Introduction
It has past two years but I feel like it was today - the day I ordered my Swedish audio gear Nocs NS400 Titanium for US$99.00.
The package arrived and I didn't hesitate on opening it and taking the product from the original box. Wow.
The Package
NS400 Titanium comes inside a brown colored and discreet rectangular box, not that impressive but nice enough. There were two distinct small packets labeled as "ACCESSORIES" and "EARPHONES", respectively. Inside Accessories I could find 2 pairs of each size of tips (silicon). By the way, Nocs doesn't offer foam plugs and you cannot find it on comply-foam too.
Inside the box you can find also one attachment clip and no storage pad, plus a little user manual with all instructions and warranty statement.
The Earphones
The Earphones endue of a great and minimal design. The titanium housing has a nice and well projected finishing, with a tinny puncture on it backs, presumably for enhance bass. It cords according to Nocs is Kevlar-coated with a gold plated 3.5mm plug at it extreme. Looks resistant set but we'll talk about that latter.
The Wearing
Wearing and using Nocs NS400 Titanium becomes a very comfort and natural experience. The earpieces are lightweight and the plug is comfortable, despite the silicon ear tips. I tried to buy new foam tips for them on complyfoam.com but its not available, so I have to make a kind of jerry-rid in order to match comply-foam tips on NS400, putting a little piece of adhesive tape on the rounded top where silicon tips were. Worked just fine.
NS400 have controls and it doesn't works for Android phones, but the central button works fine for playing, pause, next (double click) backward (triple click) and answering calls. Mic delivers sound clear enough and allows a good talk, but it is located too far from user's mouth, making necessary hold it next to you using your own hands for most cases. This issue seems to be addressed and solved by Nocs on Crush model.
Isolation is good enough and microphonics happens in acceptable level.
The Sound
Well. Hahaha... This is the most expected part!
Nocs delivers a sound experience above the average, considering its price tag. Average sound looks balanced, but cymbals sounds more clear than usual and female voices too. Listener will notice a natural bass, slightly exceeding the overall set of sounds, but, lets say, comfortable. Doesn't that looks strange for dynamic driver? I am about to say that Nocs has tuning its headset to turn every single song into classic soft music, but still in very joy manner, since it gets you involved into clear environment for every song.
Folk songs like "Olha só, Moreno" from Mallu Magalhães is beautifully played and the listener can hear every detail.
Electronic and synthetic music are very very welcome by Swedish Nocs, and on NS400 Titanium is not different: Kent, Groove Armada and Daft Punk goes very well, but the Oscar goes to "Secret Agent" from Netsky - looks like a helicopter is getting a flyby right behind listener's ears!
NS400 is highly tunable if you will, lowering the soft tuning approach by Nocs - You can set it to hear deep bass with a good equalizer, fair enough to doesn't miss anything, any amazing touching bass while listening to "M.A.A.D City" from Kendrick Lamar. Impressive how Nocs allows equalizing!
Unfortunately I couldn't find the same performance whist I tried to hear heavy metal or songs that plays loud several instruments at the same time. Everything goes fuzzy and messy what I cannot call by a good experience.
Well, looks like something is missing, isn't is? Oh, yes, the mids! I missed them too...
Durability/Support
Well, better you sit down, in case you're not yet.
Remember of all that talk about Kevlar and all? That doesn't meant to lead durability and reliability to any good point. Actually, looks like Nocs has about 365 day of product life. I would like not to be writing this here, but I have to tell the my experience. I used my earpieces for almost one year, 100 min per day, while I am at the bus, 4 times a day, then they breaks next to plug. This possibly happened due the sit down/stand up act - while you sit down with the phone inside your pocket, the cable will fold on the very beginning of the length, next to the plug. But this is inevitable - likely no one will desire to hold phones on their hands while doing everything. When you pay about 100 US dollars in a earphone it is supposed to last longer than a year on normal and usual situations.
I sent the NS400 to the reseller and they sent me another one. New.
Guess what happened one year latter?
Yes, broken. Again and again.
I emailed Nocs Support in order to help them out to address that issue and to find out why exactly was happening. But Nocs denied to help me on anything because I bought it from a not authorized reseller. I already had better luck with Audiofly, Shure, and many other use to work together with customer to improve it products.
Conclusion:
For US$99.00 you will have a good gear with immersing sound, specially if folk, indie and electronic genres are your cup of tea. You will also find out a stunning but discreet built finishing, but product durability would makes me think twice before spend more money with Nocs.
*This post could not be updated with pics due tool error (head-fi.com image uploader).
