REVIEW: Nuforce NE-7M iPhone IEM vs Denon C700 and Klipsch Image X10 (NE-8 Impressions Added... - Page 52

Been using the NE-6 since last Friday and I do think the SQ is amazing. My Bose IEM that just broke was no where near these and they are $99. Sure you get tons of boomy bass with them, but absolutely no mids or highs. Of course the Bose at the time were better then the cheap ear buds or cheap IEM I had. But hearing the clarity of these just blows the Bose out of the water. The only problem now is they really show how crappy of quality some of my mp3s I have are.

Also I could not wear these comfortably at all with the silicone tips, including some I had from other IEM. I wanted to see before ordering some Comply or Shure that I could make them comfortable, so I did a trick someone had suggested for the cheap Koss IEM using foam ear plugs cutting them to the right length and putting a hole in them. I have now been wearing them all day comfortably and the bass is certainly better, but still not boomy, a good thing. So I'll be ordering some foam tips, I'm also going to email NuForce about foam tips as it is not clear to me if they stopped including them again or I just didn't get any for some reason.

I would certainly say these are "the phones" for Techno, Trance, Euro pop, HHC. They have a nice punchy bass and great highs, most the songs don't really emphasize mids, so I really can't say anything about them as I pretty much listen only to Electronica.

I would completely agree. I listen to vocal trance and these are not too bassy in that they don't drown out the vocals. Also, my 7M's didn't come with comply tips, they came with 3 different sized silicon buds and 1 pair of olives. I don't think they package them with foam tips (if they ever did). Best purchase in a long time.

First impressions

I got my NE-7M's in the mail yesterday after ordering them late Friday afternoon. Amazingly fast delivery through Nuforce's amazon store!

I wanted to make a couple of non sound-quality comments within this thread because I was unsure of a few things when ordering, even after reading through a lot of this and other threads:

1) Tips included: my set came with 4 sets of silicone tips and 1 set of foams. For the silicones, what I will refer to as a mini set came installed on the IEMs (very small). There was also an additional set of small, medium, and large tips. IN ADDITION, my set came with a pair of foam tips. So, that's 5 sets of tips total. I read a lot of complaints about the tips that come with these IEMs so I was happy to see all the options as well as the foams since I didn't want to spend additional money on complys or others. So far, the small silicones create a great seal for me, but I'll still experiment with all the others.

2) In-line button for use with iPhone/iPods: I haven't tested the quality of the mic yet, but one thing I found interesting is that the button/mic are on the LH side as opposed to the RH on the buds included with my iPhone or the ADDIEMs. Not a big deal as I'll just have to get used to it. I did read a lot of complaints on Amazon and here about the functionality of the button for music and call control. Mine works great with my iPhone 3G. No issues pushing three times for reversing tracks or twice for forwarding. I was pleasantly surprised. It appears this may have been redesigned. My button looks like the third picture from the left on this page:
http://www.nuforce.com/hp/products/ne7m/index.php

It does NOT look like the "integrated" button shown on Amazon (in the pic with the quarter in it):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ima...SIN=B001BL8BO4

I'm happy so far with these and look forward to listening to them more. I had the ADDIEMs and hated them and am really enjoying these so far. Looking fwd to wearing them in and seeing if they get better!!

it does for me maybe you got an newer version

Interesting. When did you order yours and do you have any problems with it?

Well I just picked up a pair of NE-7m for my 3GS iPhone. I traded in my phonaks because I was gonna re-buy a pair, but with the mic (I really use handsfree a lot now) but I thought I'd give the NE-7ms a shot.
And too be honest, I'm actually pretty disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect these to be Phonak / AD900 killers. But there has been one essential issue I've had, and its the bass. Whoah, its big, fat and cloudy. Ok, its pretty punchy I admit. But its just huge. There is so much bass with a flat EQ I pretty much find them unlistenable. With the bass-reducer EQ on they sound better but not perfect.
Please don't interpret this in any accusatory kind of way (these 'phones were a bit of a spontaneous buy) but the impression I got around here was that the bass was full and punchy but not bloated. I know the bass isnt bloated like CX300 bloat, but I find it pretty overbearing. I guess because they're so popular with 'audiophile' types on here, and audiophiles tend not to love over-the-top bass, I'm just surprised so many people love a pair of earphones with so much bottom end.
Do these tend to brighten up with burn in? The sound actually reminds me a lot of when I had the Crossroads LBI / X3i (before they broke after like a week) - I thought the X3i had nice balanced bass while the LBi had that big veiled bass sound. Not my cup of tea.
If I don't warm to these I don't really mind to much, I'd just pass them on to a fellow head-fier or something and nab a pair of Phonaks. I'm not upset, more just intrigued by there popularity.

Thanks for the advice headphoneaddict, but IMHO, no burn-in or tip-change is likely to rescue these puppies for me personally. Different strokes for different folks. Purely out of interest, I wonder if I have one of the 'newer' batch, and if that batch are bassier than the early ones. Because honestly, these suckers are really really bass-heavy.

Can't say anything bad about other aspects of them though, they look cool, built quality seems decent, and the tip selection is great (5 pairs of tips included!) + the button and mic work great on mine.

I think its just a shame nuforce don't have to NE-7m models, a more balanced model and a bassier model. Because I can hear real potential, just its clouded by that darn over-the-top bass.

My synopsis: great 'phones for basshead, just not my cup o tea

Just out of interest - how would you compare the bass (in quantity) to the PFEs with black filters? Because my NE-7ms have considerably more bass than the PFE / Black Filter combo.

Februaryish

Well I must say either I'm going crazy or the newer ne7ms are bassier because I'm listening to them right now and they IMO are veiled and very overbassed.
The word "balanced" certainly does not spring to mind! Even with the silicon tips inserted as shallow as possibly without losing a seal I still find these very unbalanced. Or did I get the runt of the litter!?
I'm sort of at a loss to explain our different perceptions of the sound.
Does no one else find these too bassy? With the iPhones treble boost on they have grown on me a little.
Weird!

Cant seem to find the NE-6s in the UK and dont want to order from US as I might get charged customs charges which wud mean it would be around the same price as klipsch s4s

I had a listen to the ne6 and it sounded quite veiled and compressed to me. My hippo vb sounds more transparent and reaches higher and lower.