Reviews by drjoms

drjoms

New Head-Fier
Nothing Ear (1) - Usefull for tall people and non audiophiles of all sorts.
Pros: Feature set is just amazing, compensates for relatively bad quality of sound on louder volume. Simply amazing price to feature set ratio.
Cons: If you listen stuff loud all the time and expect it to sound well - its not for you. If you listen to too loud in specific compositions treble(?) is... Problematic.
TLDR;
If you seek for great sound - it's not for you. If you needs something in a gym - they may be something you are looking for.


Nothing Ear (1)

https://eu.nothing.tech/products/ear-1

Lets get this out of the way, quality of sound is NOTHING to write home about.
If you put more than 50% of it's volume you start to hear distortion.

Things I did not get to test yet - how long they can hold.

And now list of good things that can redeem said product.

It costs 99 Euro. Let me repeat, 99 euro...

I confirm it works with Android. In fact its easy to set up, but i am techie, so may be its not that easy for non technical folks, which I doubt. Should work with Iphone and i have seen article of it working with even Linux, so windows shoul be no problem as long as you got Bluetooth. Albeit, why woudl you wanna use it on PC - I have no idea.

If Bluetooth on your phone, supports 5.2. - it translates into severe battery saving compared to earlier Bluetooth protocol. If your phone supports 5.2 Bluetooth , battery, at least hypothetically, will hold on for longer time. Both phone and earphones battery.


While at my desk I have cabled Sennheiser 598, I am sick and tired of cables when I am on the go.
As a tall guy I have problems with standard length cables. In one and half year I have replaced 3 pairs of earphones(pure wear and tear). In my gym my phone does a lot of acrobatics when I somehow manage to knock the cable of my earphones by awkward movement.
I am tired that I can't put my phoblet into lower pocket of my shirts because cable is not long enough. Yet worse, if i do awkward move that put strains on cable it hurts my ear AND bit by bit damages my 3.5MM jack. I am tired of hiding cable under the cloth. I am tired that when I arrived at work I have to bother removing cables from inside of my cloth. I am awkward, I know it, but god damn... I am tired that when i put my phone into chest pocket of my jacket I now need to adjust cables, may be wrap my phone around it.

I willingly sacrifice my sound quality for practicality.
Besides, when comes to traveling to work I don't listen to music, it's usually favorite podcast that is on. And quality MORE is more than adequate for that. Listening music without making Nothing Ear (1) too loud - is enjoyable experience and I am not at any moment thinking to myself that sound quality is bad. I just don't make it too loud, but its also true for my usual experience of listening to any kind of content. Listening too loud for too long tires me.

Talking about traveling, pair has active noise cancellation. Can't say if it's great, but can definitely say it's there.

They look SEXXXXZEY. Not that I care, but your non audiophile second half or favourite nephew will have nice piece of eye candy to show to peers.

It's easy to find it, if it is lost(software can make it sound noise).

Holder is also portable battery. Holder looks nice, and is closed by magnet, which suggest it will survive for a while. With that said, I would avoid putting it in same pocket as mobile... For same reason(magnet). Holder has charging indicator.(simple but effective)

It has built in MIC, so basically built in hands free or mic for gamers/VOIP callers. One thing I noticed, firefox on Android is problematic with those earphones. It works fine with WhatsAPP which makes me believe that its fault of firefox. I reliably hear noise in Firefox when I do recording. Don't have Chrome On the phone, can't comment there.
Pair supports touch commands on both pieces. Can adjust volume, skis songs, disable noise cancellation, etc.

Good uses: public transport, driving, nice gift to techie oriented kid, tall people.
Bad uses: when quality is paramount - you want to skip. Albeit 99% of people would not notice subpar quality, lets face it, this is audiophile community.

drjoms

New Head-Fier
Pros: Superb quality, comfy
Cons: Not particularly for person on the go
In a nutshell, not an audiophile.

However, best sound I have ever experienced in my life. I have not experienced much.

Many hours of computer gaming + MP3s, compfy at all times. So good in fact I forget to take them off sometimes.

You can hear through them.

I am technically minded. One aspect I was curious about, what I am able as audiophile. And apparently, while I am not, I found out that I can hear slightly below 20Hz, probably 18-19 or so. I did sound test using those earphones, as they provide lover sound frequency below 20Hz. Upper level, I am as standard as it gets.

I had those for years. I had moved a lot. They survived me moving to 2 other countries. So if that's not great German quality, than what is? I have them for least 3 years. No wear and tear. I use them 6-8 hours daily, 7 days a week.

They designed for a proper PC DAC or even AMP/stereo system. Casual MP3 player/Phone won't cut it.

For gamers, explosions do sound satisfying. Blowing sh** up became a lot more enjoyable. Together with PCI-E Asus Xonair that seems like great combination.
drjoms
drjoms
still using them today. mid of 2021.
Only had to change soft parts which worn out.
I use them on average 15-16 a day 7 days a week last year and a half.

drjoms

New Head-Fier
Pros: Cheap, Linux friendly, PCI Express X1
Cons: Requires floppy connector, rather unstable inside motherboard.
I shall be short. Tech specs are not bad. Or at least were not bad, when card came out. Dobly Surround 7.1
It had bells and whistles, like hardware accelerated 3D sound  extensions. Digital output.
It has 24kbit and sample rate of whooping  192000, which is pretty cool.
 
I bought it because at time i didn't have spare PCI slot on my PC, which did the trick. I was tired of bad USB cards that didnt work under Linux. I got advice from Kernel Dev list, suggesting this one here.
It does not have hardware mixer in it, so dmix under Linux is necessary evil.
Since it's PCI-E X1 - it needed extra power, which was taken from floppy power cable. So before buying it  -check if you have one.
 
It doesn't seem to be very stable inside of MoBo.
 
Apart from that, I am happy owner of it for a few years now.
 
If it survives for a while  - I wont bother thinking about buying new sound card. But survival may be problem here...
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