Optoma NuForce HEM6 Review: Genie in a Bottle
NuForce has been on my radar for quite a while now; their HEM series has had generally good reception from the audiophile community as well as the general consuming public. Multi-BA IEMs are the brand’s forte, and today I’ll be reviewing the HEM6, a triple-driver, three-way crossover IEM from the upper end of their lineup.
You can find the HEM6 for sale on Amazon for $350 here.
Disclaimer: This unit was provided to me free of charge for review purposes. I am not affiliated with Optoma beyond this review. These words reflect my true, unaltered, opinion about the product.
Preference and Bias: Before reading a review, it is worth mentioning that there is no way for a reviewer to objectively pass judgment on the enjoy-ability of a product: such a thing is inherently subjective. Therefore, I find it necessary for you to read and understand what I take a natural liking to and how that might affect my rating of a product.
My ideal sound signature would be an extended sub-bass with a leveled, but textured, mid-bass. The mids should be slightly less pronounced than the treble, but still ahead of the bass. I prefer a more bright upper range.
Source: The HEM6 was powered like so:
HTC U11 -> USB-C adapter -> earphones (not recommended)
or
Hidizs AP100 3.5mm out -> FiiO A5 3.5mm out -> earphones
or
HiFiMAN SuperMini -> earphones (recommended)
or
PC optical out -> HiFiMe SPDIF 9018 Sabre DAC 3.5mm out -> earphones
All music was served as MP3 @320Kbps or as FLAC.
The HEM6 plays more nicely with warm sources than it does cold ones and scales well up the source tree.
Sound Signature
Initial Impressions:
Coming from daily use on the W-shaped Kinera H3, the HEM6 sounded horrible on first listen. The upper register was sharp and grainy, making even tame songs sound harsh and uninviting. However, after about three hours of listening, much of that faded away. My ears adjusted to the sound signature making the experience much more bearable, and dare I say, pleasant?
The HEM6 strives for a “Hi-Fi” tuning meaning it has a robust, but subtle, mid bass, a well matched sub bass, leveled mids and a slightly emphasized treble.
Treble: Songs used: In One Ear, Midnight City, Outlands, Satisfy
The first thing I think of when asked about the treble of the HEM6 is just how far it extends. You truly get a sense that you’re hearing the entire spectrum of the upper register.
There are no hints of sibilance when using the correct sources (i.e, high quality ones). Unfortunately cheap sources do have a habit of making the HEM6 misbehave. The outputs on my SoundBlaster E3 and HTC USB-C adapter are some such offenders.
The HEM6 does a good job portraying a very natural amount of air and lends well-recorded albums a great sense of scale and separation.
Mids: Songs used: Flagpole Sitta, Jacked Up, I Am The Highway, Dreams
The HEM6 is tailored to provide the listener with a bright an energetic midrange, if not one that is particularly accurate for “reference” uses. You’ll find that the upper-mids are quite a bit more prominent than the still-intelligible lower-mids, and that the vocal range (from roughly 2KHz-5KHz) is similarly emphasized. Instrumental separation is therefore quite good and above average, even for this price point.
Guitars sound great, both of the electric and acoustic variety. On properly-mastered songs you can hear everything; the sliding and plucking of the pick against the strings, and even sometimes the slamming of a hand down to silence the guitar. Drums are similarly impressive, as are pianos.
The HEM6 does not seem to favor male, nor female, vocals in any particular way, though I’d say they could both use more weight.
Bass: Songs used: Moth, Gold Dust, In For The Kill (Skream Remix), War Pigs (Celldweller Remix)
The HEM6 is apologetically not a mainstream IEM. Instead of the typical V-shaped emphasis on the lower register that many more consumer-esque IEMs feature, the HEM6 makes use of bass only when strictly necessary. This makes its application of punch and rumble subtle, but still noticeable and well-shaped.
While the HEM6 performs fine on most genres, I’d generally not recommend it for bass-intensive ones, specifically electronic (and its various, and apparently infinite, sub-genres). Yes, it does rumble, and yes the bass can be punchy, but it’s not the overall experience that I look for from that portion of my music library.
That being said, I do think there is definitely an argument to be made justifying the HEM6 as a clarity-focused jack of all trades when it comes to bass, though, again, that is all personal preference.
Packaging / Unboxing
Please be aware that the packaging came damaged as the box was mangled by Fedex. As such, I had to unbox it off-camera to make sure nothing was damaged. I repackaged it as best as I could for this photoshoot, but some things may be slightly out of place when compared to a brand-new and sealed HEM6.
Build
Construction Quality
Other manufacturers could learn a thing or two from the HEM6’s build quality. There are no uneven seams, there’s no unsightly panel gaps (ahem, RHA), and there are no blemishes on the finely-finished driver-housings. Furthermore, even the thin nozzles feel very sturdy. Both are made from a matte plastic.
Optoma also found a great spot for the vent that won’t get blocked by my oddly-shaped ears, an issue I have quite often when the vent is placed on the inside of my IEMs.
The HEM6 uses a semi-proprietary implementation of 2-pin detachable cables, much in the same way that Trinity Audio does. I wasn’t a big fan of it with them, and I’m not a big fan of it with the HEM line-up. The difference, however, is that the HEM6 actually implements this kind of design quite well and provides a lot more stability to the 2-pin connection, just at the expense of easily finding third-party cables. So while I would have proffered to be able to safely use any third-party cable with the HEM6, I can understand why Optoma went with this type of cable.
Speaking of cables, Optoma bundled the HEM6 with two quite good ones. One is a braided TRS-terminated cable with simple heat-shrink Y-splitters and chin-sliders. I quite like this cable. It doesn’t hold a lot of body and is quite sturdy. Microphonics are minimal and it’s comfortable on the ear.
The other cable is made from a standard rubber and holds a good amount of body. It, however, has inline controls on it, as well as a mic. The controls work with both Android and iOS feature the standard pause/play/skip functionality.
Both cables are quite nice and appear to be durable. Each features a form of memory-wire ear-guides which work reasonably well.
Comfort
The HEM6 is amazingly comfortable. I can wear it throughout my entire 10-hour work day with no issues at all. This is attributed to its light-weight build, over-the-ear design, and very small nozzle diameter.
Accessories
Optoma went ham on the accessories for the HEM6 and it is absolutely wonderful. Inside the box you will find:
- 2x pairs of Comply eartips
- 2x detachable cables
- 6x pairs of silicone eartips
- 1x shirt clips
- 1x 1/4in to 3.5mm jack adapter
- 1x IEM cleaner
- 1x semi-hard carrying
- 1x water-resistant hard carrying case
The semi-hard carrying case is a good size, and easily fits the IEM and a cable. You could probably also squeeze in some extra eartips or the other cable as well.
The hard carrying case is also really good. Its water resistant and large enough to fit literally everything that comes with the HEM6 with ease. I can quite easily fit a DAP and the semi-hard case in it with no problems.
Summary
The HEM6 gives buyers a true taste of highly-resolving sound, excellent construction, good tuning, and great accessories. As a package it has almost no flaws, except its price. An argument can be made for it though: yes, you can find IEMs that sound nearly as good for a little less money, but you would be hard pressed to find anything that for less money that doesn’t make large sacrifices to the build quality or accessories. So I think one would be justified in saying that the HEM6 is a great offering from Optoma, even at the $350 price point. If you are in the market for highly-ergonomic and resolving IEMs, definitely check out the HEM6!
Thanks For Reading!