.

sentinel92 said:

  Cracked open a Savant. 
 
Schematics of the Savant:
Knowles 30761 + 1.5K ohm Damper
Knowlles 29689 + 2.2K ohm Damper 
20 Ohm Resistor
 
Probably $50 at most tops. Add another $100 for the shell. Doesn't even come close to $600. I felt the sound doesn't justify the price much in the beginning but not sure what else to say about this.
 

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Seems excessive. Especially after most of that was already established in the Savant thread (unless, of course, you were the one mentioned who took it apart to discover the innards).
 
Luckily for me, I just took an x-ray of it, haha.
 
But who ever thinks that gear ever costs the sum of its parts? I know you mentioned that you didn't think the sound warranted the price, but maybe the Savant just wasn't for you. There are certainly a host of others who think differently. To each their own.

How many sets of Beats are sold on a daily basis? Even with what we know about them, they still fly off the shelves, pretty sure the Savant sounds better than the Beats. Though I haven't heard the Beats, I have heard the Savants. Noble coming up with a product that gives them a better profit margin, more power to them, its a BUSINESS.

If you can't do it yourself, material cost means very little, IMO.  I have paintings that probably required about $50 worth of paint.

I'm double-fisting extra large buckets of popcorn right now...it's still more impressive than that stupid clock

depends on the individual. I was strongly considering the Savant prior to this, since having a uiem from an established manufacturer works be nice as an alternative to my ciem.

But after the numerous posts of declining shell quality (cracking, chipped paint).Coupled with a sound signature that sounds pleasant, but nothing impressive or eye catching, I certainly lost all interest after now knowing its innards. it kind of explains the relatively unimpressive impression I had of it.

tldr, yes it sounds pleasant. But even after considering its sound, it's certainly not a $600 uiem when you consider its veiled sound indicating a lack of technical performance (this is not subjective; you either hear the details or you don't). The recent decline in build quality and the innards aren't exactly helping either.

Ironically, the same seems to be happening for the k10U. altho I must admit that noble does some really nice custom shells, but that hardly seems like what the bread and butter of an audio company should be.

How dare he post facts and his subjective opinion. Somebody call the fanboy brigade and bully him out of this thread. Oh wait that's already happening.
 
What I don't like about this is that Noble misled people with the screw color and pricing. Creating false expectations of 4-5 drivers.
 
The reason they gave for hiding the driver count was so the Savants could be assessed on its acoustic performance alone. Please. If this reasoning was valid then every review/impression of every IEM with a known driver count would be biased and invalid.
 
Fact is they hid the driver count to justify the price tag and to sell a high margin product.
 
Making money as a business is not wrong and high profit margins are not wrong. However misleading people to do so is.

bobjane said:

  How dare he post facts and his subjective opinion. Somebody call the fanboy brigade and bully him out of this thread. Oh wait that's already happening.
 
What I don't like about this is that Noble misled people with the screw color and pricing. Creating false expectations of 4-5 drivers.
 
The reason they gave for hiding the driver count was so the Savants could be assessed on its acoustic performance alone. Please. If this reasoning was valid then every review/impression of every IEM with a known driver count would be biased and invalid.
 
Fact is they hid the driver count to justify the price tag and to sell a high margin product.
 
Making money as a business is not wrong and high profit margins are not wrong. However misleading people to do so is.

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I never felt mislead, a little surprised to find out its only 2 drivers per side, but no one was forced to buy them. If people really want to justify drive count, price and sound, get the 4, its still awesome.

bobjane said:

  How dare he post facts and his subjective opinion. Somebody call the fanboy brigade and bully him out of this thread. Oh wait that's already happening.
 
What I don't like about this is that Noble misled people with the screw color and pricing. Creating false expectations of 4-5 drivers.
 
The reason they gave for hiding the driver count was so the Savants could be assessed on its acoustic performance alone. Please. If this reasoning was valid then every review/impression of every IEM with a known driver count would be biased and invalid.
 
Fact is they hid the driver count to justify the price tag and to sell a high margin product.
 
Making money as a business is not wrong and high profit margins are not wrong. However misleading people to do so is.

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They chose not to mention the driver count, which is certainly a contrarian marketing choice (they zigged), but I don't think they misled anybody. If people made assumptions based on the screw color, that isn't Noble's problem since they never suggested any such connection to the best of my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong).  And God forbid a manufacturer does something as unspeakable as wanting an IEM to be judged for its sound! Before you know it, people will be judging food based on its taste. I liked the N4 more than the Savant, so I'm certainly not in the fanboy camp, but this seems to be a bit of an overreaction. People should take comfort in the fact that one isn't required to buy the Savant if it doesn't meet their expectations.

So to extrapolate, cost of a 5 driver is roughly $225; a 12 driver is $400, give or take $100 or so?  May as well consider every manufacturer guilty.

sentinel92 said:

  Cracked open a Savant. 
 
Schematics of the Savant:
Knowles 30761 + 1.5K ohm Damper
Knowlles 29689 + 2.2K ohm Damper 
20 Ohm Resistor
 
Probably $50 at most tops. Add another $100 for the shell. Doesn't even come close to $600. I felt the sound doesn't justify the price much in the beginning but not sure what else to say about this.
 

Click to expand...

 
You know there's a lot more that goes into making a product beside material costs.

I do not consider myself a fanboy but I do think it is pretty crass to post this on the Wizards thread.
I don't care how many drivers or what the material costs are. I judge an IEM on how it sounds.
I am paying for expertise and artistry. Plus all the overheads and costs of setting up and running a company.

doublea71 said:

They chose not to mention the driver count, which is certainly a contrarian marketing choice (they zigged), but I don't think they misled anybody. If people made assumptions based on the screw color, that isn't Noble's problem since they never suggested any such connection to the best of my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong).  And God forbid a manufacturer does something as unspeakable as wanting an IEM to be judged for its sound! Before you know it, people will be judging food based on its taste. I liked the N4 more than the Savant, so I'm certainly not in the fanboy camp, but this seems to be a bit of an overreaction. People should take comfort in the fact that one isn't required to buy the Savant if it doesn't meet their expectations.

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I would beg to differ on one aspect tho, because it was marketed as an iem that SOUNDED likes 4-9 driver. I agree that on the technicalities on the wording they said nothing about the physical driver count, but still, it just feels like foul play.

that said, it most certainly did NOT have the sonic reproduction detail of a well tuned high driver count model. perhaps I have high expectations, but it's hard not to when you live in a country surrounded by gears and toys, and have access to ciems that cost less than 600, but perform better than the Savant, and I dare say almost reaching the k10u in performance.

Note that I've made no reference to sound signature since that is highly subjective. I'm only looking at its technical performance, which is mainly a result of how well tuned the drivers are to work in tandem with each other.

on that note, it's kind of silly to keep saying that everything us fine and dandy, and that no one is forcing one to purchase the product if it doesn't suit you. Isn't the point of a forum to discuss the flaws and pros of a product from a neutral position? the dude posted a set of information that I believe makes for good discussion that we, as audio fans, can use as a basis to discuss how we would like to see this savant inprove on. Price and product transparency would be his obvious gripe, while mine would be manufacturing consistency and technical detail retrieval.Whats yours?

rei87 said:

I would beg to differ on one aspect tho, because it was marketed as an iem that SOUNDED likes 4-9 driver. I agree that on the technicalities on the wording they said nothing about the physical driver count, but still, it just feels like foul play.

that said, it most certainly did NOT have the sonic reproduction detail of a well tuned high driver count model. perhaps I have high expectations, but it's hard not to when you live in a country surrounded by gears and toys, and have access to ciems that cost less than 600, but perform better than the Savant, and I dare say almost reaching the k10u in performance.

Note that I've made no reference to sound signature since that is highly subjective. I'm only looking at its technical performance, which is mainly a result of how well tuned the drivers are to work in tandem with each other.

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You're not from the Trump camp by chance are you

rei87 said:

I would beg to differ on one aspect tho, because it was marketed as an iem that SOUNDED likes 4-9 driver. I agree that on the technicalities on the wording they said nothing about the physical driver count, but still, it just feels like foul play.

that said, it most certainly did NOT have the sonic reproduction detail of a well tuned high driver count model. perhaps I have high expectations, but it's hard not to when you live in a country surrounded by gears and toys, and have access to ciems that cost less than 600, but perform better than the Savant, and I dare say almost reaching the k10u in performance.

Note that I've made no reference to sound signature since that is highly subjective. I'm only looking at its technical performance, which is mainly a result of how well tuned the drivers are to work in tandem with each other.

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Where did they market it as sounding like a 4-9 driver?  It was the community who started calling it a baby K10 and taking wild guesses at driver counts.
 
Perhaps the most subjectively balanced in-ear monitor Dr. John has designed thus far, Savant is a detail-oriented IEM with a solid low-end and clean highs. Savant is an expert at playing a large variety of genres well, making it a versatile addition to any collection or standalone piece.

I see nothing in the description of the product that could be considered misleading.