Dark Lord rising!

PROS: Very good build quality, comfortable semi-custom fit, bass and midrange tuning and tonality, easy to listen to signature, nice leather carry case.

CONS: Darker signature; lacking sufficient treble presence and clarity as treble rolls off quite early, need for a more premium cable and more ear tip options.

Disclaimer.

I would like to thank Fearless Audio for sending me the Roland to test and review. I am not affiliated with the company or any of its sellers and write this review with an unbiased opinion regardless of how the review turns out.

Genre preferences.

I majorly listen to rock, acoustic, pop, metal, and sometimes popular EDM songs doing the rounds on the charts.

About Fearless Audio.

Fearless Audio is one of the most popular brands to have emerged out of China in the last few years. They’ve been around for a while though and were mainly selling in the Asian market previously. They have vast experience in R&D with a HUGE lineup of increasing driver configuration IEMs, starting from a single dynamic driver to a 12 BA driver config, along with a couple of hybrids and tri-brids in between. They rose to fame internationally with highly successful IEMs like S6Rui and S8Freedom, with me having had the pleasure of reviewing both in the past. Today we’re checking out their 5 driver tr-brid, Roland.

Links – Fearless Roland (Amazon US) | Fearless Roland (Official Taobao)

---

Technical Specifications.

• Drivers – 2 EST + 2 BA + 1DD
• Sensitivity – 106dB
• Impedance – 5.8Ω
• Frequency response – 18-80kHz
• Distortion – <1%
• Sound insulation – 26dB
• Cable Connector: 2-pin 0.78mm

Included in the box.

Fearless Audio updated their packaging recently and now it’s 1.5 times the size of the previous box along with it looking dapper in black. I quite liked their previous graffiti artwork box too for its cool artistic design but this one feels substantial and more premium. Though I think a lot of space is wasted on the inside and the Roland could’ve done with a much smaller box too.

 Here are the contents of the box –

• Roland
• Cable
• Leather carry case
• Multiple eartips
• Cleaning cloth
• Warranty card and information

---

Build Quality.

Like the previous Fearless IEMs I’ve reviewed (S6Rui and S8Freedom), Roland too has the same semi-custom shells which are extremely well designed ergonomically. It is an electric green-ish blue shell with silver sparkle chips along with a black neural network kind of lines running throughout the shell. It is quirky and quite unique. The shell’s build looks flawless with everything integrated very nicely. The nozzle is well shaped, sound bores well drilled, 2-pin sockets neatly cut and the faceplates very seamlessly integrated with the shell.

Cable – In the past, there were some complaints regarding the stock cables being broken or not working or having scratchy jacks. I’m happy to write that the new upgraded white cable I received in the package works perfectly fine. It is quite flexible with no memory. The cable has good bling factor but I still wish Fearless had included a more premium cable in the asking price of $1000 for Roland’s package, something like an UP-OCC Litz cable maybe. It has plastic connectors which fit the sockets tightly and a brushed metal jack with gold plated 3.5mm termination.

Case – The case is made of unpolished leather and I quite like it. It fits in Roland with the cable snugly and is protective enough. The lid snaps onto the bottom tightly and even if you drop it, the leather is well cushioned to take on the impact and not let any of it creep in and damage the IEM.

Fit and Comfort.

All Fearless IEMs come with semi-custom shells which are very comfortable and fit me very snugly and Roland is no different. They stay very comfortable for long periods. Fearless surely has one of the most comfortable semi-custom shell designs in the industry.

Page 2 – Sound analysis, Comparison, and Conclusion.