonic grabbing by the lapels that seems designed to make you ignore their shortcomings in favor of marveling at their vigor. The Final Audio ZE3000 SV are not those earbuds.

They have plenty going for them in terms of sound quality, of course. A listen to Ty Segall’s version of Hot Chocolate’s Every 1’s a Winner reveals them to be a nicely balanced and quite informative listen, able to extract and present even quite fine details buried in the mix. They control their low frequency presence well, so bass sounds hit respectably hard but don’t overstay their welcome or drag at the rhythm. The midrange is open and natural-sounding, so voices get to reveal a lot of their character as well as their tone. And the top of the frequency range is, again, open and detailed, and has just about enough substance to balance out its shine – there’s a reasonable amount of crispness to the way the earbuds attack treble sounds, even if they’re just slightly rolled off in absolute terms.

Frequency integration is smooth, and the tonal balance is quite neutral too. There’s a decent amount of dynamism on display too, both where the big shifts in volume and the more subtle harmonic variations are concerned. And the ZE3000 SV can lay out a soundstage in a clear and easy-to-understand manner, keeping plenty of elbow room between every competing element of a recording but at the same time delivering it as a whole.

All the above depends very much on your achieving a correct fit with the earbuds, though. Every true wireless or wired in-ear monitors require a decent fit in order to sound its best, but the Final Audio ZE3000 SV are more fit-dependent than any other earbuds I’ve heard in a long time. It’s just as well the company provides so many pair of eartips – you're gonna need them.

Still, at least you can take active measures to ensure the ZE3000 SV sound as good as they can. What you can’t do is mitigate their fundamental sonic attitude, which is rather matter-of-fact and undemonstrative. It’s one thing to not be one of those ‘eyes out on stalks’, ‘excitement at all costs’ listens, but it’s quite another to go too far the other way. With a little more energy and animation to their presentation, the ZE3000 SV would be an even more competitive proposition.

Mind you, if their active noise-cancellation got anywhere close to ‘cancellation’ they’d be more attractive, still. Yes, it’s true that Final Audio’s decision to ensure its ANC algorithms don’t impact on sound quality means the ZE3000 SV sound exactly the same whether it’s switched on or off, but it’s so light-touch in its effectiveness that it almost seems worth some sonic disruption for ANC that does what it’s supposed to do.

• Sound quality: 4/5

Final Audio ZE3000 SV review: Design

• 4g per earbud
• ‘Shibo’ textured finish
• Five sizes of eartip included

What do you want from your true wireless in-ear headphones' design? If you’re anything like me, you want them to be small, light and comfortable, and ideally with a good range of eartip sizes to help with the fit. If that sounds familiar, you’ll be very pleased indeed with the design of the ZE3000 SV.

The little pebble-shaped earbuds themselves are a nicely ergonomic shape, and at 4g each are no kind of burden. A choice of five differently sized pairs of eartips helps to achieve a secure and comfortable fit, and the ‘Shibo’ finish that Final Audio has been so keen on lately not only makes them look mildly distinctive but also helps when taking them out (either of the charging case or of your ears).

The charging case itself is similarly compact, similarly light and, thanks to that aforementioned ‘Shibo’ finish, is less likely to show any marks or scuffs than is usual. A single tiny LED on its front face lets you know what the state of play is.

The standard of build and finish is very acceptable indeed. The ZE3000 SV may be necessarily lightweight, but that doesn’t translate to a feeling of flimsiness. The earbuds’ IPX4 rating lets you know that things have been properly screwed together.

• Design score: 5/5

Final Audio ZE3000 SV review: value

• Good specification, build and finish
• Lots to like in audio terms
• Need greater sonic liveliness

‘Nice’ is not automatically faint praise, and the Final Audio ZE3000 SV are a nice product. They're well-made, properly finished, competitively specified, comfortable to wear, and quite pleasant to listen to in any number of ways. Judged against their obvious rivals from the likes of the Sony WF-C710N and Nothing Ear (3), the ZE3000 SV are an interesting option and represent, I suppose, the path less traveled.

Unless you’re easily overstimulated, though, the earbuds’ lack of sonic animation has to count as a negative when you're talking about outright value for money.

• Value: 4/5

Should I buy the Final Audio ZE3000 SV?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Final Audio ZE3000 SV review: Also consider

How I tested the Final Audio ZE3000 SV

• Connected to a FiiO M15S and Apple iPhone 14 Pro
• Used indoors and outdoors
• With a range of music and of file types

I made the Final Audio ZE3000 SV my default true wireless earbuds for well over a week during the course of this review.

When listening outdoors I almost always used my iPhone 14 Pro as a source (using the AAC codec) – it’s loaded with Presto, Spotify and Tidal apps, so there’s plenty of accessible music.

Indoors, I tended to link it to my FiiO M15S DAP using LDAC. The player has a lot of very hi-res music stored locally, so I was able to listen to everything from DSD128 and 24bit/192kHz FLAC down to 128kbps stuff.

• First reviewed in August 2025.

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